Variant used as an educational tool

[bjorngudis]

Hi guys,
I'm new here, but have played Angband off and on since the 90s.
I was just wondering if anyone knows if someone has made a variant which can be used as an educational tool?
I was thinking something like that anytime you make a first melee attack, fire a first arrow, cast a spell or try to open a chest the player would be asked a question. The question would be based on an array where the teacher, parent or player would put in the question / answers.
A successful answer would give a large boost to the success chance and/or increase damage from the attack, incorrect one virtually destroys the chance of success.

Just curious if something like that has been done?

Bjorn

[bughunter]

I am not the person to answer your main question, but I have to say...

That sounds a whole lot like trying to sneak kale into chocolate chip cookies to convince a kid to eat vegetables.

[bjorngudis]

Kale in cookies?!!

Absolutely that would be the point, to try to make learning the times table or something tedious like that something the kids would ask to do.
Everything is OK in love, war and homeschooling....

[DavidMedley]

Do your kids really love Angband that much? My two sons (13 and 10) like it, but nearly as much as Fortnight, Minecraft, and watching YouTube.

[bjorngudis]

They like some other math games where you battle monsters but these games are very limited in how you can evolve, the types of monsters you can meet, the stuff you can find/use. The complexity of Angband would just make make the type of game more enjoyable for a longer time.

[Nick]

So there is a list of hints which the shopkeepers give - maybe you could subvert that into learning?

[Sideways]

Angband is a really long game in terms of how many times the player attacks or disarms or casts spells; and that would be the main obstacle to Edutainment Angband as described by you: the player'd have to answer tens of thousands of questions to complete the game. The actual rogueliking part would be slowed to an extent no adult test-player would put up with

[Hounded]

Flag it for (A)ctivations perhaps or for certain effects...

Heh... make it a curse. Every so many turns you have to answer a question.

A trap! "You have answered incorrectly. You are struck by lightning."

[whartung]

I wouldn't put it as part of the fundamental game play.

Instead, I'd perhaps put locks on the stairwells that had to be passed by answering a question, or on a vault door, or something like that.

I certainly wouldn't want to walk up to a random Kobold and, suddenly, a math quiz pops up.

You could also do it on events, such as WoR returning to town, leveiing up, or something like that.

I don't know how many "questions per hour" of play time you would be looking for.

But I think putting the loot behind a locked door could be useful.

[DavidMedley]

I think we're going about this the wrong way. We should use reading, writing and arithmetic to encourage good *BAND play. If you forget to restock cure potions and phase door scrolls, you have to solve an algebraic equation. If you're not diving fast enough you have to read a chapter from some dusty old classic no one cares about anymore. And every time you die you have to write an essay!

[VeritasAequitas]

every time you die, you have to write a YASD post!

[Voovus]

They like some other math games where you battle monsters but these games are very limited in how you can evolve, the types of monsters you can meet, the stuff you can find/use. The complexity of Angband would just make make the type of game more enjoyable for a longer time.

Have you tried Desktop Dungeons?

[bughunter]

And every time you die you have to write an essay!

Oh, jeez... I'd be more prolific than Isaac Asimov and Stephen King combined.

[bjorngudis]

I wouldn't put it as part of the fundamental game play.

Instead, I'd perhaps put locks on the stairwells that had to be passed by answering a question, or on a vault door, or something like that.

I certainly wouldn't want to walk up to a random Kobold and, suddenly, a math quiz pops up.

You could also do it on events, such as WoR returning to town, leveiing up, or something like that.

I don't know how many "questions per hour" of play time you would be looking for.

But I think putting the loot behind a locked door could be useful.

The frequency of questions for melee/shooting/attack spells would have to be limited somehow, probably by only having them pop up when you meet a relatively powerful monster, based on the player level. Could also be set so that if you've killed the monster type a given number of times already you wouldn't face any question.
Also if you've recently killed the same monster type you'd also skip the question, so as not to make meeting a mob too tedious.
I agree that the length of Angband may be an obstacle, but if the questions can be varied by changing the user's question/answer array then that could allow you to do all kinds of learning. The questions should be such that they promote a quick recall of knowledge so that the learner think it's beneficial to learn things by heart rather than for example typing the problem into a calculator.
One could even make the save file in the same format as the original so that the player could jump to vanilla if they want.
At the moment my boys are sitting with Prodigy Math where they sometimes have to do long division and similar between each attack, there is only 150 or so different monsters to meet and the different gear they can find/use is almost nil.

[bjorngudis]

Oh, jeez... I'd be more prolific than Isaac Asimov and Stephen King combined.

See only benefits!!!! Imagine how many great writers Angband would create...