Tovey, our 9th grader, has taken over the teen gaming group. Faie passed it down to Elliot, who passed it down to Tovey.

They’re finally allowed to meet in person again, outside around the garden, each at their own little table. They’re very excited.

Tovey had 3 weeks’ lead time to get ready to run something for their first session this past Friday. After a week of agonizing, they came to me. “Okay dad,” they said. “I want a game I can run my fantasy world in. Cultural touchstones: Samurai Jack, She-Ra, and like—Teiflings and—” breaking down into gestures.

“He-Man? Thundarr the Barbarian?”

“Yeah.”

“These Elric book covers by Robert Gould?”

“What the… those are… impeccable? Whoa look at that. Yes. Yes. Those.”

“I got ya,” I said. “Work with me to get your fantasy world right and I think we can nail it.”

What Tovey didn’t know is that the day before, I’d started writing notes for a game that by chance would adapt perfectly. We bombed through it together and in two weeks we got it ready for a first session. We were printing character packets as the group was arriving.

The session went very well—nothing like a playtest going well to make you feel like a game design badass. Many of the GMing rules are still in Tovey’s and my heads, but the character creation rules are ready for a first look!

Give them a try. Make yourself a character, it’s super fun.