Day 24: Gaming Leads to Writing

     I have mentioned our trip to GenCon several times. I am going to devote an entire post to GenCon next week because, yes, it was a game changer for us! (see what I did there?) Best trip EVER! The second year we went to GenCon we signed up for a family RPG. We played a Wilderness Kids RPG from the Hollow Earth system. It was a great game for all of us, age 9 through, ahem we won't say! :) When you have children with a seven year age difference it is hard to find something they both like. We discovered RPG's was the way to go!

     When we returned from our trip we started looking for Role Playing systems. We played Dungeons and Dragons, Savage Worlds, Iron Kingdoms, and Pathfinder. As we played different systems and campaigns our boys wanted to start writing their own campaigns. There are pre-written scenarios or open campaigns where you write your own story. Our boys have always enjoyed English class and do well writing papers, but it's not like they would wake up on Saturday morning and say "Oh, I can't wait to write to an essay today!" But honestly they do now say "I can't wait to write a new scenario". Adam has written an Iron Kingdoms scenario titled 'Merry Cryxmas'. We had a great time playing! It is now a Christmas tradition. We can't wait until December! He has also written and been Game Master for his friends. They would play more but senior year activities keep getting in the way!

     Adam isn't the only one writing. Travis, our middle schooler likes Pathfinder and has written scenarios for his group of friends. I love to see him sitting in the recliner just a writing away on the laptop. Travis is also the rules guru. His Christmas list is Pathfinder rule books!

     Our youngest son Brett is 10 years old. When he sees Adam or Travis writing he of course wants to be like them and will pull his writing notebook out and start a short story. I can't even count how many he has started but not finished. But, hey, he is writing.

     I think it is cool that just because we started playing a particular type of game as a family that they wanted to write just for fun. You really don't know what other interest might come from playing a game. Another reason to gather the family around the table and play! (or paint, or write!) Umm...I might pull out Brett's notebook and start something of my own!