Don't call me Cyblil

Recently, a report was put out on why RPGs are good for kids. Before you freak about the parents that have been shopping for Rocket Propelled Grenades for Christmas, I'm talking about Role Playing Games. Games that require you your kid(s) to use their brains for impromptu, unrehearsed dialogue. Games that allow you your kids to find that place inside their brains that use all those skills that "they are never going to need in the real world" without actually knowing that they are using them. And, as @MaryannClayton once said, "An Imagination is a Terrible Thing to Waste."

If you are completely LOST, you really need to Geek yourself and research the options for table top RPGs as well as online RPGs. Now, I'm not one to sit at a table and play a board game. Its too much sitting and, truth-be-told, I am not a sit down type of girl. But... if I can have a little somethin'-somethin' going on my laptop while I get other things done, a little side distraction from the screaming and messiness that is my house, then BRING IT ON! Plus, it explains a lot about why I am, and have always been, the way I am. Its about to get frightening, personal, honest around here.

WHY RPG'S ARE GOOD FOR ADULTS... forget your kids. They play this stuff anyway with Barbies and Transformers and stuff. Adults, its time to summon that inner creativity that does not require stamps, yarn, felt or wood crafts and have a little side-life fun.

1. I talk to myself. I have ALWAYS talked to myself. And I'm not just saying I whisper, I TALK - with my hands and in full conversation with myself... or with whomever I am talking to in my head. Ask my kids, they look at me like I'm nuts. The thing is, this talking to myself thing has been put to a little constructive play. You know when you fall in love with a story or a situation, and you play it over, and over, and adapt it to be your's? Please tell me you have read at least one book or watched one movie that has captured you enough to make you consider alternate endings, or what happens behind the scenes, or after the fact. If not, I honestly feel sad. Now, take that conversation and play with it. Run it through your brain. Make it YOUR'S!

2. I talk to other people. My name is Megan and, yes, I am a Twitter-a-holic. I love it. I have met some of the most fantastic people online. People who I have only tweeted with a handful of times and others who I exchange Christmas cards, Birthday cards, and phone calls. (SOME of these people talk to themselves as well.)  The thing about RPGs is that your conversation skills - even if they are lacking in your "real life" suddenly improve. Creating conversation with fictional characters or strangers, learning how to pull questions, answer in short, concise ways - this is a skill! You learn how to adapt to different accents, attitudes and beliefs that you may not find in your normal day to day life.

3. Just because you read it, does NOT make it true. Nor does it make the way you interpreted it to be true. It was simply words on a page. Commas are IMPERATIVE!  Case and point:
          "Lets Eat Grandma!"   and   "Lets Eat, Grandma!"  - Happy Thanksgiving.
This is true for Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, your office emails, and any other form of written communication. Its a brave new, typed up world out there. Tell me now that you don't need social media, and I'll talk to you again in five years... on Twitter. People talk and vent and sometimes they are speaking out of a situation and not out of their actual lives. Case and point, I have and two separate men ask out a fictional character via Twitter - Dude, she's a freaking wolf. Play the game!!  *eye roll* Self censorship and remembering that when someone posts something that you read - YOU are interpreting and feeling. Read, try to understand it, but don't attack the person who typed the words.

4. I fully understand how J.K. Rowling couldn't kill Hagrid. I get how Stephenie Meyer had a dream and couldn't just drop it. I completely understand the writers that SOB over their very fictional characters. Because I do it. My imagination has grown while my understanding of how the world works, how other cultures and people live, and how and idea grows into fruition takes place. I get how  people who are spread out across the globe can come together, plot, play, let their characters battle, fight, and kill each other, then come together. Its a life lesson in a very non-threatening way. You learn how to adapt to people's beliefs and attitudes through a conversation. Its social therapy and education!

5. Geography, Math, Science, Fictional Literature, Government, Economics, Cultural Studies, Psychology, Grammar... yeah. I have a refresher course every day I play. I figure tax, research where a country or a city is located, review Greek Mythology from High School literature, long since forgotten. I learn about how a community of American Indians lives. I can feel the emotional pain of heartbreak, or abuse, or loss on some level. (Granted, and thankfully, not fully or in my real life) I consider how humans would think and process and about logical and illogical outcomes that would take place from a story line. Suddenly, I have a new wealth of knowledge. Its learning, all the time!!



I realize that I have just completely rambled about things that will likely have some of my friends ready to whip out he straight jackets but seriously, Geek yourself for awhile. Quit taking everything so seriously. Quit shutting of that creativity to work on your TPS reports (yeah, there is an Office RPG) and have some fun with me. Just watch out because they are super addictive. Meet me in La La Land people!