Worlds Beyond (Classic Reprint)

Worlds Beyond (Classic Reprint)
Author: Frank Shewmake
Publisher: Precis Intermedia
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2021-05-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9781938270345

Risk everything and confront your destiny. In Worlds Beyond, the future is now. Explore known space as one of four sentient races. Probe the complexities of interstellar politics, alien interaction, and corporate intrigue. Only the smart, the brave, and the lucky dare to live out their dreams. Take the challenge... Worlds Beyond presents a flexible and comprehensive character generation system. Four diverse species and eight different occupations enable players to create an endless variety of adventures. The fast-paced combat system provides for realistic, exciting, and potentially deadly encounters. Journey to the Sleeper Worlds, Earth's first colonies and sometimes enemies. Walk on the home world of the Swarr and witness clan rituals thousands of years old. Venture into the Rift, where the Dolf sell anything from technology to slaves. Follow the Sher'tazi as they make their pilgrimages through life, never knowing where it will lead or end. This roleplaying game contains everything you need to get started quickly, including easy to run combat mechanics; star, world, and civiliation generation; starship construction and combat; information on robots and androids; catalog of worlds in known space; and an introductory adventure.

Beyond the Creative Species

Beyond the Creative Species
Author: Oliver Bown
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2021-02-23
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 026204501X

A multidisciplinary introduction to the field of computational creativity, analyzing the impact of advanced generative technologies on art and music. As algorithms get smarter, what role will computers play in the creation of music, art, and other cultural artifacts? Will they be able to create such things from the ground up, and will such creations be meaningful? In Beyond the Creative Species, Oliver Bown offers a multidisciplinary examination of computational creativity, analyzing the impact of advanced generative technologies on art and music. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, design, social theory, the psychology of creativity, and creative practice research, Bown argues that to understand computational creativity, we must not only consider what computationally creative algorithms actually do, but also examine creative artistic activity itself.

Beyond the Valley of Thorns (The Land of Elyon #2)

Beyond the Valley of Thorns (The Land of Elyon #2)
Author: Patrick Carman
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2011-07-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 054530234X

The second dazzling installment in Patrick Carman's masterful Land of Elyon trilogy!Alexa thought her troubles were over when she defeated the man who had threatened to bring down Bridewell from within. But now that the walls around her land have fallen, a new, unexpected threat has risen from outside. Suddenly, Alexa is involved in a battle much, much larger than her own life . . . a battle in which she is destined to play a key role. In order to help good defeat evil, Alexa and her friends must venture farther than they've ever gone before -- confronting giants, bats, ravenous dogs, and a particularly ghoulish mastermind in order to bring back peace.

Role-play as a Heritage Practice

Role-play as a Heritage Practice
Author: Michal Mochocki
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2021-03-29
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1000367649

Role-play as a Heritage Practice is the first book to examine physically performed role-enactments, such as live-action role-play (LARP), tabletop role-playing games (TRPG), and hobbyist historical reenactment (RH), from a combined game studies and heritage studies perspective. Demonstrating that non-digital role-plays, such as TRPG and LARP, share many features with RH, the book contends that all three may be considered as heritage practices. Studying these role-plays as three distinct genres of playful, participatory and performative forms of engagement with cultural heritage, Mochocki demonstrates how an exploration of the affordances of each genre can be valuable. Showing that a player’s engagement with history or heritage material is always multi-layered, the book clarifies that the layers may be conceptualised simultaneously as types of heritage authenticity and as types of in-game immersion. It is also made clear that RH, TRPG and LARP share commonalities with a multitude of other media, including video games, historical fiction and film. Existing within, and contributing to, the fiction and non-fiction mediasphere, these role-enactments are shaped by the same large-scale narratives and discourses that persons, families, communities, and nations use to build memory and identity. Role-play as a Heritage Practice will be of great interest to academics and students engaged in the study of heritage, memory, nostalgia, role-playing, historical games, performance, fans and transmedia narratology.

