Taipei Roleplayers
Campaign Resources
Contact Information
House Rules and General Stuff
The following is an early
draft of a paper presented to the Tenth National Conference on English
Teaching and Learning in the Republic of China - 15 May 1993. The full
paper has been published in the Proceedings (Taipei: Crane Publishing,
Ltd., 1994, 625-648.
As always, this is copyright 1993, Brian David Phillips.
Role-Playing Games
in the
English as a Foreign Language Classroom
by
Brian David Phillips
Department of English
National Chengchi University
"Role-Playing is
getting together with some friends to write a story. It's joining around a
campfire or dining room to spin some tall tales. Role-playing is being creative
and having fun with friends.
In most role-playing games, one person plays the 'referee,' who can be
thought of as the 'Editor' of the story. The Editor will, with input from you
if you desire to give any, describe a world, or setting. You and your friends,
as Players, will take a character and protagonist in this world, and guide your
character through the story that you and your friends are creating."
- Jerry Stratton,
What Is Role-Playing?
As part of
our search to find classroom activities which facilitate language learning and
yet provide students the opportunity to creatively use the language in a
non-structured way, many English teachers have turned to dialogues,
open-ended scenarios, and role plays. There has of late been a
movement towards even more free form classroom activities which are similar to
the more traditional role plays but which descend more from serious
gaming activities than from improvisational theatre. In this paper, I
will discuss the use of Role Playing Games (RPGs)
in the English as a Foreign Language Classroom.
THE
NATURE OF RPGS
First, RPGs
should be distinguished from Language Role Plays, Classroom Dramas, and
other more commonly employed classroom language learning exercises which
teachers attending the conference may be more familiar with. RPGs
are games played on a tabletop with pencil, paper, dice (often polyhedral),
and a large dose of imagination (unlike the more usual language role plays
which are acted out before a class, these games are non-performance oriented).
Players can be divided into two types: the referee (commonly called a Game
Master or GM) and the players. The GM creates a scenario which he
then sets in motion by explaining the situation to the players who have created
Player Characters (PCs) to interact with one another and the GM's
characters (Non-Player Characters or NPCs) during the game. Following a
set of rules or guidelines, players determine the success of their actions by
rolling dice and consulting tables. Sometimes players will use miniature
figures placed upon the tabletop to represent themselves in the game.
Basically, RPGs
are Interactive Stories in which the GM furnishes the basic plot
elements (often based in fantastic or heroic genres) and the players
shape the narrative through their actions within the context of the game. The
game is played through the verbal interchange of the players, making it ideal
for language learners.
Reverend Paul Cardwell,
Jr., a long time advocate of RPG use in educational settings,
likens the games to "a sort of fairy tale written by a committee without an
opportunity to re-write . . . [or] 'improvisational radio theater.'
Role-playing forms other than in the fantasy genre are more like historical
novels, adventure yarns, science fiction, etc. . . . but the mechanics are
still the same" (1).
Because they are
cooperative games, RPGs don't have winners or losers
in the traditional sense of the terms. In most games -- board games, card
games, and dice games -- there is a clearly defined way to win, and a clearly
defined way to lose, and winning is the goal of the game. In RPGs,
the concepts of winning and losing do not exist. The goal as a
player is to "help to create a story and to have fun. You may give your
character other goals, but the success of your character does not determine any
sense of winning or losing. Like life, it's not so much whether
you win or lose, but how you play the game" (Stratton, What Is
Role-Playing). Players (as PCs) don't compete against one another;
they cooperate in fighting the monsters or overcoming other obstacles created
by the GM. They also play against chance (the dice) and a
standard of excellence (as Terri Toles-Patkin noted that "it is
considered bad form to hang back during the fighting and push your way to the
front when the treasure is distributed" (5)).
John Eric Holmes, associate
professor of neurology at the University of Southern California School of
Medicine and one-time editor of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set
RPG rule book, sees the GM's duties as providing "an
interesting game. Not too easy -- the characters should feel a sense of danger
and lurking menace -- but not too difficult -- the characters should be able to
swagger through much of their world with firm knowledge that they are
heroes" (Holmes, 93). In other words, players tend to be primarily interested
in the success of the characters that they create, GMs in the success of
the game (Dayan, 1222).
RPGs can be found which are suitable for
play in almost any genre. Most are based upon fantasy or heroic literature.
Many are based upon films or books. Teachers who choose to use RPGs
in their classroom may wish to develop games from any of these basic more
common genres or to experiment with other types as they see fit:
FANTASY OR SWORD AND SORCERY.
