buddhafrog
First Post
I teach small ESL classes in Korea. Most classes are between 2-4 middle school students. For the past year, seven+ classes have been playing D&D twice a week. The kids love D&D and it has been great for their conversation skills. It's been an overwhelming success and we will continue playing D&D. It's been so successful in fact that now I'm planning to add another game to our gaming schedule - a game that we might play between campaigns.
There are so many other RPG's out there these days. I only restarted playing (in this case, DM'ing) D&D one year ago after a 25 year hiatus and have never played any other type of RPG. I'm sort of at a loss.
And so here I am, willing to buy the game that you recommend for me. Criteria:
Dresden Files sounds a little interesting - of course these students haven't seen the TV show. I've heard the magic language can be quite tricky, however. Fiasco sounds very intriguing, but I'm not sure if it is too adult-themed.
So, what are your thoughts? I also hope that there are other ESL teachers out there that might find value in this thread. Many have commented via Enworld about my D&D classes. Maybe a different RPG might make it easier to play with their students as well.
Thanks!
There are so many other RPG's out there these days. I only restarted playing (in this case, DM'ing) D&D one year ago after a 25 year hiatus and have never played any other type of RPG. I'm sort of at a loss.
And so here I am, willing to buy the game that you recommend for me. Criteria:
- No fantsay realm games - we will stay with D&D for that. No sword fighting games. I'm even shying away from Mouse Guard. Modern-based games would be nice, but this isn't a requirement. Games that require a specific knowledge of a western era (Call of Cthulhu is early 1900's, right?) wouldn't work for these Korean students
- We have one hour classes so games are broken up into smaller segments than usual. This can work even for D&D, but RPG's that handle this even better would be nice
- Less prep time would be awesome
- A game with less complex rules so students can focus on the game and not the ruleset
- Lots of communication opportunities (this is an ESL conversation class)
- The game does not have to be "kid-friendly" - the themes we use in D&D are mostly the same as most D&D groups - I've had a cleric sacrificed to a demon, for example. I do want to stay away from rather adult themes of sex and drugs.
- ESL - we play D&D 4e, but it does require me to change some attack and spell wording so that they can parse the language better. Any game that might create less of a language barrier.
Dresden Files sounds a little interesting - of course these students haven't seen the TV show. I've heard the magic language can be quite tricky, however. Fiasco sounds very intriguing, but I'm not sure if it is too adult-themed.
So, what are your thoughts? I also hope that there are other ESL teachers out there that might find value in this thread. Many have commented via Enworld about my D&D classes. Maybe a different RPG might make it easier to play with their students as well.
Thanks!