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Starting Zeitgeist in 5e - Master thesis, Conversion and other shenanigans
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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7261419" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p>That sounds like a really exciting and ambitious project.</p><p></p><p>First off, I'm no expert in cultural anthropology, but I know my fair share about sociology and use empirical methods for my own PhD thesis. I also did a small homework study on political structures in video games for a uni seminar, but that was years ago.</p><p></p><p>The first thing you should consider is time. I don't know how much time students usually spend on their MA thesis in your university, but where I come from it is roughly a year's work. Which is really not enough to play through all of Zeitgeist. My own group plays every 2nd to 3rd sunday for 6-8 hours and we're in adventure 4 after a 3/4 year. So maybe consider a point in your campaign where you officially end your research and start playing for fun only.</p><p></p><p>Then you should get a rough idea on what you want to research. Try to narrow your focus down as far as possible without losing the breadth of a case study. Do you want to study in which steps people immerse in their characters? Do you want to focus on inner-group decision making? Do you wish to focus on game/play aspects and how each player reacts to certain aspects of a roleplaying game? Do you wish to see if your players can put their own culture and assumptions aside to accept and understand a new one (and see with which aspects they may be challenged or struggle)? </p><p></p><p>Next, find a method of collecting data. As you are both GM and researcher, make sure your two roles don't conflict that much. You have to make sure that you are an authentic GM while being able to collect your data as objectively as possible. In my opinion, this almost immediately excludes observation sheets. If you want to study live behavior, you might want to record your sessions per video. Or, if you wish to study how players reflect on their characters, hand them surveys or ask them for in-character or third person reflections. Or conduct scripted interviews and record audio files. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, I don't think I can help you much in terms of literature. You could peek into the aspects of ludology (the game vs play aspect and whether your campaign falls more into one or the other category). You could also consult general methods of empirical social research (only got German books here for a reference, but there must be others, at least in English) for collecting and evaluating your data.</p><p>If you find it useful, here's a part of Nick Yee's old quantitative research on MMORPGs, the section on roleplaying <a href="http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/pdf/4-3.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/pdf/4-3.pdf</a> . It might be quite fitting if you want to compare aspects of roleplaying, i.e. the difference between playing in character in TTRPGs and in MMORPGs, codes of conduct, motivations, etc. </p><p>Then there's this site for various (older) studies on roleplaying games: <a href="http://www.rpgstudies.net/" target="_blank">http://www.rpgstudies.net/</a></p><p>And the international journal for roleplaying project <a href="http://journalofroleplaying.org/" target="_blank">http://journalofroleplaying.org/</a></p><p></p><p></p><p>As for Zeitgeist: From a player's perspective it is more complicated that most published modules. That's mainly because there are many threads which run in parallel, yet often intertwine and because there are so many NPC. But, if your players know criminal literature or investigative movies or the like, they'll be fine. Because Zeitgeist is so story-heavy, knowing the game system isn't that vital to their survival. If you fear that they might get into trouble, you can have them first be accompanied by a senior RHC agent who can help them should the need arise. Or maybe you'll want to study how newbie players adapt to the new situation and just play more easy on them. </p><p></p><p>Otherwise, I think Zeitgeist is some pretty awesome material for your research. Because it can be quite intense and play on the full variety of human emotions. Our GM was close to tears during the second session, and so was I when we found Finona's letter in the third adventure after the "disaster de Dracon". There's also heavy political undertones where your characters could (and should) choose how to react to (matters of nature vs industry, worker's rights, social (in)justice, different systems of government based on philosophy/ideals...)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7261419, member: 6816692"] That sounds like a really exciting and ambitious project. First off, I'm no expert in cultural anthropology, but I know my fair share about sociology and use empirical methods for my own PhD thesis. I also did a small homework study on political structures in video games for a uni seminar, but that was years ago. The first thing you should consider is time. I don't know how much time students usually spend on their MA thesis in your university, but where I come from it is roughly a year's work. Which is really not enough to play through all of Zeitgeist. My own group plays every 2nd to 3rd sunday for 6-8 hours and we're in adventure 4 after a 3/4 year. So maybe consider a point in your campaign where you officially end your research and start playing for fun only. Then you should get a rough idea on what you want to research. Try to narrow your focus down as far as possible without losing the breadth of a case study. Do you want to study in which steps people immerse in their characters? Do you want to focus on inner-group decision making? Do you wish to focus on game/play aspects and how each player reacts to certain aspects of a roleplaying game? Do you wish to see if your players can put their own culture and assumptions aside to accept and understand a new one (and see with which aspects they may be challenged or struggle)? Next, find a method of collecting data. As you are both GM and researcher, make sure your two roles don't conflict that much. You have to make sure that you are an authentic GM while being able to collect your data as objectively as possible. In my opinion, this almost immediately excludes observation sheets. If you want to study live behavior, you might want to record your sessions per video. Or, if you wish to study how players reflect on their characters, hand them surveys or ask them for in-character or third person reflections. Or conduct scripted interviews and record audio files. Unfortunately, I don't think I can help you much in terms of literature. You could peek into the aspects of ludology (the game vs play aspect and whether your campaign falls more into one or the other category). You could also consult general methods of empirical social research (only got German books here for a reference, but there must be others, at least in English) for collecting and evaluating your data. If you find it useful, here's a part of Nick Yee's old quantitative research on MMORPGs, the section on roleplaying [URL]http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/pdf/4-3.pdf[/URL] . It might be quite fitting if you want to compare aspects of roleplaying, i.e. the difference between playing in character in TTRPGs and in MMORPGs, codes of conduct, motivations, etc. Then there's this site for various (older) studies on roleplaying games: [URL]http://www.rpgstudies.net/[/URL] And the international journal for roleplaying project [URL]http://journalofroleplaying.org/[/URL] As for Zeitgeist: From a player's perspective it is more complicated that most published modules. That's mainly because there are many threads which run in parallel, yet often intertwine and because there are so many NPC. But, if your players know criminal literature or investigative movies or the like, they'll be fine. Because Zeitgeist is so story-heavy, knowing the game system isn't that vital to their survival. If you fear that they might get into trouble, you can have them first be accompanied by a senior RHC agent who can help them should the need arise. Or maybe you'll want to study how newbie players adapt to the new situation and just play more easy on them. Otherwise, I think Zeitgeist is some pretty awesome material for your research. Because it can be quite intense and play on the full variety of human emotions. Our GM was close to tears during the second session, and so was I when we found Finona's letter in the third adventure after the "disaster de Dracon". There's also heavy political undertones where your characters could (and should) choose how to react to (matters of nature vs industry, worker's rights, social (in)justice, different systems of government based on philosophy/ideals...) [/QUOTE]
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