Digital role-playing games such as Rift, Diablo III, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning help players develop skills in critical thinking, problem solving, digital literacy and engagement. The author examines both the benefits and the drawbacks of role-playing games and their application to real-world teaching techniques. Readers will learn how to incorporate games-based instruction into their own classes and workplace training, as well as approaches to redesigning curriculum and programs.

This collection of essays is devoted to the philosophical examination of the aesthetics of videogames. Videogames represent one of the most significant developments in the modern popular arts, and it is a topic that is attracting much attention among philosophers of art and aestheticians. As a burgeoning medium of artistic expression, videogames raise entirely new aesthetic concerns, particularly concerning their ontology, interactivity, and aesthetic value. The essays in this volume address a number of pressing theoretical issues related to these areas, including but not limited to: the nature of performance and identity in videogames; their status as an interactive form of art; the ethical problems raised by violence in videogames; and the representation of women in videogames and the gaming community. The Aesthetics of Videogames is an important contribution to analytic aesthetics that deals with an important and growing art form.

Improve your RPG campaign with this comprehensive and interactive guide to making the most out of your gaming experience. Whatever RPG game you play, from D&D to Call of Cthulu to licensed games like Star Wars, every detail is important. From setting the scene to choosing the right music or even adjusting the lighting to create the right atmosphere, every choice helps maximize your gaming experience. The Ultimate RPG Gameplay Guide provides practical advice for everything from pre-game preparations and in-game improvisation to working out a plan of attack with your teammates to learning how to lean into the setting of your game. Including instructions, prompts, and activities, it offers everything you need for successful, fun role-playing with your friends every time you play. Create hours of narrative and make the most out of your storytelling skills by setting the perfect scene for your adventure. Whether you need advice on your character or working better with your gaming group, James D'Amato includes everything you'll need to take your game to the next level.

This book explores video games as important cultural artifacts and as sources of powerful, compelling storytelling. It begins by considering the fundamental structures of video games-including immersion and player agency-and deepens the exploration of such elements by considering how each plays a role in storytelling. The book moves from the theoretical to the practical by considering numerous modern games and the stories they tell through careful, considered analysis of each title's story. Games considered at length include the Mass Effect series, BioShock, The Last of Us and many more. The book also explores genres like the visual novel, which are less frequently considered in video game study. What emerges from this book, which appeals to academics, game enthusiasts, and the general public, is the importance of considering video games as serious and important sources of storytelling exploring complex thematic subjects like identity, morality, and the impact of player choice.

From the first shots at Jumonville Glen to the surrender at Appomattox, Rebels and Patriots allows you to campaign with Wolfe or Montcalm, stand with Tarleton at Cowpens or Washington at Yorktown, or don the blue or grey to fight for Grant or Lee. From the French and Indian War, through the War of Independence and the War of 1812, to the Alamo and the American Civil War, these rules focus on the skirmishes, raids, and small engagements from this era of black powder and bayonet.

Your Company is commanded by your Officer during these tumultuous conflicts. Each battle that your Officer faces allows him to develop new and interesting traits. Does he perform heroically and earn a nom de guerre? Or falter, to be forever known as a yellow-belly? Designed by Michael Leck and Daniel Mersey, with a core system based on the popular Lion Rampant rules, Rebels and Patriots provides all the mechanics and force options needed to recreate the conflicts that forged a nation.

"Tank War," the new supplement for Bolt Action, gives players the option to expand their games to a whole new level - armored warfare. Recreate such great engagements as the battle of Kursk with the scenarios, army options and special rules found in this book. Whether you want to add more armour to your existing armies or build an entirely armoured force, Tank War has you covered.

A wargaming ruleset for epic pre-WW1 battles in the sky. It's the dawn of the 20th Century and the Great Powers turn to war. Since the development of the air screw, leading to the creation of flying warships, the navies of the world have comprised an ever-growing number of these aerial ironclads. So fire up the turbines, ready the aether drives, and take to the air in Castles in the Sky: A Wargame of Flying Battleships. Featuring all the rules required to fight battles with fleets of flying behemoths. Assemble your fleet from 8 nationalities and fight through a variety of scenarios. With a full campaign system, Castles in the Sky contains everything adventurous aeronautical admirals need to find victory in the skies.

