RPGs Are A Brick Test

[True Black Raven]

Interesting blog post I ran across.

RPGs Are A Brick Test

[Mighty Darci]

Thank you for the link, True Black Raven, what a fantastic post. I will be following this blogger. Have an exalt!

[True Black Raven]

Thank you Mighty Darci, yes it is a very good post!

[Admin Pete]

As a child, my therapist tested me for intelligence. One aspect of this testing was a Brick Test. The gist, if you want to ignore the link, is that you are given time to answer what you can do with a brick. Creativity is (allegedly) tested by enumerating a lot of answers.

Ultimately, children tend to score higher because they aren't constrained by practicality, e.g. you may be able to build a boat with bricks but only a child would bother with considering something so impractical. The brick test itself is an excellent metaphor for RPGs.

The Brick Test

One of the simplest psychology tests, to find out how creative you are is the “Brick Usage” test.

It takes only 5 minutes of time, and it would be most desirable if you can take it without any type of visual, sound, or any other type of distraction.

You will need a piece of paper and a pen.
Set the countdown timer to 5 minutes and start the clock.
In those 5 minutes, try to imagine as many different ways as possible to use a brick, and write them down. In addition to the traditional uses; try to invent or imagine some unusual ways.
Take the test first, and then continue reading.

The test gives feedback on how imaginative someone is, but it also gives feedback about his intelligence and ability to combine things. The average person will imagine around 5 to 8 different uses, and an imaginative person will find between 10 to 15. Everything above that is a sign of a really creative spirit.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.
For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand,
while imagination embraces the entire world,
and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

― Albert Einstein

[xizallian]

Ultimately, children tend to score higher because they aren't constrained by practicality, e.g. you may be able to build a boat with bricks but only a child would bother with considering something so impractical. The brick test itself is an excellent metaphor for RPGs.

In brainstorming there is no critiquing of the quality or practicality of an idea, a brainstorming session is to maximize ideas. Culling the ideas for the ones that are good is separate from brainstorming, because in a group brainstorming session with open acceptance of all ideas as valid, even those that will later be culled may lead to ideas that will not be culled. The brick test is a brainstorming session sans the group. IMO parents should do the brick test repeatedly over their child's childhood with hundreds of different items teaching them to brainstorm about anything they may encounter, it is a skill well worth cultivating. But don't neglect, the second part which is training your child to cull the list for the gold, silver and bronze and how to discard the dross by setting it aside, even dross can generate new ideas in another context at another time.

IMO constant practice of the "Brick Test" as a fun game will immunize your child from being jailed in the rigidity of thought that the educational, commercial and governmental systems desire. (Oh BTW, it will do you good too!)

[robkuntz]

Through spontaneity we are re-formed into ourselves. It creates an explosion that for the moment frees us from handed-down frames of reference, memory choked with old facts and information and undigested theories and techniques of other people's findings. Spontaneity is the moment of personal freedom when we are faced with reality, and see it, explore it and act accordingly. In this reality the bits and pieces of ourselves function as an organic whole. It is the time of discovery, of experiencing, of creative expression. -- Viola Spolin, Mother of Improv. Theater

[hengest]

I'd like to think RPGs are both a test and a training program. If you're playing some open-ended game, it's gotta change how you think about problems.

[Admin Pete]

Apr 17, 2021 12:05:09 GMT -5 hengest said:

I'd like to think RPGs are both a test and a training program. If you're playing some open-ended game, it's gotta change how you think about problems.

RPGs are an elaborate IQ Test and a Creativity Test. These are two separate things with a little overlap. Formal education is designed to beat both of them out of you.

[Morton]

I read that Brick House the first time I looked at it. Oops!