This genre deals with stories centered on myth and legend. Usually these
stories revolve around characters who are warriors or mages who often are sent
upon quests. These are tales of the fantastic with monsters and magic all
around. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, Louis Cha's Swordsman
novels, Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Tomoe Gozen books, Robert E.
Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, Piers Anthony's Xanth
series, the legends of King Arthur, the Chinese Ghost Story
films, and many others. This is probably the most popular genre for RPGs.
{Games: Ars Magica, Chivalry & Sorcery, Dungeons &
Dragons, Empire of the Petal Throne, Fighting Fantasy, Middle
Earth RPG, Palladium, Runequest, Talislanta, Ysgarth,
and many more.}
SPACE ADVENTURE. This is a Science Fiction
genre most often based in the far future. Characters are often space travelers
who have adventures while traveling across the galaxy. Isaac Asimov's novels,
Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, some of
the novels of Janet Morris, the Star Wars films by George Lucas,
the Star Trek films and television series, and others. {Games:
Buck Rogers, Legacy, MegaTraveller, Ringworld, Space
1889, Star Frontiers, Star Trek, Star Wars, Traveller,
and others.}
SPIES AND SUPERSPIES. This is a genre based upon the
secret agent. The most famous example of the genre is probably Ian Fleming's James
Bond-007 books which have been made into several films. Other examples
include Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus novels, the In
Like Flint films, the Get Smart television series, and
the Man From U.N.C.L.E. television series. {Games: James
Bond, Ninjas & Superspies, Top Secret SI, and others.}
DETECTIVE. These are the stories about
detectives and private eyes. Most of Dashiel Hammet's books fall in this
category (Philip Marlowe is the ultimate private dick). Remington
Steele is a character of the genre, albeit a bit more polished. The City
Hunter stories (comic books, cartoons, and the movie) loosely
belong to this genre. {Games: Gangbusters and others.}
HORROR. This genre is different from Sword
and Sorcery or Fantasy in that it pits "regular/normal
people" against supernatural or fantastic creatures . Bram Stoker's Dracula
is the classic archetype for this game genre, as well as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Almost anything by Edgar Allen Poe fits here. The Chthulhu
stories by Howard Philips Lovecraft have inspired many of the RPGs in
this genre. While chiefly part of the action/adventure genre of films, the Indiana
Jones movies can be considered as part of this genre, albeit loosely .
The Ghostbusters films are good examples of humorous stories in
the genre. Naturally, almost any book or movie involving vampires or werewolves
falls into this category. {Games: Bureau 13, Call of Cthulhu, Chill,
Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Werewolf, Vampire, and
others.}
SUPER HERO. This is the comic book genre.
Characters are heroic men and women with super- human abilities who fight crime
and generally try to save humanity from evil super villains. Many American
comic books are of this genre. Films from these which belong to the type are Superman,
Batman, and The Flash. The Incredible Hulk,
Spiderman and Wonder Woman television shows are
also of this type. {Games: Batman, Champions, DC Heroes,
Marvel Super Heroes, Superworld, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Villains & Vigilantes, and others.}
TIME TRAVEL. This is another Science Fiction
genre. In these stories, characters from one time travel to another. Usually
the characters are from the present day traveling to the past, but not always.
L. Sprague De Camp's Lest Darkness Falls and many of Keith
Laumer's novels are very good examples of literature which treats this subject.
Time Tunnel and Quantum Leap are television series
which have dealt with time travel. Movie examples include Back to the
Future, Terminator, Somewhere in Time, Time Bandits,
and the Bill and Ted films. {Games: Doctor Who, Fringeworthy,
TimeLords, Timemaster, and others.}
WESTERN. This is the genre of the American
Cowboy story or film. When many Americans are children, they often play the
child's game of "Cowboys and Indians." This genre is an
extension of that curiosity about and fascination with the Old West.
Some movies which are representative of the genre are Silverado, Pale
Rider, Dances with Wolves, Unforgiven, High
Noon, and the Young Guns films. {Games: Boot Hill,
Desperado, Wild West, and others.}
These are of course only
representatives of a very large hobby industry. There are games for almost any
other genre of film or literature, including humor, adventure, and cyberpunk,
not to mention many which are more specialized. While most of the RPGs
mentioned in the above table are separate game systems with their own sets of
complicated rules, some games can be ported to various genres using the same
basic set of rules. These are known as Universal or MetaSystems.
