ARTSEDGE Games: Role-Playing System by Kennedy Center Education Digital Learning

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SYSTEM This system is designed to be flexible enough to be applied to any and all major works of storytelling, be that literature, stage play, music, motion picture, scientific inquiry, mathematical reasoning, almost anything STEM-related, and beyond. This is, at the very heart, a tool to make a game, but not all the rules to play one. Those rules you make on your own (or play with rules made by others). Everything below is built to assist in the creation of a game that fully articulates your interpretation of the source material.

The objective of this guide is to have students create a game from a piece of literary source material. This content should be a piece of literature you already teach in your classroom. This document is your guide, and will help you structure your lessons in game creation. Make sure students are using the rulebook as their guide for game creation.

• Do you think that the activities seems to be reasonably divided? • Is the document detailed enough for anyone to use to create his/her own game?

Step 5

Create a review game.

Step 6

This content is in beta, and will be made better through your suggestions. There is a survey on the ARTSEDGE website where this content is located. Please let us know how to make this work better, and how you are using it in your classrooms.

Play test the games. On the play testing day, set up different stations. At each station, one of the original creators of the game should stay at the table to explain how to play the game as well as run the game. The rest goes and play as many games as they can.

Step 1

Step 7

Gather the content.

Students write reflections on what they learned from playing the games.

Step 2

Put the students in groups. I recommend allowing them to choose their own group since this will facilitate interactions among them.

Step 3

Have the group create a planning document that includes: • What type of game do they plan to create? • Why do they think that particular game will be the most useful in teaching and reviewing the concept? • Who will be responsible for what?

Step 4

Have student in one group share the document with another group and get feedback. The reviewers should focus on: • Is the game reasonable for review? • Do you think the team has enough time to complete the task, e.g., build a playable game? If not, what can they change?

familiar real-world inputs: how high is the fall and how hard is the ground. The magical properties of the dragon and the wizard are inconsequential.

DESIGN-BASED RESEARCH AND GAME-BASED LEARNINGS

Learning and working towards playing In recent years, specifically with the advent and popularity of personal applications on mobile devices, the term gamification is used with more and more frequency. This implies the adherence to progression models in decidedly non-game systems, such as a fitness tracker on a workout app, or a “productivity score” on a To-Do List. There are merits and disadvantages to these systems, but it is evident that games can be used to not only entice the user to continue use through extrinsic motivation but also quantify results against the challenge of attaining them.

These realities are what are described in Tabletop RPG systems and answer one simple question: How does the world work?

ACTIVITIES

Okay, but what are we doing? To arrive at these realities, the following activities are arranged for students to arrive at not only a comprehensive understanding of the literary world, but also the capability to create a compelling game within that world.

In strictly pedagogical terms, game-based learning and design-based research can take a similar yet refined approach by engaging students and players in creating complex simulations, which requires not only thorough comprehension, but also creative imagination and problem solving.

Students will create a series of documents as the basis of their games based on their source materials. These steps are outlined below and are referred to as “Activities.” Each classroom activity will take anywhere from 15-50 minutes of class time. Some students may need additional time to complete tasks at home if they are particularly enthusiastic.

INTRODUCTION TO TABLETOP ROLE-PLAYING

Component Research

For the uninitiated Tabletop Role-Playing Games (RPG), and their most popular vehicle, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), are often equated with the realms of fantasy. This is decidedly true, but with a deeper inspection into the rules of D&D, it becomes apparent that fantasy is merely the setting. The real rules belie MATH. Tabletop RPG systems simply describe the realities of the world within which the characters exist. Deciding how much damage a wizard receives after falling off a dragon requires only a few

• Themes • Settings • Society • Nature Adventure Creation • Game Guide • Adventure Book Characters

Rules • Small group rules • Classroom rules

Game Board Creation • World Map • Game Boards Game Assembly

• Literary Character Sheets • Character Sheets • Personal Character Sheets • Game Boards • Rule Books Gameplay figure 1

These activities are intended to be completed in order. Tasks and Articles at the end of this document are contingent on students having completed earlier sections.

2. BRAINSTORM RESEARCH

Background thought behind game creation Background research can be explained as collecting the specifics within the literature that will go on to inform a particular rule in the game. Answering basic questions such as “Does this take place on Earth?” answers many questions regarding the limitations and behaviors of player characters. (If the wizard fell off the dragon while on planet Earth, you could start determining the values needed for what happens next, e.g. gravity, the altitude, the constitution of the wizard.)

Grading is mostly left to the discretion of the instructor. In this beta version of the system, students are encouraged to exhibit understanding of the source material. These activities will get students intimately familiar with their books, so it is encouraged that instructors integrate these activities and game building into their existing teaching modules.

