\u00ab Very well\u2026 You\u2019ve convinced me, or at least piqued my curiosity, and I\u2019m going to keep reading. But, specifically, what does this consist of? \u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you’ve made it this far, it’s quite possible you’ve thought something like this. That’s perfectly reasonable. You might even be considering signing up for an English course and, while browsing around, looking for alternatives to the typical course with its manual and lessons, or to private conversation classes, you’ve stumbled upon us. Or perhaps you’re coming from the other direction: you’re a role-playing game enthusiast and thought, \u00abWow! That’s cool!\u00bb In any case, this costs money, and it’s easy to understand that you’d want to know a bit more before trying it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, here you have it\u2026 OUR METHODOLOGY!!!*<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*Patent pending. (No, I’m kidding).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okay. First, let’s get to know each other a little and assess your skill level. Because, even though it’s not a conventional way of learning, the experience is much better if we’re all roughly at the same level. Otherwise, some players will hog the spotlight, and the rest will get bored and won’t get involved. And that’s no fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perfect. But to assess your level, we’re not going to give you a test (we’re bored of grading tests). We’re going to give you a character sheet, which is much cooler. For those of you who don’t know anything about role-playing games, the first thing you do, before you start playing, is create your characters. Depending on the world you’re playing in, you can choose different professions or different races \u2014elves, dwarves, hobbits, etc. You have some freedom to choose, and some of it also depends on luck, because you have to roll dice to find out what basic characteristics your character will have \u2014whether he’ll be strong, intelligent, graceful, etc.\u2014 and then determine their skills, strengths, and weaknesses. Gamers already know the drill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This takes time. Ideally, we dedicate at least an hour to introducing you to the game’s setting (it could be a fantasy Middle Ages, Victorian times, galactic worlds\u2026 whatever), explaining the basic rules if you’ve never played before, and defining your character. We do this individually (it’s the only part done individually), and we take the opportunity to see how you handle yourself. It’s usually an hour or an hour and a half session with both the Game Master and the teacher who will act as a conversation assistant during the game. We tell you, you tell us, you make choices, you roll the dice, you ask us questions, we explain, we ask you to invent details\u2026 And everything is recorded on your character sheet, which you’ll then use during the game whenever it’s your turn and you need to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let me give you an example, in case you’re lost. Let’s say the game you’ve signed up for is inspired by the legendary horror novels of H.P. Lovecraft. It’s a classic! The Call of Cthulhu<\/em>. Well, an adventure in this game is usually set in the late 19th or early 20th century, in old Europe or the United States. The adventures are typically a mix of horror novel and police thriller: crimes, cosmic horrors, arcane secrets, creepy settings, and so on. So you have to create a character that fits into that world. For example, you could be a young intern at a law firm, a former police officer turned private investigator, a seasoned journalist, a bookworm\u2026 whatever you fancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You choose a name for your character, a profession, their age, and their nationality. Then you roll the dice (luck plays a part). These rolls determine whether the character is more or less athletic, more or less intelligent, intuitive, whether their mental health is a concern, whether he is particularly strong, and so on. This is how we define the character in detail. Next, taking into account the profession you’ve chosen, the character’s education, and other factors, we see which their skills are, what\u2019s he gifted for, and what\u2019s he terrible at. For example, he might know how to drive or he might not, he might know how to shoot a gun or read Mandarin Chinese, he might be able to climb a rope and swim against the current, or he might be hopeless at any activity that involves getting off his backside. The game manual outlines a series of rules for all of this, which the Game Master will guide you through. Obviously, you don’t know what skills you’ll need during the game, and in many cases, how effectively you use them will depend on your ability during gameplay. For example, some players are real gunslingers, trying to resolve any situation with gunfire (usually ending up in a bad way), while others are a bit subtler and try to approach problems in alternative ways. In reality, anything is possible and anything can happen. Even the game master doesn’t really control the situation most of the time. But that’s what makes the game interesting, as I already mentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea is that we’ll use character creation as an opportunity to chat, get to know each other, assess your language level, and break the ice. We’ll do this individually, as I mentioned, a few days before the adventure officially begins (it’s always important to adjust it slightly to the players’ language