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Because of the responses in this thread I wondered how many other Mormons there are among the community and where you guys live at. Myself, I live in Cedar City, Utah.
Because of the responses in this thread I wondered how many other Mormons there are among the community and where you guys live at. Myself, I live in Cedar City, Utah.
I'm not a mormon, but I was trying to view the thread earlier, but for some reason it wouldnt come up when I clicked on it...that might be why the few responses.
I'm not a mormon, but I was trying to view the thread earlier, but for some reason it wouldnt come up when I clicked on it...that might be why the few responses.
Gary just fixed... He is a Rock Star! Thanks for the heads up though.
But wait... Why are you in this thread at all? :D Someone call SLC, we are being monitored! :D
Cool. I had seen you over in the Rhode Island teacher thread, but I had no idea you were LDS. I'm the Second Counseler in the Sunday School Presidency.I read something you posted a long time back and pegged you as LDS. Takes one to know one I guess. I wonder if we find more than a dozen here.
I know there are at least two more who offered their veiw from th LDS standpoint in the other thread and the former owner of my FLGS checks in from timeto time. He was one of the missionaries I mentioned who got to game with Tracy Hickman when Tracy was a ward mission leader.
I'm not a mormon, but I was trying to view the thread earlier, but for some reason it wouldnt come up when I clicked on it...that might be why the few responses.
Gary just fixed... He is a Rock Star! Thanks for the heads up though.
But wait... Why are you in this thread at all? :D Someone call SLC, we are being monitored! :D
<incompetently flees the scene>
I was born is Utah and every member of my entire extended family on all sides are all LDS. I was raised LDS as a kid myself, but my twin sister and I decided it's not the path for us... nothing wrong with it, just not for us.
What's funny is I had guessed this since the sock puppet pic. It's joked amongst the ward and stakes in Georgia (last place I attended) that there's a sixth-sense to spotting other members when you're raised LDS. I guess that sounds silly, but you may have had this experience too.
Another funny thing is that Dale Murphy formerly ofthe Atlanta Braves was LDS, and I went to church with him. His son Shawn and I were pretty good friends and talked about Zelda between bells. I didn't even think of Dale as a celebrity, just the one of the few men taller than I was.
[threadjack]Have any Mormon members of this board ever taken language training for doing their evangelical work (I'm not sure of the correct term) overseas? I met a lot of Mormons in Korea and their Korean was quite impressive. I have some questions about the methodology used. I believe it was quite similar to what we used to call 'the army method'.[/threadjack]
Just curious, do you have other Mormons in your gaming group and how do they react to Pathfinder's grittier plots? My players love it. In fact, they really enjoyed their time living among the drow in SD. My group's attitude seems to be that there must be "opposition in all things" and the more opposition, the better.
[threadjack]Have any Mormon members of this board ever taken language training for doing their evangelical work (I'm not sure of the correct term) overseas? I met a lot of Mormons in Korea and their Korean was quite impressive. I have some questions about the methodology used. I believe it was quite similar to what we used to call 'the army method'.[/threadjack]
Tarren, missionaries who go to overseas missions usually spend several weeks in a complete immersion language environment. We have what is called the Missionary Training Center where they go and are taught the language and while interacting among themselves they are required to speak nothing but Korean, or Spanish, or what ever. They can still use English when talking to those missionaries, like me, who only went to missions in the U.S. Also, the church has begun openning sattelite MTCs where it is econmically and politically feasable to increase the immersion experience.
Just curious, do you have other Mormons in your gaming group and how do they react to Pathfinder's grittier plots? My players love it. In fact, they really enjoyed their time living among the drow in SD. My group's attitude seems to be that there must be "opposition in all things" and the more opposition, the better.
Most of my players handle it pretty well. In fact they keep pushing me to run an evil campaign for them. We had one player who was a little uncomfortable with it, but he has moved on to bigger and better things.
How open are you all about our hobby with people at church?
I find that I am very guarded. I guess I am still gun shy after the crazy 80's. I know it is well past that time, but still...
