The Tut Game, my classroom LARP based on the powerful people of the court of King Tutankhamun, has begun, and my students are taking great pleasure in exploring power and politics in the ancient world. It's a game of conversation, resource trading and construction, and building alliances and eliminating opponents. Several characters have suffered near poisonings and attacks by assassins, the regent has his hands full, and the web grows every more complex. It's fostering all kinds of discussions and explorations of Egyptian history and culture. I'll provide the occasional update in this blog.
In the last few weeks I've also come across several other interesting links. I would be interested to hear what you think.
Gaming with the Very Young - Gnome Stew
Can Dungeons & Dragons Make You a Confident & Successful Person? - Idea Channel/PBS
Have fun!
David
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
Dragon*Con 2012
Tempus fugit!
I had the pleasure again of attending and running role playing games at Dragon*Con, which took place this past Labor Day in downtown Atlanta, my home town. I was there all morning and afternoon from Saturday through Monday. As I am a school teacher, I don't usually make it for much, if any, of Friday, and late evenings are a no-go when your body wakes up between five and six every morning.
I offered three HeroQuest scenarios, two set in Glorantha (Loskalm and Kralorela, for those who care) and one a science fiction tale. Each game was on the schedule twice, so I was potentially booked through the whole con. As it turned out, as it often does, not every one of my games made during marshalling, so I ended up with one afternoon to explore the con.
Dragon*Con is now spread across five major hotels and the surrounding blocks of the city. Role playing games of various ilks take place in a few upper-floor, small conference center wings of the Hilton. Board and card games and the Mechwarrior pods filled the sprawling basement and always seemed to be full of players. The intervening floors housed celebrity signings and events, so they formed a bit of a scrum for those of us passing through or looking for lunch. The Hilton was even more busy than in past years and had a varied mix of gamers and non-gamers. There were also more costumes in evidence in the Hilton.
The Marriott Marquis is at the center of the convention spaces, and it was packed to the gills through the weekend. The main dealer and shopping halls, plus the art show, plus, even more importantly for this con, the main public spaces for costume display, were all located here. It could easily take half an hour to go from one side of the hotel to the other. The eye candy and general good cheer were evident everywhere.
The Hyatt was home to the bulk of the workshops, interest tracks, movies, and other less swirly activities, and it was the quietest of the hotels, though most every room looked packed with fans. Several other hotels and meeting spaces held additional panels and meetings. A friend of mine does head counts throughout the con, and he reported it was more populous than ever.
Con participation by minorities and families appeared to be on the rise, and Dragon*Con remains popular with girls and women. My own daughter was flitting about in some sort of fairy outfit, and I wore my Back Up badge throughout the con. I only had one afternoon to explore the con outside of my little gaming rooms, but a wide spectrum of interests and positive attitudes were everywhere. For another take on the con, this one discussing bringing your children, check out Geek Mom.
Dragon*Con covers everything from young adult fiction to gaming, from cosplay to first iteration Star Trek. If you're ever in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, it's definitely worth checking out. It has a little bit of everything, sometimes a heap of everything, for every interest.
Awesome Gaming Videos
On a different topic, I found a link to dozens of videos about using games, mostly video games, as educational tools. While most of these media aren't exactly what I talk about in this blog, many of these projects are inspiring in all sorts of ways one can generalize to role playing. [I had to remove the link at the source's request; they're having trouble with Google.]
Enjoy!
I had the pleasure again of attending and running role playing games at Dragon*Con, which took place this past Labor Day in downtown Atlanta, my home town. I was there all morning and afternoon from Saturday through Monday. As I am a school teacher, I don't usually make it for much, if any, of Friday, and late evenings are a no-go when your body wakes up between five and six every morning.
I offered three HeroQuest scenarios, two set in Glorantha (Loskalm and Kralorela, for those who care) and one a science fiction tale. Each game was on the schedule twice, so I was potentially booked through the whole con. As it turned out, as it often does, not every one of my games made during marshalling, so I ended up with one afternoon to explore the con.
Dragon*Con is now spread across five major hotels and the surrounding blocks of the city. Role playing games of various ilks take place in a few upper-floor, small conference center wings of the Hilton. Board and card games and the Mechwarrior pods filled the sprawling basement and always seemed to be full of players. The intervening floors housed celebrity signings and events, so they formed a bit of a scrum for those of us passing through or looking for lunch. The Hilton was even more busy than in past years and had a varied mix of gamers and non-gamers. There were also more costumes in evidence in the Hilton.