level and the characters’ profiles). Ideally, you should use this gap to further develop your character. Invent a backstory that explains their unique abilities, imagine their motivations and personality, and create a story for their most prized possessions (for example, if your wood elf happens to have a sword with magical properties \u2014the character creation rules might even grant you that\u2014 it would be great if you gave the sword a name and told us the story of how it came into your possession). All these details add realism to the game and make it much more engaging, and it’s highly recommended that you share them with the Game Master via email to ensure the setting is perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then the ADVENTURE begins\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s the Game Master, the players, and our conversation assistant, who takes on an intermediary role between the player characters and the NPCs, which I’ll explain later. The game begins usually with a general introduction from the GM, for example like this: \u00ab It’s early 1914. Although the political and social situation in Europe is becoming increasingly turbulent, nothing seems to foreshadow the catastrophic conflict that will erupt in June with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist. In the United States, where we find ourselves, the wounds inflicted by the cruel Civil War seem almost healed, economic prosperity is reaching the middle classes, and advances in technology, science, and medicine herald a golden future. Electricity, telephones, and radio are improving the lives of average Americans; industrial production is reaching unprecedented levels, and consumer goods are flooding the country, filling homes with optimism. Nothing on the horizon foreshadows the storm\u2026 The baseball league, the campaign for the upcoming gubernatorial election, stock market movements, and the new Model T Ford seem to be the only relevant news items in the pages of the New York Times on February 3rd. In fact, the news that gives rise to our adventure and that, in a dark and untold way, will change the course of history is just a brief note in the newspaper\u2019s bland science section: \u201cThe American Museum of Natural History and the Hopkins Astronomical Observatory are holding a joint press conference to announce important details about the discovery of the so-called Asteroid (780) Armenia.\u201d \u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, the various characters are introduced one by one into the plot. Let’s say we have five players: the young journalist Mina Collins, who is assigned by her editor to cover the press conference; the promising scientist Thomas R. Murdoch, who is gathering data for his department head’s research at the University of Pennsylvania; federal agent Donald Peter Johnson, on a mission to monitor possible communist elements within academia; the Catholic priest Arnold Hamilton, a personal friend of the magnate Ephraim Williams, sponsor of the observatory and great-grandson of its founder, who has received a curious letter from him inviting him to attend the conference and asking for spiritual advice on the important issues that will be discussed in a closed-door meeting with the project director after the conference; and finally, Lieutenant Bryan Anderson of the United States Army, who has received direct orders from General Hugh L. Scott to go to the Museum and prepare a full report on the civilians involved in the discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The adventure begins when they all meet in the hall of the American Museum of Natural History, along with the other conference guests. Not everyone shares all the information (and they don’t even know how accurate the information they have is). Each person arrives with a different motivation, with different opportunities to approach the various members of the scientific committee; not all of them have access to the different meetings taking place that afternoon at the Museum\u2026 Some of the characters may know each other, or they may not; they may have received sensitive information about one another\u2026 And then the adventure truly begins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014Game Master: \u00ab Very well. You are all in the Museum lobby, an enormous hall accessed from the street through monumental columns. There are two marble staircases leading to the upper floors and a large door that opens into the Museum’s permanent exhibition. The lecture is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. in the E. Williams Auditorium, in the east wing of the building. In the lobby, in addition to the museum staff, attendees have already begun to gather \u2014about 150 people dressed in formal attire for the lecture and the cocktail reception afterward. Several dignitaries are expected: the mayor of Boston, the dean of Harvard University, a group of international scientists with their spouses, and the military attach\u00e9 from the French embassy. It is also likely that, besides the county police, there will be plainclothes officers from various government agencies. Here is a map of the lobby, with the different doors and corridors that lead to the other areas of the Museum. What do you do? \u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then, the players take turns, indicating what their character will do next: perhaps Lieutenant Anderson, in civilian clothes, will want to approach the military attach\u00e9 of the French embassy to try to listen to what he’s talking about with his assistant; perhaps Mina Collins, our young