Spring Break
Gaming can be good for you, really
John Bailey
Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: Focus
Put a few RPG books and a bag of dice in a kid's hand, and I guarantee you he or she will do a good 50 points better on their eventual math SATs. Guarantee not guaranteed.
Bookworms
When's the last time you read a good book? No, "Twilight" doesn't count, and neither does anything from high school English class. At the risk of aging 40 years on the spot, kids today don't read enough.
And I mean, they should be reading good books. I'm not going to suggest that the "Monster Manual" is fine literature, but it's certainly text on a page - and it's riddled with lots of big words, classical etymologies and unusual vocabulary. There's a lot of critical reading and parsing of difficult topics involved in these rulebooks - if you think Foucault is tough, try the 3rd edition grappling rules! (Heh, heh. No, seriously, don't make jokes like that, it makes people hate you.) If parents really want their children away from the screens and getting some reading done, RPGs are a prize way to do it.
The "tea" in "team"
"Group management" and "critical problem solving" sound like training programs in a Human Resources department - but they're exactly the skills you need, and develop, in pen and paper RPGs.
"You get a better ability to understand others and yourself," said Dave Beattie, a 5th-semester English and psychology double major. "If you're pretending to be a character - even someone else's character - you have to understand what makes that character real."
Even in fake worlds, empathy and teamwork are essential to success. Every player brings their own unique skill set to the table (literally) and somehow, you need to get across that yawning lava chasm guarded by the Seven Serpents of the Seranath in order to slay the Queen Mother of the Firemoth tribe. Or maybe you just need to find a place to sleep for the night.
Whatever the situation, the group needs to coordinate their skills in order to maximize their ass-kickin' potential, and the challenges are many and varied.
Bookworms
When's the last time you read a good book? No, "Twilight" doesn't count, and neither does anything from high school English class. At the risk of aging 40 years on the spot, kids today don't read enough.
And I mean, they should be reading good books. I'm not going to suggest that the "Monster Manual" is fine literature, but it's certainly text on a page - and it's riddled with lots of big words, classical etymologies and unusual vocabulary. There's a lot of critical reading and parsing of difficult topics involved in these rulebooks - if you think Foucault is tough, try the 3rd edition grappling rules! (Heh, heh. No, seriously, don't make jokes like that, it makes people hate you.) If parents really want their children away from the screens and getting some reading done, RPGs are a prize way to do it.
The "tea" in "team"
"Group management" and "critical problem solving" sound like training programs in a Human Resources department - but they're exactly the skills you need, and develop, in pen and paper RPGs.
"You get a better ability to understand others and yourself," said Dave Beattie, a 5th-semester English and psychology double major. "If you're pretending to be a character - even someone else's character - you have to understand what makes that character real."
Even in fake worlds, empathy and teamwork are essential to success. Every player brings their own unique skill set to the table (literally) and somehow, you need to get across that yawning lava chasm guarded by the Seven Serpents of the Seranath in order to slay the Queen Mother of the Firemoth tribe. Or maybe you just need to find a place to sleep for the night.
Whatever the situation, the group needs to coordinate their skills in order to maximize their ass-kickin' potential, and the challenges are many and varied.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
W.J. Walton
posted 11/21/08 @ 12:53 PM EST
Nice article. It's always good to see something positive said about roleplaying, even if it did start out a little bit negative towards the players. I'll be mentioning this on my site and podcast - www. (Continued…)
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