(This sixth article in the seven part series continues our discussion on how to set up your own Family Adventure Nights. To learn more about what FANS are and their back story, read our Introduction to the series here: Family Adventure Nights – Introduction)
I debated with myself for a long time over what exactly I could include in this last and final article in the series. This was always the most exciting part of our FAN, but it’s the one aspect that’s most difficult to show someone else how to do (it would literally fill a book. I actually published a book on Amazon on how to create live adventures for individuals and groups and it’s over 120 pages!) Although I can’t easily explain how to create your own, I CAN offer up some details as to the kinds of things that we did during this final portion of our Family Adventure Night. And, although it’s a bit involved to describe how to create your own, I did spend a lot of time converting one of our adventures into something that’s super ‘plug and play’ for those who want to try out one adventure without creating one themselves from scratch. It’s currently available for download on Etsy — see the link at the end of this article.
Although it can be difficult to mention what goes into every adventure I planned (as they were all very different), they all had some or all of the components below — and these components were strung together by either an elaborate Choose Your Own Adventure type of story format I wrote OR a simplified role playing game campaign that I created:
- A definite story where they met different characters within the country/theme (I made sure to look up ethnic names for accuracy and printed photos of people I found online.)
- Very large game boards I created using giant flip chart grid paper and fat markers. These were not elaborate — they mostly looked like giant CLUE game boards. I created airports, marketplaces, palaces, etc…mostly just outlined boxes with images I printed out and taped to it (for the sake of not having it look completely blank.) Each child had their own ‘token’ they moved around the city with, rolling as they went. They enjoyed rolling a lot and often had races getting through the airports, etc. (And they were sometimes chased by enemy characters that I rolled for at the same time.)
- Use of language cards. They each had language cards that they collected across successive adventure nights. On them would be a few words and phrases from a given language — and they did NOT have all the same cards. They learned quickly that the characters they interacted with would be more helpful if they used words in the characters home language, even if it was just one word. Because they each had different words and languages, they learned to rely on each other during each interaction…and each son eventually began to specialize in certain languages making them extra useful during difficult interactions.
- Exciting things would happen at different times (I.e. lights going out, activating a fog machine, sudden noises from sound effects players I had, etc.)
- Use of foreign currency. I took the time to print out (smaller than regular sized) currency from the countries they visited. If they wanted to take a taxi, they had to pay for the taxi from the money they earned along the way, etc. Sometimes they had to haggle for a better price in some countries. They also collected treasures and were able to sell them to other characters, earning more cash. After several FANs, they each had their own stash of cash from multiple countries.
- Interaction with characters. Rather than just say “Do you want to take a taxi?” I would role play a character of a taxi driver offering to give them a ride (typically trying to say words in that language or at least fake the accent as best I could.) I typically pretended like my English was terrible so that they needed to fight to communicate. They then had to role play the situation and it was up to me to make it easier or harder for them, depending on the situation. The more they practiced with this over the years, the more comfortable they were with it and the more difficult I made it for them.
- Planned some sort of travel (via game boards). With the money they had, they needed to purchase train/plane tickets as well as on boats and even hot air balloons. They needed to look at different train schedules, etc. that I printed out to see which one they wanted to take…to where…and at what time and price.
- A very strong, ongoing leveling up system. They each had a ‘character sheet’ (similar to playing Dungeons & Dragons.) As they progressed in the adventure, they would earn points in different cultures, geography, languages, etc. The more points they earned, the more language cards I would give them (and other resources.) Essentially, they were each becoming experts in different parts of the world. They LOVED getting points and building up their characters. One of my sons built up his character to focus more on Asian cultures, geography, etc. He was super helpful every time that they visited China or Japan during one of the adventures. It’s not a surprise that today, now in his 20’s, he’s been studying Japanese and plans on visiting Japan within the next few years.
- Something PHYSICAL to do, usually at the end. This was usually the grand finale, if you will, and is where they would need to climb, swim, crawl through tunnels, etc. in order to find the idol, save the secret agent, etc. Sometimes I would have a small set up in the garage (like a makeshift haunted house made from the PVC pipes mentioned above) for them to walk through, etc. This sounds MUCH more than it usually was…but they loved it just the same! It was usually dark to some degree and with exciting or scary music playing, they were thrilled to walk through it every time!
*** For those not familiar with a Choose Your Own Adventure story: CYOA’s were a series of books that hit the bookstores in the very early 80’s and instantly became popular with kids. The basic concept is to read the beginning of a story, then be faced with a choice to make as what to do next. You see, YOU are the main character in each of the stories. Which pages of the book you read will depend directly on different choices you make along the way — choosing to turn left or right in a cave, choosing whether or not to trust someone, etc.
I know that probably sounds like a lot…and FANS were not things that I planned every week. Usually, we only had an adventure like that maybe half a dozen times a year at most. Other adventure nights sprinkled in between involved a meal, cool atmosphere and watching a movie or playing a game. They were ALL fun, though, and we did them on and off for many years.
To read the next article in the series, FAMILY ADVENTURE NIGHTS – ADVENTURES PART II, click HERE.