Dialect Actual Play: A Linguistics Lesson in the Form of a Game
Dialect Actual Play: A Linguistics Lesson in the Form of a Game
Dialect Actual Play: A Linguistics Lesson in the Form of a Game
March 2, 2021
Summary
Dialect is a GM-less game "For three to five players in three to four hours." During play, the group chooses from a prewritten set of Backdrops.
It is clear that the game went through an extensive playtesting and development period, and there is an evident effort to base the game on a genuine understanding of linguistics.
I'm sure you could complete the game in four hours ... but only IF at least one person came to the table fully versed in the game rules and IF that person was pushing the play forward.
Certainly from a marketing or a convention-play standpoint, it is nice to say you have a game that can be picked up on the spot and played in a single session-and it's triply nice to say that the game will deliver a significant experience.
Maybe it's a result of my middle-aged brain, but if a game is asking me to build a world and create a character, I'm inclined to turn that into a "Session Zero" unto itself and then allow the players time to reflect on the setting before diving full-force into game play.
During our game of Dialect, we were quite aware of how our deliberate and segmented game play was giving us a different experience than the default one-shot mode assumed by the rulebook.
Lest I be misunderstood, Dialect is a valuable game to play and to study.
Reference
Dialect actual play: A linguistics lesson in the form of a game. (2021, March 2). Dialect Actual Play: A Linguistics Lesson in the Form of a Game. https://ludoverse.blogspot.com/2021/03/dialect-actual-play-linguistics-lesson.html