I would love to get some of the guys from the Elders quorum together for a game. Great guys, but no idea how to sell it.
What is your experience?
I'm first counselor in a Sunday School presidency here in Louisville, KY.
We are currently in an unofficial 'student ward.' Everyone is in dental, optometry, medical programs, etc., so finding anyone with (a) the inclination and (b) the time is very difficult. I'm in a clinical psych doctoral program myself and I only have time to actively participate in PBP games.
How open are you all about our hobby with people at church?
I find that I am very guarded. I guess I am still gun shy after the crazy 80's. I know it is well past that time, but still...
I would love to get some of the guys from the Elders quorum together for a game. Great guys, but no idea how to sell it.
What is your experience?
I know a few people at church who might play, but I have never brought it up. I also feel wierd about it because of the 80's.
I was raised a Mormon (although it has played little or no part in my adult life) and I have lived my entire life in Utah. I was born and raised in Moab and I currently live in Provo, just a few miles south of BYU.
As for gaming, most of the people that I play with are Mormons. Considering where I live, it isn't very surprising that most of the people that I game with are Mormons.
I'm in a singles' ward, so it's easier for me to find gamers in the ward. Although currently the only Mormon other than myself in my games is my girlfriend, many of my gaming groups in the past have been all Mormons, including when I first started DMing. I have been asked lately to start an evil campaign by my Mormon friends too, interestingly enough.
Somewhere in my teens my father challenged me to come up with a BoM type RPG. I was all on board and thought it might be fun. I went to him to ask about converting some aspect of the priesthood into cleric spells and his support cooled considerably. :)
It has been done. I have a friend that I used to game with that had a younger brother that did run a BoM campaign. I didn't play in it so I have no idea how they handled divine magic or clerics. I also ran across a website mentioning a Runequest campaign called "Lamenties' Lament." (Don't bother looking for it. The website no longer exists.)
Checking in! I'm from Los Angeles, but I'm currently in England for grad school. Just got called as a nursery teacher, and loving it.What part of England are you in? I was stationed in East Anglia with the military for two years.
I'm at Oxford.
To answer Sigil's question, I don't think I'm any more guarded about it with friends from church than I am with friends from outside church. With people my age, I find I need to fear more the utter disdain at the extent of my nerdiness than shock at my horrible, evil hobby. And that reaction isn't limited to members. I only had one person at BYU ask me about it, and they were pretty satisfied when I reassured them that no devil worship was involved.
I can't seem to get a game going here, but I'd happily draw from both LDS and non-LDS, as long as we all have a healthy imagination and a good sense of story, and that's how I try to sell it. As a really creative and imaginative hobby. I'm less worried about being judged than I am finding people who would really be good at/enjoy it.
, I studied Japanese.
Great.
I heard from my buddies overseas that this involved several hours a day for several months. How many hours for how many months?
Was the teaching mostly oral or did you have a written text?
Were you expected to listen and repeat or did you have to figure out what to say and how to say it?
Was there time each day to speak with a 'native speaker' of the language in free conversation? How much of the day?
I'm just trying to get a grip on what method was used.
Also, how comfortable were you / are you speaking Japanese after the program?
I'm a bout as far removed from the religion as you can get, though several members of my old group are practicing LDS. There are a few locals I'm pretty sure are LDS, though mostly they play GURPS and wow, and in both cases I think I'd rather tear parts of my body off with a rusty spoon than play. I'm in wyoming though, so not that far from utah.
How open are you all about our hobby with people at church?
Fairly open when we are looking for a player. I think most people in the ward know that we play, but I don't want people to feel bad if I don't invite them. When I have invited someone, their biggest concern is that they are beginners and are afraid it will be too hard a game to learn. A former bishop's son used to work for WOTC and I know our EQ president has written his own campaign. I just don't bring up the old prejudices and worries from the 80s, and it hasn't really come up.
