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A random thought: Last night, I successfully herded ARR in the direction I wanted him to go because he was playing “Super-A” and was looking for clues (that all seemed to be leading away from our house), and I “spotted a villain sneaking around” in the direction I wanted him to charge. This kind of herding is a skillset I’ve been honing over 20 years of running tabletop rpgs.
Then it occurred to me that the, “Yes, and…” style of theatrical improv is the best advice I could ever give for imaginative play with small children: Just run with, and build on, everything they come up with. I’ve always been pretty good at improv, but then, it’s a very similar skillset, again, to running tabletop rpgs.
And I was always into imaginative play as a small child. We even have many hours of video evidence of it. I got into D&D in the first place because it seemed like a more structured and grown-up way to play pretend.
Am I good at playing pretend with my son because I did theater and play rpgs, or am I good at theater and rpgs because I played pretend as a child? Or is it all collectively one activity that I’ve probably hit the 10,000 hour mark on?
Then it occurred to me that the, “Yes, and…” style of theatrical improv is the best advice I could ever give for imaginative play with small children: Just run with, and build on, everything they come up with. I’ve always been pretty good at improv, but then, it’s a very similar skillset, again, to running tabletop rpgs.
And I was always into imaginative play as a small child. We even have many hours of video evidence of it. I got into D&D in the first place because it seemed like a more structured and grown-up way to play pretend.
Am I good at playing pretend with my son because I did theater and play rpgs, or am I good at theater and rpgs because I played pretend as a child? Or is it all collectively one activity that I’ve probably hit the 10,000 hour mark on?
