The After-School Program: What Happened? Cats & Githyank

[Judd]

In the end the kids who got together and played their own version of D&D never came and gamed with me when I announced that my project was a role-playing game or a story game as I also called them.  I played Monkey Wrench and John Wick's Cats.

The kids who did play my games loved them, had lots of fun.  They would very often draw pictures of the characters or ask over and over if we could play that game again when we had a spare minute.  Due to the structure of the after-school program, it was really difficult to get enough time together to run a game.

My groups were composed to outsiders, the kids who sat on the fringe of the D&D kids, not quite cool enough to sit at their table.  Others were the creative girls who liked my writing projects and so they trusted that my projects would be fun.  They were all so sick of making shit out of fucking popsicle sticks that when I asked them to write a haiku or make a relay story, they really answered.  

We sat around and made board games one day, fun stuff.

The kids who played D&D would sit, with their group leader in front of his Monster Manual, announcing what monters they saw.  "There are 357 Githyanki in front of you. What do you do?"

I bought the D&D adventure board game, thinking I'd court those kids but I never had the gumption to bring it in and play it.  Why sit in front of a map and mini's when they can fight 357 Githyanki with their Pokemon beasts?  I just didn't have the heart to do it.  If they want to take it to the next step, they'll find it.

Listening to them reminded me of Ron's D&D article about the cargo cult culture that D&D was in the late 70's and early 80's.  It sounded like half of them had seen their older brothers play before getting kicked out of the room and the other half had played video games that had identified themselves as RPG's.

Cats was interesting because it was our first shot at character creation.  The kids really took to it and liked it.  I had two mischevious boys who wanted to just destroy the entire damned world with their cats.  I had a little girl who played the cute kitten and a few girls who played more magically oriented cats.

Its a great game with a fantastic cosmology.  I'd love to run this game with my friends.  Its swell.

So, in the end I failed to court the boys in the corner with their Monster Manual but I succeeded in showing some kids these games who might have otherwise never gamed.

It was a fun three months but the woman who I was filling in for came back from her materinity leave.  I left copies of Monkey Wrench in several of the kids' mailboxes and seeds here and there, letting them know that they can make this shit up on their own if they really want ot.

10 years from now we might hear about a game combatting 357 Githyanki with Japanese pocket monsters. I can hardly wait.

[Vaxalon]

There's something profound in here, I know it.

[Judd]

There's something profound in here, I know it.

I don't think so.

I think, reading over what I wrote and thinking about my time there, it is a reminder of how the Forge has changed my way of thinking about gaming.

I was a snob before and I really thought that my way of story-oriented gaming was superior to hack-n-slashing, as I called it.  I thought I had more fun than those gamers who I now know have a gamist bent.

This place made me realize that while games might lean in one direction or another, all styles of play are equal.

I had more fun introducing RPG's to kids who would not otherwise have had a gaming experience rather than imposing my own thoughts on gaming on 4th and 5th grade boys who seemed to be getting what they wanted out of their gaming.  When and if they want more, they'll find it.

Thanks for reading.

[Callan S.]

Judd, what I think is interesting is that are a mirror image of how you've moved past the snobbery you mentioned. They didn't feel compelled by peer pressue from RP culture (havn't had the opportunity to) to go play in a game with story...they knew what they like and stuck with it. I envy their nieve clarity and strength of vision.

On a side note, there's a PS2 game called mercenaries. On RPG net, the thread has had a few war stories told, the last one was here (near the bottom): http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=167183&page=18&pp=10

Gamist can create stories, but I think it's more a satisfying aftertaste to have (to have for years, sometimes!), rather than the goal during play.

[Judd]

Noon,

I don't think they are gamist, far from it.  If anything their play style is a kind of diceless narrativism of some kind.  They play without dice and the one time when I loaned them a d20 of my own (that they promptly lost) it was used only by the DM to spur play along.

They were not playing anything that you would recognize as D&D.  It was more like one of the kids had seen his big brother play once and the rest followed his example.

I freely admit that when I first came to the Forge, I was a narr snob.  No doubt about it but I understand and have internalized that there is  value in all types of play.

These kids were groping towards gaming and not quite getting it.  They weren't sure what to do and would only play for a half hour or so at a time.  In the end, I decided that I could put myself out there but I wasn't going to force myself on them.

Thanks for reading.