This is the last part of Nico’s Quest, an interactive bedtime story game I started with him my 6 year old son Nicolas in the last week. I also just bought a digital recorder to better capture the story and write it later since my blogging schedule is starting to get crowded!
Chatty: “So what happened last time we played?”
Nico: “I met Polywag and gave him a diamond so I could enter the Cave.”
“Oh yeah I remember now”
“I enter the cave now”
“So, what do you expect to find in there? Something big?”
“Yeah! Are you recording this?”
“I am, so I can remember all the cool things you said”
“How does it work?”
“You press the button here and it just records”
“Cool”
Chapter 6, The Arena Cave
“All right, you enter a huge cave that’s all dark! You don’t see much in it as only the light from outside the little door comes barely in.”
“Hmmm, I take my laser sword and I fill it with laser energy to make a sort of light”
“Nice, What color?”
“Yellow, because that’s what powerful swords look like”
“Yes, power does glow. Okay, You see you’re in some sort of immense super huge Oval shaped rooms with Smooth walls that go up really high over you.
(Excitedly) “Oh Yeah!”
“It looks like a Pokemon arena.”
“What’s an Arena?”
“That’s the large places where Pokemon fight”
“Oh yeah, like in the movies!”
“That’s right! Also, high on the far wall, you see an opening like a window and in it you see Polywrath sitting on a large Stone throne. Beside him, there’s a man tied up and gagged, trying to speak… but all you hear is Mmmmmmrghmmmm!”
“It’s my father” (Notice how he’s started to separate his in-game father with me)
“That’s right, it’s your kidnapped father”
Chapter 7: The Faceoff
Polywrath: “Mwa HA HA HA Nicolas, we finally meet. Are you bringing the crown so you can have your Daddy back?”
Nico: (With conviction!) No! I came to recuperate my daddy, not to give you the Crown!” (God I’m happy I recorded that, I now can recall the emotions.)
Polywrath: “I will never give you back your daddy unless you go back and get me the crown!”
“Fine! Did you know how I entered this cavern even though you left Poliwag guarding it?”
“Yeah, I was wondering how you did that”
“I gave him one of my Diamonds!”
“What? And he left and let you in?”
“Yes.”
“Argh! He’s not very nice to leave his job like that”
“No! It’s you who’s not nice… You never gave him gifts so that he would help you!”
(Long Pause… I was shocked) “Yeah, you do have a point there Nico… but, but but that’s not what I want from you. You were supposed to bring me the crown, I should have the crown, I should be the King, not your father, ME!”
“Yeah, let me tell you that you don’t always get to be the King in real life!” (What???? Am I being thought a life lesson by my own 6 year old here?)
“But, GAh, Hmmm…. ARGHHHHHH! What you’re telling me is making me very mad!”
Chatty: “Polywrath picks up your father and hangs him high over the Arena floor”
Poliwrath:” Bring me the crown or I drop him on the floor! That will hurt him a lot!”
Nico: “Awww, What can I do now? Do I tell him no? What can I do” (There are long pauses between each sentence as he’s trying to find a solution”
Chatty: “What is it that you’d like to achieve?”
Nico: “I want him to put my father down, but I don’t have the Crown”
“But you don’t want to give him the crown?”
“No I don’t, even if I had it with me”
“Poliwrath gets real mad that you aren’t leaving to get the crown and he lets your father fall. Your father says…. mmmrghplmmmmm!. What do you do?”
(Giggles and Stutters)
“Calm yourself Nico, you have time to think it over. What are your powers again?”
What followed was a little bit of back and forth to lower Nico’s rising but unnecessary anxiety and brainstorm ideas to save Nico’s father. Then Inspiration Struck!
Nico: “I’m going to use my armour’s weather powers to conjure a Cloud to stop his fall”
Chatty: (Picking up on Nico’s uncounsious DragonBall reference): Awesome, you manage to summon the Nimbus Cloud that flies in.
Nico: “For real?”
“Of Course. The cloud zooms right underneath your falling father. Does the King have a pure heart?” (The Nimbus Cloud is solid only to those types of people)
“Yes, The king has a Pure Heart”
“Well then if he’s a such a good King, he hits the cloud gently and it flies him down to the ground, safe and sound”
Polywrath: I’m tired of this Nico, you always foil my plans! I want to fight in this arena you now!”
Nico (laughing!): “Ok!”
Chatty: Polywrath jumps down in the arena and starts his Hypnosis attack. What attack do you prepare?
Nico:” I aim with my laser sword and shoot!”
“Okay, we’ll play this combat with Rock Paper Scissors.” (Nico always, always starts with scissors… so I was on safe ground here).
Nico: “Scissors!”
Polywrath: “Paper!”
Chatty: You hit Polywrath with a laser beam and he’s knocked back and he slams against the Arena’s wall, stunned.”
Chapter 8: The Disney Imperative
Poliwrath (Wheezing and Crying): You won! It’s no fair! All I wanted was to become the king because no one wants to be friends with me. Maybe if I was King I’d have friends.”
Nico: “No. If all you wanted to have is friends, you just had to ask and be a little more nice” (My wife reading over my shoulder commented that kids really soak in those children movie values… Think about it).
“You think that it would work?”
“Of course!”
“People are never nice to me.”
“But why?”
“Maybe it’s because I’m too mean ?”
“But what did you do to be mean”
“I always say bad things about people, I never want to share my toys and I always want others to play the games I decide to play” (Yeah, yeah, parenting agenda and all)
“Okay, you don’t HAVE to share your toys, but you really should let others chose the games they want to play. When you want to make friends, you have to share many things and let them decide things for themselves. You can chose games, but not all the time.” (Once again… Shocked. That little man will go a lot further than me in life if he sticks to that philosophy. He would also be one hell of a Gamemaster).