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Play from Birth and Beyond

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Play from Birth and Beyond
Author: Sandra Lynch
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2017-01-27
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9811026432

While firmly acknowledging the importance of play in early childhood, this book interrogates the assumption that play is a birthright. It pushes beyond traditional understandings of play to ask questions such as: what is the relationship between play and the arts – theatre, music and philosophy – and between play and wellbeing? How is play relevant to educational practice in the rapidly changing circumstances of today’s world? What do Australian Aboriginal conceptions of play have to offer understandings of play? The book examines how ideas of play evolve as children increasingly interact with popular culture and technology, and how developing notions of play have changed our work spaces, teaching practices, curricula, and learning environments, as well as our understanding of relationships between children and adults. This multidisciplinary volume on the subject of play combines the work of some of the world’s leading researchers in the field of early childhood education with contributions from distinguished and emerging scholars in areas as diverse as education, theatre studies, architecture, literature, philosophy, cultural studies, theology and the creative arts. Reconsidering the common focus on play in early education, to investigate its broader impact, this collection offers a refreshing and valuable addition to studies on play, reconceptualizing it for the 21st century.

Beyond the Trauma Vortex

Beyond the Trauma Vortex
Author: Gina Ross
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2003
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9781556434464

In Beyond the Trauma Vortex, Gina Ross proposes a collaboration between the media, trauma researchers, and helping officials in order to break the vicious cycle of trauma and violence. The media, Ross suggests, can use their tremendous influence to promote peace rather than violence and to heal wounded psyches, communities, and nations. Delving first into the destructive nature of the "trauma vortex" through a variety of individual and historical examples, Ross then offers her insight into an alternate, restorative "healing vortex." By focusing on the interrelatedness of personal and collective healing, the author makes a compelling case for why--and how--media professionals can play an influential role in effecting widespread healing for their viewers and for themselves.

Beyond Reach

Beyond Reach
Author: Melody Carlson
Publisher: Multnomah
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2009-02-19
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0307561925

If You Thought You Needed Vision, Would You Ask God For It? Exhausted by her role in the dramatic rescue of Kayla Henderson, Samantha McGregor is ready for a vacation from her God-given visions. But when Sam gets her wish and the visions actually go on hiatus, she’s beginning to wonder if she’s lost her spiritual gift forever. To make matters worse, her police friend Ebony needs her help! Peter Clark has been dead for several years, an open-and-shut case of suicide, but Ebony’s not convinced. Why would he do it? And why does Ebony suspect foul play? Sam has been no help in the investigation, and just when she’s lost all hope, God gives her a vision of a guy jumping from a railroad bridge. Suddenly the floodgates open and all of Sam’s visions involve suicide. Who is this guy? And what does this have to do with Peter’s death? It’s a race against the clock as Sam worries about every brown-haired guy she meets: her lab partner, Olivia’s rocker friend, Peter’s little brother–they all fit the description! Whoever the guy in her vision is, his identity is just beyond Sam’s reach, and he’s definitely losing his grip fast…Trusting God will lead her, Sam’s determined to send a message of hope and find him before he gives up.

The Routledge Handbook of Role-Playing Game Studies

The Routledge Handbook of Role-Playing Game Studies
Author: José P. Zagal
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 588
Release: 2024-06-27
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 1040029760

This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to the latest research on role-playing games (RPGs) across disciplines, cultures, and media in one single, accessible volume. Collaboratively authored by more than 40 key scholars, it traces the history of RPGs, from wargaming precursors to tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons to the rise of live-action role-play and contemporary computer RPG and massively multiplayer online RPG franchises, like Baldur’s Gate, Genshin Impact, and World of Warcraft. Individual chapters survey the perspectives, concepts, and findings on RPGs from key disciplines, like performance studies, sociology, psychology, education, economics, game design, literary studies, and more. Other chapters integrate insights from RPG studies around broadly significant topics, like worldbuilding, immersion, and player-character relations, as well as explore actual play and streaming, diversity, equity, inclusion, jubensha, therapeutic uses of RPGs, and storygames, journaling games, and other forms of text-based RPGs. Each chapter includes definitions of key terms and recommended readings to help students and scholars new to RPG studies find their way into this interdisciplinary field. A comprehensive reference volume ideal for students and scholars of game studies and immersive experiences and those looking to learn more about the ever-growing, interdisciplinary field of RPG studies.

Play from Birth to Twelve and Beyond

Play from Birth to Twelve and Beyond
Author: Doris Pronin Fromberg
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 608
Release: 1998
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780815317456

This Encyclopedia presents 62 essays by 78 distinguished experts who draw on their expertise in pedagogy, anthropology, ethology, history, philosophy, and psychology to examine play and its variety, complexity, and usefulness. Here you'll find out why play is vital in developing mathematical thinking and promoting social skills, how properly constructed play enhances classroom instruction, which games foster which skills, how playing stimulates creativity, and much more.