20190129.0430

I've noted that I continue to teach, despite my protestations that I will be withdrawing from academe. I've also noted that I am and remain involved in some roleplaying games. That I note the two in close conjunction should suggest that I'll be discussing the two in relation to one another--upon which suggestion I will be acting presently. To wit:
While I was in graduate school, I ran a roleplaying game with some thirteen players at the table at once. Those who are familiar with tabletop play will know already that the usual size of a game is four to six, so a game of thirteen is quite an undertaking. And, to be fair, there were problems at that table. Some of them were the faults of the players themselves, such as one who would habitually attend game sessions intoxicated in one form or another (and while the game was in a part of the world that encourages drunkenness, and while I did not and do not abstain while at the table, there's enjoyment and then there's being shit-faced...) or another who would not or could not pay attention. Some of them were my fault, such as some gaps in storyline and wildly inconsistent character advancement/development.
But there were many good things at that table, too. The story we told together has lived on in one form or another, and one of the games in which I now am is, in fact, an outgrowth of an outgrowth of that story. (A later part of the game, or another game in the same storyline, will be returning to the old table's game more overtly.) I remain in contact with several people from that table, and if we are not as close now as when we were seeing each other for several hours every week, still are we friendly with one another. And there were techniques for cooperative play I developed that helped promote cohesion at the table, which is always to the good.
Those last have occasionally appeared, in some form, in the classes I have taught. When I've taught public speaking or similar classes--and I have done so on more than one occasion, to be sure--I have tended to deploy both the general presentation of problem and persona that tabletop roleplaying games demand and the cohesion-prompting actions my earlier gaming showed me, and it has helped students to be more involved and engaged in the class. In courses where I've been obliged to assign group work--which I do not normally like--I've had similar success, requiring students to report on one another's progress with an eye towards who else in the group has done best. While students in my classes are often reluctant to inform on one another's misdeeds, they are generally happy to talk one another up--which I take to be a good thing.
I might return to this idea in time to come, and I might well do so in a more formal setting than this--but not too formal a one. I am trying to bow myself out of academe, after all...