Contact Information here: http://www.rpgresearch.com/about/contact
More information about project goals, mission statements, background information, volunteering opportunities, professional training, etc.: http://www.rpgresearch.com/about
Below is a combined listing about the project and the project founder Hawke Robinson, including: panel sessions, Q&A sessions, interviews, articles, essays, presentations on the effects of role-playing games, rpg therapy program plans, rpg education, research and examples from using role-playing games to achieve therapeutic and educational goals for many populations including Autism spectrum (ASD/PDD/Asperger's), ADHD, brain injury (TBI, stroke, etc.), spinal cord injury (SCI), at-risk youth, incarcerated youth and adults, the Deaf and hard of hearing, Muscular Dystrophy (MD), Cerebral Palsy (CP), and others.
Hawke begins playing AD&D periodically.
Hawke first introduced to D&D by cousin.
The world's first published Role-playing game: Dungeons & Dragons.
Email: rpgresearcher at gmail dot com
Phone/Text: (509) 481-5437
Twitter: rpgresearch
Youtube: http://youtube.com/rpgresearch
There are now some fake and/or questionable articles floating around that claim to cite the efforts of W.A. Hawkes-Robinson (aka Hawke Robinson). While I hate to perpetuate their showing up in searches, some may be worth comment/correction.
Exciting news! Just received an email that I am confirmed for writing a full chapter, on Role-Playing Games, in the upcoming 4th edition textbook "Facilitation Techniques in Therapeutic Recreation" by Professors Dattilo and McKenney of Penn State!
I hope to have the final drafts completed over this summer. There are only 2 textbooks on the topic of facilitation techniques in TR available (the other is from Stumbo), and all Recreational Therapists must cover this topic as part of their training and working toward NCTRC certification as CTRS.
As far as I have been able to find researching since 2004, there is zero literature in the TR profession, beyond what I have created and disseminated, about any role-playing game format. This will cover all forms of role-playing games: tabletop, live-action, computer-based, and solo adventure books & modules. It will focus the most on the tabletop and LARP modes, but include considerations for using the other 2 modes.
I already wrote a rough draft of this when Dattilo suggested he was interested after seeing my presentation on RPG & Recreation Therapy at the Pacific Northwest Therapeutic Recreation Association a year and half ago (PNWTRA).
Just thought I'd share the great news!
Happy Gaming!
Link to purchase 4th Edition (when available): pending
Link to purchase current 3rd Edition (2016): http://www.sagamorepub.com/products/facilitation-techniques-therapeutic-recreation-3rd-ed
Link to purchase 2nd Edition (2012): https://www.amazon.com/Facilitation-Techniques-Therapeutic-Recreation-Dattilo/dp/1892132931/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496164125&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=Facilitation+Techniques+in+Therapeutic+Recreation+3rd+edition
An Overview of the History and
Potential Therapeutic Value
of Role-playing Gaming
By W.A. Hawkes-Robinson
RPG Research Project Document ID: RPGR-A00001-20120927-D.cc
Original Draft 2004-09-30
Copyright 2004 ©
Version 2 2007-02-24
Copyright 2007 ©
Version 3 2007-04-11
Version 4 20111206
Copyright 2011 (c)
Updated for Creative Commons 20120927
An Overview of the History and Potential Therapeutic Value of Role-playing Gaming by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://rpgresearch.com/documents/rpg-research-project/.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://rpgresearch.com/documents/disclaimers/permission.
Role-playing gaming (RPGing) has its roots as far back as ancient history with the development of war-gaming. War-gaming is the simulation of combat strategies and tactics represented in reduced scale with various rules, often with some sort of randomizing agent such as dice or cards to add an element of “realistic” unpredictability. As long as there has been organized warfare, there appears to have been some form of war-gaming in every culture throughout history. Chess and the Chinese game Go both are very much based on war-gaming, but considered lacking by some because of the lack of unpredictability offered by “true” war-gaming using some degree of randomization.
H.G. Wells was renowned during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian. Some of his most famous novels include The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War Of The Worlds (1898). He revolutionized war-gaming with his publication of Little Wars (1913). Previously war-gaming was mostly the domain of the military and wealthy elite, his book made it easily understandable and available to everyone that could read.
In the 1960s, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings hit the literary world en masse, and inspired the minds and hearts of generations. Book sales in the USA were said by some to be second only to the bible. War-gamers and many others were inspired by Tolkien's works, and began working on ways to modify war-gaming so that statistics, including fanciful creatures, magic, and individuals characters were included, not just whole army units.
Chain Mail provided war-gaming rules with extra features such as magic and mythological creatures, it was released in 1968 by Gary Gygax, and would later evolve during the 1970s into the now famous (and infamous) Dungeons & Dragons.
The 1980s were the “Golden Age” years of role-playing games in the United States. In the 1990s hybrid RPG games using cards started a shift to simpler rules, and that shift to cards was completed with the creation of Magic: The Gathering, which is a Collectible Card Card (CCG) and still very popular world-wide.