“You really think so?”
“Of course. You should also share your toys a little sometimes”
“Okay then. Can you forgive me for having kidnapped your father”
“Yeah, it’s Okay.”
“Phew! Thank you Nico. I’ll try to be nicer. You can go with your father, I’ll stay here and think about this”
“Okay! I’m done! yay!”
Epilogue: Party!
Chatty: “You did it Nico, your a champion! What do you do now? Do you go back to your Castle and make a big party?”
Nico: “Yes! And I’ll invite all the friends I made during this adventure! ”
“Do you invite Polywrath?”
“Of course!”
“Awesome, it’s a great party and everyone has fun! Good Night Nico”
“Good night daddy!”
Here ends Book one of Nico’s Quest.
Chatty’s Thoughts: The number of GMing lessons I learned in this little exercise (That I will definitively keep on doing , I might just not write about it) are countless. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. I’m now closer to my six year old and we now have our very own father-son thing.
I’m just so proud of my son!
I’ll never tell you how to live your life, but please do everything in your power to slow time around your family so you can actually see your children grow up slowly.
Peace out!
Credits: Nicolas Menard (Story), Nintendo (Image)
Thanks for sharing, Phil! I really enjoyed Nico’s triumphant introduction to role playing! You can tell him he did a great job of being a noble champion. 🙂
I have to admit you being right about the kid growing up to be a great game master. Hell, I expect a lot less from my own regulars :p
You’re right to be proud, Chatty, and I’m pretty sure you’re greatly contributing to the next generation of our roleplaying community.
Go Nico! You’re the herald of the next generation! *Raises flag and looks really, really intense*
Cheers to you both :p
Good story. Good ending! Thanks for sharing Chatty!
Questing GMs last blog post..Questing GM taking an Extended Rest
I’ll give up my lurker status to say; “Very Cool!”
I had more fun reading Nico’s Adventure than looking over new adventures in Dungeon or Dragon Magazine. Well done Nico and Phil!
I would risk saying that this was one of those moments when the DM got totally OWNED by the player’s answers! 🙂
Thanks a lot, Nicolas and Philippe, for these three chapters. You managed to sit me reading a child story with Pokemons and enjoy it!
And Chatty… what on earth do you mean with “That I will definitively keep on doing , I might just not write about it”
How dare you! I’ll… kidnap Nico’s father again if you do so!
Yep. You were owned. Completely 😀
Fantastic stuff Phil. You’ve got one uber-gamer in the making there.
greywulfs last blog post..Character du Jour: Rawn Blackraven
Thank you so much one and all. This has been a most satisfying experience both with my son and by sharing it with you.
Should I ever write a book about GMing, I will definitively put those 3 posts in a chapter called ‘Learning GMing from playing with children’.
Great story Chatty! I know my son surprises me with how mature he can be while playing a game. I feel it lets them learn right and wrong from the victim’s perspective without them actually being a victim…never a bad thing in my book. And, if they do bad things, they can see there are repercussions for those acts as well.
Thanks for sharing this story. While Nico will probably make one hell of a GM, he’ll also make one hell of a player as well!!!!
Tomcat1066s last blog post..The Burned Lands Part 1 – The Beginning
That’s one bright little guy.
I hope you do keep posting these; I’ve really enjoyed following them.
Ninetails last blog post..Battlegrounds: Alchemist’s Lab
What a great way to get inside his mind to see just how well your parenting efforts have been succeeding.
I really look forward to reading these re-caps.
Yeah, this was profound validation in my role as a geeky parent (a parenting style that gets criticized by many families… thankfully not mine).
So I guess you’re telling me I should continue to post these?
I’ll see what I can do. I want to focus on Kobold Love and my new campaign, but I definitively will record any such story with Nico.
This is just marvelous stuff. I really hope to do things like this with my family some day. My daughter is only 16 months, but she already knows the word “dragon”!
Great job Phil!
Mwaah nico is getting older! So nice…
@Pondscum: I forgot to welcome you! So sorry! Thanks for De-lurking! I’m honored that you liked this story so much!
@Nakia: Hey Prof! I think that gamers have a high chance of making gamer kids if the children are introduced to the paraphelia early in life. Mine have been playing with cards and D&D mini ever since they stopped putting things in their mouth.
@Baboune: Salut my adoptive Swedish friend! Thanks! Yes he’s a big boy now, just started 1st grade this week.
You mention that “geeky parenting” gets criticized a lot, what do you mean by that? I’m not a parent myself but will be within a few short years, so knowing people’s opinions on how I choose to raise my children will be something I’d like to know ahead of time.
Also, great story. Your son is a better player than some adults I know!
@Ford: Welcome to the blog. Nice Monocle you inherited there.
Geekiness is defined in some circles as passionate interest in subjects outside of the mainstream. While computers have been accepted by society at large, Fantasy, Pocket Monster shows, Sci-Fi, reading stuff like Harry Potter and other common geeky pursuits are prone to be frowned upon/misunderstood by some more ‘classic’ and or conservative people.
I mean, my mom used to get calls from other mothers about me playing/teaching D&D to their sons. She did take one day to go through my AD&D rules books, chuckled at the naked art in the DMG (we’re French, art nudity is not an issue) and told the mothers that she trusted my judgment as long as I kept my grades up.
Just look at how challenging it was for some gamers to play D&D when living in more religiously conservative households.
Hmmm, you know what? I just may post about this tomorrow night as a Chatty’s Question. Thanks for the inspiration!