Some examples of this type of game are GURPS (Generic
Universal Role-Playing System), Dangerous Journeys, FUDGE
(Freeform Universal Donated Gaming Engine),Hero System, System One,
To Challenge Tomorrow, and Universal Soldier.
LANGUAGE
LEARNING BENEFITS OF RPGS
Role playing has several beneficial language
learning characteristics which Gillian Porter Ladousse has effectively
described in her useful introduction to the topic, Role Play.
Many of these characteristics are also present in tabletop RPGs.
It should be noted that role play and RPG activities are
not limited to language practice as language learning certainly is also taking
place during the games (Ladousse, 9). For RPGs to be effective in
this way, they should be part of what Ladousse calls that "category of
language learning techniques sometimes referred to as low input -- high output
. . . . the teacher-centered presentation phase of the lesson is very
short" (9). Role-Playing activities offer opportunities for real
use of the language. Although they are more often used in many English for
Special Purposes courses, they can be used with general classes too
at any level (Mugglestone, 115).
There can be two ways of
looking at language work in RPGs and similar role plays:
either the students manage with the language they already know or they practice
with structures and functions that have been presented in an earlier part of
the course or lesson (Ladousse, 9). Either way, the students can only benefit
from the experience. William H. Bryant used adventure/survival discussion games
similar to RPGs in his French Conversation classes and
found them to be very effective:
One thing for certain,
however, is that, used properly, these kinds of activities are usually very
effective in engendering a lot of animated conversation and communication on
the part of the students. The main reason for this is that the hypothetical
situation presented . . . is . . . "emotionally charged."
(348)
As outlined in Cardwell's "Role-Playing
Games and the Gifted Student," there are several language and
non-language based learning skills developed directly when students become
involved with RPGs. According to Cardwell, these include but are
not limited to Following Directions, Vocabulary, Research,
Independent/Self-Directed Study, Planning, Choice/Decision Making, Mental
Exercise, Evaluation, Cooperation/Interaction, Creativity/Imagination,
Leadership, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Predicting Consequences,
Figural/Spatial Reasoning, Taking Other Points of View, Asking Questions,
Ethics, Prioritizing, Interrelated Learning, and Continuity of Learning
(4-6). There is also some evidence to suggest that role-playing methods
facilitate attitude change, increase self- concept, and produce behavioral
change (Swink & Buchanan, 1179).
Along with developing
language skills and other related skills as noted above, because RPGs
are language-centered communication games, they have a definite positive effect
on student socialization skills which are central to RPGs
"where much of the game depends on a common perception of the information
presented to the players by the [GM]" (Toles-Patkin, 5). One player
characterized the games he most enjoyed playing as having strong
social/negotiation elements: "The games we love have a certain amount of
diplomatic negotiation going on. A player tries to influence the outcome of the
game by interacting with other players" (Shaw, 128).
For students who create
their own adventures, instead of relying upon published source material, the
act of doing so helps then become better thinkers and writers. This is because
a scenario requires internal logic, a balance that is the very condition of
collective involvement. Sociologist Daniel Dayan characterized the standards
for good RPG campaigns thus: "The fictional background or universe
must be relatively convincing and may call for some amount of historical
validity, but it is defined less in terms of historical realism than by the
consistency of its imagined features" (1222). Similarly, many claim that
the game offers an outlet for those with adventure fantasies of their own and
teaches them about problem-solving, leadership, and survival (Toles-Patkin, 9).
Whether students are
playing in scenarios created by their classmates or using pre-generated
modules, RPGs have a strong curiosity appeal which Patricia
Mugglestone called the one "primary motive relevant to every
teaching-learning situation, whatever the status of the target language,
whatever type of course is being followed, whatever the learner's nationality,
age, and level of language proficiency, whether he is a volunteer or conscript
learner" (112). According to Mugglestone, "projects appeal to the
curiosity motive if their content is interesting to the learner and if the
learner is allowed to develop the project in his own way" (115). This
certainly describes the typical RPG activity.
DEVELOPMENTAL
HISTORY OF RPGS
Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) was the
first fantasy RPG and is still the most prominent. Gary Gygax, a
wargamer, developed the game in the early 1970s after founding a subgroup of
the International Federation of Wargaming (the Castle and Crusade group)
and devoting his time to designing and playing miniature war games with a
medieval focus -- using small medal sculptures to represent armies. With Jeff
Perren, Gygax wrote Chainmail, the rules booklet for the group.
Dave Arneson, a member of Gygax's group, broke away and began to operate his
own game. Arneson experimented with the rules by introducing magic into the
combat system. Gygax discovered Arneson's system -- as well as his character
creation additions -- through wargaming newsletters. Founding TSR,
he then merged all these concepts and created Dungeons and Dragons.