The role-playing game (RPG) industry continues to grow and is now a multi-billion dollar industry. The fledgling company Tactical (TSR) that started D&D was long ago absorbed through various mergers by Wizards of the Coast, owned by the parent company Hasbro. The industry has diversified from just “paper and dice” games to now also include hybrid collectible card games (CCGs), computer RPG games, massive multi-player online role playing games (MMORPGs), persistent online worlds, and multi-user dungeons (MUDs). There are also worldwide Live Action role-playing (LARP) groups for many different genres.
Thousands of different genres, systems, and settings abound. A very brief summary includes:
Fantasy/Medieval:
Dungeons & Dragons
Runequest
Robin Hood
Amber (Based on Roger Zelazny's Amber series, diceless game, uses cards)
Pendragon (King Arthur)
Conan
Tolkien-based: Middle-earth role-playing, Lord of the Rings, The One Ring
Science Fiction
Star Wars
Star Trek
Traveller
Doctor Who
RIFTS (Multiple universes/dimensions of reality)
Babylon 5
Robotech/Battletech
Aliens
Firefly/Serenity
Battlestar Galactica
Horror/Suspense/Gothica:
HP Lovecraft's Call of Cthulu
Vampie: The Masquerade (inspired tv short tv series, Kindred: The Embraced)
Mystery/Paranormal:
X-Files
Noir (Sam Spade and Mickey Spillane type detective mysteries)
Action/Adventure:
James Bond
Indiana jones
Military (but not war games)
Twilight 2000/2013
GURPS World War II
Oriental:
Bushido (feudal Japan)
Oriental Adventures (greater mythical Asia)
Old West:
Boot Hill
Deadlands
Comic book heroes (Such X-men, Batman, Spiderman, etc.):
Heroes
Champions
Humorous:
Ghostbusters
Paranoia
Toons
It is amazing that an entirely new hobby industry has developed from non-existence to so much variety in just about 30 years! The actual number of role-playing gamers is unknown, but sales estimates by various companies place the number of paper and dice role-playing gamers around tens of millions world-wide.
There are those who take role-playing gaming even further than sitting around a table and using paper and dice. These participants, mostly adults, participate in reenactments or Live Action role-playing (LARP). The SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) is not exactly a LARP organization, but they do encourage participants to create a “character” while attempting to reenact various time periods (medieval Europe, feudal Japan, Tzarist Russia, etc.) in historically accurate ways, while including combat in armor with various refereed and “on your honor” rules for contact, as well as many rules for correct chivalry dealing with “class” such as nobility, serfdom, peasantry, etc. Only the fighters generally compete in combat, the majority of members act out other roles, many in costume, of diverse “supporting characters”, such as minstrels, servants, courtesans, royalty, merchants, tradesmen, etc. SCA members are frequently used as extras in movies and television shows, and many are used as consultants to make certain that scenes, costumes, dialog, etc., are historically authentic to the periods depicted in various media.
In the early to mid 1980s some individuals began a campaign against role-playing gaming and organized a group called Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (BADD) to slander and try to ban all forms of role-playing games. Their goal was to convince law enforcements, legislators and the general public into believing that participating in RPGs would lead to suicide, murder, occultism, anti-social behavior, and other negative traits. Some schools, churches, and communities believed the tracts and publicity and so banned role-playing games during this time. Even after all these claims have been disproved, decades later there are still organizations and individual perpetuating these anti-RPG beliefs.
These negative incidents received a disproportionate amount of misguided media and press coverage on and off for nearly ten years during the 1980's. They attempted a number of lawsuits, and tried to pressure lawmakers into passing legislation banning role-playing at any government-funded facilities such as schools and libraries, the primary location for many role-playing gamers at the time. Fortunately for role-players all these attempts eventually failed. These efforts persisted sporadically until around the early 1990s when official reports on studies about role-playing games countered the claims and the accusations of BADD and similar entities, even proving some of the group's claims falsified, and techniques of coercion for false testimonies that were very suspect. There are still some extremist groups evidently obsessed with the idea that role-playing gaming is just a means of occultism or other antisocial behavior, despite the research now available.
There is no doubt that someone already extremely unstable, can go overboard with a role-playing game, just as they can with gambling, extreme sports, overeating, drinking, escaping into reading books obsessively and not living life, doing drugs, or any of a number of other “escapist” activities. Gaming is a recreational activity like any other, that can be overused and abused. However the vast majority of role-playing gamers benefit from the diverse positive aspects that provide an unprecedented range of benefits for a recreational activity, some of these are:
Social
Cooperation with diverse people/cultures/backgrounds
Leadership
Walking in others shoes/experiences
Exposure to other cultures, religions, histories, belief systems, etc.
Languages/Linguistics
Multicultural mythologies
Learning/following the rules but also “thinking outside of the box when needed”
Intellectual
Mathematics
Statistics
Researching
Problem solving (e.g. puzzles, riddles, mazes, etc.)
