Athena Reacts: The Gamemaster's Experience

Nancy Felson

University of Georgia

The faculty member who serves as the Gamemaster in a Reacting course plays a double role, first as a conventional lecturer and teacher and second as a facilitator for the game.  In the first role, she will introduce the historical and cultural background for each game, either lecturing or leading discussions in a conventional manner on history, religion, philosophy, politics and political theory.  She will also grade oral and written work throughout the course, much like an instructor in other classes.  In the second role, she will run each game and advise students on matters of strategy and rhetoric, or coach her preceptors who will each advise two factions on these matters.  Her aim, in this capacity, is to ensure that the game evolves as a fulfilling and historically credible experience. Thus she would never disclose to a member of Faction A the strategy of someone in Faction B, nor reveal any secrets of one of the ‘indeterminates’ to the other players, nor tell students everything she knows.  She would only intervene in the student-run assemblies and court trials when she deemed it absolutely necessary and she would function to settle disputes between students about the rules of the game.  The instructor would stay in character as Gamemaster unless she specifically stepped out of that role to perform some function as a 'normal' teacher".

On the three occasions when I’ve taught “Athens at the Threshold of Democracy, 403 BCE” at University of Georgia I chose to identify myself as “Athena” rather than as “Gamemaster” and this enabled me 1) to get the students’ attention and 2) to introduce some details of fifth century religion and of mythology from a very personal point of view.  I wore a helmet made by a graduate student, which I also used for collecting pebbles for voting.  More recently, when I served as Gamemaster at a Barnard College Training Conference, I impersonated Solon who had come back from the Underworld to see what was happening in “my” Athens and to my reforms.  I narrated Athenian history from a Solonic point of view.   I will share with you some ideas for enlivening the role of Gamemaster and for assuring that your version of Athens, 403 BCE Game stays on track.   I will also discuss future plans for Reacting at Georgia and elsewhere.