Hello friends !
Macchiato Monsters is no more a rpg... now is a street education tool !
In the popular district I work in, there are a lot of children who spend all their time to hang out in the street, in the parking... and some time they do stupid things (like throwing stones into the neighbours windows or ring all day long i at the door of old persons...).
Since a couple of years I made some improvised workshops to spend time with them to speak about respect, friendship, responsability as an adult who is concerned/affected by them... not as an educator or a teacher, it's not my job.
And now they trust me and I can see that they are more respectuous with all the adults of the district.
So I try a new thing is to intiate them to rpg.
I want with this kind of game try to teach them that they are better if they play together (rpg is not a competition, you don't have to be the best, you just have to try to play with the qualities of everyone), that is important to follow rules (in game and in the real life) and to develop their imagination and culture.
Of course I use Macchiato Monsters because it's a perfect mix between fun and rules. All the tables help them to create characters (because they really don't know this kind of universe.
And I draw the cover so they really to play with "the game I worked on"... But I always said that it's my friend +Eric Nieudan who create this (I show them your "quenouille page") and said that I would tell you about their characters.
So for now, we play 5 times with 10 differents children of the neighboroud from 8 to 12 years old (8 boys and 2 girls).
They created :
a tribal wizard who is able to change himself in a tiger and cast some lightening bolt, a dwarf warrior very rich and strong with a magic shield in stone who make him capable to speak with rocks, an plate armored bowman engineer, a fire paladin servant of the god of Fire who can inflame weapons and teleport himself through the fire, a barde who can hypnotize and heal, a very very strong gnome warrior with an ice sword, an old wizard with polymorph and ice spell, a plant woman warrior, a ranger elf and a stone golem wizard with a petrification spell and stone throwing spell.
It's a kind of open table, when they hang out, they come to my "office" : "Guillaume can we play to the Game ?".
"Ok! I make a 45 minutes break and we play !".
For now they fought a group a lizardmen, they prevented the coming of an archdevil, they bought some stuff in the big city, save the temple of Fire from a doppleganger infiltration and defeated the Great Hydra of the swamp of death !
It works very good with them and the street educators of the district want to use this "project" to create links with the youngs of the district !
When I was young people said that rpgs made the youngs crazy and now even educators said it's a perfect tool to work with children !
This is awesome. I'm so proud to have helped with this.
ReplyDeleteWell done ol' pal. This is what rpg should do. Change the world, save the kids.
ReplyDeleteThat is absolutely brilliant and heartwarming. Well done!
ReplyDeletewut
ReplyDeleteCan I share this publicly, guillaume jentey?
ReplyDeleteThis is so awesome
ReplyDeleteOf course Eric Nieudan, you can share : I don't tell the name of the kids so there isn't any problem ! I just tell your name as the creator of the game (so one of the person who makes this project doable !)
ReplyDeleteYOU made it possible! You could have used any number of other light DIY games. I'm super happy I've contributed to this indirectly though.
ReplyDelete(Hey you should take some pics of the character sheets, I love seeing those.)
Yes, I will take pictures of their sheets.
ReplyDeleteI asked them to draw some scenes of their adventures... I don't know if they will do, some of them don't have pens or paper at home even if they are suppose to have for school...
I don't know when I could post them because I move for a new flat and I think my scanner/printer will be in a carton box in a couple of days...
And of course you contribute to this ! I don't know exactly how (by creating MM of course) but I worked in this district since 18 years, I played rpgs since 25 years (or maybe more), I know those kids since they were born and I beginning to use rpgs to work with them since I played with MM... so there must be a reason !
You're just getting better at what you do, that's all =)
ReplyDeleteAnd no pressure about the pics. I'm just curious.
guillaume jentey I can ship you some extra copies if you want.
ReplyDeletePaolo Greco of the MM book ?
ReplyDeleteI don't need because they are... we are french and they don't speak a single word of english.
I use the book for me and I gave them a french unofficial summary made by Matthieu B.
Now, to continue the thing whih could be very good is someone can draw some sketch of their characters (not me because I already give them some pictures) but someone they don't know to show them that people are interested by what they do and more important by who they are.
And if Eric Nieudan you can write a little something (in french) to say to them thank you to play with my game it could be very good.
I know I write to much but My will is to use MM to work with them about respect, listening, group attitudes... and (maybe it's the most important) give them a self esteem (I don't know how to say in english) because they really don't have...
I could do a (bad) drawing or two when you show us the character sheets.
ReplyDelete(And we'll send you copies of the game when it's published in French.)
Awesome. Good work fellows :)
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm floored. You can be so proud of yourself to make the world a better place.
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing.
ReplyDelete