From the Journal RSS

Summer is here and for many it means a long or even very long holiday. That is the case for our kids and since we obviously cannot go away for nine weeks, we have been looking for activities to keep them busy with. Some are things they can do by themselves and others we do with them. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I had planned to introduce them to tabletop roleplaying and I am happy to report that, indeed, I am running a game as Dungeon Master (DM) for the first time in a great number of...

It sounds like an oxymoron, something that shouldn’t even be a thing. Yet, digital versions of physical board games are around in numbers and you can find them on various flavours of smart phones, tablets or computers. Combining digital and analog forms of play to create something new or out of the ordinary is not an easy feat, yet it has been attempted, long before the dawn of tactile screen technology.  Hybrid board games The Quest for the ring (1981) for the Magnavox Odyssey2 - known as the Philips Videopac in Europe - is probably the best game I can...

Adventure is always at your doorstep, it’s only a matter of mindset. As a kid, I always played a lot of make pretend. I never meant it to be a way to escape from the real world, it simply was a means of letting my imagination run loose and to satisfy my creative mind. As most kids, a good part of my play was informed by the tv shows I watched, the books I read, the games I played and the films I experienced. They were recreated, altered or reshaped to my will and took me to either far away places where...

Sometimes – and this happens even to the most resourceful children and parents – a moment might come when nothing comes to anyone’s mind. You will hear someone say “I’m bored! I don’t know what to do”. In our house, we usually say: “Go outside!” and that will be that. But today is different. The sun is hiding behind dark clouds and rain has been pouring down since yesterday. It’s time for a break from devices and screens but the old card game won’t do. Maybe you are out camping and it’s just too miserable to be outside for long....