Earlier this year I supported Evil Hat Games' incredibly successful Kickstarter to produce a new edition of the Fate rule system. I have recently received four of their books, including Fate Core. While I used Fudge in my classroom for many years, I have been on the sidelines of Fate. I'm excited about the possibilities of this new, lean, flexible edition. While Heroquest is still, for now, my go-to system for running role paying games with kids, due to its foundational simplicity, Fate has many of the same qualities at hear, and with its clear mechanics and player empowerment, I think it does a better job of linking characters, plot, and setting into an interacting, coherent whole.
I will be testing Fate Core on my older players in the coming months, as I get a feel for it, and I will certainly try it with one of my kid games at some point too. Using Fate, it is certainly possible to begin quickly and simply and develop characters and connections as a game progresses. One issue that limits for me the power of Fate is that when I am running games with kids, I often have ten or more players, leaving little time for such exploration. Many kids want less yacking, more hacking, but I always have a few young people that want to dig into a game more, and Fate may be just the vehicle.
I have also recently received more than half a dozen kid-oriented games - like Camp Myth and Zorceror - and I'll be reading, testing, and reviewing these throughout 2014.
Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
Teach Your Kids to Game
DriveThruRPG has created a page listing a large number of games they offer that are great for playing with young people. They are encouraging people to teach games to their children and play with their families. It's good for their bottom line, and it's also great for our hobby community. I think this page is a great idea, and they have many ideas, choices, and discounts. Since most of their titles are available in less expensive, digital formats, they're even cheaper and easier to manage.
I especially like Adventures in Oz, Argyle & Crew (sock puppet adventures!), Faery's Tale, Fate, Little Wizards, Mouse Guard, Teenagers from Outer Space, and YARR! Rules Light Pirate RPG, and they have many more titles I need to investigate. I'd love to know which of these games you've tried and how they worked with people, young and not-so-young.
Have fun!
I especially like Adventures in Oz, Argyle & Crew (sock puppet adventures!), Faery's Tale, Fate, Little Wizards, Mouse Guard, Teenagers from Outer Space, and YARR! Rules Light Pirate RPG, and they have many more titles I need to investigate. I'd love to know which of these games you've tried and how they worked with people, young and not-so-young.
Have fun!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Game Night 2013
Paideia School had its first elementary school game night this past week, organized and hosted by yours truly. I've run games in my classrooms for decades, but after attending a wonderful seminar at Gen Con Trade Day last year, I was inspired to do some more community building and game advocacy at my own school.
Several other teachers offered to lend a hand, so we had outdoor games, imaginary play in "Zombie Land," and domino games from Puerto Rico. I brought about a score options from my classroom's game library, including standards like Risk and Scrabble, as well as sets of dice and cards for all kinds of games. Several of my own students - fifth and sixth graders - came, and most of them brought or offered to teach a game or two.
We had no idea how many people would come out on a Friday night for games, and for the first thirty minutes, it was one bright-eyed six year old, her father, and four teachers playing dominoes. She cleaned our clocks! Soon after more and more families and kids arrived, and at the height of the evening we had around fifty people, all playing games. Some kids moved back and forth between Zombie Land and outdoor play, while other, older kids played a game for twenty to forty minutes and then switched to another. Everyone got to play. Lots. I required at least one adult for kids of any one family, and most of these joined the high-stakes Scrabble game.
One of my students, a long time role player, brought a tabletop fantasy adventure to run, but by the time he had gathered some interested kids, they realized they wouldn't have much time, so they played mah jong instead. I had an adventure ready as well, but I was occupied as the host most of the evening. I had fun, but next year I hope to coordinate better a few role playing games in the mix.
If you're a teacher or parent, I highly recommend organizing a game night at a local school. The game play was rich. I bought some snacks - candy, chips, fruit - for the evening, since food makes everything better, but the whole thing cost the school less than $50. It might be something a few parents could even donate to the community.
Have fun!
Several other teachers offered to lend a hand, so we had outdoor games, imaginary play in "Zombie Land," and domino games from Puerto Rico. I brought about a score options from my classroom's game library, including standards like Risk and Scrabble, as well as sets of dice and cards for all kinds of games. Several of my own students - fifth and sixth graders - came, and most of them brought or offered to teach a game or two.
