It is now the semester break and with help from my colleagues, I was able to organise a Tabletop Roleplaying Game Training Workshop (Bengkel Latihan Permainan Penglipur Lara) at the office. Usually I had to both organise and run the game, which means more time for game prep. Thankfully, this time I was joined by our guest GM from Penang, Ahmad Danial A. Ghafar. One day, Danial searched for application of RPGs in education in Malaysia and came across my MAHSA University talk. He reached out and I discovered he has the same aspirations to use RPGs as a tool for teaching and learning. So, I invited him to run a game for our workshop. We had five participants, Farah, Mastura, Mimi, Hasmizan and Faizal. The first two have played in games I GMed before, but the rest were new to the game. Danial decided on using Quest, the RPG […]
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Hishgraphics Games Training
After carrying out a handful of tabletop role-playing game events for schools, colleagues and such, I believe it is time to offer these services actively instead of sitting down and waiting while I do other stuff. As such, I have created a new YouTube channel. The first video, the intro, has been posted below. I plan on doing interviews with other tabletop gamers concerning education (especially language learning) as well as training and teambuilding. Check out Hishgraphics Games & Training (still not sure about the ampersand). I’ll try my best to upload new (and old) videos about my running tabletop RPGs and other such events. Please subscribe and wish me luck for my future plans.
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AOR: The Intelligent Tree Whisperers
AGE OF REBELLION The Intelligent Tree Whisperers It was mid-semester break. Although the students are on a week-long break, we teachers still have work to do. So we set up a Tabletop RPG Workshop for any teacher to join, stretch their imagination and communication skills and have a bit of fun. So I ran an Age of Rebellion roleplaying game session for my colleagues using the Beginner Box material. Dramatis Personae Fal – a Human ace pilot who once lived on Ryloth in the same city as Oskara. (Nana) Lorick – a Wookiee hired gun, whose family was taken to be science experiments and slaves to build Imperial cities. (Shih Min) Oskara – a green-skinned Twi’lek bounty hunter, whose home city on Ryloth was bombed by the Empire. (Farah) Pashten – a Human smuggler, who was rebelling against cruel Imperial taxes. (Faten) Reyhana – a Mon Calamari engineer, whose people […]
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A Vampire Librarian Named Terry
After the end of our mini Vampire the Requiem RPG campaign, in which our pregenerated characters won the civil war in Atlanta, we started making new characters for a new campaign. It is now 2032, 10 years after the Vampire revolution that overthrew the old blood… I now play Terry McAllister, a Mekhet librarian. He hails from Perthshire, Scotland but was turned while he was on a vacation to the United States. It sucks for him that he cannot return to his homeland… for now. But for the time being, he has a job with the library at Georgia State. Loads of students burning the midnight oil there, easily charmed for nourishment. He does not leave bodies as the victims are not killed. He sucks enough blood to survive, but leaves the students alive though dazed and charmed. Sometimes, he also helps them to study for their exams by pointing […]
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RPG Webinar for Mahsa University
After the meeting with MAHSA University last month, it was finally time to speak at the webinar that they organised entitled: Tabletop Roleplaying Games for Teaching and Learning Languages This was the first time I did an RPGs in education talk for an inter-university programme. Despite how I seemed, I was nervous as heck and spent a lot of time coming up with the slides. A lot of the pages I wrote for it are brand new, requiring not just new text, but also new images. To view the talk on MAHSA University’s YouTube channel, click here. I hope this will be the first of many programmes where I attempt to convince educators of the benefits of employing RPGs as teaching tools.
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Nipah Klasik
We discovered this really neat restaurant recently. The eatery is nestled among a thick grove of nipah plants growing out of a swamp slightly south of Simpang Empat. Besides having food that we found delicious, the actual restaurant was built on stilts over the swamp. Visitors can sit at tables over the water. The water beneath is clean and clear. No bugs bothered us. Though there were some spider webs that Irfan kept his eye on as we had lunch there. Check out the video below for a walk-through of the restaurant over the swamp.
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Lazy Unboxing of Three RPG Starter Box Sets
A couple of days ago I received my order of three tabletop role-playing game starter sets. Three boxes! The Star Trek Adventures RPG Starter Set, Alien RPG Starter Set, and The One Ring Starter Set. I thought I would make an lazy, amateurish video unboxing video of the three games. Here is the video: I hope I DO get to run them soon. Addendum (30th November 2022): SPOILERS – he did NOT get to run them soon.
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Anya Surprises Irfan
Irfan was feeling pretty exhausted physically and emotionally having to study at his college. Well, everyone feels that these days especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has petered out this last few months. So, we thought we’d give Irfan a happy surprise by NOT letting him know that his cousin Anya was coming to visit. Here is the moment, as he was walking to where we usually waited with the car, he realised that we had extra visitors with us: After the meeting everyone went to have dinner at Irfan’s school cafe. Three Days Later… That was three days ago. Earlier today, Irfan and Anya had even more fun at the college car park with a catapult. It shot a plastic rotor toy with blinking lights into the air and, well here’s the video: It was one of the best moments for Irfan living at the school, he told […]
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Anya the Co-teacher
So Anya came over for a visit. I was teaching an online class when they arrived from Selangor. Young Anya entered the room, so I invited her to help me conclude the class I was teaching. This is what happened: Yes, we talked to the students about facehuggers.