The Marriott Marquis is at the center of the convention spaces, and it was packed to the gills through the weekend. The main dealer and shopping halls, plus the art show, plus, even more importantly for this con, the main public spaces for costume display, were all located here. It could easily take half an hour to go from one side of the hotel to the other. The eye candy and general good cheer were evident everywhere.
The Hyatt was home to the bulk of the workshops, interest tracks, movies, and other less swirly activities, and it was the quietest of the hotels, though most every room looked packed with fans. Several other hotels and meeting spaces held additional panels and meetings. A friend of mine does head counts throughout the con, and he reported it was more populous than ever.
Con participation by minorities and families appeared to be on the rise, and Dragon*Con remains popular with girls and women. My own daughter was flitting about in some sort of fairy outfit, and I wore my Back Up badge throughout the con. I only had one afternoon to explore the con outside of my little gaming rooms, but a wide spectrum of interests and positive attitudes were everywhere. For another take on the con, this one discussing bringing your children, check out Geek Mom.
Dragon*Con covers everything from young adult fiction to gaming, from cosplay to first iteration Star Trek. If you're ever in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, it's definitely worth checking out. It has a little bit of everything, sometimes a heap of everything, for every interest.
Awesome Gaming Videos
On a different topic, I found a link to dozens of videos about using games, mostly video games, as educational tools. While most of these media aren't exactly what I talk about in this blog, many of these projects are inspiring in all sorts of ways one can generalize to role playing. [I had to remove the link at the source's request; they're having trouble with Google.]
Enjoy!
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Gen Con 2012 Wrap-Up
It's Sunday morning, the last day of Gen Con 2012. I've been in Indianapolis since Tuesday, and I'll walk back over to the Convention Center in a few minutes for a little more gamer goodness, but the rest of today is traveling, and school starts on Tuesday, so I want to be sure to share some thoughts and fun right away.
Wednesday was Gen Con Trade Day. This was the first time I was able to attend, and I was also a presenter. It was fascinating in its variety. There were usually at least two teacher/librarian workshops and a retailer presentation running at any one time, and it was often difficult to choose. I started off with Brian Mayer's "Making Games Work in the Classroom." He advises and instructs librarians and teachers in the Buffalo, New York, area, and he explored his game library, how he selects a good educational game, and shared several fun games, which we were able to play! He is an exemplary presenter, and if you get a chance to attend one of his presentations, do, for it's quite rewarding.
Before lunch I made it to a presentation by teachers and students of Todd Academy, where they discussed and demonstrated games and role plays they use in their curriculum to explore language arts, social studies, and mathematics. The teachers and students were in attendance for the rest of the day, and I saw at least one of the kids in the Dealers Hall during the main convention. They were wonderfully engaged, sometimes in spite of a few presenters' patronizing comments. I wish I could bring a load of my own students to Gen Con and Trade Day!
The afternoon was full as well. I made it to the first hour of David Niecikowski's workshop, "Game Literacy Through Game Play and Game Design." David has provided hundreds of helpful game reviews over the years, and he continues to do fascinating theoretical and applied work in games and education. He discussed the many aspects of Gamer Literacy and what individuals bring to game experiences and then had us delve into this complex issue by designing our own genre card games along the lines of Once Upon a Time. My group chose to emulate The Lord of the Rings, and I was pained to miss the reveal of the final creations.
I had to hurry away at the last possible minute to lead my own session, "Bringing Games to Life," in which I discussed the practical questions and frameworks for creating meaningful, educational role playing games and offered some practical tools for doing so. As much as I would have liked to have included some actual game play, I only had an hour, so I elected to respect the participants' experience as teachers, librarians, and gamers and delved as far as time allowed into the complexities of game planning and implementation. Maybe I will have another chance to present someday, and I can include more game play in a longer workshop. I have posted the power point presentation and some of the templates on the Gen Con - Games ad Education Facebook page. The organizers of Trade Day asked all of the presenters to send in their digital presentation components, and when I know where they have posted those treasures, I will be sure to share that here.
The rest of the afternoon involved more jumping between presentations. I attended two talks by Al Waller of Out of the Box Publishing. Though each had a bit of the infomercial quality, they were full of great ideas. The first was "Selling to Moms," part of the retailer track. Most of his ideas applied best to stores seeking to connect with an important spending demographic, but since part of running games or any activity with young people includes explaining yourself to parents, I heard plenty of good take-aways, including offering chances to play and having a lending library. Al later discussed OTB's game day package during "Affordable Ways to Get Games into Your School or Library." He discussed the various ways such events can be implemented and the benefits they can bring. I've decided to plan my own back at Paideia!