This was the birth of RPGs. More games soon followed. A much more
complicated version of the early D&D game, Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D), is now the industry
leader. Today, Gygax is no longer with TSR but is working with a
rival company, Game Designers Workshop, for whom he has developed
the Dangerous Journeys system.
Some of the more important
early games include Top Secret and Traveller.
Eventually, these tabletop RPGs evolved into a form of Live
Action Role-Playing Game promoted by the Interactive Literature
Foundation in which players dress up like their characters and role play in
a full environment setting (for instance, turning a convention hotel into a
Space Ship for the duration of a game). The most recent spin off of the
original RPGs has been to the form most popular in Taiwan --
computer game RPGs.
Since my own teaching
projects have concentrated primarily upon the use of the tabletop RPGs
in English Conversation class, that has been the focus of this brief
exploration into the topic.
RPGS
IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM
At this time, I will
briefly summarize some of the ways RPGs have been effectively
employed in language classroom at different levels. The methods described will
primarily be examples from teachers who have used the technique effectively in
their own English classes: as conversational free-form or open-scenario
exercises, as an on-going writing exercise or dialogue at varying levels of
difficulty or immediacy, and as other RPG-related writing
projects.
As Conversational
Free-Form or Open-Scenario Exercises
Robert J. Di Pietro
outlines a teaching technique for conversation classes which is very similar to
RPGs in facilitation of language use in his insightful article, "The
Open-Ended Scenario A New Approach to Conversation." RPGs
are used as a basis for class discussion around open scenarios provided by the
instructor or prepared by the students themselves. Since conversations are
based upon meted-out information, Di Pietro cites the educational
scenario in which information is gained through further contact as being
superior to more standard role-plays (19) -- this is how the RPG
scenario is constructed. My own use of RPGs at National Chengchi
University in the Republic of China have typically been of the
student-centered/student-created school.
For those teachers who
prefer not to use fantastic or heroic literature as the models for their
classroom activities, RPGs can be fairly easily adapted to any
situation -- including real life. When Scott D. Orr was teaching Czech
students in 1990, he used a Role-Playing Game as a teaching aid.
Since it was right after the revolution, the students were not only very
interested in American English, but in American culture as well. Orr chose not
to use a commercial RPG system and simply created a basic game
for the students, requiring them to imagine their own character types (they
played ball players, cowboys, pilots, and detectives). Orr reports that the
activity was very successful not only because it was a tool for learning
English, or just a game, but because the students were able to role-play being
members of a culture they were interested in.
While most have the
students create and run their own games, some teachers have chosen other
methodologies for using RPGs in their conversation classes. W.
Troy Tucker employed a science-fiction RPG as a teaching aid
while he taught at a science university in the People's Republic of China.
Tucker used the game Traveller as he felt the students could more
readily use the vocabulary of the sci-fi genre in their professional and
academic lives. Now that Tucker has returned to his home in the U.S., he is
once more utilizing a horror RPG, Call of Cthulhu,
to teach Japanese ESL students. Tucker's methodology has been to run the
games with himself as GM and the students becoming as PCs.
While most teachers will
use RPGs as small-group exercises, it is possible to use them as
class discussion facilitators. Ken Rolston currently is the editor for one of
the more popular Fantasy RPGs, Runequest. Before
changing careers, he was an English teacher and used the game Ghostbusters
by West End Games in his classes:
- The setting is modern-day and almost
universally accessible -- the Ghostbusters films were popular in
Taiwan as well as the United States and other countries.
- The system is very simple. It was
originally designed by Chaosium and developed by West End Games
specifically for out-of-the-box playing.
- Rolston invented scenarios using the
school setting invaded by spooks and/or lurid alien influences (thereby
placing the students in a concrete context). The introductory adventure
had large groups (30 students) dividing into six small groups which
represented the six main PCs. The groups then worked cooperatively by
brainstorming to decide on the character's actions. This increased the
density of ideas and actions while providing protection for less- verbal
and less spontaneous youths.
David F.
Nalle, professor of European history at the University of Texas and writer of
several RPG systems, has used similar techniques to teach
history.