Reading/writing (technical)
History
Geography
Cartography
Geology
Economics
Government systems
Politics
Ecology
Metallurgy
Meteorology
Astronomy
Physics
Demographics
Warfare tactics and strategies
Technologies past and present
Architecture
Creative
Theatrics/acting
Improvisation
Reading/writing (creative)
Artwork (drawing, painting lead figures, etc.)
Music
Poetry
What other cooperative recreational activities can provide so rich and fulfilling an experience as in the preceding list?
A very basic and quick example of a role-playing process follows...
The game referee, sometimes known as the Game Master (GM) meets with the players in a comfortable setting around a table, or anywhere else they find comfortable, and begins with a description of a setting or situation:
“You and your friends have just walked into the courtyard of an ancient building. The courtyard is approximately forty feet square. The walls, built of a tan colored stone material apparently indigenous to the area, aligned with the points of the compass. They are about thirty feet high. You entered from an opening in the south wall. You see the north wall has some stairs leading up along the ouside of the inner wall, and the east wall on your right has what appears to be a solid metal door hanging open on rusted hinges. The walls are crumbling in places, and much is overgrown with ivy and weeds. In the center is a large fountain about fifteen feet high in what appears to be the form of a series of three successively smaller flower-like terraces. Surprisingly, the fountain is currently spouting clear and cool looking water. Peering at the water, you are more acutely aware of how dry you mouths are after the long day's hike through the surrounding desert, with no water previously in sight.
The wind is picking up as a storm from the south, with lightning and dark clouds gathering, quickly approaches. The temperature is quickly dropping by the minute...
What do you do?”
At this point, those playing in the game each take turns telling the GM and the other players what actions their character will take. Some will have mundane results, others could have surprising consequences. Dice are frequently used to simulate the random events that can occur in life, and make it unknown in advance, even to the narrator/GM, what exactly will happen next. For example, someone may decide to climb the stairs, where there are some loose steps, and depending on how agile the player's character is, with a roll of the dice, that character may leap to the top unscathed, or may have a bit of a fall to deal with. Of course, there also could be trouble in the form of ill-intentioned bandits lurking within the entrance of the rusted door....
I began role-playing gaming around 1979 at 9 years old, and have continued on and off since. My three sons began learning to play these games as young as 4 years old. They of their own volition, and despite my mild protests, have been sucked into the collecting craze of Yu Gi Oh, Pok-e-man, Magic the Gathering, and similar collectible card games, but after introducing them to role-playing gaming, they regularly comment on how much more satisfying role-playing gaming is compared to other recreational activities.
Many kids are spending so many relatively anti-social hours on computer games, and failing to develop many important skills, other than quick fine motor skill reflexes. Role-playing gaming offers a means to engage their ample imaginations with so many other benefits. Role-playing gaming can help develop invaluable social, creative, intellectual, and leadership skills that can benefit them throughout their lives. People of all ages can benefit from using such activities in their leisure time. It encompasses diverse interests, covering fantasy and medieval, to science fiction, horror, gothic, mystery, comic book heroes, cartoons, anime, and any other setting one could imagine. Who hasn't wanted at some time in their life, to pretend to be a favorite character from a book or movie or television show, or famous historical person or event? Role-playing game makes that, and so much more, possible with a vast array of benefits.
Much of this document begins with preludes of personal experiences and observations of gaming since the 1970s onward, then later focuses on more semi-formal and formal research efforts (though not the fully formalized IRB research).
Use the table of contents to jump to the sections you are most interested in.
The information posted in this document is based both on personal and others' observations (most of which include thousands of hours of recorded RPG sessions), verbal feedback, and formal assessment forms from participants.
Scores of variables were taken into consideration and repeatedly tweaked to try to find some level of causal changes, but at this stage are probably only at best correlative, in the enjoyment levels of participants.
There are plenty of potential confounds here, and so every statement should have that taken into consideration that these should be further researched with more rigorous techniques.
However, implementation of these observations does seem to have lead to consistently higher assessment & observation scores.
I hope others find this useful for trying to optimize your own RPG setting. This was a non-therapeutic and non-educational setting, it was only for standard leisure activity of tabletop role-playing games.
Though some educational settings, and some therapy-related issues are mentioned in this article, while other articles focus on those topics, they are not the focus of this article.
Some of these considerations in this article include some higher functioning Autism spectrum participants, social phobias, disruptive personality types, etc.
While there are more scientifically rigorous studies listed, under way, and planned in the future for The RPG Research Project, this page is var more variable in formality, but may still have some useful data and insights to help others trying to find ways to maximize the RPG experience for participants.
Since this comes up pretty much every month, I will try to fill in the blanks to the huge amount of data gleaned over the decades. This article will hopefully, over time, provide many answers to people trying to optimize the experience for their players. This may eventually be merged into the FAQs section of the site.
