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!
Friday, December 21, 2012
Christmas & Gary Gygax
Jon Peterson, author of Playing at the World, which I recommend by the way and will review in future, has an interesting post today, in which he displays an original Christmas note and points out that Gary Gygax was a practicing Christian when he was developing Dungeons & Dragons. As a Jehovah's Witness, he didn't celebrate Christmas itself. Jon adds a few other interesting comments. Have a look at his blog!
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Benefits of Gaming
My friend Bill Walton posted links to several interesting articles this week. If you're not following Bill's work, you should, as he has all sorts of great discoveries and links in the area of game advocacy.
In a recent blog entry of The Nerdy Teacher, Nicholas Provenzano lays out his reasoning for having all teachers play D&D or, presumably, any other role playing game: the creativity he describes as part of his own experiences would be an excellent training ground for those hoping to inculcate similar activities into the lives of their students. No one is going to convince the Educational Industrial Complex to transform the way we train teachers, but exposing current and future teachers to greater variety and innovation is always a good idea and what we're all about at this blog!
Susan Silver at 12most.com wrote recently about the 12 Most Advantageous Life Lessons from Playing Dungeons & Dragons. It's a relatively simple list that makes connections between game elements and business practices. Other such lists exist and vary widely.
Silver has a link to the Gamestorming blog, which presents dozens of business-focused games. These kinds of activities tend to be much more streamlined and abstracted than tabletop entertainment games, but they are kin.
Every Game Master makes choices and modifications when crafting a game. Players build upon this process once the game commences, and the interplay results in experiences and stories of whatever quality. We can learn from these collateral branches of our kinds of games, and they can certainly learn from what goes on in our games.
Share! Have fun!
In a recent blog entry of The Nerdy Teacher, Nicholas Provenzano lays out his reasoning for having all teachers play D&D or, presumably, any other role playing game: the creativity he describes as part of his own experiences would be an excellent training ground for those hoping to inculcate similar activities into the lives of their students. No one is going to convince the Educational Industrial Complex to transform the way we train teachers, but exposing current and future teachers to greater variety and innovation is always a good idea and what we're all about at this blog!
Susan Silver at 12most.com wrote recently about the 12 Most Advantageous Life Lessons from Playing Dungeons & Dragons. It's a relatively simple list that makes connections between game elements and business practices. Other such lists exist and vary widely.
Silver has a link to the Gamestorming blog, which presents dozens of business-focused games. These kinds of activities tend to be much more streamlined and abstracted than tabletop entertainment games, but they are kin.
Every Game Master makes choices and modifications when crafting a game. Players build upon this process once the game commences, and the interplay results in experiences and stories of whatever quality. We can learn from these collateral branches of our kinds of games, and they can certainly learn from what goes on in our games.
Share! Have fun!
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Classroom Game & More
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
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
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!
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