Ah comic-con is over and RPGs as therapy

[nadinbrzezinski]

Well I did my demos as usual, but I did the most difficult demo EVER in my life.

A kid wanted to to try the game, eleven years old or so... COOL... but he wanted to make his own character... even COOLER.

So we start creating character and as a good demo person I started to pay careful attention to kid. That is what you do with customers. Well most people who make a character for an RPG usually create the combat types, or the medics, usually the heroes. He wanted to create an RPG Game Designer... fortunately the game can handle that.

So we get into the abilities and flaws... and I asked, so any problems.

He's teased.

I knew at that moment this was not going to be a normal demo

How bad.

A little

Teased 1, this means he just gets teased a little... mind you its not in the core book, but it is good to be designer.

So I start running the kid through an adventure I pulled out of my ass, that involved absolutely NO combat... just business interactions. Right out of the bat I realized this kid is playing himself. So I used the game to let him vent, as it were, and to do good, when in school he is probably the nerdy kid who gets harassed. Yes I am making some assumptions here, but his inability to interact with non player characters, imaginary characters, told me... this is a therapy session...

I am not a licensed therapist, but I know the feeling. I was teased... not mildly, and could not talk with my counterparts.

So if any of you in DU are actual licensed psychologists, perhaps we can talk of how to create a special edition of the Future Nexus Engine for therapy. I know role playing is used for therapy, but perhaps this might be a way to do this... as a game. Oh and it was hard to get the kid to talk. Not that I wanted him to go there, just having an interaction with the imaginary characters was hard. As I said, as a medic I saw some of that, and as a kid I experienced some of that...

I was, after the demo, spent in a way I have never been in my life.

Oh and for the record, kid proved it, you can create a completely non-combat character in the game engine I created.

[imdjh]

1. Sounds like you did a good deed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I did something that might get a sale too... but I don't care in this

case.

:-)

It is just a war story that I don't think too many people share.

[Mythsaje]

4. I put my game on the web, attached to a yahoo group specific for it

I open-sourced it. :shrug: My old student applauded me for doing it, saying that I was "still walking the walk." I always meant it to be something people could play with on their own and adapt to their own ideas.

[Mythsaje]

3. One of the kids I influenced through RPGs and martial arts

just walked out with his B.S. in psychology. He'd be the first to tell someone how much this unofficial, unconventional "therapy" helped him. He still has to go back for his Masters, but given the state of the economy, he's going to try to nail down a decent job first.

My group and I had many, many game sessions where no one fought anything. I belong to the puzzle-solving school of gaming... as some people prefer hack and slash, and others roleplay, my focus has always been tactics and troubleshooting.

I think RPGs are a MUCH under-addressed educational tool in many different areas. Of course, since I spent fifteen years of my life designing and play-testing one, and have since based my novels on it, I might be a little prejudiced.

But, then again, so's my friend Dave. In many ways, they helped turn his life around.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. One of the kids we mentored, he graduated with an egineering degree

when we met him he was on the edge of the gangs. The first game was a literal, (in RPG terms) beat in, and then a nice meal at Burger King. Over burger we explained that I wasn't graphic enough. He never joined the gangs.

And yes it is under appreciated.

Now a special edition for therapy, is the kind of things I would do for free. But I am trying to run a business.

[Mythsaje]

6. I hear you... Business is business. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. And what is wrong with trying to make a living?

You do, with your novels, RIGHT?

When we are no longer in a monetized economy, then we can do that.

That said second edition will be ONLY in electronic form, multiple formats, and much cheaper...