Of course there are so many other variables, not the least of which includes the person that is the Game Master and the personalities of the players, which are just a few of the many confounds in trying to systematically narrow down correlative and causal effects from changing a key variable to try to maximize the results in the enjoyment reports/observations from/of the participants.
Throughout this document I am constantly referring to "Immersion" and "Flow" as two separate though directly related experiences. I am open to adjusting these terms, but they are what I have been using for some time. I am using these terms in the following ways:
The degree to which the RPG participant is engrossed in the activity.
This is measurable on Likert-style scales using a wide number of TR/RT assessment tools.
An optimal state of immersion that can lead to maximal performance by the participant.
This is trickier to measure, while there are degrees of flow, it is somewhat binary in different areas. The more one experiences each of the areas as "on" versus "off", the more intense the flow experience.
When the participant experiences all aspects as "on", they are most likely in the most productive and maximal performance state possible, with the highest enjoyment levels.
Here is a video providing some examples of Flow State experiences in sports and gaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbtma-4qUl8
Apparently there is some debate about whether role-playing games qualify for achieving Flow state (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)#cite_note-Finding_Flow-9 ). This is news to me. I only recently heard that there even was such a debate in a Facebook discussion with Darrin Coe https://www.facebook.com/groups/roleplaytheorystudygroup/permalink/1417935211583687/
My personal experiences, repeated observations, discussions with others, and formal assessments of participants, seem to indicate not only a strong sense of immersion, but intense flow state experiences. However, there are a LOT of variables that can prevent participants from experiencing this flow state.
Therapeutic Recreation / Recreation Therapy specializes in using recreational activities to achieve therapeutic and educational goals for clients. Immersion, and optimizing the experience for clients to increasingly experience flow state are core components for achieving these goals.
If you aren't familiar with flow, you may know it as "being in the zone" in sports. The main proponent of the flow concept is Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.
The key is to balance challenge, environment, participant abilities, intrinsic motivation, and many other variables, so that the participant has an intense, distinctive experience, and is at their optimal state of performance.
Here is a short video on Flow by Hawke Robinson:
The core components of Flow Theory, as quoted from a summary on Wikipedia:
"Jeanne Nakamura and Csíkszentmihályi identify the following six factors as encompassing an experience of flow.[2]
Those aspects can appear independently of each other, but only in combination do they constitute a so-called flow experience. Additionally, psychology writer Kendra Cherry has mentioned three other components that Csíkszentmihályi lists as being a part of the flow experience:[3]
Just as with the conditions listed above, these conditions can be independent of one another."
The image below is the most common model used to reflect all the variables that need to be perfectly balanced to get into the ideal flow, hitting that "sweet spot" in the center for maximal flow experience.
Quoting from Wikipedia's summary:
"Flow theory postulates three conditions that have to be met to achieve a flow state:
However, it was argued that the antecedent factors of flow are interrelated, as a perceived balance between challenges and skills requires that one knows what he or she has to do (clear goals) and how successful he or she is in doing it (immediate feedback). Thus, a perceived fit of skills and task demands can be identified as the central precondition of flow experiences.[15]"
Related to role-playing games, I have found a lot of variables can improve the likelihood of participants (including the GM) experiencing Flow more frequently and for longer durations. That is what most of the experiments from 2012 through 2014 were focused on. There are a lot of things that can "take a person out" of flow, or prevent them ever experiencing it. But based on the many leisure experience assessment tools I've used for RPG participants, everything listed for qualifying as flow experience was experienced repeatedly by all participants at one point or another. Sometimes everyone in the group experienced it simultaneously, while more often individuals experience it during key points on their own at different intervals than their fellow participants.
The list of variables is quite lengthy. If there are just a little "off" the participants can still have good flow experiences, but if they are considerably off mark, then it can completely prevent anyone from experiencing flow in the game.
Again these experiments focused primarily on tabletop RPG, but are to various degrees applicable to LARP as well.
Key variables to address:
The above is so subjective and difficult to specify (many papers unto themselves), but assuming a qualified GM, and cooperative players (though that wasn't always the case during these experiments, there was a little bit of a "weeding out" process of the most disruptive players that were unwilling to follow the code of conduct consistently), most of the experiments focused on environmental factors to increase the likelihood of flow experiences, that is what the majority of this document covers.
Different Interaction Patterns
Different activities interact with people and the environment in a variety of ways. These interactions have different effects on those involved. Role-playing games come in several different interaction styles. Generally tabletop is cooperative, combat LARP competitive, computer-based competitive, and SAB/M introspective. Elliot M. Avedon detailed 8 interaction patterns related to recreation and therapeutic recreation, from the behavioral sciences perspective, in his 1974 book "Therapeutic Recreation Service - An Applied Behavioral Science Appoach.".
Here is a summary diagram created by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson on those 8 interaction patterns, and how different RPG formats apply.
Created by Jacob Beard and Mounir Ragheb.
Cost: ~$1 per form (bulk pricing lowers cost, typically I bought in bundles of 25 for $20).