1. BRAINSTORM COMPONENTS

Activity

Thinking up the game and story, piece by piece The same components that make up the story should make up the game.

Submit a report of the background research of the literature.

3. SETTING DESCRIPTION

The component pyramid is designed to start with foundational aspects of the literature, and builds upwards to higher concepts such as Author’s intent and themes. Students should start by listing important characters, cultures, and settings, then working towards those concepts.

What’s going on around the characters? In this activity, students will describe the setting of their piece of literature, specifically, where their game will take place. Students will represent topography and distance, either with a geographic scale or with a set of travel time and distances.

Do these higher concepts warrant inclusion in the game?

After students create their setting descriptions, they will draw a “Game World” — an artistic representation of the literature’s world.

Activity

Participate in a brainstorming session about the literary work as a whole (discussion is geared toward an analysis and review of the subject text).

Prompts

Where do all the events of the story take place? Are there any travel distances that need to be considered? For Romeo and Juliet, the story takes place in Verona, Italy. Have students research both the Verona described in the play and also the real-life Verona, in order to draw an appropriate Game World. As an example, “House Montague goes here, House Capulet here.” Distances in this Game World, however, are not that important.

THEMES

ENDING/ GOALS

CULTURES

AUTHOR’S INTENT

LITERARY STYLE

PLOT

CONFLICTS

SETTINGS

CHARACTERS

For The Odyssey, travel distances are much more important. How long it takes the figure 2 characters to sail from one island to the next

Activity

dictates all their decisions in their quest home to Ithaca.

Students write up the rules for their hypothetical games and after discussion, one representative of each group will present his/ her group’s findings to the class.

Activity

A “Game World” Map is drawn. This will have all the areas to be played in the game (more detailed “Game Boards” are made in Activity the Game Board Creation activity).

5. CLASSROOM RULES DISCUSSION

Let’s get the whole class in on this! Group representatives now take turns presenting their group’s rules to the class as a whole. Open discussion of all the small group rules commences and a conclusion on what rules and objectives will be used for the final game is achieved.

4. SMALL GROUP RULES DISCUSSION

Look left, then right, and then talk it out In groups, students will hold a small discussion about different types of rules for the game. There is no “correct” set of rules for any story, and the events of the literature can be represented by myriad different rules and systems.

This discussion gives the instructor an opportunity to steer the projected rules towards a logical and attainable scope.

Students are encouraged to brainstorm, making connections between the themes and events of the story (detailed in the previous activities) and their proposed rulesets.

Prompts

Which rules presented are the most compelling to the students?

Prompts

Which rules have the strongest connections to the Background Research?

What types of games remind you of the story of your source material? Are the characters working for any goals similar to popular games? Can you draw parallels between Holden Caufield’s heroic journey in Catcher and the Rye to that of Link in The Legend of Zelda?

Do the rules end in a win or loss for the players? Does this game seem fun to play?

Activity

Write the first draft of the rulebook. Include all foreseeable rules, the number of players, the players’ roles, and end game objectives.

Comparing a game like Risk to All Quiet on the Western Front brings direct conflict between the personal nature of the stories within the book and the casual detachment of player to their units in the game. The same game can take a much different meaning when prescribed to the events of 1984 and the “Perpetual War” fought between the 3 “undefeatable” factions of the book. Neither of these utilizations are incorrect, and both yield very different understandings and deconstructions of the literature’s themes.

6. GAME BOARD CREATION

Where characters move and act out the story Many role-playing games rely on game pieces arranged on a map to show distances relative to certain characters and objects. This is especially helpful in navigating the complex spatial relationships of combatants in a duel, or dancers at a Victorian party. Students can take an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper and divide it into a grid of 1” squares.

Literary Character Creation

Each piece of paper can represent a whole or part of each destination laid out in the Game World map above.

Have students create two separate descriptions of characters and Character Sheets based on the text, one from the list of major characters and one from the list of minor characters. Then have them swap character sheets to edit and revise spelling and grammar. From there, create the final versions.

Each square is loosely a 4 foot space and the orientation is TOP DOWN. Furniture, architecture, stairs, and various levels of the areas should be referenced from the literature.

Activity

Students make two literary character descriptions and revisions of other character sheets.

Personal Character Creation

If applicable for the rules of the game, students can create their own imaginary characters, based on the restrictions and standards set forth by the character creation before. Students should read two other students’ imaginary character sheets and provide character suggestions and feedback; after receiving feedback from two students, the final version of their own sheet should be completed..

figure 3

Prompts

How do the settings of the game look from the top-down? What are the dimensions of the rooms themselves? Are there particular items in these rooms that need special attention, like balconies, altars, a rack of swords, etc.?