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The Expanse RPG: Zakiyah’s Cries One Page Jam
Recently, I submitted a one-page scenario to The Expanse RPG community’s One Page Adventure Jam event. Ian Lemke from Green Ronin and Richard Kirke went through all eight of the submitted scenarios in the YouTube video below. Check out what they have to say about all the adventures. The link below will take us to 00:51:52 where they began to discuss my one-page submission. BUT please watch the video to see what they discuss about all eight adventures. The PDF is entitled “One Page Adventure Collection Volume 1”. It can be downloaded with other free The Expanse RPG goodies from Audun’s link here. Who is Zakiyah? Who is Zabaniyah? What are they doing near the asteroid 9093 Nanyang? Spoiler alert: Needless to say, this is for game masters who wants to read the adventures. Players tread carefully in the sea of spoilers below, oyedeng.
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Doom Agents: A Beautiful Summer’s Day
There was an official event at work today where I ran a tabletop RPG session for some colleagues online. It was an opportunity to show them how could RPGs work in the field of education. I thought for some time about the campaign and setting to play, then decided on the setting I keep running for my students, Doom Agents. Also, instead of Mini Six or Freeform Universal, I opted for Year Zero Mini as the gaming system to use. Last time on Doom Agents, there were two recorded instances of a rescue mission in the Endau-Rompin rainforest where a team recovered one of two missing nuclear warheads. Another team in on the trail of the second warhead… Dramatis Personae In alphabetical order Alice Abdullah, Malaysian spy – Farah Anastasia, Russian medic – Arina Jason, American sniper – Hafiz Jessica Yoo, Korean driver – Najihah Koko, Thai soldier – Hafifa […]
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Doom Agents: The Endau Rompin Rescue (Instance B)
It’s the final week of the semester and I was able to run a game session each for two different classes. This was the second of the two. Click here for the first class. Freeform Universal: Doom Agents (PPIPT5) It is two years after the Brazilian mission. 10th June 2019: Another Doom Agent team is sent to the Endau-Rompin National Park for ANOTHER rescue mission. This time it is the kidnapped daughter of a diplomat. The team of five arrived in Malaysia and set out for their mission immediately. Dramatis Personae In alphabetical order (played by student group names in quotation marks): Captain Kelvin, Soldier – “5Avengers” Dr. Bob, Medic – “Rulebreakers” Jeffrey, Sharpshooter – “Team Alpha” Jet, Thief – “North Team” Sancorn, Enforcer – “Amigos” The Mission Begins It is raining heavily in the thick jungle. Sancorn drives the team in a Toyota Hilux towards the GPS coordinates where […]
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Doom Agents: The Endau Rompin Rescue (Instance A)
It’s the final week of the semester and I was able to run a game session each for two different classes. This was the first of the two. Click here for the second class. Freeform Universal: Doom Agents (IKOM3) What happened to the last Doom Agents team that left on the Brazilian mission. What happened to them, we might never know. However on 10th June 2019, another team was sent to the Endau-Rompin National Park to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a diplomat. The team of seven arrived in Malaysia and set out for their mission immediately. Dramatis Personae In alphabetical order (played byStudent group names in quotation marks): Bevis, Enforcer – “No Boundaries” Black Widow, Medic – “Titans” Captain Price, Soldier – “Team UVW201” Heister, Thief – “Cool Dudes” Jerung, Sharpshooter – “One Hit Wonder” Magnificent, Driver – “Queen Bees” Roye, Technician – “Magellanic Cloud” Watch the video belowto […]
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ART: Xenomorph XX121 Drone
I promised Rania last night I would draw one of these aliens Kane “discovered” on the moon orbiting Calpamos in the Zeta 2 Reticuli system. So here’s a video of said drawing for young Rania. She might be six, but she loves these xenomorph types.
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Year Zero Engine: Guardians of Magic
I was not able to do it last year, but I thought I would run a tabletop RPG for my Theatre Arts students this year. Last Saturday, I invited them all to Discord and I gave them a briefing on how to play the game. For this online session I chose Free League’s Year Zero Engine as my system of choice. This is because I can scale it down enough for them to practice their role-playing. Here is a video recording of the session. It took almost 1.5 hours of actual play time, but I edited out the long pauses, duplicate instructions and action declarations, as well as all my ummmms and uhhhhhs. I edited it down to just under 40 minutes of video. Episode 1 IT’S A DOG EAT DOG WORLD Dramatis Personae Willy Wesley from London Zane from Asgardia Constantine from Moscow Sebastian from Austria Alice from Dubai […]
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The Expanse RPG: Escape From Ganymede
Scheherezade Tales continues with Kazuo Khan played by Irfan incarcerated overnight in a Star Helix jail in the twin-domed colony of Uruk Junction on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede after acquiring information on his missing sister Jirou Khan and tangling with an assailant in a full-body, black combat gear. Meanwhile, the crew of the Keris Gangsa, Captain Furaha Ding, pilot Batbayar Gray and engineer Zoë Mufolosi are worried that Kazuo has not checked in for hours. They would need to take off for their return trip to 643 Scheherezade soon… Here’s a short synopsis of the actual play video of our The Expanse RPG session last night. As per the previous entry, the video itself is embedded at the end of this page! The Expanse RPG 06 Escape From Ganymede Rebel Breakout An unexpected ally, a young 29-year-old Star Helix detective named Kessler, helps break Kazuo out of jail because the Mao-Kwikowski threat. […]
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