My last workshop of the day was Joe Bisz's "What's Your Game Plan?" during which he explored how to make any topic or activity into a game. He even has a game to help you build games. You can find out lots more at The Game Crafter, which has resources galore!
Game demos came after dinner and went well into the evening, but as I live on a teacher's sleep schedule, it was soon off to bed for me to be rested for the opening of the first main day of the regular convention Thursday.
I spent most of my days trying more games, conversing with writers and publishers in the Dealers Hall, and attending a host of great seminars. I'm much less interested than I used to be in playing con games, though it would be fun to do this a couple of times at any con, and I no longer feel compelled to keep up with the latest release announcements and the-new-game hoopla. Time tests all things. Mostly I attended conversations among guests of honor, who were a more interesting lot than I've usually encountered at this sort of event. There were also some great conversations about societal issues - like gender, race, sexual orientation - and gaming. I will share more about what I heard and learned in a future blog post.
As you can see, I found lots of riches at this year's convention! Have fun!
Wednesday was Gen Con Trade Day. This was the first time I was able to attend, and I was also a presenter. It was fascinating in its variety. There were usually at least two teacher/librarian workshops and a retailer presentation running at any one time, and it was often difficult to choose. I started off with Brian Mayer's "Making Games Work in the Classroom." He advises and instructs librarians and teachers in the Buffalo, New York, area, and he explored his game library, how he selects a good educational game, and shared several fun games, which we were able to play! He is an exemplary presenter, and if you get a chance to attend one of his presentations, do, for it's quite rewarding.
Before lunch I made it to a presentation by teachers and students of Todd Academy, where they discussed and demonstrated games and role plays they use in their curriculum to explore language arts, social studies, and mathematics. The teachers and students were in attendance for the rest of the day, and I saw at least one of the kids in the Dealers Hall during the main convention. They were wonderfully engaged, sometimes in spite of a few presenters' patronizing comments. I wish I could bring a load of my own students to Gen Con and Trade Day!
The afternoon was full as well. I made it to the first hour of David Niecikowski's workshop, "Game Literacy Through Game Play and Game Design." David has provided hundreds of helpful game reviews over the years, and he continues to do fascinating theoretical and applied work in games and education. He discussed the many aspects of Gamer Literacy and what individuals bring to game experiences and then had us delve into this complex issue by designing our own genre card games along the lines of Once Upon a Time. My group chose to emulate The Lord of the Rings, and I was pained to miss the reveal of the final creations.
I had to hurry away at the last possible minute to lead my own session, "Bringing Games to Life," in which I discussed the practical questions and frameworks for creating meaningful, educational role playing games and offered some practical tools for doing so. As much as I would have liked to have included some actual game play, I only had an hour, so I elected to respect the participants' experience as teachers, librarians, and gamers and delved as far as time allowed into the complexities of game planning and implementation. Maybe I will have another chance to present someday, and I can include more game play in a longer workshop. I have posted the power point presentation and some of the templates on the Gen Con - Games ad Education Facebook page. The organizers of Trade Day asked all of the presenters to send in their digital presentation components, and when I know where they have posted those treasures, I will be sure to share that here.
The rest of the afternoon involved more jumping between presentations. I attended two talks by Al Waller of Out of the Box Publishing. Though each had a bit of the infomercial quality, they were full of great ideas. The first was "Selling to Moms," part of the retailer track. Most of his ideas applied best to stores seeking to connect with an important spending demographic, but since part of running games or any activity with young people includes explaining yourself to parents, I heard plenty of good take-aways, including offering chances to play and having a lending library. Al later discussed OTB's game day package during "Affordable Ways to Get Games into Your School or Library." He discussed the various ways such events can be implemented and the benefits they can bring. I've decided to plan my own back at Paideia!
My last workshop of the day was Joe Bisz's "What's Your Game Plan?" during which he explored how to make any topic or activity into a game. He even has a game to help you build games. You can find out lots more at The Game Crafter, which has resources galore!
Game demos came after dinner and went well into the evening, but as I live on a teacher's sleep schedule, it was soon off to bed for me to be rested for the opening of the first main day of the regular convention Thursday.
I spent most of my days trying more games, conversing with writers and publishers in the Dealers Hall, and attending a host of great seminars. I'm much less interested than I used to be in playing con games, though it would be fun to do this a couple of times at any con, and I no longer feel compelled to keep up with the latest release announcements and the-new-game hoopla. Time tests all things. Mostly I attended conversations among guests of honor, who were a more interesting lot than I've usually encountered at this sort of event. There were also some great conversations about societal issues - like gender, race, sexual orientation - and gaming. I will share more about what I heard and learned in a future blog post.
