On this fine Saturday morning, we drove to Taman Tun to the NeoOne Centre for Accelerated Learning. I had previously booked a spot in a workshop entitled “Facilitating Change via Gamification“. The workshop was organised by the Malaysian Association of Facilitators. The event focused to introducing gamification to the various industries in the professional world and I had the opportunity to describe my work in the field of education. Besides that, we played a number of board games, namely Blokus and Decrypto. By learning the rules, the participants were able to express how the game, and the process of gamification, would be able to help in their own fields of work. Perhaps someday I would be able to cooperate with this group of facilitators to further introduce role-playing games as training tools.
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Combat Missions Game
During semester break week, I was assigned to the team that would be teaching a class for a contingent from the Royal Malaysian Army. For my “role play” segment of three hours, I decided to design a card game that doubles as a rudimentary roleplaying game (RPG). Two nights before, I spent up till 0200 hours designing the mechanics and physically producing the prototype cards by hand. There were 7 decks consisting of the Mission Objective deck, Insertion Method deck, Terrain deck, Weather deck, Obstacle deck, Setback deck and Enemy Contact deck. The Mission Objective deck has a target number of between 9 to 11. Each of the other decks has a modifier number anywhere between -3 to +3 depending on the situation on the card. To accomplish the mission on the Objective Deck the player has to roll a twenty-sided dice (d20) equalling or below the target number given. […]
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Gaming at the Geomatics Carnival 2018
Today, the Centre for International Languages was officially invited by Zainee to UiTM Arau nearby for their Geomatics Carnival 2018 exhibition. There was a hobbies exhibition section where I set up shop with tabletop RPGs with my colleague Bazli. I would talk to visitors about using RPGs as a language learning tool. Also, to run games if and when I can. Sharnizan of Serious Games UUM was also present to introduce and sell his product the Ace of Maths game to UiTM students. Though at this point he was explaining the card game to Bazli. There was no dearth of visitors to our tables when the exhibition started. The exhibition organisers even provided Bazli and I with a packed lunch. My usual suspects line up was arrayed for display at their table, eliciting enquiries once in a while. I ran two game sessions for visitors. I ran the Edge of […]
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The Second UUM Incursion
I love tabletop games. I have started to incorporate more tabletop games into my teaching and learning. Suddenly, my friend Shanizan invited me to be a jury member for the Sintok International Games and Gamification Challenge 2017 at UUM. This was nothing less than a great opportunity to be part of the community here. Anyway… After a formal invite had been sent to the workplace, I was now an official representative of the Centre for International Languages at the SIGGC 2017 event at UUM. My colleague Yuzi was also invited to be a member of the jury. Shanizan greeted us when we arrived. After the jury briefing was complete, we went on out assignments: to grade the participants’ games on display. The games ranged from standard tabletop snakes and ladders variants to mecha combat computer games. Yuzi and I brought the Thai interns from the workplace to join the fun. […]
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Tabletop Games Expo at UniMAP
After almost two years in Perlis, there arose an opportunity to host a tabletop game exhibition here at the university. Gray, a gamer I knew and interacted with online back in Kuala Lumpur, planned a KakiTabletop Northern Tour. This tour would take his team and himself from KL to Taiping to Prai to Penang to Perlis and back down to Ipoh before returning to the Klang Valley. We thought it would be great to hold a tabletop gaming exhibition to introduce tabletop games – boardgames, card games and role-playing games – to the students of this university and the local community. If you remember I even once ran Mini Six for one of my classes last semester as a speaking exercise. After proposing the event to the Centre for International Languages, we had the green light to go ahead. With the help of colleagues, we scheduled the Tabletop Games Expo […]
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Aidiladha Games
The second Eid of the year has come and gone. For Hari Raya Haji, we took the bus back to Pasir Mas. But for this Aidiladha post, we focus on games played by Irfan, Aiman and Zara when the cousins rendezvous at their grandparents house in Pondok Lubok Tapah. The bus arrived two hours late at the new Pasir Mas bus terminal as the Eid played havoc with the traffic from Kota Bharu. We arrived home late, but in one piece.
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A Coup Then Hari Raya
On the day of our arrival in Sitiawan, we played some Coup. By the end of the session, we were quite evenly matched. It’s Tyrion. The ambassador is Tyrion. The morning of Aidilfitri, Ain had her galaxy-famous nasi dagang prepared for eating and stuff. Yada, yada, yada… Maaf Zahir Batin. Atok and Opah pose for a photograph with their plants. As usual, photographs such as this need more Adik, Yaya, Sila and Vin to make it complete.
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X-Wing: The Beginner’s Luck Gambit
Last Saturday night’s Star Wars X-Wing Miniature game turned out well. It was Ain’s first game ever so Irfan and I decided to make this a straight up dogfight. No extra cards, no obstacles, no missions. Just blast each other out of the sky with what you have. I played Darth Vader in the TIE Advanced. Irfan was Luke Skywalker in the T-65 X-wing fighter and Ain, to give her an edge over me, flew the YT-1300 freighter Millennium Falcon with the Han Solo card. It turned out that even with Darth Vader’s high initiative number, the Falcon was quite a powerhouse in combat. At first I ignored it and went after the X-wing. We both passed each other at full speed and did a dropkick Koiogran turn, while the Falcon seemed to be swerving out toward the edge of the battlemat. Suddenly she banked right back into the fray. […]
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Tsuro Picnic
Once upon a time, earlier today, Irfan came up with the idea of setting up a mat out in the yard so he and other neighbourhood kids can play board games outdoors. Later, there were even sandwiches and apple juice! Here’s hoping the boardgaming will help Irfan and the other children to improve their social and language skills as they interact with one another. Perhaps someday there will be RPG picnics?
