Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share (14 page)

STEP 1:
Sketch your map out lightly, to start, using a gentle pencil stroke. Feel free to try things, erase and try them again, since the bag paper will take erasure well, and every bit of wear and tear will only add to the worn and aged effect of the finished map.

 

STEP 2:
Use markers, crayons, pastels, or even charcoal and water-colors to go over the pencil sketching and give the map some color and interest. Try to decide on standards, such as black for land borders, blue for bodies of water, and so forth. If it’s meant to be a pirate map for adventure, less detail and more imagery is good. If you’re prepping this for an RPG adventure, you might want to pull out a fountain pen and go to town with the elvish script. Make sure you label key features as appropriate and—most importantly—put an arrow/compass image to indicate North. You might also include a legend and scale, depending on what your use is going to be.

 

STEP 3:
Now that the basic map is finished, it’s time to add the style—which means distressing it. In many ways, this is like breaking in a baseball glove. You want to crumple up the map, unfold it, and crumple it again in a new way. You could crumple it up and place it under your sofa cushion before an evening’s movie watching. You could drip oil on it, or tea, or beer, or red wine, then dry it with a hair dryer. You should use a candle flame to singe the edges all around, to get rid of the “I was cut out with a pair of scissors” look, and while you’re at it, burn a hole or two through it in random places, and then hold it above the candle to get some good soot marks. Candle wax can also add some good staining.

And that’s it! You now have a really cool-looking antiqued map for fun and adventure!

O
ne of the geekiest things you can tell a person is that you play pen-and-paper Role-Playing Games (RPGs). But playing RPGs—especially Dungeons and Dragons (D&D)—was a formative experience for so many of us geeks who came of age through the 1970s and 1980s. While in those days, uptight preachers warned of the devil’s influence wrought by RPGs, I don’t think you can overstate the value these games have for fostering creative play in kids. I have fond memories of playing RPGs with my friends while we happily snarfed pizza and Jolt and rolled d20s to save our anti-paladins from the breath attack of a white dragon.

Back then, the rules were pretty arcane (quick, what’s your THAC0?), and in a way they appealed to all the classic geeky traits, especially depth of knowledge and an obsessive nature. But the game was also intensely social, and many of the bonds made over afternoon expeditions to the Barrier Peaks have lasted a lifetime.

These days, D&D is in its fourth incarnation of rules, and by all accounts, it’s easy and fun to play—all the materials are available at your local gaming store (search it out if you don’t know where it is; it may even be masquerading as a hobby store; or go online to Wizards of the Coast,
www.wizards.com
). There is also a whole world out there of similar games based in fantasy worlds, or cyberpunk near-futures, or the
Star Wars
universe, or a present-day Earth with superheroes. The best thing, and the thing that separates them from video games, is that they use the imagination. And they bring people together to play, face-to-face.

Sounds like a perfect thing for GeekDads to do with their kids, doesn’t it?

Indeed, depending on your kids’ ability to follow rules and their penchant for telling stories, any time in their late single digits, age-wise, is a perfect time to get them into RPGs. First, you get to work with them to build a character—some kind of hero, most likely—that will be their alter ego in the game. And then, you get to lead them through a story—an adventure—either from a book or of your own making. If you’re acting as the game master (GM), you even have the ability to modulate the game play so it’s just as challenging as it needs to be to keep them interested without ruining their fun. And games like these help teach teamwork, puzzle solving, and even mapmaking.

Beyond just the game play, there are the figures to be painted, the dice to be collected, and even hundreds of licensed novels to be read about the worlds the games are set in. RPGs can be a lifelong hobby that grows with your kids.

But here’s an idea: Since RPGs are a way for using mathematics and imagination to turn the life of a created character into a game, why not try applying RPG concepts to managing day-to-day life? Indeed, many RPG players will, at some point in their lives, play characters in an adventure who are based quite specifically on themselves. It’s the classic “what would I do if I were magically transported to Middle Earth/
Star Wars
/DC Comics universe?” scenario. Countless players have worked up character sheets for themselves, always slightly overinflating their key statistics (of course I have a high intelligence! I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t!), and then playing themselves as calm and cool in the most incredible of imagined circumstances. After all, wouldn’t every high school junior have the steely nerve to face down a green dragon with nothing but a +1 dagger?

Sure, that’s a fun, one-off adventure. But that’s still playing a game with friends, or you, as the proud parent, running the adventure for your kids. What if we take it the next step: really turning your kids’ lives into an RPG?

Okay, not all life. You’re not going to tell your kids to start carrying broadswords to school to deal with the class bully. But the mathematical system of an RPG is meant to create a framework for managing personal growth and achievement for an imaginary character. It creates a balanced reward system for success, and encourages learning and personal planning. What better tools to use in helping your kids handle homework, chores, extracurricular activities, and allowance, all while teaching them to plan ahead and work toward goals? Not many that I can think of, which is why I give you:

Kids like structure, like having a framework so that they understand what they need to do to receive certain benefits. They also like to have goals to work toward to prove they are growing up and earning new responsibilities. Sounds an awful lot like what you do with a D&D character, huh? So, instead of simple chore charts on the fridge and a weekly allowance, why not turn your kids’ duties and benefits into a role-playing game?

You’re the parent, and you are the Game Master/ Dungeon Master (GM/DM). Your child maintains a character sheet with stats, skills, experience, and so forth. Your child earns experience points (eps) for completing regular tasks (e.g., keeping his room clean, walking the pets, washing the dishes) and can get bonus eps for one-shot tasks (an especially good or improved report card, cleaning out the garage, a birthday treat).

At certain point totals, your child can “level up”—gain a promotion representing his achievements and personal growth. At each leveling up, your child earns skill points and attribute points to spend. Skill points allow the kid to learn new skills (how to safely use the lawn mower to mow the lawn, supervised and unsupervised; how to do the laundry) which can then earn him more experience points. Skill points can also give him benefits—like the ability to earn more allowance, watch TV an hour a week, or add an extracurricular activity at school for example—at a measured pace so that your child balances recreational time against taking care of responsibilities. Additional attribute points help raise the bonuses, and are indicative of the kid’s personal growth—he is getting more active (adding to physical health, aka constitution), gaining physical agility (improved dexterity), or learning life lessons (developing wisdom).

Complexity can grow as the levels go up (and the child gets older). At the tweens, for example, your child could earn the skill/ ability to have his own cell phone, plus the cost of the plan to pay for it. Your child can also use the character sheet to track money (like how much gold an RPG character has) and budget, so then he can spend it on new items to help him earn more eps or money (the child saves up to buy a lawn mower or power washer to run his own neighborhood business). It’s really a matter of how far you and your kids are willing to take the metaphor of the game system. They may, at some point, rebel against the idea of using a game system to manage their lives. Or they may revel in the structure. As with all things relating to the parent/child relationship, your mileage will vary, and you know your kids best.