Belated MarsCon with Molly report

[naomikritzer]

Last year at MarsCon, I was standing and chatting with someone at the Minicon party, saying, "I've been thinking that I will bring Molly to a con sometime soon. I mean, if for no other reason than at a science fiction con, she might finally find someone else who is also fascinated by perfect numbers."

This person said, "Perfect numbers? What are those?"

I said, "I only know this because Molly explained it to me. It has to do with their factors -- the numbers you can divide it by evenly. With a perfect number, if you add up all the factors, you get the number. So the number 6 has the factors 1, 2, and 3, and if you add them up you get 6. The next perfect number is 28 -- factors are 14, 7, 4, 2 and 1. Add those up and you get 28."

As I was explaining this, from opposite sides of the room, two people converged on me, both saying, "This sounds like a number theory discussion! Is this a number theory discussion?"

It illustrated my point rather well, I thought.

Molly has moved on from perfect numbers to Harry Potter, but I thought my point still held. I arranged to have most of my programming on either Friday or Sunday, and brought Molly for the day on Saturday.



Molly likes dressing up in costumes, and she had a wizard costume left over from the day her school ran a "dress as your favorite book character!" day. I had picked up a choir robe at a rummage sale at one point, and cut it down and hemmed it, and I went to Savers and bought her a white shirt with a collar, and a red and gold striped tie. Voila: a Hogwarts uniform. (Conveniently enough, the Gryffindor colors are the same as the U of M colors.) So she dressed as Hermione for the con, and brought her wand, a book of logic puzzles to read if she got bored, and our Magic: The Gathering decks since I had promised there would be gaming.

I had a panel at 10 a.m. on children's lit; Molly sat with Lyda Morehouse and listened with a fair amount of interest. I'd noticed a Mad Science of Minnesota panel/show for children at 11, so I took Molly to that next; Lyda came too. The scientist set things on fire and played with dry ice. (My favorite bit was when he dipped a dollar bill in rubbing alcohol and set it on fire. I think Molly was more impressed by the hovercraft, though.) Then I took Molly for a walk around the Dealer's Room and the Science Room, up to the Con Suite for lunch, and to the gaming room for a while.

Many many MANY people admired her costume. She actually makes a rather convincing, if clearly underaged, Hermione Granger. Particularly fun were all the people who interacted with her in character ("And how are classes going, young lady?") although the question "Where's Harry?" had her stymied until I suggested an answer ("He's right behind you. You just can't see him because he's under his invisibility cloak.")

In the gaming room, we played a game of M:TG with each other, and then Molly wanted to play Munchkin, since she'd seen some cards lying around. We found a group that was just about to start a game of it and was willing to teach us. We played it with two boys (one was twelve, though I'd guessed his age as ten, because he was small and squeaky-voiced, and his older brother, who was probably about fifteen) and their mom, and a friend of their mom.

It's a fairly simple card game based on hack-and-slash D&D. You have to get to Level 10 in order to win. You can take on various monsters; if they're too big for you, you can try to persuade other people to help you out by offering them one of the treasure cards you'll get to draw. The first time Molly took on a too-big monster and asked me to help her, I said sure and helped her for free, but the second time I informed her she'd have to give me one of the treasure cards.

"I'll help you for free!" the twelve-year-old offered eagerly from across the table.

All the adults at the table shot amused looks at each other.

Molly won the game. She needed to go up one more level, and took on a much-too-big-for-her monster. I refused to help her out, but her new friend from across the table offered to help her out even though it meant she'd win. His older brother turned on him furiously. "You shouldn't want her to win!" he said. "You should want YOURSELF to win!"

"I'm five levels behind everyone else. And I don't care if I don't win as long as YOU don't win," the younger boy said. And then came over to chat excitedly with Molly while the adults chuckled and gathered up the cards.

I found this whole exchange truly hilarious -- all the more so given that I think the odds are pretty good he was not thinking in explicit terms like, "I will impress the geek girl by helping her win!" I think it was mostly subconscious but it was still cute and funny.

