Wow, where did the time go? It has been nearly three months since the team stood in the Rees Centre waiting for the first cohort of our summer roleplaying academy to walk through the door. To say the nerves were high that day would be an understatement.
Of course, Character Creation Roleplaying existed before then and had been slowly but surely growing its base of loyal home educators, offering roleplaying games to children of all ages and tricking them into learning while they were having fun.
But it has been since the summer academy that we have really started to fly. It hasn’t been all clear skies, and we have navigated our fair share of storms with more likely on the horizon. However, here we are going to focus on the positives and the bright future that lays ahead.
Let’s start with the summer academy. Despite the nerves and a few hiccups, it was a roaring success that has transcribed into lasting friendships, returning players and some delighted parents. The positive feedback from players and parents was a massive boost to the whole team and echoed in Fit and Fed asking us to bid for the Christmas holiday. Keep an eye out for more information on our plans for Christmas.
Our home education roleplaying game sessions are now in full swing. With the help of some very dedicated parents and some complicated maths, the players are in groups where they are thriving and enjoying each other’s company and the games. In fact, we have done so well that we are increasing our offering and looking at including online games as well as in-person games.
After a few false starts, we have also got the Tuesday after school group up and running and, when they can stop arguing over mahogany tables, they are achieving some great things with our new Games Master.
This, coincidently, brings me onto another significant achievement for Character Creation. After much searching and a couple of trial by fire games, we welcomed Harry to our growing team. Harry is an experienced Games Master with an impressive knowledge of all things tabletop and roleplay related. He creates an excellent and relaxed atmosphere at the start of his games and really engages with the story and the players. We are hopeful of a long and productive working relationship with Harry.
Harry is also running our first adult (in age only) group. The session consists of three rather new players who are slowly picking up the basics as they battle animated brooms and a screeching ghost. There are still three spots available in this group; we are friendly, I promise. This group takes place on Tuesdays from around 7.30 pm.
What else?
Two new after-school sessions are now up and running; these are aimed at 8-12-year-olds and take place Monday and Friday from 4 pm to 6.30 pm. You get your first session free, and if we can fill the session, it is just £35 per player for a 4-week block. That is £8.75 per week for 2.5hrs of fun and learning (just don’t tell the players that they are learning). And you can either fill in the drop off form and go or relax in our little waiting area, catch up with some reading, chat with other parents or play one of the many games on our shelves.
Oh, yes, the Community Tabletop Game Days. These are going from strength to strength, with plenty of new and exciting games being played. We welcome players of all levels, ages and interests. Thanks to an anonymous donor, our Crowdfunder for the board game lending library has already met its first target, which means our starting plans are moving forward with gusto.
Talking of lending libraries, our Lego club and Building Block Bibliotheca is well underway. There has been a great deal of interest in borrowing building sets, and the more regular members we get, the quicker we can build our inventory of sets. To help with this, we also have an excellent set up for grabs in our raffle. The raffle is £2 per ticket and will run until our next Community Game day on 14th November.
Jumping back a bit to the Game Days. As our Halloween parties are not going ahead, we have decided to run a special Halloween themed Community Board Game day on the 31st October instead. We will be open at the Rees Centre in Plympton from 11 am. There will be treats, and dressing up is encouraged. Watch out from a strange butler and whatever our lead GM Chris decides to come as; suggestions in the comments, please (no promises that he will take any onboard).
There are new and exciting things planned for next year, which I can’t go into at the moment, but watch this space. In the meantime, keep an eye out for our newsletter that will contain all upcoming dates, details of our crowdfunder and information on how you can help us. For more information on anything in our update, please visit our Facebook or Twitter pages and leave us a message.
All that remains is for me to say thank you on behalf of everyone involved in Character Creation. We could not do what we do without our fantastic players and parents, volunteers and the support of our families and the Rees Centre.