Please Note

This text was published first on 19 August, 2021. It can therefore contain information or views that is inaccurate. It is online for archival purposes.

Role characters, game dice, maps and adventures

During two whole days Immanuelskyrkan was full of life, movement and children’s voices when the Summer Adventure took place, a day camp with children, teenagers and leaders from different churches.

If you happened to be in the church just then and took a turn in the corridors and looked into the various small rooms in the Immanuelskyrkan, you could see children, teenagers and game masters playing exciting  table top role-playing games. On the tables were characters, dice, maps and adventurebooks. The game master told a story and the participants could influence the story with their characters. But a single roll of the dice could also change the whole story. A character’s little monkey could also affect the story in an unexpected way.

If you went further, you could hear eager voices from Kongressen. Inside, it was full of computers and children playing Minecraft, concentrating on the game. Some children played hopscotch. It was included as a challenge in bingo. Through bingo and various challenges, everyone got to get up and move around between the role-playing sessions and the computer games. Some children and leaders who could not be in the church, attended role-playing games and Minecraft from home with their own computers.

The summer adventure lasted for two days with about 40 participants and leaders from different churches such as Immanuelskyrkan, Åbybergskyrkan, Enebykyrkan och Älvsjökyrkan. It is an event in Equmenia Stockholm.

At one of the gatherings we asked the children – what has been fun at Sommaräventyret? “It’s fun to play Minecraft,” replied one child. “I played Mutant and Dungeon & Dragons, it was fun”, said another child. “It’s fun to play the superhero role-playing game”. There were notes posted everywhere in the corridors with challenges to get everyone moving. Not everyone knows what a role-playing game is, what is so fun and special about role-playing games? The leaders asked the children. You get a lot of thoughts when you play role-playing games, you get to plan. You can do what you want. You get to control what you want to do. It’s so imaginative. The story behind the role-playing game is fun. It’s like reading a book but you control the plot… . Yes, there were many thoughts about role-playing from the children. Two intense, exciting, fun and wonderful days together. We are already longing to meet again during the autumn holidays.

Maria Rönnedal, leader of the Swedish children’s activities in Immanuelskyrkan and Equmenia / Equmenia Church Region Stockholm, Drömprojektet and Funkiskonfa.