The Unborne
2015-09-04, 01:24 AM
Quick background: I love/play/study games. My favorite research focuses on games and learning, so why not discuss my favorite genre with my favorite topic?
Anyways, roleplaying games tend to be the go to genre when gamifying a class (example: classes that use XP and levels to calculate grades). Based only on these surface features of RPGs, these games (for better or worse) seem to align with modern models of classrooms and education. But leveling and experience points are only tiny slices of what make tabletop roleplaying games so engaging.
So, my questions for all of you:
When have you found yourself learning in a tabletop RPG? What specific games and mechanics/themes encouraged you to learn something new?
I'll start with a couple of examples:
Tangential Learning (Link (http://extra-credits.net/episodes/tangential-learning/))
The Dresden Files RPG basically has tangential learning built into its game. Players come together to create a city, which encourages them to research places/maps/people/history of the selected location. Even if groups don't want to research cities, I find characters looking up naming conventions for different nationalities and reading fairy tales for inspiration. If nothing else, the game teaches players about the setting of the Dresden Files book series.
Transfer (Linkie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning#Transfer))
While I think there are many opportunities to transfer the type of work/play that goes on in TRPGs to RL, my best example comes from my own personal experience. Playing D&D 3.5 offers a large amount of options (amazingly large when you start considering splats and homebrew) but provides players a limited number of decision points during character creation (e.g., you have a limit of levels, limit of skill ranks, etc.).
For me, optimizing the levels at which I acquire a new PrC has humorously transferred to getting degrees in college. Deciding which classes to take that fulfill major/minor requirements is second nature to me. I don't need to see an adviser unless I'm arguing for a certain class to count towards my major (a skill also picked up from negotiating with GMs for special exceptions and/or homebrew).
Seriously, I picked up two minors in one semester because I found a bunch of classes that fulfilled multiple requirements in different departments.
So, what about you all?
Anyways, roleplaying games tend to be the go to genre when gamifying a class (example: classes that use XP and levels to calculate grades). Based only on these surface features of RPGs, these games (for better or worse) seem to align with modern models of classrooms and education. But leveling and experience points are only tiny slices of what make tabletop roleplaying games so engaging.
So, my questions for all of you:
When have you found yourself learning in a tabletop RPG? What specific games and mechanics/themes encouraged you to learn something new?
I'll start with a couple of examples:
Tangential Learning (Link (http://extra-credits.net/episodes/tangential-learning/))
The Dresden Files RPG basically has tangential learning built into its game. Players come together to create a city, which encourages them to research places/maps/people/history of the selected location. Even if groups don't want to research cities, I find characters looking up naming conventions for different nationalities and reading fairy tales for inspiration. If nothing else, the game teaches players about the setting of the Dresden Files book series.
Transfer (Linkie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning#Transfer))
While I think there are many opportunities to transfer the type of work/play that goes on in TRPGs to RL, my best example comes from my own personal experience. Playing D&D 3.5 offers a large amount of options (amazingly large when you start considering splats and homebrew) but provides players a limited number of decision points during character creation (e.g., you have a limit of levels, limit of skill ranks, etc.).
For me, optimizing the levels at which I acquire a new PrC has humorously transferred to getting degrees in college. Deciding which classes to take that fulfill major/minor requirements is second nature to me. I don't need to see an adviser unless I'm arguing for a certain class to count towards my major (a skill also picked up from negotiating with GMs for special exceptions and/or homebrew).
Seriously, I picked up two minors in one semester because I found a bunch of classes that fulfilled multiple requirements in different departments.
So, what about you all?