After-School Universalis

[Judd]

Bought Universalis about an hour ago.

I run an after-school program for grades 7-12 and I just bought Universalis in hopes of putting it out there and seeing if they'll dig it.

Hopefully, I will get to help them through a first game and then they'll understand it enough to just run with it on their own.

Worse comes to worse and I'll have this intriguing game on my shelf for myself.

We'll see and I'll letcha know.

[Mike Holmes]

That's so cool. One can only hope that it will provide a framework in which the kids can really expand their creativity.

Y'know, I just happened to be looking at The Escapist, the gaming advocacy web site today, due to Raven's post about how he's being forced to ban RPG content. One typical problem of trying to get RPGs into schools is that they are associated with fantasy, and the occult, etc. Universalis can be correctly billed as a Storytelling game, and as such potentially avoid any such stereotyping (who could be against Storytelling?). In fact the text has just the one odd example of play, which is pretty innocuous. And the fact that the avatar factor is reduced in Universalis means that there can be less accusations of addiction leading to bad behavior (all not true for RPGs, but nonetheless we know the perception exists).

Anyhow, maybe Universalis might possibly provide a step through the door for such games in places where they were formerly problematic.

What's the climate in your neck of the woods regarding RPGs in general, Paka? Any chance this will be a litmus test? Or do they have little problem with such activities as it stands? I'd like to see if we couldn't get it into schools where RPGs are banned (you'd be surprised at how many places have done this despite it being potentially illegal; again, see The Escapist).

Interesting.

Mike

[Judd]

When I first got into my job I let the kids who play D&D and Magic: The Gathering know that their games would be welcome at my program and that I'd help them in any way I could.

So far, so good.

I have sensed some anti-gaming vibes but no one has told me that I have to ban games in my program.  

I also let the gaming kids know that eventually someone was going to get upset at us for gaming.  Someone was going to say that it was bad.  I told tthem that it was a great hobby and nothing was at all wrong with it.  I also told them to watch their content a bit, so as not to give people any ammunition to use.

Be proud to be gaming and be smart about your gaming.

Again, so far, so good.

I am excited to see how Universalis works.  Should be fun.

Time will tell.

P-