Reliability: .87 (overall alpha)
Not used to measure outcomes, helpful for gauging new participants background and interests as a starting point to reference for which program plans would map well to their existing or possible interests.
By Idyll Arbor, Inc.
Reliability: .80_
Assessment of leisure functioning, determine areas to improve, impact of services on leisure functioning, facilitate research on the structure of leisure programs to determine efficacy of outcomes.
By: Idyll Arbor
Reliability: .75+
Validity: .76+
Drawing upon Therapeutic Recreation / Recreation Therapy methodologies, and using some of their assessment tools, including some with better ratings in Reliability and Validity.
By: Jacob Beard and Mounir Regheb
Reliability: .85 - .96
Purpose: Measure the degree to which a client perceives their general "needs" are being met through leisure. Includes scales for:
Flow State Scale-2 (which measures flow as a state) and the Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (designed to measure flow as either a general trait or domain-specific trait). Jackson and Eklund created two scales that have been proven to be psychometrically valid and reliable.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569186113000442
The intake process does include a significant amount of useful demographics information, including income, marriage status, ethnicity, gender, parental/sibling status, career information, residence locations, and much more. However, since we didn't go through an IRB process, we have to be very careful about what, if any, of this information is shared publicly. I will try to use more general numbers to play it as safe as possible, while still trying to provide some useful information.
Further building on the leisure/recreation assessment tools, using our in house assessment tool to determine what kind of gaming experience the participant has in all formats: computer-based, live-action, tabletop, solo books, etc.
In house assessment tools.Building upon the leisure/recreation interest assessment, based on their interest in existing media including books, movies, television, online shows, youtube, audio books, graphic novels, etc. Based on their interest in which genres they like from those media, while it is great to expose them to new things, it is a helpful starting point to know where they are coming from.
There are a number of methods for evaluating play / player styles. These can be useful in trying to match GM style with player style, and/or players within a group.
Though having everyone in the group, players and GM a like might seem the least acrimonious route, something may be lost in the benefits of the cooperative games if everyone is "the same", so having a variety of platyer types is not necessarily problematic, as long as they are not on extremes that have little-to-no tolerance for other types.
A group of hack and slashers may be perfectly happy with their hack and slash GM, while a story-socializer might be utterly bored with non-stop combat and lack of story, and would probably be better off finding a different GM and player group, and the same in reverse for a hack and slasher "stuck" in a mostly explorer group. However, most players are usually a mix of many types, and so it is mostly just for those players on the extreme ends of style/type preferences that these considerations become more important in matching the variables.
In house assessment tools. Drawing upon the Bartle Taxonomy of Players, assessing what combinations of play style the participant is likely to enjoy the most.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_taxonomy_of_player_types
Additional references:
http://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm
http://matthewbarr.co.uk/bartle/
An in-house tool to determine if the player would derive more enjoyment from a complex system, a more detail oriented system, a system with more choices, or systems on the rules light, more free form, or with more defined but fewer choices (some find too many choices overwhelming), etc.
This is more true with gamers that cut their teeth on more complex systems than the very rules-light systems (doesn't seem to be generation/age as much as what they have become used to, though there is some cohort effect possibly there).
Depending on player experience and maturity, 4-5 players is the "sweet spot" for sufficient party size, variety of characters, intergroup dynamics, intragroup interaction, duration of "rounds", resolution of action in combat scenarios, availability of role-playing time, opportunities to create new out-of-game friendships, etc.
In the 1970s/80s/90s my sessions were typically 6 to 8+ hours. During the mid 1980s I ran 3 8 hour groups each weekend, 2 on Saturday and one on Sunday.
Only effective if meeting several times per week, at least twice per week. Works well if meeting 4-5 days per week.
If only meeting weekly,too little progress. Not enough time for immersion, shaking of the thoughts of the rest of the day, getting in the groove with everyone else, doesn't allow for real role-play, tends to allow only enough time to be much more mechanically focused, and doesn't relationship build as well.
With very few rare exceptions, if only run once per week, participants did not report developing out of game friendships. This held true with only 2 sessions per week as well.
At 3 to 5 sessions per week, some participants did report developing out of game friendships, and much higher enjoyment levels. At 4-5 sessions per week, some began reporting "flow state" experiences, albeit relatively brief compared to those reported in longer sessions.
If meeting at least twice per week, this is do-able. At once per week, it is noticeably better than shorter durations, and can slowly build camaraderie, and does allow for shorter role-play experiences instead of just mechanical RPG sessions. Requires a lot more rigid discipline to get everyone focused on the game as quickly as possible, and everyone needs to be very efficient in their responses. While more useful/effective than <90 minute sessions, pretty rare for participants to experience true "Flow state", and not at all consistently.
While sometimes out-of-game friendships developed from these sessions, this usually only happened if they were having at least 2-3 sessions per week. When run only once per week, there really wasn't time for out of game socializing, so few-to-none reported developing new friendships that lasted out of game.
This appears to be the best "sweet spot".
