by jsdougan
I have played 2-player, with a 7.5-year-old, using a borrowed copy of the 1st edition. I refer to my son online as "The Grasshopper", in case you come across the reference in anything else I write.For perspective: He started 1st grade reading at least two grade levels higher. I taught him a hacked version of Carcassonne at 4 1/2, with the "standard" rules at 6.5 or 7. He handles Forbidden Island pretty well by himself (including unobserved solo runs where I can't promise he isn't stacking the deck), and will play just about anything just because I am. (This makes me very, very careful what I play when he's around so he doesn't try to dive into something that's still over his head.) Part of his Christmas present was getting to spend Saturday afternoon with me at Winter Fantasy using the board game library.
He LOVES Sentinels, and it's going to crush him when I have to give it back, because I don't have the storage space for the Enhanced Edition right now.
Generally, it works like this: I'll run the Villain, Environment, and 2 Heroes. (Usually, one is Legacy because he's simple to run and doesn't do a whole lot.) I let him pick his Hero first, and then grab two more. Since we've got the first edition, we use coins for keeping track of hit points. I try to make him do the hit point math as often as I can, but help with tracking modifiers and making sure that start/end of turn effects happen without getting jumped over.
Happy to answer more questions.