Connecting with Ryan

About a year ago, a friend told me about "Knights of the Dinner Table," a comic book about old-school table-top RPGer's. (That's "role playing game", for those who don't know.) The most (in)famous today would be World of Warcraft. Back in the day, it would have been Dungeons & Dragons.

In one of the earliest issues of the comic, the gamers are told they enter a peaceful meadow, with butterflies and flowers. So, they gear up for the inevitable sneak-attack-ambush from death dealing bad guys. But the GM (the game master) tries to tell them there is nothing there. "It's peaceful."

"Off in the distance, you see a gazebo."

"I shoot it with my crossbow."

"uhhhhh ...."

"And I throw a fireball at it. What is it doing?"

"Doing?" responds the GM. "Nothing. Its a gazebo. Its just standing there."

So, they throw everything they have at it, and burn it to the ground. Because gazebos must be big and fierce and have lots of treasure. Riiiiiight.

Its hilarious, if you're a gamer. After reading through the dozen that I have, my son decided he wanted to learn how "to game."

Well, okay. I played a little bit back in college, for a few months. Then I ran a game called DragonRaid for our church youth group. After college, but before I got married. It was a Christian role playing game designed specifically for discipleship. There was an Overlord of Many Names (God) who sent his son (Jesus) to lead the Once Born (the unsaved) into the promised land, and become Twice Born (Christians). It was all very blatant and straight forward. You fought against bad guys whose primary attacks weren't physical, but temptations. You needed to memorize scriptures for various effects. Your armor is the Helmet of Salvation, the Breastplate of Righteousness, etc. You get the point.

Anyway, it was designed for a GM, and several players. Not a one-on-one session. So, I started digging around the internet, and fount a HUGE selection of games out there. Free ones. Fantasy. Science Fiction. Western. Cyperpunk. Future. Past. And even a few Christian ones.

Several of the smaller ones were generic. They gave the basic barebones of the game mechanics, and let the GM design the world. Soooo, I decided to run with a simple one, and design a generic fantasy world to drop my son into. He can run around, bashing things, and I'll have some one-on-one time with him before he hits those turbulent teen years.

Deuteronomy 6.7-9 commands that I talk to my children about God and his laws while we walk and talk and sit and eat and everything. Well, with a car, we don't walk too much. And sharing as few meals as we do these days, we don't sit and eat much either. BUT, this is my chance. I can walk from one end of Narnia to the other with my son this way, picnic on the moon, eat dessert in an old saloon, and go swimming across the oceans of Middle Earth.

I'm looking forward to this. I think it will be fun. I'll let you know.