That Fateful Year: game, project, tool

Hey hey, it’s New Year, new us, same students, same class…

…but maybe we could change something in our classroom, especially when we teach teenagers or adults who somewhat struggle with writing and yet they desperately need to develop this skill?
Imagine a tool that will encourage your students to write creatively, regularly and as if they were playing a game. Sounds great? Well I want to share with you a literal game that will support not only your students’ writing skills, but also their out-of-the-box thinking, enthusiasm, engagement and the belief that creative writing isn’t that bad after all.

As you know, I’m passionate about role-playing games in the classroom, and when I saw a simple yet powerful game written by one of the most creative game designers, Artur Ganszyniec, I knew that would be the perfect tool to achieve my goal: supporting writing skills while having a lot of fun (or rather having a lot of fun while supporting writing skills).

That Fateful Year is a an epistolary solo role-playing game, in which you write a chronicle of a year of the protagonist’s life. You can live a year as an escaped android, a famous opera singer on tour, a captain of a spaceship or a dethroned monarch in exile.

You may ask wait, it’s like writing a journal, right? What’s so innovative about it? And the innovation is, obviously, that it’s a game, which means it has a set of rules, challenges, prompts and things that will make boring journaling a real adventure!

How to start the game

First, you create a character:

At first, some of your students may be somewhat disgruntled, saying things like yeah I don’t know what an escaped android would do or I hate opera, how can I possibly pretend to be a famous opera singer? But that, in reality, is just the first challenge of the game, and the one that will prove to be quite rewarding, because at the end of the game your students will have realized that even if they don’t like opera music their famous opera singer gets to be truly epic; even if they don’t understand science fiction genre, their Android gets to do better things than dreaming about electric sheep. So, if they feel unhappy with their first choice, encourage them to give the character a chance. Maybe it was just meant to be?

Once your character is ready, you basically start the journal! But wait, here’s another challenge, the first sentence of your epic journal has already been decided:

So we have the first sentence ready. What next?

How to play

The rules are very simple and all they require is a deck of cards. The routine goes as follows:

It is quite simple isn’t it? What I really like about the rules is that they add a little bit of limitation to the possible flood of creativity, and that’s something everyone who has ever corrected any creative writing knows as really helpful. They also provide some prompts for those students who don’t feel comfortable when it comes to creative writing, as well as those who have some kind of a weaker day. Plus, they will provide interesting variations of the stories, especially when half of the group has picked the same character as their protagonist.

How does the game end and who wins

The whole journal consists of 52 entries, it’s the fateful year after all! But just like with the first entry, the last words of the last entry have already been decided, what’s more, students know the final entry from the very beginning of the game:

And that’s it. That’s how the game ends. Just like with the role-playing games in general, there are no winners or losers, the goal of the game is to enjoy it, to experience fun with your friends. And how can you experience fun with your friends playing a game encouraging you to write in English and in the classroom?

How to use that fateful year in the classroom

Full time homework: individual work

Hand out your students the materials, and explain That Fateful Year just like a regular homework assignment. They will need to share their entries regularly, so that everyone can track the adventures of their characters. That’s how you can make one lesson a month some kind of a reading club, when everyone is reading their journals, sharing their feedback and certainly asking for more.

Group project in the classroom

If you prefer a project work in the classroom, you may easily engage your students in creating their stories during the lesson. Divide your students into groups and assign them the protagonist, then based on the prompts ask them to create the journals. Encourage the students to work together in order to write the most creative and epic story that you will read on the next class.

Individual/group work in the classroom

The last option, my favourite, is asking your students to write a new entry twice a week in the classroom. This will probably take them the whole school year, which is quite a lot, but like nothing else will show all of you the importance of regular writing. By the end of the year your students will be able to compare the beginnings of the journals with the last entries, discovering not only the adventures of the protagonists, but also the development of their own writing skills. Highly educational.

Whichever option you choose, explain the rules to the whole class and give them the first and the last sentence of the journal. When it comes to handing out the prompts, it will depend on the option you choose, if you decide to choose the homework option you will need to hand out the prompt before your students actually start writing. If you choose the in-class option, you can either ask your students to take the photos of the prompt or hand them out when needed.

What do I need to play the game

To play the game you will need a rulebook, a deck of cards, and something to write with. Where can you find the rulebook? Just click on the link (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/pro…/417849/That-Fateful-Year). DriveThru is a safe site full of downloadable role-playing games, so do not be afraid to log in or set up an account, and then you will be rewarded by the access to various role-playing games. That Fateful Year is only $1.00, so it’s really affordable – and will bring you hours of fun!

Recommendations

I can happily recommend this game to both individual and group classes, in class and online, as long as writing skill development is required. To make the best of the experience though, I would suggest your students be 15+ and their CEFR level should be at least B1.

Have fun!

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post 🙂