I needed some fresh air (the gaming area at MarsCon is near the pool and is really hot and humid), so we packed up and wandered around for a bit, and walked to the MoA for dinner. We came back in time to be first in line to watch the Masquerade (since I hadn't let Molly enter, saying she needed to watch it once first), and then I took her up to go to the parties. We walked down to the Minicon party to say hi to jiawen and Molly fairly quickly settled down to watch two people play some sort of obscure German-style strategy game, which I finally dragged her away from when it was getting ridiculously late by Molly's Normal Bedtime standards. (I think we left at 9:30 or 10. Molly normally goes to bed at 8. I think she would have happily stayed up until midnight; she was still wide awake and perky and excited when we got home.)

She LOVED it. She had an absolutely awesome day. She can't wait until next year's con.

Something I realized driving home:

The thing that was the nicest for me about taking Molly to MarsCon was that pretty much every adult there treated her as DELIGHTFUL. I mean, I find her delightful (most of the time, at least) and it's not as if non-fandom grownups treat her with disdain, but she's kind of a weird, geeky kid and a many adults aren't really sure what to do with her. Whereas the adults at the con saw her as exactly what any reasonable person would want in a kid. A bookworm math geek gamer girl with obsessive SFnal interests? Really, what more could you ask for?

Comments

[callunav.livejournal.com]

She sounds awesome. And intrepid, given the way she apparently kept going after too-big monsters. Very, very Gryffindor, that.

[gelsey.livejournal.com]

Truly, what more could you ask for? I'm a geek at heart and only find my home with people like me too.

I bet she made a fabulous Hermione!

[corinnethewise.livejournal.com]

Um yeah, that's totally what I want out of a kid. I'm looking forward to helping my as of now non-existant child make his or her own D&D character. :)

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading a biography of Paul Erdos (The Man Who Loved Only Numbers) which she might enjoy quite a lot someday, albeit not now. Totally hilarious if you know anything about math culture (which of course I do ;) -- don't know how it looks to someone who wasn't a math major, but at least it's full of people who appreciate perfect numbers! and talks about math).

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Oh -- IIRC you were asking for something like this a while ago -- http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/unwrapping_the_gifted/2009/03/using_bibliotherapy_with_gifted_children.html is a list of books specifically selected for having characters that late-elementary gifted kids can identify with, at a level they can process (with all that that means). Spans lots of genres. Links to similar pages.

[yankee-in-texas.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. Always a struggle to find good, interesting books for very young readers (especially, books about boys. Why are so many of this type of book about girls?).

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I assume because writers and readers are more likely to be girls? Although it's weird, because it seems girls are plenty willing to read books with male protagonists, whereas the reverse (to the continual annoyance of the librarians at the boys' school where I used to work) is seldom true.

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

Wonderful, wonderful story! Thank you!

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Does Molly know about magic squares yet?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that's wonderful. I hope that will be us someday.

[yankee-in-texas.livejournal.com]

How fabulous for you and Molly. Do you have any pictures of the Hermione costume? Ernie was Hermione for Halloween & Bert was Harry). I wish we lived closer and could get our kids together! I think they'd adore each other. (Or, I suppose, hate each other.)

It's clear Molly had fun. Do you think she got the same sense of belonging/community that you did (when you felt she was not merely accepted but valued highly), or more just had a really fun time?

[stargoatpdx.livejournal.com]

and Molly fairly quickly settled down to watch two people play some sort of obscure German-style strategy game

I just have to ask: Which German-style games do you consider not obscure? :-)

You may know that boardgamegeek.com, a popular site among people who like German-style games, allows people to rate individual games. Here’s a list of the ten games that have the most ratings (regardless of whether those ratings are good or bad):

18,277 ratings --- The Settlers of Catan (1995)
17,892 ratings --- Carcassonne (2000)
15,726 ratings --- Puerto Rico (2002)
11,485 ratings --- Ticket to Ride (2004)
10,700 ratings --- Power Grid (2004)
10,432 ratings --- Citadels (2000)
9,478 ratings --- Lost Cities (1999)
8,923 ratings --- Bohnanza (1997)
8,840 ratings --- Agricola (2007)
8,786 ratings --- Tigris & Euphrates (1997)

It says something about boardgamegeek’s demographic that the above ten games have more ratings than games like Risk (which would actually be next on the above list, with 8,389 ratings) and Monopoly. I imagine more people have heard of each of those games than the above ten combined.

