Recently people have been posting a twist on Battleship that makes the game board a Periodic Table. People are saying: “Cool! Science!” From a science learning perspective, there is nothing with real science learning about that game. What happens when an actual science learning expert and game design enthusiast takes a stab at it?
I’m not even sure that I’ve mentioned this on this blog yet (what the heck?), but I’ll be working on a grant this summer to make a board game for my classroom.
I haven’t been posting much because there has been a lot going on professionally and personally.
I’ve been having a blast with my Normal Classic file on Fire Emblem: Awakening. Still love this game. tRPG IS my genre, hands down.
Professionally, I’m in the process of writing a grant to create a game for my classroom that focuses on technology integration and global climate change. I’ve been doing writing and re-writing and that takes time and mental focus. I have a strong concept that I’m working off of. Thanks to my colleagues at school and Jon, Jack and DJ for offering additional very useful feedback. I’ll update the progress as I go, but don’t want to say much more so that I can work on my idea without fear of malevolent outside interference.
On the pencil front, I got a good deal on eBay and a delicious red Pilot S20 is on the way. I will do a video review of that one, because there actually no video reviews of the S20 in English that I can find! Also, Peter from France has sent me another Faber-Castell. Thanks in advance to him!
I definitely need to check Twilight Struggle out. The article details this game from 2005, as well as some analytics on what makes for a great board game.
Tonight we’ve had a change of plans. To mix things up a little, Don is preparing a Mad Max-based setting with a combination of Savage Worlds RPG rules and Battletech vehicle damage rules. The idea is we will have a Mad Max vehicle chase, and the vehicles will be the characters. We will use the Battletech vehicle damage rules to reflect gradual damage to a vehicle that impacts its ability to perform.
I’m not sure what this is going to look like but it will probably be a lot of fun. I’ll report the results.
I was lucky enough to go to Scotland and England this summer. It definitely inspired the role-player in me. One of my greatest areas of dissatisfaction in mapping areas for players was not finding a castle plan that I really liked or had to pay for. So, I’m making one of my own!
I’m prepared to make the argument that this is part of what separates good GMs from inexperienced GMs for role-playing as well. A good GM presents choices that direct the future of the story. The plot unfolds based upon player choices, even if they are unexpected. An inexperienced GM seeks to entrap players with consequences that suggest that they “should have” done what the GM expected them to do all along. Its a “read my mind” style of GMing that comes from a power trip, not an actual interest in developing story. These styles of games have pre-determined outcomes for choices and story points. They are the worst kind of rail-roading. Striking a nerve? Good. Nobody said you getting better would be easy!
About fifteen years ago, if you had asked me about painting miniatures, I would have told you “no thank you.” I attempted it in my early 20s, didn’t really have the patience for it, and abandoned my efforts. I didn’t really have a proper art teacher. But, with some tips from painting experts like Jack Irons and painting enthusiasts like Donnald Johnson, I’ve come quite a long ways. And I have the Battlemechs to prove it.
After finishing up the Gamma World Campaign, Jamie volunteered to DM our next game and we were all pretty interested in testing out the DND Basic rules for Fifth Edition. So, she asked us to make characters using the 4D6 method. In looking at the Rogue, I’m inspired to play classes that I’ve never really done before. I’ll make a case here as to why I think all of the classes in this version, but especially the Rogue, are more balanced between each other than ever before.