Activity

For example, in Beowulf, Hrothgar’s hall, called “Heorot,” can be estimated to 40 meters, 131 feet, or 131/4=32.75 tiles or 3 pages long; and, given the elongated architecture (3:2), can be estimated to just at 2 pages (16 tiles) wide.

Students make one imaginary character description and revisions of other character sheets.

Character Visual Creation

Activity

Create the “Game Board” sections to be used in the game. Students or groups can work on individual areas and then stitch and collect them together for the entire Game World.

Create a drawing and description of a book character or an imaginary character.

8. ADVENTURE CREATION

Creating your own epic adventure Describe one possible adventure based on the class-approved rules.

7. CHARACTER CREATION

Players, meet your characters! As the characters are most often the focal points of the story, creating characters and defining them with the statistics and abilities best representative of the literary selves is crucial in understanding the source material. These definitions are collected into a Character Sheet for each character in the game.

• Placement of resources, gold, weapons, food, and shelter. • Character Sheets for particular enemies, dragons, boars, and wildlife to hunt.

Activity

For example, the death of Claudius in Hamlet may be decided as the objective of the game. Players can act as the titular character and all minor characters.

10. GAME MASTER LECTURE

Have the class assemble the Game Guide and Adventure Book using all previous materials.

Or “Lecture of the GM” if you’re fancy Students now create a list of characteristics of a great Game Master (GM). They reflect and choose a student who would be the best to be the first Game Master for a class-wide play test.

Students should choose the best ideas from the breakout groups or larger class discussion and revise the adventure with their classmates. This is the amalgamation of all revised Character Sheets and descriptions.

Prompts

What are the traits of a good Game Master? How much power should the GM have in directing the course for the game? Who would be the best GM in class?

Activity

Have the class assemble the Game Guide and Adventure Book using all previous materials.

Activity

Students select the Game Master.

9. GAME ASSEMBLY

Time to put the game together Describe one possible adventure based on the class-approved rules.

11. FISHBOWL GAMEPLAY

A test run, if you will With the game complete and the GM chosen, ask a group of volunteers to play the game while the rest of class observes and takes notes. These notes should be based on the Prompts, ensuring that the game is fulfilling all requirements

This contains: • Events of a particular story, such as storms, invasions, pre-arranged marriages, murders, and so on. • Minor objectives of the characters. • What some Non-Player Characters (NPC) might say or do. • Placement of resources, gold, weapons, food, and shelter. • Character Sheets for particular enemies, dragons, boars, and wildlife to hunt.

It is important to note that the game doesn’t need to be played to completion, and the balance and difficulty of the game does not matter as much as a continual reference to the source material.

Prompts

For example, the death of Claudius in Hamlet may be decided as the objective of the game. Players can act as the titular character and all minor characters.

How did the game play? Was there anything done out-of-character? What should be tweaked before we really play? What can be cut to simplify the game?

Activity

Students that are playing submit player documents, character sheets, and notes. The audience submits their reflections as the game progresses.

12. GAMEPLAY & DEBRIEF

THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE LAUNCHING THE UNIT

Last, but certainly not least Students now break into appropriately-sized groups to play the game with either their own characters or the Literary Character Sheets produced in the activity on page 4.

Four last things before we play...

1. Opportunity cost

Due to the constructionist approach to the pedagogy of this system, it is important to focus on the creative process of the game moreso than the polish or coherence of the final result. Keep in mind that appropriate lengths of time should be spent on each activity.

After play, students should reflect on the gameplay.

Prompts

How did the game play? What parts of the game do you think best represent the original story? What parts didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t? What can be cut to simplify the game?

2. Technology

While digital game creation tools continue to emerge in more powerful and accessible capacities, it is recommended that the essence of a Tabletop RPG is preserved by students physically creating the majority of the game elements to promote a sense of shared creativity on the table or gamespace.

Activity

Students should reflect on the gameplay and write about their experiences.

3. What are you using?

Certain game concepts, however compelling as a standalone product, lack compatibility with certain literary objectives. Certain student groups might need increased supervision and guidance to avoid common, but incompatible game-types that would be too intensive to create or too inappropriate to the pedagogy.

That said, creativity blossoms within even the strictest restraints, if a group can prove adherence to the Background Components of the literature, they should be encouraged to continue their game construction.

4. Creating is the review

Finally, while the final Activity Gameplay & Debriefing, is the finish line students are working towards, it is crucial to remember that the creative process is the review. Encourage retrospect throughout each of the Activities and retention and understanding of the literature will soon follow. Happy Playing!