As you can see, I found lots of riches at this year's convention! Have fun!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
One Week to Gen Con
I'll be flying up to Indianapolis a week from Tuesday, so Gen Con 2012 is nigh! My power point presentation is complete, my notes are complete, and the handouts will soon be back from the copier. Wednesday I will present as part of Trade Day, and then I will have four days to enjoy games, seminars, and workshops. O, and shopping! I'm looking forward to seeing the range of presentations about games and educations, a topic long dear to me, on Wednesday and then seeing what's new with games and gaming.
When I return to Atlanta, I will have thirty-six hours to complete my preparations for the new school year, which begins for me and my students on Tuesday, August 21. I hope future Gen Cons don't slide any later into the month!
When I return to Atlanta, I will have thirty-six hours to complete my preparations for the new school year, which begins for me and my students on Tuesday, August 21. I hope future Gen Cons don't slide any later into the month!
Sunday, July 15, 2012
iPad Possibiliites
In addition to planning for Gen Con in Indianapolis and Dragon Con here in Atlanta, the new school year will soon be here! This year my class will have a full set of iPads, one for each student. I received a class set in the middle of last school year, but this year we'll be able to implement their use much better. Earlier this week I attended iSummit 2012, where I learned about all sorts of apps and uses of iPads. The possibilities are exciting, especially having a platform for each of my students to access these opportunities.
Among the exciting ideas is to move my classroom simulations to a paperless format, providing all of the materials through each student's iPad. The original document comes to almost nine hundred pages, much of which is simply printed. This includes the six or seven pages of each character's background and a set of rules and other guides. This is easy to convert.
The tricky part is that each character has a set of cards, which students use and trade to accomplish many of their goals and machinations. These virtual cards would need to be unalterable but destructible, for when a player uses one. It would also be helpful if I could annotate them, but they should not be able to do so. I'm tech savvy enough to have a basic blog, and I've been able to do the troubleshooting for my students' iPads last spring, but I'm not sure how to make this work. I'll be planning with the school's tech people in the coming weeks. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate hearing about them.
If you're going to be at any of the same conventions mentioned above, let me know. It would be fun to see you.
Have fun!
Among the exciting ideas is to move my classroom simulations to a paperless format, providing all of the materials through each student's iPad. The original document comes to almost nine hundred pages, much of which is simply printed. This includes the six or seven pages of each character's background and a set of rules and other guides. This is easy to convert.
The tricky part is that each character has a set of cards, which students use and trade to accomplish many of their goals and machinations. These virtual cards would need to be unalterable but destructible, for when a player uses one. It would also be helpful if I could annotate them, but they should not be able to do so. I'm tech savvy enough to have a basic blog, and I've been able to do the troubleshooting for my students' iPads last spring, but I'm not sure how to make this work. I'll be planning with the school's tech people in the coming weeks. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate hearing about them.
If you're going to be at any of the same conventions mentioned above, let me know. It would be fun to see you.
Have fun!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Planning for Gen Con 2012
I am currently developing specific plans for my presentation at this year's Trade Day at Gen Con 2012. While much of my past work, especially with GAMA, has been spread widely across many kinds of games, my real aim all along has been to promote roleplaying games as educational tools. During the workshop I am planning to discuss the various frameworks I've used or discussed with other teachers and how to implement them in the classroom, library, or homeschool environment. I will also examine the different needs and capabilities of students of various ages, and I will provide some organizing templates for games, plus resource links and possibilities for further discussion.
Have fun!
David
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Summer Plans
Greetings! The school year is coming to a close. The afterschool games ended well, and the simulation of Empress Wu's court is coming to its intrigue-laden conclusion. It looks like the empress will survive, but it's anyone's guess about everyone else. Everything is in play.
It has come together for me to attend Gen Con this year. I will be a speaker at Trade Day this Wednesday, August 15, the day before the regular convention opens. I will be at the rest of the con though the morning of Sunday, August 19, mostly taking part in various seminars. I hope to get into some games, but you never know at Gen Con. If anyone wants to meet during the weekend and discuss games and education, let's put it together.
Have fun!
It has come together for me to attend Gen Con this year. I will be a speaker at Trade Day this Wednesday, August 15, the day before the regular convention opens. I will be at the rest of the con though the morning of Sunday, August 19, mostly taking part in various seminars. I hope to get into some games, but you never know at Gen Con. If anyone wants to meet during the weekend and discuss games and education, let's put it together.
Have fun!
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