Education

part 1 part 2 part 3

We began our explorations of MUSHes today. In a nutshell, the activity was slightly disappointing, but I learned something important (especially at the end of the class).

part 1 part 2

I've started teaching a small group of 4th and 5th graders (age 10 and 11) about text based games. We are meeting in an after school program. I wrote my first introduction about this project here and cross-posted it to to a couple of community listserves.

I work in K- 12 school (ages 6 to 18). I am thinking about designing an after-school course on text-based games.

I think I can sell it to parents "A game your kids have to read..." and I'm pretty sure I can generate enough excitement with the kids to get 5 or 6 students. The class would last an entire school year (September to June), meeting once a week. So we would be looking at about 30 class meeting times (probably more like 20 with interruptions and field trips).

I have thought about this a bit, and here's my basic outline:

Text based games

The classics:

On Sunday, April 5 April 12, at 2 PM server time (CDT), in Omphalos Park on M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201), Tyr will announce and discuss the game he's been working on, tentatively titled 'The Empire MUSH.' Set in 11th-century Thuringia, Germany, the game is an attempt at marrying history and fantasy in a work of interactive fiction.

I gave a talk about Player Relations, and what it means to me, at the picnic tonight. For those of you who attended, TINY TACOS. Its sorta like Chunky Bacon, but less gem like.

When the log is up, feel free to read, and leave comments on either Elvira's WP6 post or my own post on this.

This Sunday's working picnic at M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201) will be presented by Ender. The subject is 'Player Relations: Being a Benevolent Dictator'

It should be interesting and thought-provoking so do come along.

There's a bit of an issue with daytime savings time. The US has changed and the UK hasn't, but I'm going to stick with GMT time until the end of the month so this picnic will be held at:

10:30pm GMT
5:30pm Chicago (MUSHtime)

Hope everyone can come along :)

Sorry that there was no announcement here of last week's picnic. Diuturnal gave an excellent talk with some provocative discussion to follow. Log follows:

Linden Grove(#159RntJ)

Although you can observe oaks, elms, maples, and walnuts, the ~~1~~
linden is clearly the ruler of the grove. Tall silver lindens stretch ~111~
to dizzying heights above the other trees, and shorter, bushier ~1X11
"little lindens" offer a pleasant combination of shade and sunlight 1111~
beneath their many small leaves. ~111~

Roundtable: Who doesn't love a good villain?

Some of the most exciting plots for players are those that include a menacing, evil, wicked villain (or villains), but these are some of the hardest plots to run because they can be so fraught with GMing pitfalls and disasters.

Managing Your MUSH
A working picnic with Elvira

You are invited to a working picnic on Sunday 10th February at 4:30pm MUSHtime/CST (10:30pm GMT). It will be held on M*U*S*H in the pleasant springtime surroundings of Linden Grove. This is the first in a season of weekly events which will examine the topic 'Managing Your MUSH' using real life organisation management techniques to improve the performance of your MUSH.