Bringing Gaming (D&D) to High Schools in Japan

[Nish]

To start out, I live in Japan, and I teach English in a Japanese private high school. This is my 5th year teaching and I finally decided to challenge myself and my students. We are gaming. What better way to teach speaking and listening skills?? Now DMing for a class of 40 high school students is not easy, but possible, and amazingly funny and enjoyable.
Since I came here five years ago, I haven't even touched, literally, the 4.0 books. So, we are using D&D 3rd edition, with slight modification to make it playable for a class of Japanese students.
So my main point to this blog is this: Could anybody give me some advice where, besides amazon, I could get some inexpesive 3rd edition PHBs? Also, if by the grace of the gods this is possible, do you think there is anyone out there that would be willing to donate old 3rd edition material to my Japanese Oral Communication classes?
Anyway, thanks for the time! And wish my students luck in their first adventure ;)

[Erevis Cale]

Try Ebay.

If that fails, there are always some... less than legal methods. :D

[Drejk]

Google "system reference document". It is free to download and use while not being full rulebook on paper you should be able to use it for school game. If you don't mind some word processor work you can download all rtf files and make them into single pdf file with bookmarks for convenience.

[BenignFacist]

Hello!

I am teaching in Taiwan - I will be also be teaching in Japan soon.

I have use DnD based roleplay sessions to teach English successfully for about a year now. However, my learners are much younger (around 10-12) and we don't get long to play.

What I did was use the basic concept of a pen and paper rpg and adapt it for the class room, using various colour marker pens as randomisers and giant simplified character sheets knocked up on the white board.

In this way I've run games for 15-17 people at once.

::

As far as materials go - I found the online Paizo stuff a real winner (SRD/system doc etc).

However I've had to strip things down to the bare bones - the game system resembles All Flesh Must Be Eaten more than Pathfinder, simply because Pathfinder is overly complex for what I need to do, i.e get the using English, introduce new words, engage a large number of learners etc etc

::

Where abouts are you in Japan? :D

*shakes fist*

[Nish]

I am in Yamaguchi. It is at the tip of Honshu next to Kyushuu. Where will you be going? Teaching English I take it. :)
This is my first time around teaching English using gaming. I have simplified the character sheets, but they are still pretty complicated. I have a lot of bugs to work out of the system, but it is not bad for starts.
I am lucky the room I work in is well equipted. We have an over head projector where I have the map put on the big screen. I had them draw up their characters and I scanned them in so I can move then around the map and whatever they are fighting. It gets their attention plus it is great for them to tell me what they are doing and how they are doing it.
How long have you been teaching abroad?

I will give the online paizo a try.. plus the 3rd edition downloads. FREE at my finger tips... what couldbe better!

THANK YOU

[Drejk]

You could probably ignore most mechanical parts for some time, as they are of lesser importance for your task (and woyuld teach less ussed vocabulary not to mention adding some bad associations with certain words (level comes to my mind first... I wonder why ;) and focus more on roleplaying.

[Can I Call My Guy Drizzt?]

That's a great idea! And I agree with the poster above.. that maybe focusing more on collaborative storytelling/RP might be the best way to go at first. For fights, instead of going around the class rolling forever, maybe have groups of students run one character together? and each time around one of the group decides on the character's actions that round?

[Drejk]

Maybe after a few sessions to show them (those who do not actually play) how gaming session looks like try to split the class into smaller groups with their own GMs? Hmm, 40 nicely divides into eight groups of four players with single GM each.

[GeraintElberion]

BenignFacist wrote:

Hello!

I am teaching in Taiwan - I will be also be teaching in Japan soon.

I have use DnD based roleplay sessions to teach English successfully for about a year now. However, my learners are much younger (around 10-12) and we don't get long to play.

What I did was use the basic concept of a pen and paper rpg and adapt it for the class room, using various colour marker pens as randomisers and giant simplified character sheets knocked up on the white board.

In this way I've run games for 15-17 people at once.

::

As far as materials go - I found the online Paizo stuff a real winner (SRD/system doc etc).

However I've had to strip things down to the bare bones - the game system resembles All Flesh Must Be Eaten more than Pathfinder, simply because Pathfinder is overly complex for what I need to do, i.e get the using English, introduce new words, engage a large number of learners etc etc

::

Where abouts are you in Japan? :D

*shakes fist*

I would love to see any resources or lesson plans that you have.

[jhpace1]

If you wish to grab the students' attention may I suggest a few episodes of the following anime?

Rune Soldier (Mahō Senshi Riui, aka Magical Soldier Louie) (2001) by Ryo Mizuno. Very close to the 3.0 system. There's your classic paladin, rogue, cleric, and a fighter/wizard with an INT of 10.

Ragnarok the Animation (2004). Although not 3.0, it does show level one characters climbing their way up the ladder to mid-level (12-16) over the course of the series. The protagonist becomes a fighter2/paladin12 while the female lead is a cleric; ranger, anti-paladin, special material weapons, prestige classes, etc. are all shown.

Things to not view: the so-called "Dungeons and Dragons" movie.

As for hardback books, I wish you had posted back in May 2010, before I sold all of mine. :-)

[BenignFacist]

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Nish wrote:

*stuff!*

I will be teaching in Tokyo and my gf is going to be studying at ABK Japanese Language Institute.