As an On-Going
Writing Exercise
Teaching in Saudi Arabia,
Jeff Neufeld has set up a project in which students use their word- processing
skills to participate in a bi-weekly play-by-e-mail campaign. Students
would create their characters and then read a summary of the past move's
results prepared by Neufeld. They would then decide what their character would
do in the situation (including any dialogue they might say), sending the
results to the teacher via electronic mail. Neufeld would then combine all the
data, re-shaping it into a single narrative, and send the results to the
students --starting the process for the next move. As many EFL
instructors have found, the use of student-generated dialogues as the basis for
composition assignments is usually quite effective (Di Pietro, 19-20).
For those teachers whose
student computer accounts give them Internet access, Julie Falsetti
suggests teachers trying a similar, but less time constrained system through
the use of several RPG programs called MU*'s. These
games are computer-based RPGs available from any location in the world
connected to the Internet via TELNET. Players use simple
communications programs to have their system call the host system which has the
program and then login on a freely available account. Usually players are given
the choices of character types they may become and then begin play.
MU*'s are played interactively in real
time with other players from around the world. This is very beneficial for
students as the games help them gain valuable real-world communication
practice with their second language: the focus of the communication is not on
the language but on the content. Their language has to meet standards of
communicatability in order for others playing the game to understand their
moves --the members of a team/party in one game are often on different sides of
the world, many are native English speakers and many others are speakers of
English from other countries who are not Chinese. These games afford interested
students the chance to make direct contacts with people from around the globe
who share common interests but who must use English to communicate -- thus,
stressing the value of language learning other than school grades.
Other RPG-Related
Writing and Reading Projects
Although, the major
benefits of RPGs in the language classroom come from their use
with Conversation skills, there are uses for them in other areas of the
curriculum. The above examples concentrate more on writing than speaking
skills. There are other writing applications to be sure. One of my own more
successful writing units was that of Descriptive Writing in which
students compiled monster descriptions for a "Cheng-ta Monstrous
Compendium". Teachers may wish to adopt an RPG
format for a collective writing exercise in which students take turns writing
chapters of a fantasy story. More and more students have been making moves into
this sort of writing in recent years, particularly among undergraduate fans of
Robert Lynn Aspirin's Vulgar Unicorn projects -- these include
such international efforts as the NET Fiction Writing Project,
the Dragon's Inn Project, as well as a fanfic version of Tales
of the Floating Vagabond.
The reading teacher may
find RPGs useful for checking student comprehension as well as
engendering a more thorough appreciation of literature. Reading comes alive for
students when classroom teachers incorporate creative genre into the whole
language curriculum (Diaz-Rico, 199). Teachers may wish to prepare (or have
students prepare) RPG scenarios based upon a reading
assignment as a means of review.
Outside reading may
increase for students who join in RPG activities on a regular
basis. Many hobby players of the game do a great deal of outside reading -- in
a very wide variety of genres and subjects -- in order to better play the game
(Holmes, 94). Many game players have a marked increase in both their reading
quantity and the quality of comprehension (Cardwell, 2). Of course, these
observations on increased readings are of native speakers and not language
learners -- we need to be wary of claiming the game can do more than it can. In
any case, the improved comprehension gained through role play can still be
claimed with confidence.
METHODOLOGY
FOR RPGS IN CONVERSATION CLASS
My own primary experience
with using RPGs in the EFL classroom has been with
conversation students. For their initial exposure to the method of playing RPGs,
I decided a system in the Fantasy genre would be ideal. The game system
I originally chose for my class was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
(the system was later abandoned as being too complicated for the immediate
purposes of my students but it served as a model for what followed). In
hindsight, I would recommend that the teacher considering using classroom RPGs
use a different system: Call of Chthulhu, Fringeworthy,
Ghostbusters, and Star Wars are all excellent for the
beginner. Very basic systems which may be appropriate for lower-level language
classes include the Basic Dungeons & Dragons Set, Dragon
Quest, and Hero Quest.
In order to introduce the
basic concepts of RPGs to the students, I brought in example
games, dice, adventures, and literature based upon various games -- trying to
represent several genres. Since students in Taiwan have little experience with
this kind of game -- most of them only know of RPGs in
relationship to their computer game background, I felt it useful to bring in
several examples (as well as books, comic books, and computer games --
particularly the AD&D games). As part of this orientation to the
games, I gave my own version of what Pierre Savoie calls "The
Talk" which he uses as a guide whenever he is teaching the basics
to newcomers to his own gaming groups (this is a fifteen minute preparatory
talk normally given just prior to an introductory D&D game):
"THIS SHORT
ADVENTURE is only a small example of a role-playing game. Other games are
more sophisticated and detailed, and there are other game "systems"
for any type of fiction literature (sci-fi, horror, fantasy, spy)."