Rise of the Dungeon Master tells, in graphic form, the story of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, one of the most influential games ever made. Like the game itself, the narrative casts the reader into the adventure from a first person point of view, taking on the roles of the different characters in the story. Gygax was the son of immigrants who grew up in Lake Geneva, WI, in the 1950s. An imaginative misfit, he escaped into a virtual world based on science fiction novels, military history and strategic games like chess. In the mid-1970s, he co-created the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons game, determining the rules and inventing the signature 20-sided dice. Starting out in the basement of his home, he was soon struggling to keep up with the demand. Gygax was a purist, in the sense that he was adamant that players use their imaginations and that the rules of the game remain flexible. A creative mind with no real knowledge of business, he made some strategic errors and had a falling out with the game's co-creator, his close friend and partner, David Arneson. By the late 1970s the game had become so popular among kids that parents started to worry -- so much so that a mom's group was formed to alert parents to the dangers of role play and fantasy. The backlash only fueled the fires of the young fans who continued to play the game, escaping into imaginary worlds. Before long, D&D conventions were set up around the country and the game inspired everything from movies to the first video games. With D&D, Gygax created the kind of role playing fantasy that would fuel the multibillion dollar video game industry, and become a foundation of contemporary geek culture.

Market Garden was a bold plan, designed to capture the Rhine crossings along the Dutch-German border and establish a foothold for an advance into Germany. A massive combined arms operation involving airborne landings and an armoured thrust, it was one of the most dramatic and controversial operations of the war. This new Campaign Book for Bolt Action allows players to command the forces facing each other across the Rhine, fighting key battles and attempting to change the course of history. New, linked scenarios, rules, troop types and Theatre Selectors provide plenty of options for novice and veteran players alike.

Hold a galaxy of science-fantasy worlds in your fingertips with the Starfinder Deck of Many Worlds!

Arriving in a new system and curious about who (and what) lives there? Want a unique home planet for your player character?

Simply combine a few random cards from this 110-card deck to generate one of millions of possible worlds, complete with physical statistics, resident creatures, and much more—including intriguing story hooks that spur countless science-fantasy adventures!

The Pact Worlds are the beating heart of the Starfinder campaign setting, a solar system full of citizens both familiar and bizarre. From the cosmopolitan corridors of Absalom Station to the carnivorous jungles of Castrovel or the floating cloud-cities of the gas giant Bretheda, this hardcover rulebook is your guide to Starfinder's core worlds and civilizations, and the perfect place to launch any adventure. Inside, you'll find: * In-depth gazetteers of the system's 14 major worlds, from high-tech Verces and the draconic empires of Triaxus to the necromantic wastleands of Eox or magical bubble cities floating on the surface of the sun. Each gazetteer features a detailed world map, residents and cultures, settlements and adventure locations, a unique theme to customize characters from that world, and more. * New playable alien races, from undead Eoxians to Castrovellian plant-people. * New starships, from the living vessels of the Xenowardens to sinister Hellknight dreadnoughts. * A codex of themed NPC stat blocks to help Game Masters create vivid encounters. * New archetypes for every class, including the Star Knight, Skyfire Centurion, and Divine Champion. * Tons of new weapons, armors, spells, feats, magic items, technological gadgets, and more to help outfit your adventurers.

Through classroom activities, wizard rock concerts and organizations like the Harry Potter Alliance, Harry Potter fans are using creativity to positively impact the world. This collection of essays and interviews examines how playful fandom - from fanfiction to Muggle quidditch, cosplay, role-playing games and even Harry Potter burlesque - not only re-imagines the canon but also challenges consumerism, questions notions of identity and fosters participatory culture. The contributors explore issues applicable to fan studies and performance studies at large, such as the role of performance, the nature of community, and questions of representation and ownership in the digital age. Presented in three sections, the essays discuss discrepancies between sanctioned versions of Harry Potter and fan creations, the reenactment and reinterpretation of the original narrative in fan performance, and collaborative and participatory performances that break down the boundaries between actors and audiences.

