D&D IS IN MY TEXTBOOK!
(This is my post on a forum for one of my library courses.)
I have a confession to make. I play D&D.
So seeing D&D mentioned in the Handbook made my day. I started playing D&D in high school, and it's not easy! The system aside, it takes creativity and imagination to play D&D, and even more to be the dungeon master (DM) and facilitate a game. This is true of all "table-top" roleplaying games.
Reading this, I immediately began to think about bringing such games into a library as part of a club or some other sort of extra-curricular activity. D&D isn't the only system out there, and while some can be rather dark and potentially not school appropriate, all of that can be controlled by what sort of game is facilitated.
A friend of mine teaches English in Terre Haute and has "monster battles." His students write up the origin and powers of a monster and then battle it against a classmate's creation. Each "attack" is written in a short paragraph. The students have to be careful not to "god-mod" or "twink" by having their monster be too powerful. This sort of roleplaying (but expanded to include more than just battling Godzilla clones) is also found on online forums and TinyMUD servers.
I have been playing on TinyMUDs for years now, and my writing has improved dramatically as a result. In this and the forum format, you are essentially writing a story with the players of the other characters. Because you have to create your character and steer them through the various events that you and those you play with concoct, it is an excellent way to teach plot and character development and could easily be taken off-line or put on a secure server or forum if you wanted to use it in a school setting.
I have a confession to make. I play D&D.
So seeing D&D mentioned in the Handbook made my day. I started playing D&D in high school, and it's not easy! The system aside, it takes creativity and imagination to play D&D, and even more to be the dungeon master (DM) and facilitate a game. This is true of all "table-top" roleplaying games.
Reading this, I immediately began to think about bringing such games into a library as part of a club or some other sort of extra-curricular activity. D&D isn't the only system out there, and while some can be rather dark and potentially not school appropriate, all of that can be controlled by what sort of game is facilitated.
A friend of mine teaches English in Terre Haute and has "monster battles." His students write up the origin and powers of a monster and then battle it against a classmate's creation. Each "attack" is written in a short paragraph. The students have to be careful not to "god-mod" or "twink" by having their monster be too powerful. This sort of roleplaying (but expanded to include more than just battling Godzilla clones) is also found on online forums and TinyMUD servers.
I have been playing on TinyMUDs for years now, and my writing has improved dramatically as a result. In this and the forum format, you are essentially writing a story with the players of the other characters. Because you have to create your character and steer them through the various events that you and those you play with concoct, it is an excellent way to teach plot and character development and could easily be taken off-line or put on a secure server or forum if you wanted to use it in a school setting.