Epic Battle
"Well, things fell apart for the good guys when they found out Little Bunny Foo Foo was a sleeper agent. The good guys were about to raid the bad guys' base when she turned on them and allowed the bad guys to counter attack. It was brutal."
And so it goes with Epic Battle, Isaac and Dad's weekly narrative adventure. We build bases and divide up all of Isaac's action figures and beasts and vehicles. During the week we play what Isaac calls "tiny slices" of Epic Battle, little pieces of a story that lead to a giant scrum on Saturday morning. It started before Ethan arrived, as it was a chance for Mom to take a break or go to the grocery store (you know Bianca, "break" is a relative term). It was such a hit that we brought it back over and over again.
As the weeks have passed the armies have grown. There are Lego Mini Figs, super heroes, some of my old toys including the AT-AT and some Star Wars guys, and Kaijus--the giant monsters from Pacific Rim. Isaac has never seen even a single frame from the movie (it is killing me--he would lose his mind if he could see it, but it would also scare the bejesus out of him, so he has to wait. I told him he could watch when he was ten, which is getting closer all the time). We even built a replica of the Helicarrier from Avengers (more on that in another post).
The amazing thing is that while Isaac and I are conducting raids and having inter-squad squabbles (Lex Luthor is notoriously unreliable and always a power seeker, even when he is working with other bad guys), I can help him think through problems and help him understand how to build characters and tell a story. When he recounts the day's events for Bianca it is pretty fun to listen to his rendition of what happened. He also thinks about new characters, given new life to old toys. He recently dubbed his twin bison, the "Bison Brothers" and they now play a larger part in the story. Funny enough he also learned what a chokepoint was based on how we set of the bad guys' base.
Its not all high minded, wolf in sheeps clothing lessons though. After hours of set up and smaller skirmishes, Epic Battle always ends in a knock down drag out explosion with thousands of pieces (a hundred or so action figures and about 900 cups Isaac imagines to be legions of soldiers). The delicate bases are torn to bits and the house looks like a frat party happened (Isaac is partial to the red Solo cups, but for totally different reasons--they are durable and look like the Emperor's Royal Guard).
Here is the aftermath:
And so it goes with Epic Battle, Isaac and Dad's weekly narrative adventure. We build bases and divide up all of Isaac's action figures and beasts and vehicles. During the week we play what Isaac calls "tiny slices" of Epic Battle, little pieces of a story that lead to a giant scrum on Saturday morning. It started before Ethan arrived, as it was a chance for Mom to take a break or go to the grocery store (you know Bianca, "break" is a relative term). It was such a hit that we brought it back over and over again.
As the weeks have passed the armies have grown. There are Lego Mini Figs, super heroes, some of my old toys including the AT-AT and some Star Wars guys, and Kaijus--the giant monsters from Pacific Rim. Isaac has never seen even a single frame from the movie (it is killing me--he would lose his mind if he could see it, but it would also scare the bejesus out of him, so he has to wait. I told him he could watch when he was ten, which is getting closer all the time). We even built a replica of the Helicarrier from Avengers (more on that in another post).
The amazing thing is that while Isaac and I are conducting raids and having inter-squad squabbles (Lex Luthor is notoriously unreliable and always a power seeker, even when he is working with other bad guys), I can help him think through problems and help him understand how to build characters and tell a story. When he recounts the day's events for Bianca it is pretty fun to listen to his rendition of what happened. He also thinks about new characters, given new life to old toys. He recently dubbed his twin bison, the "Bison Brothers" and they now play a larger part in the story. Funny enough he also learned what a chokepoint was based on how we set of the bad guys' base.
Its not all high minded, wolf in sheeps clothing lessons though. After hours of set up and smaller skirmishes, Epic Battle always ends in a knock down drag out explosion with thousands of pieces (a hundred or so action figures and about 900 cups Isaac imagines to be legions of soldiers). The delicate bases are torn to bits and the house looks like a frat party happened (Isaac is partial to the red Solo cups, but for totally different reasons--they are durable and look like the Emperor's Royal Guard).
Here is the aftermath: