RPGing in the west end

It's great when we get the opportunity to game with other groups of friends, beyond our immediate family, and this summer we gathered at a friend's house to play Marvel Saga, a superhero role playing game. My daughter and I are relatively new to this particular gaming circle, which consists of my husband, two of his friends he met when he moved to our city, and his friend's wife. The husband and wife team have even written and published gaming materials and supplements for games, so we were playing in a world that was very familiar to them. If you zoom in on the photo to the right (which my daughter allowed me to include), you can see a bit of her character sheet. She plays Lucky Cat. My player character is called Plague, and I've already written on this blog about her super powers. The adventure we played that day involved alien ghouls, spiteful pixies in an alternate universe, and some very unusual fighting techniques. Unfortunately, we do not assemble together as often as we would like, so that makes the moments we do convene extra special. In 2005 my husband and I presented a workshop at the Ontario Library Association Superconference about the history of RPGs and how they can be used in schools. Between the creative storytelling, problem solving, and mental math skills (as well as historical research for player character back stories), it's an educationally rich past time!