Fantasy Games-Warhammer and Role playing. · Saturday January 20, 2007 by Ann
When we were still deschooling after deregistering the children, one of the first things that David got into was playing the computer game ‘Baldur’s Gate’. The other young teen lads who were HE’d locally were playing it, and we quite approved (we were not so autonomous in those days!) as it has riddles to solve as you go along.
Encouraged by his enjoyment of this fantasy world, I suggested that that all of this perhaps began with the popularity of Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings” So David decided to have a go at reading it. He had never been successful in reading a real novel before-his dyslexia had made it too difficult and he didn’t have the motivation. He began with my copy of ‘the Hobbit’ and enjoyed it. I managed to find a Lord of the Rings boxed set, which broke up the books into a set of seven, making each one much more readable. He managed to read the first part before going to see ‘The Fellowship’ at the cinema. I was keen that he read the books first, as there is so much more to them than is in the films.
He set himself a target to read the next part of the Trilogy before it came out at the cinema and did the same thing with the final part, ‘The Return of the King’. He was very pleased with himself! I know many adults who have wanted to but been unable to read the Lord of the Rings book.
The local home ed teen lads also played ‘Warhammer’ and went along to the local Games Workshop (GW) after our HE meeting every Thursday. Warhammer had been played at school but had been dismissed by the cool kids as something for ‘geeks’ and so David hadn’t got involved then, as he was keen to be seen to be fitting in.
David loved going to the GW each week and was the first thing he was really happy to do without us, in the company of other adults. He has commented many times since, how the staff in a GW treat everyone as equals.
Ds soon asked for the ‘codex’s’ or rule book for his army and for the codex for his friends armies. He started saving birthday money and pocket money to pay for his own models and developed several armies which he enjoyed making and painting. he prefers Warhammer Fantasy but has a small 40K army and a Lord of the Rings Army, in order to play with friends who have those armies.
David has now read several books on the subject and still races to read the magazine when it arrives every month. We enjoy visiting Warhammer World still-it is based up in Nottingham but we have had several trips with HE friends and have ended up staying all day (The staff are very kind to long suffering parents and don’t mind how long we sit around over a cuppa in the bar)
Encouraged by this, he told me that he needed more books to read and asked if we could get some more Terry Prachett ones as he had read one of a friends, this started a real enthusiasm for reading fantasy books! As I have already said, he is now plowing through a set of Warhammer fantasy books, by William King at the moment, with great enthusiasm.
This all lead to an interest in Fantasy Role Playing games. I have found a website to explain a little more about this as it has been brilliant for our son.
What is FRP
From playing games with his friends for a while, David decided to write his own game so that he would have a turn at being the Games Master. he spent ages writing out the story and the developing the characters. This is around the time that my worries about autonomous education for dyslexics, really slipped away. Here was my son, not only reading book after book but now was also writing reams, from his own free choice. Asking for help with spelling and punctuation when he needed it. And even my mother could see that looked at from a slightly different angle, this could be seen as creative writing, not something that many teenage lads would do with such enthusiasm.
Since then we have had many times when his HE friends would arrive with their sleeping bags and they have played here long into the night. They eventually have fallen asleep in the early hours and woken and played again. I always managed to remember to stock the freezer up well before they arrived and they stuck to the rules, that they washed up whatever they cooked and ate.
At the moment David is playing his friends game, choosing an evening that fits into his college routine and stays over at Jon’s house going straight to college next day.
We have had another busy couple of days. Yesterday Lucy took Laura into Birmingham on the train to meet her connection to go home, it has been lovely having her to stay. Her parents have agreed that she can join us for a local groups stay at Biblins Youth Centre for a holiday together, later in the spring. Together with our friends, we spend time walking, canoeing down the river Wye and exploring the local area together. It is one of our favourite holidays.
Then a group of of local HE families met together at one one of the member’s home, to discuss the budget for this years drama group’s production for the Malvern Street Theatre. Last year, the group put on a drama piece at the Street Theatre and thoroughly enjoyed themselves and brilliant responses from the audiences in the street. It was, however all done on a shoe string. The drama teacher gave her time for nothing to our children at a local HE meeting and at all the extra rehearsals. We managed to cobble together props and costumes for the piece. The lovely people at St Annes Well Cafe in the Malvern hills let us use the upstairs rooms to practice in.
This year the youngsters have been successful in getting some funding from a local organisation, for this years production. The only proviso is that the money has to be spent by the end of this financial year. It has been a useful exercise for the teens to be involved in how we spend our budget, with enough money (after paying the drama teacher this time) for a sound system and advertising, for props and costumes. Best of all though, they secured some money in the funding for a research trip ;o) Now they just have to decide how they want to spend it ;o)
Any trip they undertake has to be supported by receipts and fit within the budget. So far they are wondering whether to have an over night stay in London, taking in the Science Museum-the theme they have chosen is ‘Time’, but maybe they will go to Greenwich-or maybe somewhere else completely?
I’ll let you know what they decide.
We stayed to lunch after the meeting and then Lucy and her friends spent some time making a film-they have done this several times before and enjoy making and editing short productions. When I left they were looking up different music on the computer together. I’ll pick her up from the train station later this afternoon.
David has gone off with his dad and Uncle Richard, to move furniture, Richard is emigrating to the Philippines next week and they are busy emptying his flat. Alice has gone off to her Saturday job, leaving step daughter Louise and her daughter Nancy here with me. I have to go to get ready for the arrival of the furniture they are bringing here. And I didn’t get round to painting the room first either!