THE SETTING: "D&D is a fantasy
game, set in a world of "sword and sorcery, centering around fantasy,
exploration, and problem-solving in mysterious underground places called DUNGEONS.
(Other more complex settings are possible, such as cities and towns,
wildernesses, castles, weird fantasy locations, etc.) You may not personally
like fantasy literature, and there are many other games. But fantasy settings
can be fun because of their unpredictable nature. Science-fiction has the
familiar trappings of spaceships and laser-guns; but in fantasy fiction there
is no guarantee that if a character grasps a door handle, the door handle won't
grasp back!"
DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS and ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: They are two different game versions; the
first is designed for simplicity, the second is more popular but has differing,
more complex rules. (In fact, a simplified form of AD&D, or "winging
it," might have to be designed for beginners to save time.)
CHARACTERS: "They are like a very
flexible playing-piece whose actions you control. A character can do more than
just combat (whack and slash); you may suggest any action you can think of for
your character to do. The Dungeon Master (DM, or Game Master,
GM) presents a game for you in which the characters exist; players act
as a team and do not compete against each other, not even against the DM.
The object is mostly to have fun with an unfolding story, presented in game
form by the DM."
DIALOGUE: "The DM presents
imaginary situations. The DM tells you what your characters could see at
a glance. To spot further details you must ask the right questions to the DM.
<Give examples.> Take reasonable precautions with your characters
during play, such as having them "listen at doors" before
barging in. You describe what your characters do, then the DM tells you
the outcomes based on what he knows about the situation (and you don't!). This
goes on back and forth until the game-story is "played out."
CHARACTER DEATH: It is possible that a character
will receive too much "damage" to continue surviving. This is
the only way a player can be said to "lose" in a role-playing
game, and is usually followed by the preparation of a new character for play.
MATERIALS: "Use PENCIL, not ink,
on the sheets used to represent characters. Many numbers on the sheets will
change in a game."
USE OF DICE: Explain the special dice and how
they are read, e.g. how to read a 4-sided die (do) and how to avoid confusing a
ten-sided die (duo) with a twelve- or eight-sided die (e.g. duo has kite-shaped
sides, not pentagons or triangles).
USE OF FIGURES OR
COUNTERS:
Explain their use and how to tell which way they are facing (e.g. obvious for
figures; top of counters indicate forward direction.)
MAPPING: Many maps are used during play as
situations change. For D&D and AD&D, one-quarter inch
squares on graph paper represent 10 feet of distance. The DM normally assists
when there is any confusion.
Encourage the players to ask
questions about anything.
RULES: Then, allow each player to select
one of the characters, based on the descriptions of the characters and/or their
specialties. Go over the rules, starting by describing what the numbers on the
sheet represent, and how dice are used to make decisions based on these
characteristics. This will help players immensely (and save you work rolling
dice for them.)
Stress that the players
need not know the rules in detail, but the DM handles most of the dice
rolls and rules which decide outcomes, and also handles unusual decisions. Some
rolls are made secretly in situations where characters would not normally know
if they succeeded or not; remind the players that the DM "knows
things" about the story that the characters will have to discover the hard
way.
ALSO CHOOSE APPROPRIATE
FIGURINES OR CARDBOARD CUT-OUTS TO REPRESENT THE CHARACTERS ON MAPS. Erase any
old pencil-marks on the prepared character sheets, maps, etc. and BEGIN TO
PLAY THE GAME!
A helpful hint . . . is to take a sheet and on the
top half draw an outline of the table you are using (e.g. rectangular.)
Write "DM" at the bottom of this outline, then write the first
names of the players on the outside of this outline, in their positions
relative to you. Then write in, on the inside of the outline, the names of the
corresponding characters the players are using, and other major information
about these characters. This helps you remember who is who, and is similar to
an outline for bridge hands published in newspaper bridge columns!
The bottom half of the
sheet can also be split up into areas to keep track of "game time"
elapsed, relative formations of the characters (the "marching order"),
etc.
You can now go through
the game normally. The players are still beginners, but you laid the groundwork
properly and they have a clear understanding of what RPGs are about
(fun, hopefully). If short of time, pace yourself to skip over needless details
and reach a satisfying conclusion.
At the end, when the
amazed glow of their faces subsides enough, repeat that this game is just a
short sample in one game system. It's like making clear to a caveman that you
can't judge TV by a single episode of MIAMI VICE! Like TV entertainment,
role-playing games can cover any sort of (adventurous) fiction, and its
strength is that games are tailor-made to player preferences. That way, the
beginners will want to try out somewhat longer, more intricate and interesting
role-playing games later, in many genres.