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X-Wing: The Asteroid Gambit
Yesterday, Irfan and I finally started playing the X-Wing Miniature Game that was given to us by Darren when we last visited Kuala Lumpur. What Darren gave us was astoundingly lots, so many thanks to him for letting us have this trove. We started with the basic game. Irfan controlled an Incom T-65 X-Wing fighter and I controlled two Sienar Fleet Systems TIE/ln fighters. His Pilot Card is Luke Skywalker, and mine were “Mauler” Mithel (apparently the father of Reljii Mithel) and Academy Pilot (a strange name to give your son, Mrs. Pilot). We did not carry Upgrade Cards, like astromech droids and proton torpedos. The sculpts for these minis are amazingly detailed. One might even want to collect them because they look very nice indeed. I have seen the Corellian Corvette mini in a box back in KL some time ago and it looks fantastic. And still too expensive […]
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Hari Raya at Pasir Mas
This year I was able to take a full week’s vacation for Eid vacation at Pasir Mas. I was able to take a vacation because I had a job to take a vacation from this year, which is one of the many things I am grateful for this year. We arrived a couple of days early so Ain could work her magic in the kitchen. There was also a lot of orange soda thanks to Abang G. Eid was on a Friday. Irfan and I walked to the masjid, and almost missed the Eid prayers but got into the back line just in time. The first day of Eid there was curried-fried spiral pasta with rendang and ketupat palas. On the second day there was nasi dagang Terengganu, Tok Ma and Ain’s speciality, which was a favourite among visitors! Also, Irfan stunned everyone with his height. Irfan was ecstatic that […]
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Legendary Guardians
On our recent return to the city, the GOKL gang gifted upon us more fun stuff: the Guardians of the Galaxy expansion set for the Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building game. Since then, we never had the opportunity to break it out of the box to play it… until today. The Hero cards included were Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Groot and Rocket Raccoon – thrown into the limelight thanks to last year’s film no doubt. Poor Phyla Vell, Adam Warlock, Bug, Mantis and Cosmo the Space Dog. Pip the Troll was absolutely inconsolable. The Masterminds provided in the set are Thanos the Goonie and the Kree Supreme Intelligence, supported by two Villain sets: Kree and Infinity Gems – the latter able to act as either Villains or Artefacts. Irfan and I played twice, both times against the Supreme Intelligence. The first game against the Intergalactic Kree Nega-Bomb Scheme was […]
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A Legendary Card Game with Marvellous Heroes
Before we left the city, the GOKL guys gifted to us Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game. We tried to play it when they brought it over the last time they visited, but it was too late for a game, we only managed one round before they had to leave. Now, after I’ve located which of the dozens of moving boxes the game was hiding in, Irfan and I finally started playing it. The concept of the game is simple: the city is in peril from a Scheme of one super-powered criminal Mastermind, aided and abetted by other super-villains and henchmen. You purchase and play a number of heroes (with their abilities) to stop this scheme from coming to fruition. Every round, you flip a card from the Villain Deck which start to occupy city locations. Newer villain cards push older cards further into the city. After being pushed five […]
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Aidiladha at the Tenth Floor
Another year, another Aidiladha spent in Kuala Lumpur. There was no balik kampung because of insufficient resources. So yesterday we tried to make the best of it. In the morning, we went for Solat Aidiladha at the Pandan Indah mosque. This morning, for some reason the khatib was not firing all engines. Perhaps he was exhausted. Then it was time for salam hari raya between ourselves. First, Irfan salam and kissed Ain. Followed by the same with me, after which, Ain started cooking some nasi lemak in anticipation of impending visitors. In the afternoon, Irfan’s school friend Fikree and his family, as well as his cousins Aiman and Zara, came a-visiting. Apart from savouring the nasi lemak, Irfan, Fikree and Aiman played some Tsuro while Star Wars Rebels was playing on television. Even young Zara was intrigued by the game. Since boardgaming was pretty fun, the crew moved on to […]
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Mos Eisley Shoot-Out
Peter Schweighofer, who was a writer and editor at West End Games back in the ’90s and the editor-in-chief of their Star Wars Adventure Journal periodical, sent a couple of rare gaming memorabilia to me which I received earlier this month. The first was the Mos Eisley Shoot-Out miniature game. The game is a simple boardgame that came with a paper foldout grid map of the streets of Mos Eisley and cutout miniatures of characters you could play in the environment. The rules were a simplified version of West End Games’ Star Wars The Roleplaying Game combat rules. It was also marketing material that cleverly generates excitement for the RPG itself. I don’t think I’ll be clipping out the paper figures out of the document. And not just because I have other paper minis that I could use for the purpose. I’m uncertain, but the map looks to be a […]
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A Birthday Once More
It’s Irfan’s 12th birthday. We were supposed to set something up for him, like allowing him to invite his friends over. But because of low resources, we had to cancel. But Cikma and Ayah Cik The Younger came with a cake anyway, so we held a small gathering. I was not even in the right frame of mind to take photographs so we do not have photos of the cake. The GOKL group did pass the gift they bought for Irfan, which was the boardgame Tsuro. I did however take a picture of Irfan unboxing and playing Tsuro. We love you Irfan. It’s been a rough year what with – among others – the UPSR fiasco and the absolute unreliability of this country’s education system at this point in time, but we will strive for a better year for you next year. Also, many thanks to everyone who wished him […]
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