This is Dr CJ over in Thailand and I have a great idea of training/teaching MBA and Public Admin PhD student about wicked problems using GURPS as well as training the Thai Air Force Academy cadets d20 future. The idea is creativity is at its max and critical thinking is prime also - hay look at the last few months in Thailand and its very certain that these guys never learn to think about the future or about how ill-defined problem solving could be learned by fight a monster or playing a SpyCraft episode - so is anyone out there doing this kind of stuff - I have presented paper at 2 conference and it seems to be like by all... INPUT PLEASE!!!
Thank a Million
Dr CJ
I made up a very simple RPG for teaching English as a foreign language and it worked pretty well (just 2 pages of black biro scribblings). It used adjectives as traits and random encounters which were again rolled up. The fact hat the dice told them what happened stopped them getting creative block, made them laugh and kept things moving.
You need to emphasise "challenge the player" over "challenge the character" a lot. Simpler games where less system knowledge (like knowing the best feats, spells and class combinations in D20) and more common sense knowledge would be better than D20 or GURPS in my opinion. For example in D20 choosing to pump a few points in several skills is a bad move because of the system, but it's not such a stupid thing to do from a common sense standpoint.
Well, why think about the future?
What might be striking is asking them to write down three reasons why they don't need to think about the future.
When they look at what they've written themselves, they might not seem to be such good reasons.
Hay great input - yes I will try these ideas, even getting them to think past next week is always a challenge so I think the 3 things is good. I do have much simpler game engines - The Pool, Pace and several diceless engine too - maybe if I start them out quickly and simple then later I can go for the more complex game engines like d20 and GURPS - again thaks to all for the input - no over here even has a clue what I am trying to do so it great to be able to talk to like thinking mind- Cheers!
Actually my suggestion was a bit blunt - what might be better is that they are to think of a character who doesn't think about the future, and write three reasons why that character doesn't think about the future.
The whole character thing grants a little distance from it ("Oh, it's not me, its the character") but at the same time, perspective. Also it better ties in with your idea of playing than before.
Wow, teaching problem-solving skills and RPG-style creative output at once sounds hard. Good luck! On the problem-solving end, you might want to warm up with good strategic board or card games. Clue is good for simple deduction, poker is good for complex odds, and a lot of video game encounters are strong on the "lose to a monster, learn more about it, form better strategy, lose again but refine strategy further, repeat until victory" front.
A creative warm-up could be Balderdash, where you try to invent convincing word definitions.