Dungeons and Dragons
Dates:
One week, July 9-13, 10 a.m.-noon
Price:
$120 ($100 P&P members)
Bring pencils and funny shaped dice if you have them.
Old school gaming is back for kids ages 10 and up! D&D was the original classic swords and sorcery story-telling adventure game created in the 1970's. One player narrates the framework of an adventure, the other players control the actions of characters within the story. Dice rolls determine the outcome of certain actions requiring all players to improvise as they go. Creativity, imagination and communication hold sway as characters must cooperate to survive and bring the story to a conclusion. Our games are heavy on the story-telling, but kids of all ages find ways to enjoy the “verbal video game” aspect of game play as well.
Inspiring literacy without requiring a great deal of reading, the game has proven a great motivator for intelligent and creative kids who may suffer from reading disabilities. Here verbal creativity, leadership, and problem-solving are rewarded in a way that classroom instruction may find difficult to reach. The cooperative aspect allows for team-building skills among participants of different personalities and backgrounds---like sports for your imagination. Ultimately the game is fun: Participants roll dice and battle monsters with wit, grit, and a bit of luck.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
A graduate of the drama program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Dave Burbank has worked for the Takoma Park Maryland Library for over 15 years. An illustrator and comics enthusiast, he is the curator of the library's remarkable graphic novel collection (over 3,000 titles) having built it from scratch and read every panel. He teaches a yearly seminar on the History and Importance of Comics to students of the University of Maryland's graduate College of Library and Information Sciences; to Montgomery County Public School media specialists at their In-Service Learning Day; and to various area schools. He has appeared on a panel discussion on "Graphic Novels in Libraries" at the independent comics' premier convention The Small Press Expo (SPX 2011).
As an illustrator and writer he is the creator of the Takoma Park Library's SummerQuest interactive reading game, as well as stacks and stacks of pads full of half-finished comics and fascinating doodles. He keeps an occasional blog on issues relating to comics in libraries at comixtakoma.wordpress.com. A father of three, he lives in suburban Maryland.
