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Podcasting from the Intersection of Games and Education.
Episodes
Saturday Jun 29, 2019
Saturday Jun 29, 2019
This week, Chris and Laura continue the conversation about adapting roleplaying games for younger children. We give concrete suggestions for choosing game systems and settings, ways to make the game fun and accessible, and, as usual, tell lots of stories.
Recommended Games:
Cavemaster - This stone age roleplaying game can easily be adapted for younger players, and will work whether their interest is paleontology or the Ice Age movies.
Dungeons & Dragons - This is the fantasy roleplaying game we play the most. We primarily use Basic and Expert rules, with occasional homebrew additions from the first edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Hard copies of the rule books, as well as tons of adventure modules, can be found on eBay or used books sites. Show notes for Part 2 will include links to modern "retro clones" which use similar rule sets. We prefer the "sandbox" style play of the earlier editions of the game because they are more flexible for open-ended play.
Flashing Blades - Looking for something more like The Three Musketeers? Love Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. movies? This is the game to try.
Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game- Title says it all. This is an anniversary edition of the original game. Fantasy Flight Games now publishes several others taking place in different eras of the Galaxy Far Far Away as well, but we are partial to the earlier edition for sentimental reasons.
Can't see the links? Podcatcher turning my painstaking labor into plaintext? Come visit the podcast page at https://played.podbean.com/ and get the full experience, complete with all the links in perfect functioning order.
Intro and Outro Music:
"Crunk Knight" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Wednesday Jun 19, 2019
Wednesday Jun 19, 2019
This week, Chris and Laura start a conversation about adapting roleplaying games for younger children, discuss how Chris became a gamer, talk about the origins of our family gaming group, and lay out just what sort of adjustments need to made when introducing new players to keep the game fun and approachable. This is a two-parter, so stay tuned for the conclusion next week.
Recommended Games:
Dungeons & Dragons - This is the fantasy roleplaying game we play the most. We primarily use Basic and Expert rules, with occasional homebrew additions from the first edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Hard copies of the rule books, as well as tons of adventure modules, can be found on eBay or used books sites. Show notes for Part 2 will include links to modern "retro clones" which use similar rule sets. We prefer the "sandbox" style play of the earlier editions of the game because they are more flexible for open-ended play.
Flashing Blades - Looking for something more like The Three Musketeers? Love Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. movies? This is the game to try.
Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game- Title says it all. This is an anniversary edition of the original game. Fantasy Flight Games now publishes several others taking place in different eras of the Galaxy Far Far Away as well, but we are partial to the earlier edition for sentimental reasons.
Can't see the links? Podcatcher turning my painstaking labor into plaintext? Come visit the podcast page at https://played.podbean.com/ and get the full experience, complete with all the links in perfect functioning order.
Intro and Outro Music:
"Crunk Knight" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Friday May 24, 2019
Friday May 24, 2019
This week, Chris and Laura discuss what to look for when choosing a game for children who are not yet strong readers and realize that most of their favorites are made by Ravensburger. If you have small children and want to find a game that's a little more engaging and replayable than Candyland, this is the show for you.
Recommended Games:
Carcassone (Star Wars Edition)
Kids of Catan (Link is to Amazon. You might want to check Ebay as well. Pricey now that it's an out-of-print collectible.)
Can't see the links? Podcatcher turning my painstaking labor into plaintext? Come visit the podcast page at https://played.podbean.com/ and get the full experience, complete with all the links in perfect functioning order.
Intro and Outro Music:
"Crunk Knight" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Tuesday May 07, 2019
Tuesday May 07, 2019
This week, join Chris and Laura as they discuss how to use games to reinforce geography in education. They talk about how you can spend a fortune on Ticket to Ride, use GeoGuessr to learn real world geography from Google Street View, and take a deep dive into Queen Games' Thebes and how it integrates with an ancient history and geography curriculum.
Recommended Books and Games:
Ticket to Ride - This links to the basic U.S. map. Amazon has several expansions for various geographic regions.
The Ticket to Ride Sodor Map (fan made at BoardGameGeek)
Can't see the links? Podcatcher turning my painstaking labor into plaintext? Come visit the podcast page at https://played.podbean.com/ and get the full experience, complete with all the links in perfect functioning order.
Intro and Outro Music:
"Crunk Knight" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Tuesday Apr 30, 2019
Tuesday Apr 30, 2019
In this week's episode Chris and Laura discuss cooperation and competition in games, the value each can bring to the learning experience, how to help younger players deal with loss, and why all games can be cooperative from a certain point of view.
Recommended Games:
Dungeons & Dragons*
*Dungeons & Dragons, and particularly the adaptations we make for younger players, will require it's own episode. For now, feel free to write us for our recommendations.
Can't see the links? Podcatcher turning my painstaking labor into plaintext? Come visit the podcast page at https://played.podbean.com/ and get the full experience, complete with all the links in perfect functioning order.
Intro and Outro Music:
"Crunk Knight" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Tuesday Apr 23, 2019
Tuesday Apr 23, 2019
This week, Laura and Chris talk wordplay, Laura gushes over a favorite Lord Peter Wimsey story involving crosswords and a missing will, and numerous games and puzzles are discussed.
Books and Games Mentioned:
Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories
New York Times Sunday Crossword Vol. 25
New York Times Sunday Crossword Vol. 1 (much more recent puzzles in this one)
Can't see the links? Podcatcher turning my painstaking labor into plaintext? Come visit the podcast page at https://played.podbean.com/ and get the full experience, complete with all the links in perfect functioning order.
"Crunk Knight" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Tuesday Apr 09, 2019
Tuesday Apr 09, 2019
In their inaugural episode, Chris and Laura talk about the scope of the podcast (it's huge), why education and fun ought to go together, and Chris's favorite topic: stealth homeschooling. (It's not just for homeschoolers.)
Games mentioned in this episode:
Can't see the links? Podcatcher turning my painstaking labor into plaintext? Come visit the podcast page at https://played.podbean.com/ and get the full experience, complete with all the links in perfect functioning order.
"Crunk Knight" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/