I really enjoyed this piece, Monte; thanks for sharing your thoughts! I work as an instructional designer in the higher-ed, and this reminded me a lot of the struggles faculty often have in "de-academifying" their course content to help promote learning. There's often a perception that by clarifying the language we somehow remove the rigor of the material—even though often we're just making the material more approachable. You've given me some more to consider as I'm having these conversations in the future. Thanks!
I completely agree about the organisation of a book. The ability or inability to quickly find a rule or reference can affect the flow of a session a lot.
There are roleplaying games that I love, but find the book frustrating to use.
I first saw the MCG way of highlighting terms and margin references in the Numenera book. It was a 'ding!' light bulb moment.
Anyway, I'm enjoying this series. Lots to think about.
One of the things that impact me the most when I read the rules was the examples. Ever read Tunnels and Trolls (5th edition) well Fang the Delectable stands out. In AD&D what impacted me the most as a child was the following passage which just brought the entire game together:
A party of 5 characters - a magic-user, a cleric, a thief, a human fighter, and a dwarf fighter surprise an illusionist with 20 orcs. The opponents are 30' distant, and the magic-user immediately begins casting a sleep spell. The cleric also prepares to cast a spell, silence, 15'radius.
There is a similar example in the DMG I believe. That stuff gives me chills reading it again because it was imprinted on my soul.
I really enjoyed this piece, Monte; thanks for sharing your thoughts! I work as an instructional designer in the higher-ed, and this reminded me a lot of the struggles faculty often have in "de-academifying" their course content to help promote learning. There's often a perception that by clarifying the language we somehow remove the rigor of the material—even though often we're just making the material more approachable. You've given me some more to consider as I'm having these conversations in the future. Thanks!
Excellent topic. Learned a lot. Thanks, really!
I completely agree about the organisation of a book. The ability or inability to quickly find a rule or reference can affect the flow of a session a lot.
There are roleplaying games that I love, but find the book frustrating to use.
I first saw the MCG way of highlighting terms and margin references in the Numenera book. It was a 'ding!' light bulb moment.
Anyway, I'm enjoying this series. Lots to think about.
One of the things that impact me the most when I read the rules was the examples. Ever read Tunnels and Trolls (5th edition) well Fang the Delectable stands out. In AD&D what impacted me the most as a child was the following passage which just brought the entire game together:
A party of 5 characters - a magic-user, a cleric, a thief, a human fighter, and a dwarf fighter surprise an illusionist with 20 orcs. The opponents are 30' distant, and the magic-user immediately begins casting a sleep spell. The cleric also prepares to cast a spell, silence, 15'radius.
There is a similar example in the DMG I believe. That stuff gives me chills reading it again because it was imprinted on my soul.