Don't forget to ask for
comments from the players. If they came across a boring or frustrating bit in
your game, look at it to see if you can't improve your game for next time. And
you may consider having more than one special beginner game designed,
preferably in a different game system and type of fiction.
In a brief message on the
Internet, Laird Popkin gave a very succinct summary of key points for the
beginning RPGer to remember when just "Starting
Up," in the hobby. Briefly, Popkin's main points
are: (1) create a few sample characters and play sample combat
first, (2) don't get overly elaborate for your first games, (3)
don't worry about the rules (bending them if necessary), (4) keep an eye
on pacing, (5) don't let dice rule the game, (6) there are many
different styles of gaming and different people like different things, (7)
make NPCs (non-player characters) interesting (even imitating cartoon
characters if that helps), and (8) don't spend too much
time preparing but be prepared to improvise.
Once my students were given
a brief explanation of the fundamentals of the game, they played a sample game
with the teacher as game master. Because there were too many students for the
one game to be played well with everyone in the standard interactive style, the
class was divided into two groups of eight students. Since the class meets for
two hours each week, one group played the game in the first hour and the other
group played during the second hour of one class day. This allowed the students
to get a more realistic idea of how to play.
It is important that the
teacher use a very basic introductory scenario -- typically, a "save
the princess from the dark tower" story might work. While an average RPG
game among serious hobbyists may lasts four to six hours, and involves five to
ten players and games may be played as frequently as several times a day and as
seldom as once a year, the average being weekly (Toles-Patkin, 5), teachers can
not make those kinds of demands upon students. Most teachers will typically use
the activity a few times in a semester, often only scheduling it for a few
partial class-periods. Scenarios must be limited in complexity for them to be
suitable for the time constraints of a classroom activity.
Once my class of sixteen
was introduced to the concepts and mechanics of Role-Playing Games,
the students were asked to created their own adventures for their classmates to
play. Within the remainder of the semester, the RPG activity was
scheduled four times. Each time, the activity took up one hour in the two-hour
period. At each time, the students were divided into small groups of four, each
with one student acting as GM and the remaining three playing PCs.
Each time the activity was scheduled, the students were placed in different
groups and new students became GM. In this way, each student in the
class was able to "play" with each of the other students --
and all of them had the opportunity to GM their own game. Under this system,
the RPGs quickly became the students' game and not the teacher's.
Despite its popularity
among hobby gamers, AD&D proved too complicated a rules
system for a university freshman class (despite it's rating of being for
ages ten-to-adult). My students readily abandoned the complex rules and
developed a free-form system, following the AD&D model.
Once students have
discovered the concept, the actual rules system used by the teacher is not
particularly important. While I would strongly encourage teachers unfamiliar
with RPGs to purchase at least one of the commercial systems,
there are alternatives for classroom use.
For those students with
Internet access, there are several systems which are public domain and freely
available. These include ARM, Anarcha Australis, Brand
X, Extexo, FUDGE, Mage to Mage, System One, URP,
and others. While many of these systems are less complicated than many of the
commercial systems, they are often more difficult for the beginner to start
with as they do not provide role-play information.
Some teachers who have used
RPGs in the EFL classroom have developed their own systems
-- or allowed the students to do so on their own (with proper guidance, this
is an excellent option). Scott Orr's approach with his Czech students was
of this type:
I let each of them name
4 or 5 skills he was good at, and then roll a d6 [six- sided die] to determine
just how good. Then I just used the die for skill checks . . . I kept it
extremely simple -- I don't think we ever had any combat -- in order to stress
the role- playing than the "reality". If you've got the time to
prepare, you may want to do something a little more complex --maybe a few basic
attributes (the four used in GURPS -- strength, dexterity, intelligence,
and health -- are good . . . .). You also might want to make the skills a
little more complex, although I think a simple system like mine should do just
fine . . . let them be best in the skills they like best.
My own spin-off project has
been to develop a Basic English Role-Playing System (BERPS) specifically
intended for EFL students. Peter Adkison, president of Wizards of
the Coast Game Company, has begun development of RPGs for
general educational purposes --which should still be useful to the EFL
instructor. Also, Dave Nalle's Ragnarok games have obvious
educational uses as well as Greg Porter's BTRC systems.
THE
LESS-ENGLISH CLASSROOM
Obviously, RPGs
have the most immediate benefits and possibilities for the upper- level
all-English conversation classroom. Lower-level English Conversation
classes may not find as much immediate use in the games (students may feel
intimidated by the free-form nature and language demands made by the games).
