Consider these ideas:
- Roleplaying games can teach kids a variety of positive skills, behaviors and attitudes including problem solving, creative thinking, empathy, innovation, attention to detail, reading comprehension, writing, and inclusion.
- Participation in school-sponsored activities is shown to be a positive influencer kids’ education and development.
- If a given roleplaying game is to survive and thrive, it must be adopted by young people.
To further these ends I feel like effort to develop materials and organization around the idea of helping school gaming clubs form using Traveller as an anchor game is time and energy well spent.
Imagine this: a thumb drive or CD of content with the materials necessary for an interested teacher to start a gaming club at school and use Traveller as the game kids play. The content could be of three types: support material for getting a club started, material to assist a GM in running games for a school gaming club, and Traveller material such as rules, deckplans, adventures, and so on. This content would be available from FFE as a “scholastic edition.”
As this idea developed, further support would be spun up – a web presence with additional materials, a blog for updating and conversation, and perhaps space in a discussion forum for faculty to communicate with each other and knowledgeable members of the Traveller community. If the idea had enough legs, it could grow into a nonprofit that helped promote and support school RPG clubs.
But why Traveller?
Beyond my obvious love of the game and the biases that might come along with that, I feel Traveller is a good selection for an “anchor” game for many reasons:
- It’s an old, tested game with easy, solid mechanics
- Medium-to-high complexity encourages digging in and effort
- Not fantasy, so avoids lots of hot-button content issues. No magic, or demons
- Gender-equal, throughout its entire history
- Also culture neutral; all permutations equally possible
- G or PG rated, throughout
- The “murder hobo” playstyle is strongly discouraged, by virtue of not only the various combat systems but also mot published materials.
- You can have serious stories and fun with little or no violence
- It’s world allows you to tell stories of various relatable tech-levels and societies
- Many options for solo play
Challenges
Challenges to using Traveller in such a venue are easy to figure: Traveller isn’t the Most Popular RPG out there, and there’s likely a low incidence of their friends playing it. Also, Traveller does not issue progressive rewards as experience.
I think these can be seen as a strengths, not weaknesses. The kids in the club who learn to play Traveller as their first game will have something to “bring to the table” and teach kids familiar with other games. Players who already know how to play the Most Popular Roleplaying Game would learn a different system and like learning two languages would grow more adept with both.
While I understand the allure and ease to understand the XP system and the Pavlovian efficiency with which it works, I feel there’s serious gaming and social value in teaching gameplay that doesn’t break down to “what do I get out of this move?”
WotC/D&D had this opportunity, and turned it down
Apparently Hasbro ( who owns Wizards of the Coast ) has a policy where they only give gaming materials to needy children, so requests to form some sort of network that specifically supports school clubs or even just the granting of materials for these clubs has been dismissed on multiple occasions. There is an opportunity to lead, here.