With this latest supplement for 'Bolt Action', players can now build an army for Great Britain and the Commonwealth. From early campaigns in Europe to the deserts of North Africa and the jungles of the Far East, British forces faced the Axis threat. The army lists presented here have all the information needed to field such elite units as the Paras, Commandos. Chindits and SAS alongside the steadfast 'Tommy'.

This ethnography of a live action role-playing (LARP) community examines the structure of play, how new participants are introduced and apprenticed into the culture, player expectations and motivations, and games as they are designed and as they are performed. The main focus is on LARP's affordance for learning across a variety of disciplines and interests. The book is intended for LARP participants, academics interested in play or in collaborative development, those interested in new uses of familiar learning environments, and game developers with an interest in creating games with highly interactive narratives and co-creative play experiences in which the role of designer and player is blurred.

The Roman Empire rules the civilised world with an iron fist, seemingly all-powerful and limitless. And yet, the power of Rome is secured not by its mighty legions, but by small bands of warriors and agents fighting a secret war. Tasked by the Emperor to explore ancient temples, forgotten labyrinths and beast-haunted caverns, they seek out artefacts hidden by the gods themselves, hunt creatures of myth and face enemies that would use dark magic against the empire. Broken Legions is a set of fantasy skirmish rules for a war unknown to history, fought in the shadows of the Roman Empire. Various factions recruit small warbands to fight in tight, scenario-driven battles that could secure the mystical power to defend - or crush - Rome. A points system allows factions to easily build a warband, and mercenaries and free agents may also be hired to bolster a force. Heroes and leaders may possess a range of skills, traits and magical abilities, but a henchman's blade can be just as sharp, and a campaign can see even the lowliest henchman become a hero of renown.

From the late Revolutionary Wars and Egyptian campaign, to the battles of Austerlitz, Borodino, Leipzig, and Waterloo, Absolute Emperor is a mass battle wargame that provides all the rules needed to play during this period of grand armies and sweeping campaigns. Players' armies are composed of multiple corps, with command and control being of the utmost importance, all influenced by the elan of your general. Do you follow in the footsteps of Napoleon and be crowned the Absolute Emperor or stand against tyranny as Wellington and Blucher?

This collection of all-new essays approaches the topic of immersion as a product of social and media relations in the 21st century. Examining the premises and aesthetics of live-action and tabletop role-playing games, reality television, social media apps and first-person shooters, the essays take both game rules and the media discourse that games produce as serious objects of study. Scholars of social psychology, sociology, role-playing theory, game studies, and television studies all examine games and game-like environments like reality shows as interdependent sites of social friction and power negotiation. The ten essays articulate the importance of game rules in our analyses of contemporary media products, and demonstrate methods that allow us to see those game rules in action during the contested process of play.

This book describes the creation of a wargames' army and provides essential guidance for someone starting out in wargaming through to the more experienced gamer. With over 290 colour photographs, it describes how the armies of the main nations - France, Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria - were organized. It illustrates the uniforms and battle formations using computer-aided plans. Practical modelling techniques are demonstrated from basic to more advanced. It provides detailed painting guides with accompanying step-by-step photographs, and finally, there is a chapter on the flags carried by these five armies during the wars.

The Men Who Would Be Kings is a set of rules designed for fighting historical or Hollywood colonial battles in the mid to late 19th Century, from the Indian Mutiny to the Boxer Rebellion. Large scale colonial clashes tended to be one-sided affairs, but there are countless reports of brief, frantic skirmishes in every colonial war, where either side could be victorious, and these are the battles that The Men Who Would Be Kings seeks to recreate. Although focusing on the British colonial wars against the Zulus, Maoris and others, these rules will also permit players to explore the empires of France, Germany, and other nations, as well as allowing for battles between rival native factions. Gameplay is very simple, and is driven by the quality of the officers leading your units, in the true spirit of Victorian derring-do and adventure, where larger than life characters such as the (real) Fred Burnaby and the (fictional) Harry Flashman led their troops to glory and medals or a horrible end at the point of a spear tip.