For upper level classes, the teacher need only "get them started"
-- lower level classes present more difficulties.
If the students don't know
how to describe an action in the game, they may revert to simple language
rather than exploring other possibilities for description. One of my initial
groups would simply roll the dice to determine success and spent a large
portion of their first game using simple language as follows:
STUDENT ONE: I hit the monster.
STUDENT TWO: Roll the dice.
STUDENT ONE: I roll a four.
STUDENT TWO: Okay. You hit. Roll again.
STUDENT ONE: Fine, I roll a six.
And so on . . . . Not very
promising. However, once it was explained that they needed to use more
description, they tried harder -- making the game more enjoyable for themselves
and useful for their language development. At this stage, the teacher needs to
be there more to answer questions about language and vocabulary as they arise
-- thus the teaching is in response to student generated needs, a highly
effective technique (Di Pietro, 19).
For classes which are less
English-intensive and more elementary in nature (the High School curriculum,
for instance), long free-form RPGs of this type may not be so
effectively when conducted in English. The teacher may find it more useful to
make the sessions shorter and to follow Patricia Mugglestone's lead in having
new language items themselves presented as the problems to be solved in the
game (115) -- any students who have seen the final "Grail Scenes"
of the popular film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade will
appreciate that Indy's three challenges to reach the grail were essentially a
vocabulary quiz -- penitent man, name of God, etc. (there is an Indiana
Jones Role-Playing Game which some teachers may wish to try).
CONCLUSIONS
While Role-Playing
Games may not be appropriate for all EFL classes, they certainly
have the potential of becoming a very useful addition to many teachers'
arsenals of worthwhile language learning activities for conversation (and
other) classes. It is hoped that more work in this subject might produce
even more beneficial techniques for the classroom teacher and helpful learning
aids for the student.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (SELECTED)
Bryant, William H. "Realistic
Activities for the Conversation Class," The
French Review, v59(3), Feb. 1986, 347-354.
Dayan, Daniel. "Review
Essay: Copyrighted Subcultures," American Journal
of Sociology, v91(5), March 1986, 1219-28.
DeRenard, Lisa A., and
Linda Mannik Kline. "Alienation and the Game Dungeons and Dragons,"
Psychological Reports, v66(3, pt. 2), 1990, 1219-1222.
Diaz-Rico, Lynne. "Story, Skit, and Theater in
Whole Language Dramatics," Journal of Creative Behavior, v26(3), 1992, 199-205).
Di Pietro, Robert J. "The
Open-Ended Scenario: A New Approach to Conversation,"
TESOL Quarterly, v16(1), March 1982, 15-20.
Jackson, Steve. Fighting
Fantasy: The Introductory Role-Playing Game. London: Puffin Books, 1984.
Gygax, Gary. Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Masters Guide. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, Inc.,
1979.
---. Advanced Dungeons
& Dragons: Oriental Adventures. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, Inc., 1985.
---. Advanced Dungeons
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Holmes, John Eric. "Confessions
of A Dungeon Master," Psychology Today, Nov.
1980, 84-94.
Ladousse, Gillian Porter. Role
Play. Oxford English Resource Books for Teachers Series
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Mugglestone, Patricia. "The
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Teaching Journal, v31(2), 111-116.
Petersen, Sandy. Call of
Cthulhu. Albany, CA: Chaosium, Inc., 1989.
Sechi, Stephan Michael, and
Jonathan Tweet. Talislanta Guidebook, Third Edition. Renton, WA: Wizards
of the Coast, 1992.
Shaw, David. "Interactive
Literature," Whole Earth Review, Winter 1987,
128- 29.
Simon, Armando. "Emotional
Stability Pertaining to the Game of Dungeons & Dragons,"
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Stratton, Jerry (jerry@teetot.acusd.edu).
What Is Role-Playing? Article available via anonymous FTP
from teetot.acusd.edu, 1991.
Swink, David F., and Dale
Richard Buchanan. "The Effects of Sociodramatic Goal-Oriented Role
Play and Non-Goal-Oriented Role Play on Locus of Control,"
Journal of Clinical Psychology, v40(5), Sept. 1984, 1178-1183.
Toles-Patkin, Terri. "Rational
Coordination in the Dungeon*," Journal of Popular Culture,
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TSR Staff. Advanced
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---. Advanced Dungeons
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Email Brian David Phillips at phillips@nccu.edu.tw.
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