HeroClix in the Sanctuary

A couple of week ago, I told you all about my new comic book sanctuary that's part of the huge house addition that we've been working on for six years. Once we pass the final inspection, I'll be able to start putting up the displays again.

Regardless of the fact that my stuff isn't fully unpacked, I love the room. It's got a nice, 'warm' feel to it, and it's pretty sizable. I want to use it. I want to be up here in the room. And yet, without a wi-fi signal that reaches up here, or displays to put up, I really don't have a regular reason to be in the room.

We used to play this game called HeroClix. It involves little super-hero game pieces and maps and dice and super powers and mega battles. Right up my alley, and Lorie would kick my butt in the game on a regular basis. If I resurrected the game, which is still being made today, set up a play space, and got the kids interested, we would have a reason to spend time here.


Not only that, but the games seem to take forever. Especially since I prefer the games with larger, comic-themed teams. It used to be a bear to break it down every evening and set it all back up the next time we played. With the room here, I can leave the game set up and it would bother no one, and no cats would bother it.


So I ordered a larger-than-normal card table to accommodate the maps, set up the game, taught the kids the rules, and we've been playing regularly ever since. Some nights we'll just shoot upstairs to play a single round, leaving the game for the next day.


My kids are six, eleven, and thirteen. We seem to have more than our fair share of arguments around here. One of the things I do in my professional life is work on the communication between team members. It appears that computer programmers are the type of people that would be pleased as punch to never have to talk to one another. I take pride in being able to bridge that gap. And I've been trying hard (unsuccessfully) to use those skills to teach the kids how to communicate with one another. To teach them why it's important. And to teach them how to use it in life.





Games are one of the things I've been doing to try to get them to talk. We have the DC Deck Building game, which the kids enjoy. And we have a game called Seven Wonders, and I found one called Forbidden Island. These games don't necessarily have the goal of defeating an opponent, but rather striving for individual goals. So the games are set up in such a way as to not attack one another.


The kids love the games. But success has been limited. They can't work together on the strategies without arguing. But they do like the games. Katie wrote about Seven Wonders on her blog. Ashton detailed Forbidden Island on his.

With HeroClix, the whole game is confrontational. There's a need to punch, kick, blast, and fight your way to victory. It's the whole point of the game. So I put them all on the same team... against me.





This seems to be proving more effective than the other methods. They'll call out a 'Conference time' and run off to huddle in a corner where I can't hear them and plot against me. They've been supporting each others efforts, working together, and celebrating each other's winning moves. It's not a perfect set up, arguments still persist, but we're getting there. And I plan to continue the efforts with one game or another for as long as I can.





So I'm sitting in my new sanctuary. Playing with tiny little plastic super heroes. Watching my kids band together to take me down. My oldest son, Ashton, managed to use his Aquaman pieces very strategically in a brilliant move that took down one of my more powerful characters. They were very very proud in that moment. And I was a little gleeful to see the Sea King rise to such victories.


It was bliss.

Thanks,
DCD