[naomikritzer]

Non-obscure German-style strategy game: Settlers of Catan. Also, if it had been one of the ones where the pieces gave you some clue as to the theoretical storyline I'd have been a little more specific. ("A German-style strategy game with trains," say, or penguins, or whatever.) This one was so obscure it didn't even have an English-language name. I asked the name of the game and got an answer in German, I think.

[naomikritzer]

Molly really likes this sort of game, incidentally. I got a copy of Settlers for Christmas and Molly LOVES to play it. (She doesn't get to very often, though, as it's pretty time consuming.)

[stargoatpdx.livejournal.com]

This one was so obscure it didn't even have an English-language name. I asked the name of the game and got an answer in German, I think.

Well... I changed my name 15 years ago but there are plenty of people who continue to use the old one, presumably because that’s what feels comfortable and familiar.

Along similar lines, if I learn to play a game called Rette Sich Wer Kann, I’ll probably continue calling it that, even if later on I happen to be playing with a copy that was published in the United States and talking with someone who’s never heard of the game. (Though in that case I’d probably explain that it’s also called Lifeboats.)

I got a copy of Settlers for Christmas and Molly LOVES to play it. (She doesn't get to very often, though, as it's pretty time consuming.)

If I may offer some unsolicited “help” here: Just last week I looked up the 50 highest-rated games on BoardGameGeek and entered them into a spreadsheet along with their alleged playing times. So here are the ones listed as 60 minutes or less. (For comparison, Settlers is listed as 90 minutes.) BoardGameGeek has detailed descriptions and pictures of each of them.

30 min --- Dominion (2008)
30 min --- YINSH (2003)
30 min --- Crokinole (1876)
40 min --- Memoir '44 (2004)
45 min --- Race for the Galaxy (2007)
45 min --- Pandemic (2008)
45 min --- Samurai (1998)
45 min --- Ticket to Ride (2004)
50 min --- Ticket to Ride: Europe (2005)
60 min --- Commands & Colors: Ancients (2006)
60 min --- Ra (1999)
60 min --- Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! - Russia 1941-1942 (2008)
60 min --- Stone Age (2008)
60 min --- BattleLore (2006)
60 min --- Tichu (1991)
60 min --- Galaxy Trucker (2007)

Obviously I can’t promise that Molly would like any of them, and some are fairly pricey (Dominion is cool but it set me back $45), but I thought I might as well share this information since I had it handy.

There is some diversity of games here. Crokinole, aka carom (think of the verb), is a dexterity game similar to pool. Dominion has similarities to collectible card games like Magic: the Gathering, e.g. each player builds their own deck. And Tichu is similar to a card game I know as Peasant and which you may have played at Carleton.

There's also Carcassonne (see my previous comment), which is very popular, portable (it comes in a medium-small box), and is listed as taking 60 minutes.

Okay, I'll stop now. :-)

[naomikritzer]

Hmmm, Carcassonne looks like it could be a good one. It's nice when we can find games that can be played with just two, because then she needs only one parent; Settlers requires at least three, and when jiawen came over and played with us I discovered it's a much better game (more interesting, more balanced, and much faster) with four.

Molly quite likes Magic: The Gathering, as well.

It's interesting what games she can effectively compete with adults at. There are quite a few adults I think she could beat at Scrabble. When playing with me, I usually offer her a handicap (she gets to play with 9 tiles, whereas I get the standard 7.) She can kick my ass at Set so thoroughly she usually doesn't even ask me to play as I don't offer a sufficient challenge (however, my sister can wipe the floor with her. I'm really pretty bad at Set.) She has won at MTG but mostly that was because her opponent suffered a bout of really bad luck -- her deck construction is more based on "ooooh, this card looks nifty!" rather than any sort of strategy, and she tends to be protective of her creatures rather than using them as the disposable cannon fodder they're meant to be.