This weekend I was honoured to be able to run a tabletop RPG workshop during the 2018 Symposium for International Languages and Knowledge which was held at Walailak University at Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand. Last year, SILK 2017 was held here in Perlis and was featured on the blog as well. Here are some photos of the event with an actual play report of the game that I ran for the Thai students. The little abstract for the workshop which I submitted a couple of months earlier appeared in the programme book for the symposium. Parallel talk session were underway when I went to scout the room where I was due to run the workshop. I quickly set up the table and then did some last minute game prep for the coming participants. Besides showing off the diversity of RPG systems, these book covers displayed side-by-side on the table can […]
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New RPG Books
Even with a proper job, I still find it difficult to order RPG books (or any type of books online) because of other obligations (i.e. bills to pay). So I thought I should look to alternatives for them. I had complementary copies of book in pdf form so why not we print some of them so we had dead tree versions to hold, touch and read in meatspace. Mini Six I have had Mini Six printed and bound in a comb binding format for many years. I thought it would great to have one perfect bound which would make it look nicer. On cardstock, the back cover of the book looks pretty even without fancy illustrations. Don’t look now, but there is a hell hound in the interior pages. White Star I also printed out White Star by James Spahn. The cover looks epic. The guy on the cover reminded […]
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Mini Six: The Vanishing at Kuala Perlis
Plans are underway at work to create a tabletop RPG actual play video web series to be posted online. Initiated and managed by Bazli, it would be our push to promote role-playing games (RPGs) as language learning tools that would not only be holistic and comprehensive, but fun and immersive when done right. My task is to run the session as a gamemaster (GM) and Bazli will cut the video into encounter-sized bits to be uploaded. To begin with I ran the participants an impromptu session of Mini Six using the pregenerated templates I created for the Doom Agents class. Like the students before them, the participants took the roles of international agents sent on a mission to investigate extraordinary occurrences. Mission Report (in brief) Six agents were sent to Kuala Perlis to look into a phantom island that appears after sunset between the Kurong Tengar beach and Langkawi. A fishing […]
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Mini Six: Rescue in the Rainforest
Mini Six: Doom Agents 03 Rescue in the Rainforest Last time on Doom Agents, four operatives sent to investigate the Eternitech factory deep in the South American rainforest located by the Amazon river had been captured by Eternitech’s security forces led by Hideo Eguchi. After an enemy flashbang grenade did its job in the store room where they were laying an ambush, the four agents found themselves each tied to a chair in the Eternitech factory floor, specifically on a conveyor belt that would lead to a shredding machine. Dramatis Personae Agent Trolala Zelimkhanov, a Chechen driver – Nasha and Nurul Ain Agent Nancy Nassirian, an Iranian fixer – Athirah and Sabrina Agent Adam Mbokota, a South African shooter – Syafiq and Weng Zun Agent Adrien Nicolas, a French hacker – Malvinder and Asyraaf Agent J. Johnson Jonathan, a Nepalese hitter – Alif Agent Harry Wilson, a British talker – […]
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Mini Six: Debacle in the Amazon
Mini Six: Doom Agents 02 Debacle in the Amazon This marks the first time my students have played a second game in a single campaign, although they all played new characters because of a TPK in their first session. Dramatis Personae Agent Trolala Zelimkhanov, a Chechen driver – Nasha and Nurul Ain Agent Nancy Nassirian, an Iranian fixer – Syafiq and Weng Zun Agent Adam Mbokota, a South African shooter – Athirah and Sabrina Agent Adrien Nicolas, a French hacker – Malvinder and Asyraaf A year after the incident in Fukushima, a fresh new group of agents were sent deep into the Amazon in South America. Command was suspicious of the construction of a manufacturing plant owned by the multi-national corporation Eternitech located by the Amazon river. Trolala Zelimkhanov, the elegantly dressed agent, drove their pink Ford Ranger along the private road that would take them to the Eternitech factory. […]
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Mini Six: The Seaside Catastrophe
And so it came to pass that I was given the opportunity to present my ideas for tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) as a language learning tool to the workplace. During the workshop, I also ran a Mini Six session for the participants. For the first time ever, I gamemastered (GM) an RPG session for colleagues, which was something I never thought I would do. This entry chronicles the epic events that transpired in-game during the session: Mini Six: Agents of CIL The Seaside Catastrophe If this actual play report sounds familiar, then it is because it is the same scenario I ran for my class last month. This time though, the pregenerated player characters (PCs) consisted of a whole new mix of agents. Dramatis Personae Alex and Farahhein as Agent Mustonen the Finnish combat medic Sareepa and Masturah as Agent Khoo the Malaysian sniper Ivy and Angela as Agent Takeuchi […]
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Mini Six: A Day By The Sea
Mini Six: Doom Agents 01 A Day by the Sea For the third time I ran a tabletop RPG session for my class using the Mini Six system, and this time I have integrated it with the English curriculum we had. The week’s lesson theme was Natural Disaster and I also had to teach them about Descriptive Essays. The RPG became a teaching tool in this situation, because students were able to interact verbally with each other in the context of the narrative. I did some research on the seaside towns in Fukushima, Japan to prepare for the session. During the game they also had to roll dice to determine that the action they declared succeeded or failed. And then had to write their game experiences as in-universe stories for homework using a structured set of questions I sent them via Google Forms. Dramatis Personae Sabrina as Berry, the scientist Athirah […]
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Mini Six: Shadows Through The Mist
I have always stated that tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) can be amazing teaching tools, not only for language purposes but to develop critical thinking skills, social skills and general knowledge. Yesterday, I finally ran a game in an English for General Purposes class to see the students could be engaged enough for them to communicate with each other and me without being shy. The Setup Seeing that polyhedral dice were rare in these here parts, I thought I would run a game that used the ubiquitous six-sided dice. Thus, AntiPaladin Games’ Mini Six was chosen. Besides, the system is based on West End Games’ D6 system which runs the Star Wars RPG which I have been familiar with for the last 26 years. The previous week the students and I had agreed to participate after briefly explaining to them what the game is, how it would be played and what […]
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