A memory for knights

Although this is primarily a place for reflective practice in teaching, sometimes I cannot help but share stories about the intersection of games, learning, and parenthood.

Last night, my son and I went down to The Wizard's Keep, the local game shop, to pick up a special order. We went after dinner as a father-son adventure since he loves to see all the minis and box art. The last time we were there, before Christmas, he was mostly interested in what looked flashy. This time, he was much more interested in what the games were about. For the last few weeks, he has been spending almost all his free time drawing sharks, naval warfare, dinosaurs, knights, and Jedi. Any game featuring such art caught his attention, and so I encouraged him to look for inspiration, to consider drawing some of these scenes later.

When we got home, he produced the drawing below. Note that the parts in blue were pre-existing sketches on this sheet of paper; my son loves to pack as many images as possible into one page.

When I looked at it, I realized he had reconstructed from memory the box art of Runebound: Mists of Zanaga.

We looked at a lot of box art last night, but clearly this one made an impression. I remember pointing out to him that the monster had four arms, which I thought was interesting. In his drawing, he has: a four-armed horned demon-creature; a knight in the foreground with the iconic sword and shield; a hammer-wielding warrior in the clutches of the monster; and a third hero grasping onto the monster's arm.

That he remembered all these details, amid all the other boxes, amazes me. The captured warrior is wielding a hammer. Incredible!