Our beliefs
At their best, role-playing games provide endless opportunities for personal growth.
Geppetto & Associates is dedicated to helping kids, adults, caregivers and service providers make the most of those opportunities.
Come have fun with us.
social justice & representation
Geppetto & Associates values all people and the stories they bring. We strive always to be mindfully diverse and inclusive in our storytelling through respectful representation.
conflict resolution
“Don’t just stand there gawking; fix it. If you need help fixing it, ask.” ~Irrini P Geppetto
We value empowerment in our Extremely Junior Associates. Players should feel safe to explore new skills and ideas in an environment that feels respectful. We want them to collaborate with us assertively to get the most of their experiences at Geppetto & Associates.
We also believe that agency needs to be equally balanced with personal responsibility - our actions have consequences. Players are responsible for actively creating an inclusive, respectful environment for themselves and others. Safety is a core element of collaborative storytelling. We expect our Extremely Junior Associates to acknowledge their actions and the impact of their actions when something goes wrong; it’s the first step in conflict resolution. When we have conflict (and we will have conflict), a restorative approach to problem-solving is how we prefer to roll (pun definitely intended). Our agents will make every effort to support Extremely Junior Associates in this process.
inspirations…
We are inspired by the works of Doctors Daniel Siegel, Ross Greene, and Stuart Shanker. Their ideas form the foundation of our practice, and they grind the lens through which we see and work with our Extremely Junior Associates.
Greene says, “People don’t do well when the demands placed upon them outstrip the skills they have to respond adaptively to those demands.” Teaching lagging skills and meeting unmet needs is the way forward. At Geppetto & Associates, we believe in meeting the needs we can and teaching any skills that might be helpful to our clients.
the games we play
We generally play within a fantasy setting called The House of Geppetto. HoG is an epic story spanning the 600-year journey of Irrini, Pinno, and Gemminy Geppetto, triplets with a rich and complex history. A large portion of the family is migrating to a far-off, magical land and is hiring Associates to help them. Our players are those associates, and in the name of House of Geppetto, they venture forth.
The story-arc contains all aspects typically found in RPGs, sometimes referred to as the three pillars of play: Social, Exploration, and Combat. Players have autonomy within the game rules and choose through their actions to more heavily favour or avoid one or more of those pillars. Combat-free adventure is entirely possible, and Extremely Junior Associates have autonomy in this area.
More often, character goals are better achieved by non-violent interaction. We strive to teach kids how to read a situation from multiple perspectives and have various communication and problem solving skills at their disposal, so violence doesn’t have to be their go-to solution. We do not condone violence in the real world, and we should not confuse our lives as players with our characters’. However, players are encouraged to practice any skills they’ve been working on, such as flexibility, perspective taking, self-regulation, collaborative problem solving, etc.
Role-playing games are a framework for our collaborative storytelling. Geppetto & Associates works with a number of RPG’s to tell our stories, but our favourites are Dungeons & Dragons 5E and Little Wizards for younger adventurers. We don’t assume you know how to play these games and will happy train you, your family, staff, whomever.