Nemaha Central Homecoming Theme Inspires Library-Flavored Twist
“We’ve Got Spirit, Yes We Do! We’ve Got Spirit, How About You?”
Nemaha Central’s Homecoming theme for 2024 is “NC’s Got Game!” with activities revving up for the week of September 30 through October 4. When the STUCO representatives came to visit the library a few weeks ago to hang up fliers and promote the business decorating contest, they explained that the idea was focused around board games, cards, and similar activities. “You know, like Monopoly or Clue,” the rep suggested cheerfully.
“Oh, yes,” I thought. “Yes, this idea I can work with, most definitely.”
But how to set our display apart from the crowd? How could we take the theme and flip it on its head in a direction nobody else would go? The answer came to us in the 2024 Summer Reading Program theme, “Adventure Begins at Your Library!”
By merging the two themes, the answer became instantly clear to this decades-long gamer geek: Tabletop Game + Adventure = Dungeons and Dragons.
After some heavy convincing and a bunch of planning that started while the director was gone on vacation, I started collecting information and formulating a plan. The goal was to make the homecoming candidates into Heroic Player Characters, using descriptions of their activities and personalities to provide each of them with their own Hero Class and Theme. To represent these fantastical avatars, each character was rendered using Heroforge, an online program geared toward creating gaming miniatures.
The images were saved and layered into a composite group image using basic imaging software. The image was printed on an industrial printer, mounted to foam board, and cut to shape to give it more depth and detail.
But every heroic campaign needs an antagonist, and so I employed the services of NightCafe AI image generator to render the Oskaloosa Bears in as fantastic a way as possible. It took a few tries, but the AI managed to give me some great results, and with a bit of image layering and manipulation, the Oskie Bears became… well, significantly more formidable looking than your average teenage athletes.
A lot of paper and paint, some detail development, and, of course, a set of dangling dice to drive home the gaming concept, and we ended up with the following results…
Come check out our window display in person all through Homecoming Week! We look forward to seeing you!
A Note About Our Choice of Game:
Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop role playing game that allows a group of players to create heroic (or not-so-heroic) fantasy characters that interact and co-create a story of adventure and intrigue through the scenarios, worlds, and characters that are presented by another player who serves as the game master (or GM). Adventures in this and similar games can last just a few hours of play time or continue on over a few decades depending on the interests and goals of the players involved.
Roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons have proven to be more than entertaining diversions for their creative-minded participants. D&D reinforces basic math skills through action outcomes and challenge resolutions. It teaches and offers opportunities to practice social skills, including problem solving, trial and error, and cause and effect responses both in and out of game. It encourages storytelling and creative narrative development, as well as team work and group development. In some ways, it presents many of the same benefits (and more) as the sports activities we build our Homecoming events around!
From all of us at the Seneca Free Library, we wish our area students, staff, and faculty a safe, festive, and exciting Homecoming 2024!
“Roll, Thunder, Roll!” and “Game On!”
