Satisfying Answers

I’d like to let the Gentle Reader in on a little secret, regarding the whole concept of the RPG 201 course and its mid-term. Like Lance Duncan, I also don’t feel I know the material well enough to give satisfying answers to these questions about role-playing theory. I’m only certain that I can give a more satisfying answer than this.

Where it comes to why do we play D&D, the staggering around in the dark is … epic. More than once I’ve come across someone describing a long convoluted series of game events, with the conviction that said events are “cool,” followed by the declarative statement, “… and that’s why we play D&D.”

Imagine the following:

“He takes the snap; there’s only three men rushing for Millsaps. Farmore throws it over the middle, complete to Thompson. Thompson looking for a block; he laterals it to Curry and Curry laterals it again … and it’s caught again, and Tomlin, now with the lateral, and now the lateral to Thompson ~ and he laterals it back to Maddox, on the other side. Maddox, looking for a block; he fakes the lateral to Curry, now he laterals it to Curry! Curry’s at the 49 yard line, he’s dancing around, he throws it back now to Maddox, who throws it across the field to Barbour, Barbour looking to run, he’s looking for a block, he’s got a convoy, he’s going to throw it to Thompson … Thompson’s at the 30 yard line. Thompson now laterals it back to Curry at the 35, they’re running out of spaces. Curry fakes, he’s gonna lateral it to Tomlin, Tomlin’s got a chance to go! Tomlin’s got a chance to go and he laterals it to Meadows, now it’s going to go to Maddox. Maddox at the 30 yard line, and now … now it’s a lateral … Curry’s got it … and Curry’s still going! Curry’s going! It’s a TOUCHDOWN! CURRY SCORES!!!”

And that’s why we play football.

Well, no. We love it when this shit happens, both when we’re playing and when we’re watching, but we know from personal experience that even when football is a grind, even when nothing special happens, we still go out and play, or turn on the game, because we love football for deeper reasons than, “When shit happens, it’s cool.”

I could try and write the rest of this post guessing at what that reason is, and write a bunch of deep from the soul literature that would make the reader feel like I really had a handle on that reason and we’d all walk away with a wonderful cathartic feeling about why we play RPGs. I’ve done it fifty times on this blog. But to tell the truth, I’m tired of guessing. I’m tired of catharsis. I want to actually KNOW what the answer is … which is what this quest for an RPG 201 course is about. I don’t have any really satisfying answers. I want some.

Regarding the exam. I knew those were brutal questions as I wrote them down. When I took courses from university that specialized in essay questions, it was understood that the prof was NOT going to answer the questions for us, ever. I remember my prof Dr. Barry Baldwin had a question that was on every final he gave for Classics 301 – the Roman Republic: “Compare the fall of the Roman Republic with the prospective fall of the American Republic. Be specific and give examples. Argue either for or against.” In the time I took courses from Dr. Baldwin, we talked about that relationship many times; and usually that involved being told to read source materials that Dr. Baldwin would pour like rain into my notebook. But I was never able to wrest out of him what he really thought about it. I think I know. But I’ll never be sure.

Because the “right” answer didn’t exist. The right answer was to make an attempt at an answer. To face it head on and figure out what one really knew about the subject, to ferret out the gaps in one’s knowledge so that, when we would sit at the end puzzling about our opinion, we wouldn’t stop thinking about it. We’d go on trying to answer the question.

As the reader can see, Dr. Baldwin taught me well.

16th Class: Mid-Term Exam

Below are four essay questions.  Choose two and write a 500-word essay on each.  Be concise and do not exceed the proscribed length; it is enough to give a clear indication that you understand the material.  

1. Dreyfuss describes five stages of skill acquisition. Explain the progression from competency to proficiency from the perspective of preparedness (research, estimation, planning, resources, education, practice or rehearsal) using whichever form of preparedness seems most applicable to you.

2. Describe ways in which mentorship can advance the creation of game consensus and effectively situated learning; then describe ways in which mentorship can obstruct game consensus and undermine situated learning. Relate positive and negative mentorship to meaning-making.

3. Explain how unrestrained subjective thinking in managing role-playing games leads to the calcification of ideas and creative ability, particularly in the progression of novice to competent player. Relate your answer to the course definition of conventions and axioms.

4. Give reasons for why we prefer to use the enigmatic term "story" to describe the process of stability-rupture-reconstruction-stability rather than a more anatomical approach when describing to others, "how to play?" Given that "create a story" is a more popular form of advice than, "create a set of obstacles that will force your players to reimagine their characters," how do we expect the first advice to serve as a template for the creation of game worlds?

You will be given until 12:01 AM Saturday, Nov 17, to submit your answers. Your answers should be submitted to my email, alexiss1@telus.net. You will not receive a grade if you do not submit your answers to my email. You may, if you wish, submit your answers directly to the blog (splitting your answers up as needed to make it fit), but answers submitted to the blog will not be published until after the exam deadline has passed. Answers submitted to the blog but NOT to my email address will not be graded and will not be published.

Grades will be posted Nov 17-18th as I am able.

Good luck.