This has nothing to do with Amazing Tales. But if you play the Zweihander Roleplaying game and you’d like a one page, form fillable character sheet I’ve made one. (This post has been updated 5 April 2019)
Zweihander Character Sheet
Game resources
DriveThru RPG Metal Tiers
Since Amazing Tales has now earned all the various ‘best selling’ metal badges from Drive Thru RPG, and since I see questions about this pop up from time to time I thought it might be useful to explain exactly how they work.
The metal badges are based on how many copies your game has sold. That does include products sold at a discount, but it doesn’t include products sold for free or ‘at cost’. So the dozen copies you bought for yourself to send to reviewers aren’t included.
Amazing Tales Lesson Plan
Just before the summer I wrote about Amazing Tales in the classroom. In particular what happened when my friend Baz Stevens of the Smart Party podcast ran a game for his class.
In that post I promised that a lesson plan would be forthcoming, and here it is. Baz provides some explanation:
“I’ve attached the files for my lesson planning for the Amazing Tales lessons. I pitched these at my year 4 class and it went down incredibly well. I think it could be run as-is for any year in Key Stage 2 (7-11). Teachers looking at this will be able to see what’s going on, and will adjust for their own differentiation and text subject. Mine’s sci fi, but they can do whatever.
I’ve also included two Smartnote files. This is a commonly used teaching software that can be used on interactive whiteboards. The second file is full of imagery which the teacher can use to spur on the story. I only used two or three in the lesson myself, but they’re all there if needed. Again, teachers can and will customise to suit.”
Table psychology
While searching the internet for resources on role-playing games and young children I found this great series of videos by Megan Connel of Geeks Like Us.
In her words the videos deal with
“how you as a dungeon master can be more supportive of your players to make your table a more inclusive place for everybody”
To which I would add one, big, caveat. When I run games I don’t want to feel I’m taking on responsibility for the players’ mental well being. But, when I’m part of a group, I want to feel that I’m doing my bit to make it a supportive and inclusive place. So when I watched these videos I mentally replaced ‘dungeon master’ with group member, and then it was all awesome.
I haven’t watched them all yet, but the videos on dealing with players who have problems with math or reading, depression or anxiety all seemed smart and useful, and include the important advice that sometimes it’s time to get a professional involved.
While it may not seem obvious that these issues will apply to the four and five year old players of Amazing Tales, they might. Anxiety is definitely something small kids can get when faced with something new (like a role-playing game, or a dragon), and as soon as you have two kids you have group dynamics.
Plus as kids get older they’ll probably want to play other games. I imagine my future will involve running games for groups of pre-teens and teenagers, and these videos look like useful advice to me.
So, a collection of useful videos on issues that affect lots of people. What’s not to like?
Experience, don’t show
Traditional communications advice is ‘show, don’t tell’. That’s because we’re much more likely to believe things we’ve seen than things we’re just told about. In role-playing games we can go a step further. Our players can experience the things we want to communicate. And that insight can help us create better adventures.
In Amazing Tales I describe a ‘play to find out what happens’ approach to storytelling. But if you have got specific goals for a story that might need adjusting. These goals could be educational – ‘Learn that the vikings were great sailors and explorers and the first Europeans to reach Canada’; or they could be about introducing part of your game world – ‘learn that the land beyond the mountains is populated by ogres’; or it could be about moving a big piece of plot forward, ‘Learn that the Temple of Solitude is governed by the same cult that also controls the king’.
Three puzzles for great games
I find adding puzzles to games for adults one of the hardest things about writing games. My players just know far too much. But when I’m gaming with kids it’s suddenly a lot easier, setting them in game challenges that really make them think is just a matter of realising what they haven’t learned yet.
Here are three simple tools to add puzzles to role-playing games for your kids