Making School Rule

Scott Hardie | July 18, 2005
Soon kids going off on summer vacation might be singing "no more laptops, no more pens, no more teacher's mean IMs." A high school in Arizona is about to become the first to go all-laptop, no-textbook: (link) It seems to me that education would be a lot better served by getting away from the standardized testing that so sterilizes the classroom in the first place, but this is a step in the right direction towards letting teachers do their jobs right. The opportunities for students to goof off with instant messaging and to learn 3l33t h4x0r1ng 5k1llz during those formative, legal-consequence-free years are higher, but if it gets the kids learning and the district can find a way to make it fit within the existing budget, then I can't see opposing it. Still, I remember how much it sucked when the deans decided to search my locker; I couldn't imagine the frustration of them searching my hard drive.

I may as well mention that I'm intrigued by the idea of a laptop-assisted RPG. Our group has occasionally discussed the GM using one, but I wonder what it would be like for every player at the table to have web access. The characters could be significantly more complex and micro-manageable with a computer doing all the math, and forget about rolling dice; you click the "attack" button on your computer during combat and the results come up on all screens at once to be discussed. But as always, I have thousands of ideas for RPGs and I can only do one at a time, so I'll have to file it away with all my other useless game ideas.

Amy Austin | July 18, 2005
Wow, Scott... I'm not a gamer -- certainly not of the RPG variety, anyway -- but that sounds like a pretty great idea (and one that I'm kind of surprised hasn't already evolved?) I don't think I would be sharing it on a public forum for someone else to develop, anyway... can't you get some kind of inventor's patent thing going on this, at least??? ;-)

Scott Hardie | July 18, 2005
Believe me, someone else in our group has already called dibs on the idea if we ever try to patent it. :-) We're not a wealthy enough group to try it right now, but if I ever win the lottery...

Michael Paul Cote | July 18, 2005
I played at a game at Gencon several years ago where the GM had everything on a laptop. Since the characters were supplied by said GM he had instant access to all info on each character as well and npc's and every other aspect of the scenario. It moved very quickly and he was able to cover any questions or inconsistencies without much trouble.
I, for one, don't think the idea of each player having a laptop would be a great idea (good maybe). I wonder if down the road it would take some of the interaction out of the game and become like an online rpg. I guess I'm just a pen paper and dice kinda guy.

Mike Eberhart | July 18, 2005
I never could get into RPG's. I just couldn't ever understand why you couldn't just create a character that was already super powerful. If you get to create them, then why not? Is there some kind of rule that says you can't do that?

Patrick Little | July 18, 2005
I think you would have to be very careful not to get too caught up in the technology. IF you get too caught up, I agree with Michael , it's going to become an automated RPG to say the least. I play role playing games for social interaction through roleplaying.

Mike, if you want a character that is already super-powerful you just need a system that supports it. For the most part that get boring real quick. You should look at Tri-stat, that would support what you are talking about.

Amy Austin | July 18, 2005
Well, as I said before, I'm not a gamer... but the answer to that seems obvious enough to me -- the point of the game seems to be at least partly based in character growth. What would be the point, if you could easily overcome every obstacle that fell your character's way -- it would just be a series of serious mental ass-kickings, wouldn't it??? ;-D

Reminds me of the episode of South Park that was on last night... the boys (illegally) purchase some oriental weapons from a lame-brained dealer, and then they transform into these super-ninja comic characters in their own minds, Calvin & Hobbes-style, walking around challenging the world. Cartman, of course, wants to lay claim to any and all super powers, but Kyle yells at him that he can't do that -- he has to pick one super power and stick with it! Otherwise, it's obvious that he will ultimately take over every encounter that the fearsome foursome might encounter... in typical Cartman fashion. Then Kenny throws a ninja star into Butters' eye. One of the funniest episodes, in my opinion.

But that's just my own observation -- I suppose I should just shut up and let someone who actually plays them answer. ;-) Edit: Like Patrick! ;-D

Kris Weberg | July 21, 2005
Mike E. -- Basically, it's about relative power levels; if there's an RPG that lets you start out super-powerful, pretty soon everyone's super-powerful, and, relative to one another and the game'c challenges, no one is meaningfully super-powerful.

Put another way, if everyone could lift two tons, no one would consider that super-strength.

Scott Hardie | July 21, 2005
So no comments about schools and laptops? I'm just happy to see a discussion go wherever it does, except maybe into McDonald's hot coffee and people quitting. :-)

The biggest threat I see with using laptops to do the math is that it limits the imagination. When you see options laid out in front of you like "attack" and "cast a spell" and "use an item," you tend not to think of creative solutions. Michael and Patrick have played in enough games with me to know that I much prefer doing something funny and unexpected on my combat turn rather than just a simple attack. :-) Anyway, as long as the group is able to use the machines to enhance gamplay rather than replace gameplay, I remain intrigued by the idea.

About starting at a high power level: Believe me, Mike, there are plenty of games/groups out there like that, and I've played in my fair share. There's not supposed to be any challenge or advancement to them; it's about obliterating enemies and feeling the rush of power. They're ok I guess, but they work better as one-shot games than as an ongoing campaign. (There's an excellent card game out called "Munchkin" (link) that spoofs this kind of power-gaming for some big laughs. The local Borders had a copy last week.)