Recently, I was invited to be one of the featured presenters at a regional conference for the Midwest Pop Culture Association And American Culture Association. It’s a conference for academics who study popular culture and how it relates to the world, and for some reason they asked me to come give a talk on gaming. Since they agreed to my request to wear a kilt, I said yes and put together a presentation about how the essence of collaboration that is inherent in role-playing games changes the nature of them. To demonstrate and get the academics hands-on with the topic, I ran a game for  the entire audience, illustrating points from the presentation with scenarios using a simple game system. It went pretty well and they let me set up a camera in the back of the room to get it on video. So here is part one of the presentation for your enjoyment.

Don’t worry, it won’t be too high-brow at all. It uses clips from the Gamers and Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising, and one of the very first things the academics did in the scenario was to mutiny against the NPC captain.  Ahhhh gaming….

Update: Here is a link to part 2 of the video.

If you aren’t able or don’t have time to view the video, here is a link to the presentation online, as well as the materials for the simple RPG I ran.

Web Version of The Presentation

Powerpoint Version of The Presentation

• Barbarian
• Swashbuckler
• Thief
• Paladin
• Mage

About  John Arcadian

John Arcadian is the head of Silvervine Games, a freelance writer and art director, a website developer, a builder of sonic screwdrivers, and a purveyor of kilted mayhem. When he isn't out causing trouble in his kilt... Well, no, that is pretty much what he does when he isn't running RPGs or or trying to take over the world.

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