When RPGs Are Included in Kids' Meals

We previously discussed how hobby games have gone mainstream, and as further evidence look no further than Wendy's, fast-food chain in the U.S. that has included a very basic form of role-play in its kid meals as part of its "Creative Revolution."

Welcome to the Creative Revolution
Wendy's Creative Revolution for kids goes back at least two years to 2015, in which kids' meals included creative ways for kids to play with the included toys. These toys are refreshingly not branded, a way around a company's challenges of finding branding partners. For a comparison of just how branded fast food toys can be, Burger King features Dreamworks' Trolls, Captain D features Kung Fu Panda, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's include Surf's Up and The Nut Job, and Subway has Boss Baby toys. The most recent kids' meals are of particular interest to prospective role-players, positioned as part of the Maker Movement:

Each Kids’ Meal packs in one of six different worlds, just waiting for your child to create their own adventures! Each Create Your Adventure kit features a pop-out story theater setting and comes with tons of fun characters, creatures and props to build and play with. Collect and connect the sets together for even more fun. What stories will your kids’ imaginations create next?

The adventure includes a royal court, enchanted forest, high seas, undersea kingdom, ice mountain, and mystic jungle. There's an additional supplement that details how to create dioramas, finger puppets, a storytime basket, felt storyboard, family photo storytelling, and storytelling cards. There are even storybook theater board books for kids under 3 to help toddlers tell stories.

Why It Matters
The benefits of role-play for children are numerous. Telling a story or taking on a role develops communication skills, allows them to experiment in a safe environment, develop empathy by putting themselves in someone else's shoes, and learn how to express themselves. This is important for child development:

Imaginative and creative play is a more natural way for children to learn about the world and does involve the whole body. Children manipulate and touch various play materials. They express themselves through play both verbally and non-verbally. They use all of their muscles and senses to move around. Actively using their large and small muscles as well as their different senses in play, children develop healthy, strong, and complete neurological connections in their brains.

As the inventor of the Erector Set, Dr. A.C. Gilbert said, toys are valuable learning tools that:

...showed the long-term effects of fostering inventiveness, creativity, ingenuity, and problem solving abilities. Gilbert told Congress that we must take care of our current human resources, “our children,” for the perpetuity of American ingenuity and the value of learning.

Wendy's kids meals introduce the basic elements of tabletop play -- a fantasy setting, miniatures, and storytelling -- to children who might not otherwise be exposed to this sort of play. These are all skills adult gamers exercise in their hobby of choice every day. And that's very good news for the future of role-playing games.

 

[dbm]

Um, why is this tagged Cypher System?
[edit: tags fixed]

 

[Hussar]

neat

 

[spiggs18]

This is really cool. Glad to see TTRPG's is going mainstream.

 

[fantasmamore]

Am I the only one that doesn't see the "rpg" part of the story? Well, there is some... role playing needed in order for the kids to play, but that's what kids do in every single game that they play, either it's toys, rocks, real animals or the dust dancing in front of the window! That's not evidence that RPGs or hobby games have become mainstream! That's just evidence that a fast-food chain is doing what the company of my favourite chocolate cereals was doing back in the '90s...

 

[Celebrim]

Really cool, but one step short of an RPG. With no suggestions for conflict resolution - even something like a coin flip or rock/paper/scissors - what we really have here is an attempt to foster 'make believe', which is a prerequisite skill for playing an RPG (IMO) but not sufficient to be considered a 'gateway toy' to playing RPGs. And as such, it's still not evidence of any mainstreaming of tabletop RPGs. 'Make believe' is a fairly mainstream children's activity.

 

[Vampyr3]

If you believe or call this an "RPG" I have a nice piece of ocean front property in Arizona I'll sell ya cheap...

 

[77IM]

My kids got these the other day, the High Seas one. They are actually pretty high quality for paper punch-out things. And they each came with like 10 figures, which is a pretty good amount for a happy meal toy.

Overall I'd say it's one of the best happy meal toys I've seen. Some of the kids' books they used to give out were better.

 

[dbm]

My kids got these the other day, the High Seas one.

Would you categorise it as a game, or a play set?

 

[Rygar]

Unless I'm missing something here, I think this article is really stretching.

First, an RPG and Role-playing are different. An RPG can contain some role-playing, but it isn't necessary or mandatory and pretty much every RPG on the market works just fine without it. A Role-playing game doesn't need RPG rules at all and many (LARPS for example) don't even try.

Second, I'm not seeing how this is any different than playing with Colorforms, action figures, or a diorama. This seems pretty much on-par with childrens toys for the last few decades.

Third, it doesn't introduce kids to any of the elements of tabletop play. Role-playing is an entirely optional component of pretty much all forms of tabletop play when it's even an option. RPG's don't require it, Roleplaying isn't done on a tabletop, and boardgames/wargames don't use it at all.