One of the things that I noticed when I’ve been writing my recent series for the “Table Reflection” Friday articles here is that I really wanted to cover a lot more stuff than really could go on the blog, and since I like to keep series pretty short, I wasn’t going to be able to continue it, especially since I said at some point that the blog series was going to be for novices. So I’m officially announcing So You Want To Play? as a Moodle web-course.
Obviously, it won’t be an academic-styled course, but it will be a mix of tutorial, general advice, personal studies, and feedback provided within the Moodle framework as well as a general gathering point for more resources and guides; while I attempt to provide the most possible information in the most cogent and condensed form, the fact of the matter is that one class will never encompass the volumes and volumes of knowledge; the additional materials could be said to be a textbook for the class.
Here’s what I know for certain will be included:
- Self-guided lessons in an easy to understand and digest format.
- Assessments to check reading comprehension.
- Additional anecdotes and examples from games.
- Discussion with other course members and myself.
- A list of resources and freebies that I personally recommend.
The course will be entirely self-guided, but content falls into nine topics that walk a player through starting out in the roleplaying hobby, learning and understanding general elements of play, and narrative design for Game Masters. In short, what I hope to do is present an asset that’s the equivalent of being introduced to the hobby by a buddy, but also includes lots of easily reviewed information and interesting content.
Part of the structure of the Moodle course is that it will have a small fee attached; $10 per student, though the first topic may be released free as a preview, just because of the fact that I will manually review questions and discussion boards and give feedback or advice as needed. Plus, it will help pay for my web hosting, ensuring that the course remains available for students well into the future, although I’m able to pay for that with or without the fee.