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kyrin
Commander
3152 Posts
    
 | | 05/23/2006 12:28 PM |
| Okay, some background: The University of Texas offers what they call "Informal Classes," basically hobby stuff and how to use your computer stuff. Short courses not for credit or anything like that. For example, my wife teaches one in dog training.
So I was reading "Dungeon Master for Dummies" (not a bad read, BTW) and the thought crossed my mind: What about an informal class in how to play D&D? There may be people who have heard of the game and may want to play it, but literally don't know where or how to start. And the Basic Game set strikes me as a nice teaching tool.
I was thinking of five sessions:
Session 1: Reviewing the character sheet and some basic game mechanics and handing out pregen characters
Sessions 2 and 3: Playing the scenario in the Basic Game
Session 4: Make your own character
Session 5: A little about being a DM
Now what is concerning me is this: would WotC object to this? Has anyone tried this and run into problems, or had to get permission, or what? I'll try writing them, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this.
JIM
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AnarionZelle
Underboss
1104 Posts
USA
| | 05/23/2006 2:34 PM |
| I remember a thread about something like this some time ago, but I think the course it was talking about was using D&D as a marketing example of some sort.
Sorry that I couldn't be of more help. | |
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Zenako
Commander
3468 Posts
| | 05/23/2006 3:37 PM |
| I am assuming that each session is only an hour or so right, otherwise you could be doing a lot more at each session. Hard to see where WotC would have ANY issues with doing it.
First session, should also contain a bit about what Roleplaying is. How it is kind of like acting out a play, but a play without fixed dialog or known outcomes. If you have real new players, that fundamental training needs to come before you even consider looking at character sheets. Then a short talk about probability and odds, and you can use things like baseball batting averages for an example. How every time a batter swings at a pitch he does not get a hit. So every time you swing at a monster you might not get an effective hit on it. Odds, that is what the dice are for. | |
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Vrecknidj
Warlord
10301 Posts
United States
| | 05/23/2006 4:05 PM |
| Okay, I like where you're going with this. I have a local community college that offers all kinds of classes and this would be a great class to offer.
I haven't tried anything like it, but I can't imagine that you're going to run into much resistance by contacting WotC. If anything, they should encourage you and maybe offer to help by sending you some materials for use.
Dave | |
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Cheddar Bearer
Warrior
298 Posts
| | 05/23/2006 4:07 PM |
| | Wow sign me up. Does kind of raise the whole "are people just going to university to study their hobies" issue. Still maxminis probably not the best place to bring that up and it is completely off topic. Still sounds good. | |
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Teflon Jeff
Warlord
7146 Posts
Idaho. Yes, we have Gamers in Idaho.
| | 05/23/2006 4:23 PM |
| | Barnes and Noble, or Maybe Border's, had a class like this a while back, only it was an online course. Seems like a great idea. Maybe I'll try ot do it at my local U. | |
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kniterangr
Warrior
285 Posts
| | 05/23/2006 5:40 PM |
| Back in 81-82 our local community college had a class like this. I participated by creating an adventure for those in the class to go through. It was a lot of fun. Before that when I was in High School we created a gaming club and got a teacher to sponsor us so we could use a classroom after school (from like 3-5pm) and a bunch of us would play D&D then. In Junior High we would get a reading room in the school library and play D&D during our lunch hour. Ok I am old but still enjoy the game.
I have not checked the local schools to see if there is anything like it today. Maybe we should develop the course and have different Maxminis' members offer it to the local schools?? | |
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zenthrus
Commander
4836 Posts
SLC, UT
| | 05/23/2006 6:09 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Teflon Jeff
Barnes and Noble, or Maybe Border's, had a class like this a while back, only it was an online course.
Barnes and Noble offered the course. Free, online course taught by one of the game designers.
I cannot imagine WotC would object to anything that potentially stimulates sales. If this was going to happen at an FLGS, no one would bat an eye. Good for the FLGS, good for the gaming community, good for WotC. At a college, you have even greater access to new players. Again, good for everyone. [^] | |
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Bert the Troll
Commander
3858 Posts
Adelaide
| | 05/23/2006 8:31 PM |
| You may want to look at the Afternoon Adventures With Dungeons & Dragons http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/library for extra suggestions.
They might be a good first contact for the legal stuff as well, as an informal class at a uni matches fairly well with library classes.
I think the main potential difficulty would be if you are getting paid for teaching the course. As hand outs and the like in gaming books often explicitly state they are only allowed to be copied for non profit. Edit: Of course if they were generated/designed by you that would be okay.
Fair use would probably cover extracts from the text of the D&D kit manuals and notes from the DM for Dummies book..
Not that I really think the RPG police will bust you for extra copies of Redgar, some uni's are (should) be concerned with such.
The lesson plans look okay. How many people would you be trying or expect to get. If it was larger number you would want to teach the DMing earlier and have them splinter off.
Take theme music with you. Take hand outs describing what role playing is. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role_playing_games is a good start) And the differences between Pen and paper role play games compared with computer games, reading, drama, board games.
Use of a laptop with data projector would simplify demonstrations & would be worth looking at the wizards flash demo (http://www.wizards.com/playdnd/playdnd.asp) as that does a very good job imo and don't such a bad idea to have playing while you give the hand outs.
I agree that the basic game is a brillant tool for teaching D&D and is the right way to go about it.
Godo luck [:)] | |
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