I've been teaching for nearly a WHOLE YEAR in Taiwan, at a nightmare little private school in Pingtung. The teaching is fun but they lied about the hours and the boss lady is.. well, she's a nightmare! :D

Beware the Chiba Language School - Pingtung! O_O

GeraintElberion: I'll write something up and post it somewhere on these boards. I started to write a small guide but soon got distracted!

However, at the moment I am stressing over Japan, finances and VISAs..

...I will get something up 'sometime' tho.

The general plan is part Barnum part Storyteller. A few simple rules help keep things under wraps:

Both hands on the table if you're involved in an extended action (searching, reading a spell book, digging etc)

Hand in the air for the chance to talk (of course!)

Everyone get's 3 Pips of health (Keeping it simple is essential when you're dealing with 15-17 people at a time.)

Tasks/success are determined by making a number of games of 'pick a hand' - One hand holds the blue pen, the other the red. Getting the red at any point results in a failure to perform the task/action. The more 'picks' they must make, the harder the task etc

Damage is either a flat number or dice driven - we've brought a giant foam D6 into play recently. I'll be phasing out the pens in place of Target Difficulties and Skill Checks soon.

I use the skill set I picked up from a previous life working in the computer games industry to knock up maps, illustrate concepts and generally aid communication. We're pretty starved of useful tools and have zero internet use - however, with the proper support we could really set something fancy going.

Interestingly, they track EVERY item and event themselves. They really love it! Having to explain the pros/cons between a repeating crossbow and harpoon gun to students is great fun.

Obviously, knowing your target audience/learners is a must - you can then assign roles to help manage things (take-charge girl gets the staff that requires two people to operate and can stun monsters, the three boys who love anime get the harpoon/crossbow/mace etc)

Keeping it abstract is also a must - a piece of plate armour grants the learner an extra two health pips, the extra layers of clothing make climbing hard (extra 'pick of pen') but soften falls (reduce damage by 1) etc

As long as they don't catch on that it's all a cunning ruse to get them talking and engaged with the lesson then all is well! However, I did have to preempt some rumor control: I made sure they tell they're parents that we are doing 'Langue Exchange Exercise'... the parents would knee-jerk freak if they heard 'We're playing games!'

Fist shaking. Lots of fist shaking..

*shakes fist*

[GeraintElberion]

BenignFacist wrote:

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snip

No worries.

Don't feel you have to make anything for me.

Sounds like fun, you should have applied for work at my aunt's school.

I'm thinking of doing something RPG-ish while teaching the Beowulf story to 11/12 year olds.

[jemstone]

Having seen the amusement going around the R. Talsorian offices many moons ago following the results of RPG conversions to Japanese audiences (Cyberpunk, Mekton Z, etc)... I have to warn you - all of my experience with the Japanese RPG culture tells me that they will very soon figure out a way to game your system and create the most devastatingly effective and optimized characters you can ever hope to encounter.

Not that that's a bad thing, mind. ;)

("So, our playtest group today wonders why Solos do not simply equip only with grenades - it is -3 to roll for every action after first action. We throw 10 grenades per turn for -27 to final roll, but grenade only deviates by small fraction, so target is guaranteed explosion victim." <-- Word for word explanation of why Grenades were better than Guns after Cyberpunk 2020 went to Japan)

Please keep us updated on this experiment of yours! I'd love to know how it turns out!

[Nish]

Actually I do have the kids in groups. It would be insanity if 40 kids had their own character.
I let them pick thier groups of 4 to 7 people, and together they rolled up and created their characters. I got two classes with 5 groups, and one class that has 8 groups. About perfect for a game.
As for actions, the person who is speaking and who is rolling the dice stands for that round. Once the round passes the person to their left stands and talks and rolls the dice, and they get to sit down. They get to decide together on what they are doing, but only one person talks for the group at a time.
I have a little hour-glass which I use for each turn. It is about a minute long, so they have that to decide on what to do, but if they take too long then they are passed for that turn. In one class it worked well, gave the one group time to think while the other's knew what they were doing. In another class I didn't even need to use the hour-glass because they were on top of things.
Right now I am focusing on just describing the area and having them describe what they are doing. It is a bit of a hack and slash with a few riddles and some English grammar traps thrown in there.
Getting more into the roleplaying would be great though!!
These are my thrid year students, which means they will be graduating in a few months. Next year I hope to start my next set of kids a bit earlier so maybe by the last semester they understandthe game well enough to break up in groups and run their own games.
jhpace1 thank you for the advice on what to watch!!
BenignFacist: you gaming sounds like a lot of fun!! And as long as they are learnign while they are playing a game... it is all good.
Good luck with the visa and good luck sticking it out at that private school.

[BenignFacist]

Nish wrote:

BenignFacist: you gaming sounds like a lot of fun!! And as long as they are learnign while they are playing a game... it is all good.
Good luck with the visa and good luck sticking it out at that private school.

Thank you - but please, don't tell them they're learning...

..it's secret!

I like your way of managing the large classes.

We've just hooked up an OHP with a net-ready laptop so..

..TTopRPG anyone? Hmmm...

GeraintElberion: That, looks like a lovely place to teach. I've put the details into my 'Places to apply when I return to Taiwan' folder!

*shakes fist*