We had no idea how many people would come out on a Friday night for games, and for the first thirty minutes, it was one bright-eyed six year old, her father, and four teachers playing dominoes. She cleaned our clocks! Soon after more and more families and kids arrived, and at the height of the evening we had around fifty people, all playing games. Some kids moved back and forth between Zombie Land and outdoor play, while other, older kids played a game for twenty to forty minutes and then switched to another. Everyone got to play. Lots. I required at least one adult for kids of any one family, and most of these joined the high-stakes Scrabble game.
One of my students, a long time role player, brought a tabletop fantasy adventure to run, but by the time he had gathered some interested kids, they realized they wouldn't have much time, so they played mah jong instead. I had an adventure ready as well, but I was occupied as the host most of the evening. I had fun, but next year I hope to coordinate better a few role playing games in the mix.
If you're a teacher or parent, I highly recommend organizing a game night at a local school. The game play was rich. I bought some snacks - candy, chips, fruit - for the evening, since food makes everything better, but the whole thing cost the school less than $50. It might be something a few parents could even donate to the community.
Have fun!
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Chronos: The Universal LARP System
I've just lent my support to a new Kickstarter project, Chronos: The Universal LARP System. While my favorite kind of game to advocate is RPG, what I run in my classroom is much more of a LARP. I have resolution systems that work for me, but I'm always exploring RPGs and LARPSs for ideas. I've shared some of them in this blog. I'm always looking for smoother methods and approaches to make my games of all kinds more accessible for my players. I always find that universal systems take some tweeking to make them work for a particular application, but it's worthwhile to explore them.
Chronos appears to have lots of playtesting and a team of developers with plenty of experience developing many kinds of games. The examples of play they provide are intriguingly quick and flexible. I look forward to seeing that they develop and for the chance to test its elements in my own games.
Chronos appears to have lots of playtesting and a team of developers with plenty of experience developing many kinds of games. The examples of play they provide are intriguingly quick and flexible. I look forward to seeing that they develop and for the chance to test its elements in my own games.
Friday, October 4, 2013
RPG & Chinese!
Two of my big interests meet in an article by Olle Linge, "Role-Playing as a way to expand your Chinese." Though short, it brings up a bunch of fun ideas for use role playing as a way to teach/learn Chinese, or any language for that matter. In many discussion of games and education, social studies or math gets most of the attention, so I'm happy to run across an article that looks at language learning in this vein.
I'm sure we can come up with more scenarios for role playing with languages. Some, obviously, require more vocabulary or a better grasp of grammar and constructions, but these sorts of scenes would give many learners greater motivation to explore the language of study.
See my earlier review to learn how the new RPG, Magicians, uses foreign language study even more intensively.
Have a fun weekend!
I'm sure we can come up with more scenarios for role playing with languages. Some, obviously, require more vocabulary or a better grasp of grammar and constructions, but these sorts of scenes would give many learners greater motivation to explore the language of study.
See my earlier review to learn how the new RPG, Magicians, uses foreign language study even more intensively.
Have a fun weekend!
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Dragon Con 2013 and a New School Year
A busy summer swirled to a finish and right into a new school year and within about a week Dragon Con 2013, here in Atlanta, Georgia. I ran a variety of Heroquest-based role playing games at my school's summer camp, ranging from simple fairy tales to mini-campaigns. I often use the fantasy world of Glorantha as the basis for my stories, but the richness and particulars of the setting remain underdeveloped when I only have an hour or so a day with children. A few kids ask questions and take themselves deeper into the shared, imagined realm, but most just play along, half in their own imaginings, and a few come to these activities and just listen to the unfolding story. All of these kinds of experiences are great for young, growing minds, and different people have different interests and intensities. Most fun for me, though, and best for developing gaming and imagination predilections and skills, I think, is when they delve as deeply as they can.
I have a great new class of thirty-one fifth and sixth graders. Our classroom theme for the whole year is China, and next week we'll start our yearlong simulation of politics in the early Tang Dynasty of China. As part of what is essentially a LARP, each student will portray a historical character from the period, as they all compete for power and resources. Their travails often follow the events and rhythms of actual history, and their activities also paint a version of what might have happened in those unknown, gray spaces that exist throughout the historical record. The conversations and explorations that follow are rich with all kinds of learning and the development of skills that will find application beyond the study of China. My students become much more motivated in our other, more traditional studies, since everything they can learn about China contributes to their ability to play the game. It's a wonderful feedback system and grows in strength throughout the year.