While longer sessions can increase the opportunities for more flow state experiences, the 3-4 hour session length seems to be "just right" for pretty consistently experiencing flow state at least once every session. With younger groups this may need to include 1 or 2 short 5 minute "physical breaks" to get up and move. This movement can still be related to the game to keep them focused, but doesn't have to be.
Also, after about 3-4 hours, most people need a longer (15-30 minutes) break to continue, but you don't want too long a break, else it will take longer to get back into the game.
This begins to get into the area that more "hard core gamers" seem to cherish, from about 6 to 8 hours or more. Some of the long term gamers felt disappointment with any sessions shorter than this. These longer sessions allow more time to socialize, get to know each other both in and out of game, and over time build some potential friendships that may continue outside of the gaming group.
Pretty consistently, people playing pre-generated characters had far less "buy in" for the adventure, and thus usually experienced far less immersion and were far less likely to report any flow experiences.
This was not a hard and fast rule however, some people grew into their characters with longer campaigns, even when it was so completely different from the type they would normally have made themselves.
Generally though, the best immersion experiences are from the players that were able to create their own characters. The least immersion was from players that didn't get to choose which pre-generated character they used.
So, there were multiple levels available:
Simple characters just fill in the key fields of the character sheet, and do not develop any intricate back story, any connection with other characters, etc.
Sometimes it is fun to just play a very basic, archetypal, straight-forward character, that isn't overly complex, and more of the focus is on the adventure story than on the character's background and connection with the campaign world.
Immersion and flow showed mixed results with simpler characters. Player type may have been the key component (needs further testing) determining which players experienced more/less immersion or flow using simpler characters.
Richer characters typically have a half page or more background information about their character's history, connections with the campaign world, other characters in the world, etc.
Results were also mixed regarding immersion and flow with these character types. I think this once again has to do with the Bartle Player Type. However, overall, reported immersion and flow experiences were noticeably higher than with the simpler characters.
These are more common at Pick-up Games (PUGs) in public areas such as hobby stores and conventions.
They can be a good (or terrible) introduction to the basic mechanics of the RPG process, but are typically lacking in many areas compared to the multiple-session adventures and campaigns.
These sessions were the most difficult for participants to experience deeper immersion, let alone flow. Usually the players are using pre-generated characters, rather than characters they made themselves.
For groups that we used characters they made at a previous session, the likelihood of immersion and flow went up considerably.
Using
This is probably the ideal for most groups. The interval allows for most people's busy lives, but is frequent enough that with just a short recap, most people remember the prior events fairly well.
Ideally the sessions at this interval should be around 3-4 hours.
Less than 3 hours is possible, but less likely to achieve
This is a tolerable distance between sessions, if the session length is at least 3-4 hours.
However, having to cancel a session, or a participant unable to attend, means an entire month will have passed, which leaves the group much more susceptible to dissolution. Very critical to not miss any sessions at this interval.
A longer recap of events is necessary to help refresh and get everyone on track.
Immersion is still pretty high, and chances of flow experiences still moderately achievable.
An easy, simple game system. The basic rules are very easy to pick up, make a character, and start playing within 15-30 minutes (5 minutes for more experienced players).
A very rules-light system initially, with the first 3 core booklets. Later add-on booklets increased options for possible complexity and choices, but by todays standards are still very simple.
The only big negative is there is a distinct lack of organization, and it can be difficult to find different parts of the rules quickly, until you have done so many times.
The current trend has been for RPG systems to focus on "rules light" approach, but they all seem to forget that the very first RPG was originally a very rules-light system, that although originally derived from wargaming, is completely open to narrative style ROLE-play, and is not a "crunchy" ROLL-play system.
This began to change with AD&D, and thus some people wanted the original experience, with some improvements, and thus BECMI was also created in parallel.
With the simplicity and abstractness of OD&D, it is very easy to use for any targeted goals, entertainment, education, therapy, etc.
A much more complicated evolution from OD&D, but also a much more organized and better logically linked system. A moderate-to-light rules heaviness, depending on how many optional rulebooks you add from later years (UQ, DSG, WSG, OA, Dragon Magazine, etc.).
Still a personal favorite of mine, it still gets a lot of flack for the charts, inconsistencies, and game "balance" issues.
For those that didn't like the added complexity of AD&D, and missed aspects of the simplicity of OD&D, as well as specifically targeting bringing in new players, the Basic rules are definitely that, very basic.
The Red Box , "...." version, has excellent solo tutorials for individuals to learn the system on their own, and then progress to running their first group.
Over time, additional rules and options are added as they level up through Expert, Companion, Master, & Immortal abilities.
I still very much like using BECMI. I tend to go many years between using it, but every time I do, both I, and those participating report experiencing a lot of the original "magic" of the experience of role-playing we all experienced "the first time".
Initially a very rules light system, it does (slowly) build in complexity, all the way to become a deity! But this gradual pacing is very accessible to participants and does not overwhelm most.
