I am spoiled for choice today as almost every RPG experience has been both tricky and enjoyable in some way.
I went into great detail about my Roll*20 GM experiences yesterday, but in case you didn't guess, running a text chat based game is very, very tricky...not as bad as you might think, but everything you want to do has to be typed. I don't do it very often, but I have the advantage as I can type out a lot of responses and description and then just copy and paste into the chat as needed. The players have to give their responses and descriptions in real time. It's also tricky when all seven regulars show up--it's really too many especially in combat situations, but I have to overload the roster to compensate for the inevitable absences I encounter each week..this is also tricky as I try to come up with excuses as to why character X is really quiet and/or missing this week. It really challenges my brain by trying to keep up with what everybody is doing and by the end of the night I usually want a cigarette although I don't and never have smoked.
I'll also mention running...or at least trying to run...games as a means for teaching English to the ESL students that I teach overseas. I have tried both for students in Taiwan--allegedly an "English Club"which would have been ripe for RPGs--and three times with students in the UAE--these were small classes that may as well be a club although it's actually a second session of regular English class on paper. Every time has been disastrous.
#1 the Taiwan kids had too many students. Allegedly the region is into both Warcraft and Starcraft, so it shouldn't have been a completely foreign concept for them. I had the map of a local mall and tokens to represent the players. I tried to run a zombie attack scenario like 'Dawn of the Dead' with a homebrew that was little more than roll a D6 and whoever gets the higher score wins. I probably should have gone with paper/scissor/rock instead. I gave candy to players who won their combat or made a good choice as a reward. They seemed to enjoy it, but I think they just mostly wanted candy and had no idea what was going on. It was a one-shot that I opted never to repeat.
#2 the UAE students. In a couple of weeks, year number nine starts for me at my current school. Throughout the eight previous years, I've made three non-consecutive attempts to bring RPGs to the unwashed masses that are my students with varying degrees of success/failure. I think I'm a glass is half-empty kind of guy, so each time I've given up on the project due to what I perceive as lack of interest. The first year I tried was maybe the most successful. I ran a few scenarios using 4E. The students were able to create halfway decent characters and backstories--which is part of the justification for playing the game in a school setting--but the game was just too complicated. The second year I tried to run the Castle Ravenloft board game. It too proved to be more difficult and the students were more interested in "roll" playing than "role"playing, and far too many weren't even interested in that aspect. I most recently tried last year with an advanced group of 11th grade students. It was a very small class of six--only five of which showed up regularly. I tried to go with my beloved Ryuutama which is the easiest game in the world if you ask me. It even comes with the GM character to hold the players' hands, but alas...it's just too much for them, and I dropped it very quickly.
In both scenarios we're of course dealing with the language barrier and the fact that neither nation would be considered to have a "reading culture". Reading for pleasure just isn't something that they do, and not everyone "gets" role playing as a concept. It's just a pity that both school curriculums listed "role playing" as a potential "learning outcome". Unfortunately, the students wouldn't buy in, but I still enjoyed it because it killed a lot of time.
I went into great detail about my Roll*20 GM experiences yesterday, but in case you didn't guess, running a text chat based game is very, very tricky...not as bad as you might think, but everything you want to do has to be typed. I don't do it very often, but I have the advantage as I can type out a lot of responses and description and then just copy and paste into the chat as needed. The players have to give their responses and descriptions in real time. It's also tricky when all seven regulars show up--it's really too many especially in combat situations, but I have to overload the roster to compensate for the inevitable absences I encounter each week..this is also tricky as I try to come up with excuses as to why character X is really quiet and/or missing this week. It really challenges my brain by trying to keep up with what everybody is doing and by the end of the night I usually want a cigarette although I don't and never have smoked.
I'll also mention running...or at least trying to run...games as a means for teaching English to the ESL students that I teach overseas. I have tried both for students in Taiwan--allegedly an "English Club"which would have been ripe for RPGs--and three times with students in the UAE--these were small classes that may as well be a club although it's actually a second session of regular English class on paper. Every time has been disastrous.
#1 the Taiwan kids had too many students. Allegedly the region is into both Warcraft and Starcraft, so it shouldn't have been a completely foreign concept for them. I had the map of a local mall and tokens to represent the players. I tried to run a zombie attack scenario like 'Dawn of the Dead' with a homebrew that was little more than roll a D6 and whoever gets the higher score wins. I probably should have gone with paper/scissor/rock instead. I gave candy to players who won their combat or made a good choice as a reward. They seemed to enjoy it, but I think they just mostly wanted candy and had no idea what was going on. It was a one-shot that I opted never to repeat.
#2 the UAE students. In a couple of weeks, year number nine starts for me at my current school. Throughout the eight previous years, I've made three non-consecutive attempts to bring RPGs to the unwashed masses that are my students with varying degrees of success/failure. I think I'm a glass is half-empty kind of guy, so each time I've given up on the project due to what I perceive as lack of interest. The first year I tried was maybe the most successful. I ran a few scenarios using 4E. The students were able to create halfway decent characters and backstories--which is part of the justification for playing the game in a school setting--but the game was just too complicated. The second year I tried to run the Castle Ravenloft board game. It too proved to be more difficult and the students were more interested in "roll" playing than "role"playing, and far too many weren't even interested in that aspect. I most recently tried last year with an advanced group of 11th grade students. It was a very small class of six--only five of which showed up regularly. I tried to go with my beloved Ryuutama which is the easiest game in the world if you ask me. It even comes with the GM character to hold the players' hands, but alas...it's just too much for them, and I dropped it very quickly.
In both scenarios we're of course dealing with the language barrier and the fact that neither nation would be considered to have a "reading culture". Reading for pleasure just isn't something that they do, and not everyone "gets" role playing as a concept. It's just a pity that both school curriculums listed "role playing" as a potential "learning outcome". Unfortunately, the students wouldn't buy in, but I still enjoyed it because it killed a lot of time.
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