As I've wrapped up a summer of travel and little games and begun another great school year, Dragon Con comes along at the same time. This year, I had a mix of games and time to explore the rest of this vast gathering of fandom. My games were all Heroquest games, set in Glorantha. The first was set a traditional dungeon crawl with rogues, warriors, and a wizard or two. The second was a horror story based in an isolated martial arts temple, and the third was a tale of high magic and huge monsters. I had a great time and explore some corners of Heroquest, Glorantha, and game play that I can bring to my own games, of various sizes, with various groups.
The rest of con was as colorful as ever, fantastic costumes blending with music, panels, sprawling shopping areas, and more. The parade was exuberant, and the con brimmed with people of all ages and complexions, families and grognards. I love the tone of Dragon Con, which accepts every kind of non-harmful interest and eccentricity. I don't share even a handful of them, but I wish every day and everywhere were as accepting.
With these lessons in mind, I am beginning new games, exploring new games, and writing new games.
Have fun!
I have a great new class of thirty-one fifth and sixth graders. Our classroom theme for the whole year is China, and next week we'll start our yearlong simulation of politics in the early Tang Dynasty of China. As part of what is essentially a LARP, each student will portray a historical character from the period, as they all compete for power and resources. Their travails often follow the events and rhythms of actual history, and their activities also paint a version of what might have happened in those unknown, gray spaces that exist throughout the historical record. The conversations and explorations that follow are rich with all kinds of learning and the development of skills that will find application beyond the study of China. My students become much more motivated in our other, more traditional studies, since everything they can learn about China contributes to their ability to play the game. It's a wonderful feedback system and grows in strength throughout the year.
As I've wrapped up a summer of travel and little games and begun another great school year, Dragon Con comes along at the same time. This year, I had a mix of games and time to explore the rest of this vast gathering of fandom. My games were all Heroquest games, set in Glorantha. The first was set a traditional dungeon crawl with rogues, warriors, and a wizard or two. The second was a horror story based in an isolated martial arts temple, and the third was a tale of high magic and huge monsters. I had a great time and explore some corners of Heroquest, Glorantha, and game play that I can bring to my own games, of various sizes, with various groups.
The rest of con was as colorful as ever, fantastic costumes blending with music, panels, sprawling shopping areas, and more. The parade was exuberant, and the con brimmed with people of all ages and complexions, families and grognards. I love the tone of Dragon Con, which accepts every kind of non-harmful interest and eccentricity. I don't share even a handful of them, but I wish every day and everywhere were as accepting.
With these lessons in mind, I am beginning new games, exploring new games, and writing new games.
Have fun!
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Magicians - The Korean Language Learning RPG
I'm really excited about Magicians, a new role playing game from the pen of Kyle Simons. Drawing on the rich folk tales and legends of Korea, he has created a setting with all kinds of storytelling possibilities. Player characters begin as novice spell casters in a school with distinctive Asian qualities but also more than a nod to Hogwarts and modern Manga and Anime. Players create stories collaboratively through a pre-game brainstorming process and off they go. It is, of course, possible to run Magicians as a more traditional tabletop RPG as well.
The best part of the game, though, the part that really excites me, is the way that language learning is built into the core of the system. In order to cast spells, players must use the Korean language. At the most basic level, the Prodigy Magic System, the correct pronunciation of various important syllabic sounds creates the magic. The next step, the Apprentice System, players need to work with nouns and verbs to cast more complex and efficacious spells. The full magic system for the game, the Master System, adds the other parts of speech and the vibrancy of more complex grammatical constructions. It's awesome! My daughter, who is bilingual in Korea, pronounced the game, "credible."
I am so impressed by Simons' creation. His game makes language learning integral to a game, a chance to tell stories to practice your Korean language skills. It scales to different levels of experience and competence. Magicians makes targeted learning an intrinsic part of the game, with built-in rewards, as well as any role playing game I've ever seen.
Simons produced Magicians through a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, which included many achieved stretch goals, among them expansions for Japanese and Chinese. As an avid student of the latter, I can't wait to see what his team does with that! Whether you're interested in teaching a foreign language or want to explore the story possibilities of this setting, Magicians is well worth your time to explore.
Have fun!
P.S. Part of my enthusiasm for Magicians at this moment may come from having just watched the delightful 2005 Korean film Welcome to Dongmakgol, which I also very much recommend.