It works very well with a wide range of populations, including cognitive impairments. The step-by-step guides on how to play are very accessible.
I have to admit to only occasionally running or playing the 2nd edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. While it is much closer to AD&D1 than subsequent versions (D&D 3 onward being very different creatures), it really went into a high level of increasing complexity of optional rules. Of course, those are all OPTIONAL rules, so you can keep it to the basic core, and add only what you wish (as is true with any RPG system of course).
This is a system deserving of more research, but I have found a dearth of DMs wishing to run it.
Further research is recommended.
A whole new generation of players "cut their teet" on 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons.
Personally I never cared for this system, but it became the lingua franca in many areas. I found it sometimes impossible to form new groups with other systems, so had to start with 3.x to gather the people, and then I could slowly transition them to other systems and settings.
From 3.x onward, D&D becomes increasingly Anima/Comic-book/Super-hero like, and less like the old classic fantasy earlier versions of D&D were based on.
The concept of "Game Balance" constantly a motto for this generation of systems onward.
3.x is infamous for their "splat books". A long line of
http://www.spokanerpg.com/worlds-of-beru
I rarely allow running evil campaigns, due in part to the fact that they almost always devolve into PvP situations. A few more mature groups have handled it well enough that they lasted up to a year before the "authorities" managed to hunt them down.
http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/rpg-group-discussions/248207091?b_start=0#224074808
There are a wide number of "ice breaker" techniques available in Therapeutic Recreation / Recreation Therapy (TR / RT) that all Therapeutic Recreation Specialists (TRS) are trained in. These help speed up the process of camaraderie building within groups for recreational activities.
Many of these techniques can be used prior to sitting down at the table, and after a game session, to build player relationships faster than the RPG segment might normally allow for.
Tuckman's Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing (& and optional Adjourning/Mourning) stages of group development definitely apply to RPG groups, but there are a number of "artificial" factors that can be implemented in a gaming context to accelerate the process, though be careful about skipping over too much of the storming process.
That is a lengthy topic of discussion, covered by many books, and not the purview of this section of this document.
There are a number of techniques in the RPG segment, however, that can be used to help facilitate the group cohesion and camaraderie building. This section elaborates upon these RPG approaches.
While rumors, bonds, background stories, etc. are all very helpful for facilitating bonding of new groups, the ultimate RPG mechanic I have found is the House Building Tools from The Song of Ice & Fire RPG (Game of Thrones RPG). This takes some time, it can easily take 1-2 hours for all new players, but I have now repeatedly observed, quite astoundingly, since it is a very group involved process (and if handled correctly, so everyone has buy in), creating even before anyone has started any of their own character creation, their own "House" that links all of their to-be-yet-created characters. At the end of this process, the bonding and in-group vs. out-group (The rest of the campaign world) formation is remarkably formed. I would say that this process easily jump starts the group bonding anywhere from 3 to 6+ sessions in about the time of just half a (3-4 hour) session. They create a party sense of identity, history, home base, political placement, etc. It is quite an involved process.
This is similar to Pendragon's mechanics.
The downside is though is it is designed only to work in the Game of Thrones setting. However, I have successfully modified and tested in a World of Greyhawk D&D setting, and had similarly remarkable bonding success. This was with a group of particular unruly teenages, 2 with formal ASD diagnoses, and 1 other likely on the spectrum though undiagnosed, and 2 others without diagnosed disorders, but being 15 to 17 year olds, riddled with many of the challenges of that age group.
I hope to next try to modify it to somehow work in a Middle-earth setting with the Adventures in Middle-earth (AiMe) Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (D&D 5e Open license) expansion.
With a juvenile group, some on the Spectrum, that had been having repeated group cohesion problems, and repeated TPK's. I was asked to see if I could help improve.
Took classic AD&D 1st Edition Greyhawk boxed set, and AD&D 1st Edition characters/rules, and merged House Building rules from Song of Ice & Fire (Game of Thrones (GoT)) RPG to try to build camaraderie up front.
Then ran them through U1 - The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. The party had considerably better cohesion and cooperative play, and functioned far better.
This section includes general observations over decades of experience with RPGs, as well as more specific measurable information from the 2012-2014 experiments.
I have completely different information regarding using online technologies to join disparate players.
We modified our various Codes of Conduct and participation rules based on those experiments, and had consistently higher scoring based on those many modifications, Including discouraging use of "disruptive" technologies.
Now, things like overhead/underboard dynamic digital maps, sound effects, music, that is a whole other story.
Those had mixed results, but often favorable (though very inconsistent, so needs more exploration). Sorry can't give a more formal report, but hope the high level is useful feedback for future consideration
Regarding technology in face-to-face-in-person tabletop RPG, even for the younger groups that liked tech, they generally consistently scored somewhat lower on sessions satisfaction when smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc. were allowed.
