Day: September 16, 2007

Today’s Sunday School lesson was on Charity. Not the “giving money” kind, but the “pure love of Christ” kind. The message I carried away is that to truly be charitable we need to care about the welfare of others more than our own wants and sometimes even above our own needs. (Not always above our needs because we need to take care of ourselves too.) I sat listening to the lesson and remembering how just prior to the lesson I was accosted in the hall by a fellow mother who had been asked to sit with Gleek’s primary class. Two adults are necessary to make sure that class doesn’t erupt into chaos. But this other mother also had a 2 year old who wouldn’t let her go. She was faced with the prospect of sitting with wiggly six year olds while managing a clingy two year old. I could tell she was hoping I’d volunteer. I didn’t because sitting with Gleek’s class is not high on my list of fun things to do. Besides, I reasoned, I needed the spiritual refreshment of listening to the lessons.

I listened to further discussions on Charity and realized that no matter how annoying it would be for me to sit with the class, it would be harder on this other mother. I was putting my desire to be away from my kids above hers. This other mother is also pregnant and I doubt she gets breaks from her kids during the week the way that I do. Someone needs to be there for the kids. Someone needs to teach them how to behave and help them learn. I realized that all these things were greater than my desire for a peaceful hour or two. I quietly went to relieve that mother.

I sat with Gleek’s class. Predictably, Patches left his class and came to sit with me. Gleek and Patches were both so glad to have me there. And because I was there by choice rather than coercion, I did not mind being there at all. I’m sad to miss my own lessons, but honestly I think I got the lesson I needed for today.

I stared down at the lonely few numbers scattered among empty spaces on the form. At the top was boldly emblazoned “Character Sheet.” I’d filled out similar forms before, but according to different rules and over a decade ago. Role playing games are full of numbers which affect other numbers which affect what the character can and can not do in the game. Even in my roleplaying heyday (20 years ago now) I was never in it for the numbers. What I enjoyed was the community creation of a story where one person, the Game Master, creates the plot and setting. Everyone else creates a character. All these elements are thrown together and an adventure begins to emerge which is different than anyone expects before hand. I love the interaction of characters and plot bouncing off of each other. It is why I write fiction.

But before the play, comes the character creation. I remembered loving role playing games, but felt overwhelmed. Howard, of course, had his character all ready to go. Howard games every Thursday night, so he isn’t out of practice. He was the reason I sat there, with empty spaces daring me to figure out how to fill them. It was a chance for us to play together, to laugh together. Such time is critical to maintaining a solid relationship and for us it had been very sparse lately. So I was there despite my worries about the cost of the time and of the creative energies which such a game requires. Howard helped and the spaces on my character sheet began to fill.

There are two common approaches to take when creating a character. One is to ask “who do I wish I could be,” the other is to ask “who would be an interesting character for this game.” Going the wish fulfillment route is difficult for me because I’m pretty happy with the person I am. But the person I am doesn’t make a very good character for an adventure story. So, I looked closely at the setting and the other characters. I created a character who filled skill gaps and who would bounce interestingly off of the other characters. Lady Brona Raylethorne was heavily lifted from the cartoon character The Tick, but I thought that would be fun. Unfortunately part of why The Tick works is because he strings together elaborately odd mixed metaphors. That is incredibly difficult to do on the spur of the moment. We began to play and I found that I was not doing my justice to my imagined character.

I got better as the game continued. Everyone did. It is the nature of role play that the characters and players develop together as the game continues. The magic of the game is in the playing. I became so completely absorbed that hours disappeared without notice. It all began to flow. There was much laughter and adventure. It was so fun that, rather than break up the game, we moved the game to our house so that I could tend to my kids and still play. Playing with the kids around worked far better than I expected it to. We’ve all agreed that we’ll play at our house again. I walked away from the game spinning thoughts about the characters and wondering what will happen next. I want to play again. Only this time I want to manage the kids better (things got a little chaotic at bedtime) and I want to watch some Tick ahead of time so that I have some of those lines in my head.