It depends on the language. Assuming a missionary is from the USA or Canada and a native English speaker, their first stop will be the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. They will study there roughly 14 hours a day, every day, for a number of weeks dependent on the difficulty of the language. It can range from 8 weeks for those learning Spanish or French, to 13 weeks for those learning Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, or Finnish. Once they are in-country, they continue with daily language study. This is at the direction of the Mission President (a volunteer priesthood leader who oversees proselyting in a large geographic area), and generally ranges from 30 minutes to 2 hours a day. They will do this every day until they come home 2 years later.
Teaching is primarily oral, with a few visual aids. Written texts and pamphlets are left with the investigator (person hearing the lessons) to read and ponder in-between lessons.
The language study is a mixture of rote memorization and natural learning. While most will argue that one method is superior to the other and vice versa, I think that a mixture is the best. A great deal of emphasis is placed on a missionary developing their own teaching 'voice,' but formal lesson texts are available for those who wish to memorize something when their language abilities are still developing. As far as daily conversation and interacting with locals, this was very free-form. A new missionary is paired with a senior companion who guides and assists them in their study (generally making sure they don't embarrass themselves).
Most of a missionary's day is spent in natural conversation with native speakers. My mission heavily emphasized door-to-door and street contacting, so I spent upwards of 10-12 hours a day initiating conversations with locals. That kind of intense immersion produces VERY fast results. Also, I was blessed to have numerous companions who were Japanese natives. So even during mealtimes or when the workday was finished, I was still speaking my language.
I came home from Japan in December of 2003 and I am still very comfortable speaking Japanese. I can even still read most of the scriptures. I was able to test out of Japanese 101, 102, and 201 when I returned home. I took 202 but didn't even attend class, just showed up for the final and passed it.
In short, it is simply guided immersion. While most people who 'immerse' in a language do so as students, they do not necessary have a purpose or goal beyond learning the language. As a missionary, you have a job to do. One that you take very seriously. Learning the language then becomes a step in achieving your higher goal. Rather than wandering aimlessly about the country learning the language (which I saw a lot of over there) you are much more focused. Because it is work, and not fun, you see much more improvement in a shorter time frame.
Whew! Does that answer your questions?
It depends on the language. Assuming a missionary is from the USA or Canada and a native English speaker, their first stop will be the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. They will study there roughly 14 hours a day, every day, for a number of weeks dependent on the difficulty of the language. It can range from 8 weeks for those learning Spanish or French, to 13 weeks for those learning Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, or Finnish. Once they are in-country, they continue with daily language study. This is at the direction of the Mission President (a volunteer priesthood leader who oversees proselyting in a large geographic area), and generally ranges from 30 minutes to 2 hours a day. They will do this every day until they come home 2 years later.
Teaching is primarily oral, with a few visual aids. Written texts and pamphlets are left with the investigator (person hearing the lessons) to read and ponder in-between lessons.
The language study is a mixture of rote memorization and natural learning. While most will argue that one method is superior to the other and vice versa, I think that a mixture is the best. A great deal of emphasis is placed on a missionary developing their own teaching 'voice,' but formal lesson texts are available for those who wish to memorize something when their language abilities are still developing. As far as daily conversation and interacting with locals, this was very free-form. A new missionary is paired with a senior companion who guides and assists them in their study (generally making sure they don't embarrass themselves).
Most of a missionary's day is spent in natural conversation with native speakers. My mission heavily emphasized door-to-door and street contacting, so I spent upwards of 10-12 hours a day initiating conversations with locals. That kind of intense immersion produces VERY fast results. Also, I was blessed to have numerous companions who were Japanese natives. So even during mealtimes or when the workday was finished, I...
Yes. Many, many thanks. I needed to know this.
Somewhere in my teens my father challenged me to come up with a BoM type RPG.
