Tales from Talania

My Story
I figure God has raised me up as a supporter of Lightraiders for his own reasons. My dad loved being a resource person. He often purchased things just to have them- in case he could make use of them or bless others with them. He bought a vintage Dragon Raid game back in the 80s, when I was just a toddler. I grew up with the box in the house, sitting with the rest of the board games, but we never played it. I remember opening the box once when I was a kid, and being completely confused by the contents, since it wasn't obvious to 7 or 8 year old me how to play. Little squares marked "orc"? An empty grid? What were you supposed to do? So I left it on the shelf, and never went back. Whether my Dad planned to introduce it to us when we were older, I don't know. For whatever reason, it was forgotten. I grew up not playing any tabletop role-playing games of any kind, but I did play some RPGs on the computer.
Years and years later, I am now a father raising my own children. My dad was downsizing, and offered the Dragon Raid game to me, along with some other things. I remember thinking the box had something my childhood self thought was boring, but I didn't remember why. So I didn't know what to expect, but agreed anyway. When the box arrived, I looked through it, and was immediately excited by the possibilities. I took on the role of Adventure Master and led my kids through the Lightraider Test and the Search for the Sacred Scrolls. They loved it. I loved it. I was craving more, which is when I found the Moonbridge Raid, and the recently relaunched Lightraider Academy. This is how I know it was from God: the timing. In God's perfect economy, that copy of the vintage game was safely in storage for decades, waiting to re-emerge at just the right time, to have a family playing the game for the first time right when they were relaunching. Had it been even just a year sooner, I wouldn't have found anything when we wanted more. Yet, here we are. I had no idea the timing was so perfect until I read about the testimony of God's faithfulness in the Moonbridge Raid, where it mentions the pandemic. I think that's when I realized our new interest in the game must be part of an answer to someone's prayer, even if we didn't know it when we started.