Dark necromancers have laid claim to forsaken kingdoms and summoned forth the souls of those who defiled their oathmarks. The dead, once again, march to war. As armies of wraiths and skeletal warriors bring destruction to their lands, the small kingdoms of the Marches also turn to the spirits of the dead. Gathering the most ancient and powerful of oathmarks, they recall the spectral forms of those that died in loyal battle to once again come forth in defence of their kingdoms. With these ethereal warriors joining their ranks, the kings of the Marches may yet stand.

This supplement for Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age introduces the forces of the dead to the game. Some armies will use dark magic to summon the souls and corpses of traitors from the past, while others will recall the spirits of loyal warriors that gave their lives and willingly fight again. This book also includes expanded rules for characters, which allow you to chart their progress from battle-to-battle, and watch as they grow in rank, responsibility, and power. All of these rules are then incorporated into a campaign featuring new scenarios that together tell of an epic war for survival.

Fans of J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World will be enchanted by this life-size collectible--a poseable figure of Pickett, Newt Scamander's Bowtruckle companion in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Kit includes:

* 5" bendable figure of Pickett

* ID card" with description of the Bowtruckle

* 2 magnets

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes fans to a new era in J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World, decades before Harry Potter and half a world away. Inspired by the Hogwarts textbook, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, written by J.K. Rowling's character, Newt Scamander, the film follows a magical mix-up that takes Newt on a chase around New York City looking for the magical creatures that have escaped from his case.

With videogames now one of the world's most popular diversions, the virtual world has increasing psychological influence on real-world players. This book examines the relationships between virtual and non-virtual identity in visual role-playing games. Utilizing James Gee's theoretical constructs of real-world identity, virtual-world identity, and projective identity, this research shows dynamic, varying and complex relationships between the virtual avatar and the players sense of self and makes recommendations of terminology for future identity researchers. Features 15 photographs of videogame screens, bibliography, and an appendix of sample videogame transcription data.

One of the most popular first-person-shooter franchises of all time, the critically and commercially acclaimed Battlefield series has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades. 'The Art of Battlefield 4' gives readers an in-depth look at EA's enormously anticipated action-packed game, featuring exclusive concept and development art, as well as detailed creator insights and commentary throughout.

The heroes travel to Absalom Station to warn the Pact Worlds government of a fast-approaching threat from beyond the stars! But before they are fully prepared, the titanic spacecraft arrives and shuts down the fabled Starstone Reactor, plunging the station into chaos. The heroes must find a way to bring the power back online, while rescuing citizens and dealing with Azlanti spies, angry outsiders, and confused spirits. Can they save the heart of the Pact Worlds and take the fight to the strange alien vessel? "The Starstone Blockade" is a Starfinder Roleplaying Game adventure for four 16th-level characters. This adventure continues The Devastation Ark Adventure Path, a three-part, monthly campaign in which the players stop the threat of an ancient alien civilization in Starfinder's first high-level adventures! This volume also includes an examination of the church of Eloritu-the god of history, magic, and secrets-as well as a selection of ghastly new aliens! Each monthly full-color softcover Starfinder Adventure Path volume contains a new installment of a series of interconnected science-fantasy quests that together create a fully developed plot of sweeping scale and epic challenges. Each 64-page volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path also contains in-depth articles that detail and expand the Starfinder campaign setting and provide new rules, a host of exciting new monsters and alien races, a new planet to explore and starship to pilot, and more!

A set of wargames rules covering heroic adventure and dastardly villains during the early 20th Century. Enter a world of perilous adventure and explore steaming jungles, desert canyons, and arctic wastes! Brave the perils of nature and discover lost ruins, ancient treasures, and the secrets of forgotten civilizations! Race against rival adventurers and face off against diabolical villains! Take to the city streets and fight back against gangsters, spies, and sinister cults! Pulp! is a scenario-driven skirmish wargame set during the interwar years of the early 20th Century. Players build teams of bold explorers, daring archaeologists, hardboiled detectives, and costumed avengers - or criminal masterminds and evil geniuses - and dive into a world of fortune, glory... and menace. Pulp! contains all the rules needed to game globetrotting escapades in this rip-roaring era.