May I present an idea for a project to you, for your comments and possible co-operation?
It seems from various posts that I have read over the last wee while that there is a perceived need for a ‘beginners training Hold’,which covered all the elements of playing the game, in a structured way. Certainly thinking back to last year when this adventure started for me, such a thing would have been very useful then. There are easy holds of course and there is the brief tutorial which comes with JtRH and the Tutorial rooms within TCB, but there is no one single hold which teaches a complete beginner how to deal with all the various elements of the game, even in their simplest form.
It is clear that some members have been trying individually to address this lack and recently some of you have posted your own tutorial holds. Each of those tutorials has its own merits, but (and please forgive me if this seems a little blunt) none, I think, is the complete article. There is also the recently released “Smitemastery 101’ ; I have not played it yet, but Jatopian said of it,
”There's still need for a comprehensive training hold, which this isn't, though it does make a good introduction.”
It seems to me that the difficulty with all of these very well intentioned attempts is that they are, if I can put it this way, all inventing their own versions of the manual on how to invent wheels. It is not co-ordinated approach and no single effort seems to cover all the areas and elements of dungeon clearing.
It was Starwed’s comment,
” But it would be nice to have a single hold which explained the different types of monster movement clearly. ^_^ Perhaps a board collaboration would be a good idea“ which galvanised me into putting my thoughts in order. I think he/she is right . I wonder if the time has come for a collaborative effort to design a complete “Training Hold”. (In fact I think that, like Master Locks, two versions would be, if not necessary, then advisable; one for children and another for “oldies”.)
When I first started chewing over the idea it was immediately obvious of course that, with TCB about to appear, it would be sensible to wait before attempting this, in order to incorporate the new game elements.
Now I am by no means the game’s best Architect and certainly I don’t have the brain for complex puzzles, but this hold would not need difficult puzzles - in fact that would defeat the purpose. What I can reasonably claim is years of experience in teaching; putting across sometimes quite complicated concepts to teenagers is how I earn my crust. I run a department and organising and combining the efforts of a variety of people with different strengths is also part of my daily job. That is how I would see my role in this - co-ordinating, combining, organising, dealing with the overall look of the finished hold. You know of course that my technical knowledge of computers is very limited, but in discussions with other members on this subject I have had kind offers of help on that side of things, should it prove necessary.
So what I am proposing is that over the next few weeks (months?) I co-ordinate a collaborative effort to design a Training Hold which will be as close as we can get it to ‘definitive’. What I seek from you is your thoughts on this as an idea and, if you approve, suggestions for what should be in the hold.
In particular, clearly at the moment we are all of us finding our way in to the elements of TCB and it would be very helpful if
you would take a moment to consider what you have found tricky, or difficult to understand in your first attempts at the game.
in the light of that, what kind of guidance would have been useful?
those of you who are new to DROD: would you give your opinions on what would have been helpful in terms of tutorial material when you started playing ?
those of you who can remember what it was like to play DROD for the first time: will you do the same - what would have helped you?
those of you who have already made tutorial holds: would you consider allowing me to incorporate sections of them into this new Hold?
Feel free to PM me, but I feel that public discussion of this would be very productive.
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Winner of: Novice Architect Excellence 2006.
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I'll be in touch.