The best part of the game, though, the part that really excites me, is the way that language learning is built into the core of the system. In order to cast spells, players must use the Korean language. At the most basic level, the Prodigy Magic System, the correct pronunciation of various important syllabic sounds creates the magic. The next step, the Apprentice System, players need to work with nouns and verbs to cast more complex and efficacious spells. The full magic system for the game, the Master System, adds the other parts of speech and the vibrancy of more complex grammatical constructions. It's awesome! My daughter, who is bilingual in Korea, pronounced the game, "credible."
I am so impressed by Simons' creation. His game makes language learning integral to a game, a chance to tell stories to practice your Korean language skills. It scales to different levels of experience and competence. Magicians makes targeted learning an intrinsic part of the game, with built-in rewards, as well as any role playing game I've ever seen.
Simons produced Magicians through a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, which included many achieved stretch goals, among them expansions for Japanese and Chinese. As an avid student of the latter, I can't wait to see what his team does with that! Whether you're interested in teaching a foreign language or want to explore the story possibilities of this setting, Magicians is well worth your time to explore.
Have fun!
P.S. Part of my enthusiasm for Magicians at this moment may come from having just watched the delightful 2005 Korean film Welcome to Dongmakgol, which I also very much recommend.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Ennie Awards 2013
This year's Ennie Award nominees have been announced. I draw your attention especially to the sections for Best Family Game and Best Free Game.
Best Family Game
I'm not familiar with many of this year's nominees, so any knowledge you would like to share would be appreciated!
Best Family Game
- Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space—11th Doctor Edition (Cubicle 7)
- Hero Kids—Fantasy RPG (Hero Forge Games)
- Mermaid Adventures (Third Eye Games)
- Project Ninja Panda Taco (Jennisodes)
- Wandering Monsters High School (Bold Pueblo Games)
- Mazes and Perils RPG (WG Productions)
- Phantasm (2010) (End Transmission Games LLC)
- Nights of the Crusades (Aetheric Dreams)
- Silent Memories (Morning Skye Studio)
- Throwigames Simple Roleplaying System (Throwigames)
I'm not familiar with many of this year's nominees, so any knowledge you would like to share would be appreciated!
Monday, July 8, 2013
Kickstarter
I've just backed The Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine on Kickstarter. I've backed several other role playing game projects over the last year, including Magicians: A Language Learning RPG, The Guide to Glorantha, Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls, Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition, Fate Core, and Golden Sky Stories, among others. Kickstarter is definitely the new way to fund many major RPG projects, and I'm very excited to be part of these endeavors.
If you're not familiar with Kickstarter, have a look. Usually, when you support a project, you get some sort of reward, game books, sometimes print, sometimes digital, in the case of those above. If you're a teacher, ask your accountant about treating them as tax deductions!
If you're not familiar with Kickstarter, have a look. Usually, when you support a project, you get some sort of reward, game books, sometimes print, sometimes digital, in the case of those above. If you're a teacher, ask your accountant about treating them as tax deductions!
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Getting Back to Work
It's been a busy school year, much more busy than normal, but now that I have returned from leading a student trip overseas, things are settling back to normal, and I should be able to share more through this blog than have in many months. There is plenty to do!
Though I will not be attending any of the big summer conventions other than Dragon Con in my hometown, I have several role playing games I've been exploring for use in classroom, and I will have more to share about these in the coming weeks.
For now, though school has ended for the moment, I am already working on my games for the coming term. While my role playing style these days, both with adults and children, tends to be light on mechanics and heavy on story and what works, sometimes it's necessary to pop the hood and dig into the engine under the game to make it work better. Such is the case for the big classroom game I'll be running this year. Zhongguo is a simulation of life at the court of Empress Wu, the only woman every to rule China directly as a full emperor. She reigned in the seventh century, during the early years of the Tang Dynasty, and while she was derided and sensationalized by later historians, her time on the throne provides a wonderful array of issues and conflicts: roles for woman, the growth of Buddhism in China and the attendant crises in Confucianism and Daoism, international exchanges of all kinds, corruption and reform, and much more.
This simulation has been a mainstay of my students study of China all school year, but when I last ran it I realized that the economic mechanics were too vague, making this aspect of the game confusing for my students and more work for me. As it is now, each provincial governor gets cards representing the wealth of that province, and that's it. Once they spent them, they were gone. Most years, this has stymied economic activity and experimentation, and I've always ended up having to inject some more cards into the game, which is never satisfying, though sometimes necessary.