[tangent] Ye olde World of Darkness (since destroyed and revamped) had an order of Mormons who used sorcery (theurgy, really, they certainly didn't think of it as 'magic'). Supposedly, Utah was less infested with the various supernatural beasties than the average grimy little corner of the WoD as a result of this group, as they were much better organized than the average clique of sorcerer-types. [/tangent]
Somewhere in my teens my father challenged me to come up with a BoM type RPG.[tangent] Ye olde World of Darkness (since destroyed and revamped) had an order of Mormons who used sorcery (theurgy, really, they certainly didn't think of it as 'magic'). Supposedly, Utah was less infested with the various supernatural beasties than the average grimy little corner of the WoD as a result of this group, as they were much better organized than the average clique of sorcerer-types. [/tangent]
That is a lot cooler then what happened on starship troopers (No spoilers, sorry, you just gotta watch it). My vote?
THIS.
Somewhere in my teens my father challenged me to come up with a BoM type RPG.[tangent] Ye olde World of Darkness (since destroyed and revamped) had an order of Mormons who used sorcery (theurgy, really, they certainly didn't think of it as 'magic'). Supposedly, Utah was less infested with the various supernatural beasties than the average grimy little corner of the WoD as a result of this group, as they were much better organized than the average clique of sorcerer-types. [/tangent]
Wow! That is a really amazing idea... Thanks for that! It did not make it into the new WoD?
I have also wondered if someone at Steve Jackson Games is LDS. Information about Mormons seems to slip into a lot of the GURPS books from the last edition and it was general just thrown into gneral conversation rather than a specific discussion about the faith.
Edit:OWC's Diomin campaign setting also drew from the Book of Mormon quite a bit. From the main evil racebeing the Gadianti to an evil Zeridite empire, to King Coriantimur, to the gods Akish, Nebo etc. there were lots of BoM refernces. Plus a few references to the movie Hot Shots as well.
Edit:OWC's Diomin campaign setting also drew from the Book of Mormon quite a bit. From the main evil racebeing the Gadianti to an evil Zeridite empire, to King Coriantimur, to the gods Akish, Nebo etc. there were lots of BoM refernces. Plus a few references to the movie Hot Shots as well.
IIRC, I believe Hyrum is LDS, so it shouldn't be coincidental.
Edit:OWC's Diomin campaign setting also drew from the Book of Mormon quite a bit. From the main evil racebeing the Gadianti to an evil Zeridite empire, to King Coriantimur, to the gods Akish, Nebo etc. there were lots of BoM refernces. Plus a few references to the movie Hot Shots as well.IIRC, I believe Hyrum is LDS, so it shouldn't be coincidental.
Yes Hyrum is LDS.
Not to generalize or anything, but I think the name Hyrum should be a giveaway.
Actually I have a brother in law who's name is Hyrum and he's not LDS nor is any of his family. However, his parents are from the Mexican Colonies region so they heard thename from LDS families down there. So yah, maybe that should be a hint.
Hi everyone. Another LDS player checking in here. Currently living in Boise, but I grew up in the Salt Lake City area.
I saw the other thread, posted my thoughts there, and then ventured over to this thread.
I've been playing RPG's on and off since high school and for me it just a game and nothing else, and that is the way that I always think about it. I do have to be careful about how much time I spend in playing and prep, as I can get a little carried away.
We have a pretty diverse group, as far as backgrounds, and we have all become good friends, which to me is the best part of the game.
I have also gotten into playing in pbp games as I would never have the time to play in more then one tabletop game.
And a last note to Tarren Dei. My brother served a mission in Japan in the mid 80's and he can still speak the language well. It does help that he has made friends with several Japanese people since coming home, and when they get together, they speak almost exclusively Japanese.
Language is just like anything else you learn, if you don't use it, then you lose it. I learned so many programming languages going through school, but I'm only proficient in the ones I'm currently using. And the one's that I never used beyond the classroom, it would be like starting all over again if I had to use them.
While I am not a Mormon we do have one of dems in our regular group, though he isn’t a very good one. Doesn’t go to church, drinks caffeine, drinks liquor… though admittedly the last part I played a hand in. But with him, the bad Catholic, the bad Christian with a religious wife, and myself the Agnostic in our core group the main thing we all have in common religion wise is that none of us go to church unless family makes us.