journalist, will try to approach one of the personalities present at the event with questions; perhaps one of the characters will try to gain access, taking advantage of a moment of inattention from the Museum’s security personnel, to the teaching area, where the researchers’ offices are located; or perhaps one of them will notice the incongruous presence of a group of twelve blond children led by a sort of German governess\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, the game unfolds through dialogue between the game master and the players, and among the players themselves as their interests converge and they formulate joint action plans. The interaction consists entirely of dialogue between the players and the game master. The master explains the situation, the players decide their character’s next move, saying, \u00ab I’ll do this or that, \u00bb and depending on the situation, they roll dice to determine the outcome. This leads to new situations, which the game master then explains again, ensuring everyone understands what’s happening and what possibilities arise next. For example, Mina Collins might want to obtain a statement for her newspaper from Professor Abraham W. Clay, the observatory’s director, and to do so, she might try to sneak into the private wing where she believes his office is located. She will then have to get past the museum guards, who are noticeably larger than one would expect in a museum. She will then have to roll the dice and consult her character sheet to see her percentage chance of success for an action that involves remaining undetected. The game master will explain the level of difficulty and what other factors, besides her character’s skill and the roll result, come into play. This will lead to a course of action that is initially unpredictable and may or may not involve other characters, depending on chance and circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everything is based on direct interaction and dialogue between the players and the game master, who uses maps, drawings, and written documents as needed. Whenever a new element appears in the game (a new setting, a relevant character, a scientific, social, or historical issue, etc.), our conversation assistant intervenes to provide linguistic resources, vocabulary, and relevant cultural information. For example: Thomas Murdoch, our promising scientist, is talking with a colleague from the astrophysics department at the University of Toronto. Our conversation assistant then takes the floor and pulls out a sheet with useful vocabulary related to telescopes, celestial bodies, and forces of nature. This minimal interruption to the game provides valuable resources to enrich the dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can also happen that one of the players has difficulty understanding a situation or adequately expressing their character’s next move. This is when the conversation facilitator steps in, explaining the situation again, either simplifying or elaborating, and offering resources and possibilities for expression (\u00abyou can say, for example…\u00bb). Alternatively, the conversation facilitator might detect a recurring error by one or more players and need to pause the game briefly to correct it or suggest alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea is for interventions to be brief, always aiming to facilitate conversation and the flow of the game, so as not to lose the dramatic tension with grammatical explanations and pronunciation exercises. But the goal is always to enrich the players’ expressive repertoire, so that they leave each session not only feeling confident in their ability to hold their own in the game by speaking English throughout, but also with the satisfaction of having acquired and used new linguistic resources in a live setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the game, a brief review of what was learned is conducted. The game master summarizes the events and distributes experience points, evaluating the players’ participation and rewarding the boldest and most successful actions. The conversation assistant also gives a summary, highlighting what he enjoyed most and correcting or clarifying other points, aiming to ensure everyone goes home with their brains buzzing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between sessions, everyone can contribute to the adventure diary, which is available on our website, and where the game master and conversation assistant summarize the main events and share links to the different resources they have used for the adventure’s setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s no set length for an adventure. It often depends on the complexity of the plot and how the numerous subplots that emerge as the players act and improvise are resolved. An eight-week schedule is typically set, with two-hour sessions each week, to avoid burnout and allow time for brainpower to do its work. However, the specific schedule for each adventure often depends on the players’ skill level and needs, and more or less intensive schedules can be proposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I think that’s enough to give you a general idea of \u200b\u200bwhat the gameplay experience will be like. If you like the concept, or if you have any questions, I encourage you to sign up for the next adventure or contact us through the website with your questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00ab Very well\u2026 You\u2019ve convinced me, or at least piqued my curiosity, and I\u2019m going to keep reading. 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