I am going to change this part of the system. Rather than starting with all of their wealth pre-alloted, each governor will roll on a table unique to that province once each game year. Higher rolls will generate more diverse and more plentiful resources. Investing certain wealth cards into the province ahead of time will provide a bonus on the roll later. Game events - like fires, disease, raids, war, and so forth - will reduce the roll.
So, for the governor of Shannan Province, I now have the table below. This will create more variability and excitement than the old system, and it should keep the economy more liquid. I am sure I will tinker with these tables during the school year and for future iterations of the game, but it already has a better feel.
Have fun!
David
Though I will not be attending any of the big summer conventions other than Dragon Con in my hometown, I have several role playing games I've been exploring for use in classroom, and I will have more to share about these in the coming weeks.
For now, though school has ended for the moment, I am already working on my games for the coming term. While my role playing style these days, both with adults and children, tends to be light on mechanics and heavy on story and what works, sometimes it's necessary to pop the hood and dig into the engine under the game to make it work better. Such is the case for the big classroom game I'll be running this year. Zhongguo is a simulation of life at the court of Empress Wu, the only woman every to rule China directly as a full emperor. She reigned in the seventh century, during the early years of the Tang Dynasty, and while she was derided and sensationalized by later historians, her time on the throne provides a wonderful array of issues and conflicts: roles for woman, the growth of Buddhism in China and the attendant crises in Confucianism and Daoism, international exchanges of all kinds, corruption and reform, and much more.
This simulation has been a mainstay of my students study of China all school year, but when I last ran it I realized that the economic mechanics were too vague, making this aspect of the game confusing for my students and more work for me. As it is now, each provincial governor gets cards representing the wealth of that province, and that's it. Once they spent them, they were gone. Most years, this has stymied economic activity and experimentation, and I've always ended up having to inject some more cards into the game, which is never satisfying, though sometimes necessary.
I am going to change this part of the system. Rather than starting with all of their wealth pre-alloted, each governor will roll on a table unique to that province once each game year. Higher rolls will generate more diverse and more plentiful resources. Investing certain wealth cards into the province ahead of time will provide a bonus on the roll later. Game events - like fires, disease, raids, war, and so forth - will reduce the roll.
So, for the governor of Shannan Province, I now have the table below. This will create more variability and excitement than the old system, and it should keep the economy more liquid. I am sure I will tinker with these tables during the school year and for future iterations of the game, but it already has a better feel.
Have fun!
David
Shannan Province Wealth Table
Roll
a six-sided die and consult the table below.
For
each combination of ten (10) of any of the following Resource cards, add one
(+1) to the first die roll.
Certain
events – including but not limited to fires, disease, earthquake, raids, war –
will subtract from the die roll.
Roll Result
1 1d6
Iron
2 1d6
Slaves
3 2d6
Iron
4 2d6
Slaves
5 Roll
twice.
6 Roll
three times.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Free RPG Day 2013
This coming Saturday is Free RPG Day! Check out the link and also see what's going on in your town. If nothing, try to encourage something to happen. See what stores might do. Can you run a game to encourage gamers? Can you point people to online opportunities? Spread the word.
Unfortunately, I'll be away on a school trip for the next few weeks. When I get back, I have lots to share. It's been a busy springtime for me. Some of it, though, was some great gaming.
Have fun!
David
Unfortunately, I'll be away on a school trip for the next few weeks. When I get back, I have lots to share. It's been a busy springtime for me. Some of it, though, was some great gaming.
Have fun!
David
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Teachers Should Play D&D [or any RPG]
Nick the Nerdy Teacher has a wonderful piece on his blog about the value of playing role playing games. I found it thanks to a re-print in the CAR-PGa newsletter. He 's preaching to the choir in my case, but he puts his points very well. I'm ever encouraging kids and teachers to play with their imaginations, and I can only hope that Nick helps to re-write the rules of teacher training.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Read an RPG Book in Public
Bill Walton's fantastic, national flash mob event is here once again, for the first Read an RPG Book in Public Week is here and runs through Saturday. Haul out that reading material and make sure people, all kinds of people, see all kinds of people reading RPG books. Let's show off our diversity and hobbies and encourage others to do likewise.
I'm not sure if my classroom counts as public enough, for my students see me reading RPG books there all the time, so I'll be sure to get out into other areas for my reading this week.
Send your pictures to Bill or join the Facebook page!
I'm not sure if my classroom counts as public enough, for my students see me reading RPG books there all the time, so I'll be sure to get out into other areas for my reading this week.
Send your pictures to Bill or join the Facebook page!
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