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[⚔Swords⚔] Three family-friendly board games you should absolutely check out

FeaturedJim L. Leave a comment

For non-gamers, there’s a whole world of tabletop games out there that might seem intimidating to dive into. Even as a seasoned and regular gamer, I occasionally find myself struggling to keep up with the introduction of new games. Nevertheless, there are a few games that I keep coming back to, and which over the last few years I often use in the classroom during the kids’ break time. In today’s post, I’m highlighting three such games—great family-friendly games that are very affordable—so if your kid is sick of Scrabble or Monopoly, you might want to have a look at these. Continue reading “[⚔Swords⚔] Three family-friendly board games you should absolutely check out” →

[⚔Swords & Stationery✐] Learning from the post-apocalypse

Jim L. Leave a comment

I’ve been quite fascinated by the post-apocalyptic genre ever since I played the first Fallout game; subsequently I ventured into post-apocalyptic cinema, starting with Mad Max, then moving on to The Road Warrior. Despite the genre’s inherently violent, grim-dark and/or over-the-top overtones, there is a lot of underlying social commentary to be found if one explores the material. It is for this reason that I think it deserves to be introduced to older students.

Continue reading “[⚔Swords & Stationery✐] Learning from the post-apocalypse” →

[⚔Swords & Stationery✐] “Visual cards” as gaming and teaching aids

Jim L. Leave a comment

When playing tabletop RPGs, I use and re-use these handouts which I call “visual cards” to better illustrate the imagery of the scene. However, I’ve also found visual cards to be very helpful and, more importantly, cost-effective when teaching various concepts. Read on to find out more about them. Continue reading “[⚔Swords & Stationery✐] “Visual cards” as gaming and teaching aids” →

[⚔Swords⚔] Getting players to be personally invested in the game

Jim L. Leave a comment

About a year ago (has it really been that long?!), I brought up the empowerment effects that RPGs can have on learners and their self-esteems. One caveat: empowerment isn’t necessarily assured if there’s no personal investment in the game. Let’s look at what might go wrong, and how we can fix that.

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[✐Stationery✐] Filtering Out Irrelevant Information – Part 2

Jim L. Leave a comment
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Source: Wikimedia Commons / chris 論

In my previous post, I talked about the preliminary steps towards cutting out information bloat — in a nutshell, before one can distill anything useful from the mass of information, one should know the expectations and requirements of the (sub-)topic(s) that he/she is studying for. Failure to do so would make it difficult to identify helpful information, and, by extension, make it more difficult to revise for that subject.

This follow-up to last week’s post is going to examine what the learner needs to do to actually distinguish relevant from irrelevant information.

Continue reading “[✐Stationery✐] Filtering Out Irrelevant Information – Part 2” →

[👁RFI👁] Roll For Insight: A Preview of Lagging Dice’s Gatekeepers

Jim L. Leave a comment

Several months ago, I was contacted by Ilya Bossov of Lagging Dice, asking if I’d like to playtest their first and newest game, Gatekeepers. I was intrigued, of course — I’d never been a playtester before. However, I kept putting it off, being a terrible procrastinator by my own guilty admission. It was only today that I finally finished reading the rules and gave it a test drive, solo, without a group.

If you want the condensed version of my thoughts, the game is unique, in a good way, being that it uses card-based mechanics (not poker cards, but rather special cards designed by Lagging Dice themselves). Want the longer version? Read on!

Continue reading “[👁RFI👁] Roll For Insight: A Preview of Lagging Dice’s Gatekeepers” →