First Impressions

I have to admit I'm a little behind on this one. I introduced the character sheets and rules of the game to Katie and Connor last Thursday night. I still think it's definitely worth mentioning their initial reactions.

I explained that each of them was going to get to create a character sheet. I asked which theme they preferred. Katie liked the "Wizard" theme while Connor was excited about the "Modern Military" theme (he especially liked the dog tag on the design). 

Then I went over their character attributes and we plugged in their classes to those slots. I told them that all their attributes start off at level 1 and how they were going to earn experience points with each grade they get in their classes, and with additional extra credit "special missions/quests" that I would give them here at home. 

They were truly excited and ready to get started, even though it was close to bedtime. Katie rushed off and returned only a few minutes later with a folder she selected to keep her character sheet in. Connor on the other hand instantly went to work trying to make up his own extra credit. 

"So what if I do my multiplication tables? Will that get me experience points?", he asked.

"Yes.", I replied, "But it's only extra credit so it would be worth 10 points, not 100."

It took him about two seconds to come up with a reply. "So if I do my 5's I get 10 points? What if I do ALL of them, do I get 100 then?"

Unable to argue with that logic, or the fact that he was making up schoolwork for himself I replied, "Sure. If you do your 1-10 multiplication tables I'll give you 100 experience points."

And off he went on his own spontaneous quest. I knew at that moment that all extra credit would have to be assigned by me in some way, otherwise he would simply pull up any bad "real grade" he got in school by doing lots of multiplication tables at home.

It hadn't been 5 minutes after Connor left before Katie walked in.

"I figured out your code.", she says. 

Since I didn't remember creating any "code" I said, "You figured out my what?"

"Your code. On the character sheet."

And she handed me the character sheet. At the top of the page I had placed some decorative design elements, mainly a line typed in J.R.R. Tolkien's elvish script from "Lord of the Rings". In a little over 5 minutes, for reasons I don't pretend to understand, she had decoded and translated the line back into English.

While I don't think that particular skill will help her in any of her classes it proved that she was definitely excited by the project, and I gave her 10 points in her Language Arts attribute for the effort.

First impressions are one thing, the true question is will it improve their schoolwork and their INTEREST in schoolwork over time?

Next week we'll kick things off officially and see how it goes.