Even if they were strictly used for game related uses (look up rules, character sheet management, mapping, journaling, etc.), not only were the scores lower for the participants using the tech, it also generally was lower for the other participants in the group that were not using the tech (though less dramatically so). Looking through the videos, they tended be much more distracted, and not following the game play as well as their non-tech-using peers.
For those that were less disciplined, and kept texting, or Facebooking, etc. with their smartphones/laptops/tablets, assessment scores plummeted not just for the "offending" participant, but more consistently for the other players. For older players (30+ years old), technology had an even great disruptive impact, than those in the 12 to 30 year old ranges.
I have been experimenting with these technologies. Of course one significant problem is people being able to focus on the game at the same level, when they have all those wires hooked up to their head, fingers, chest, etc. I am hoping less obtrusive wireless options will make it easier and less invasive. For now, I've been using open source based hardware from Europe, such as the OpenEEG projects, and related open source software.
I hope eventually to have the funding for full implementation of this monitoring, then correlating with the audio/video recordings, and the enjoyment/flow assessment tools, to tie all the data together with the events in the game, and try to further optimize.
DM'd by Hawke robinson, run on The Spartan Show in his facility. All participants (Except audience) were in one face-to-face location: http://www.spokanerpg.com/adventurers-guild
Observations of the "Legends: Through Shadow" D&D 5th Edition Cos-play Live broadcast group on Twitch, hosted and DM'd by The Spartan Show: http://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/trpg-in-online-format-1
Participants were in multiple locations, rather than a single face-to-face location.
http://www.spokanerpg.com/archives/game-master-types
http://www.spokanerpg.com/archives/wil-wheatons-role-playing-dickery
Detailed background: http://www.rpgresearch.com/about/staff/hawke-robinson
Related to tabletop RPG:
Until very recently, I really didn't identify with the whole "geek culture" sub-culture. Though I did "geeky things" like computer tech/programming and role-playing gaming, and liked fantasy and some science fiction books and shows, I wasn't at all into comic books, or super heroes, or cos-play, etc.
Most of the people I gamed with in the 70s, 80s, & 90s came from a broad array of backgrounds, only some of which anyone would automatically identify as a "geek" or "nerd", etc. There were various "jock" types playing football, basketball, hockey, etc. and others that went on to become doctors, lawyers, welders, construction workers, cashiers, auto mechanics, race car drivers, career military from various branches, retired military, miners, etc. The ratio of female to male players was typically about 1:4, though we sometimes had groups that were half-and-half.
It wasn't until I moved to Spokane in 2004, and tried to form new groups, that I started to learn about this whole Geek Culture thing. A lot of my introduction to Geek Culture has been from my long term girlfriend since 2008, as she introduced me to Firefly/Serenity, the Whedonverse (Buffy, Dr Horrible, etc.), Felicia Day's empire (The Guild, Geek & Sundry, etc.), and much more.But I always feel like I'm playing catch-up with most of those that self-identify as "Geek" and part of Geek Culture.
While prior to 2004 I was somewhat of a "closet gamer" at work, due to concerns about the bias an stigma associated with gamers, I have since fully embraced the activity, including a license plate, "RPG", and bumper stickers, and of course creating websites and businesses focusing on the topic.
Around 8th, 9th, and part of 10th grade, I attended a school named "Realms of Inquiry - A school for gifted & talented children".
http://www.realmsofinquiry.org/
This was a terrific school, a vast improvement over Saint Ann school of the previous years ( http://ksaschool.weebly.com/ ), which in turn was a huge improvement over the deplorable Howard R. Driggs elementary experience ( http://schools.graniteschools.org/driggs/ ).
Realms really encouraged students to maximize their learning potential, had incredible recreational activities tied in to building self confidence as well as learning, and many other exceptional aspects.
This school may have further cemented my broad range of interests that would later lead down a path toward becoming a Therapeutic Recreation Specialist.
It was at this school that I had the opportunity to "teach" role-playing games 5 days a week as a regular class for around a month or so!
For more details see:
http://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/anecdotal-experiences-of-stigma-as-a-tabletop-role-playing-gamer
http://www.rpgresearch.com/about/and-so-it-begins
As is detailed in the overview for this section (the links listed), I wrote an 8 page essay for the English course, on current events, covering the growing backlash against role-playing games and gamers in the media and society. I scored an A, and the instructor liked it so much, she asked me to read it aloud to the whole upper class. Unfortunately this essay was probably lost long ago, I am searching through all my old boxes, "Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore", I fear it might never be found. At the time, though I had Internet/DarpaNet/ArpaNet access through friends at the University of Utah, research required using actual books and libraries, and I spent a considerable amount of time trying to find whatever (little) research was available, as well as media representations about Dungeons & Dragons and role-playing games in general. One notable piece is that in the 1982 movie "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" by Steven Spielberg, one of the opening scenes shows a group of teenage friends enjoying a role-playing game. There was no stigma attached to it, it just was kids having a pleasant social time around a game. The kids weren't stereotyped geeks/nerds either.
I recall being frustrated that there was very little research available on the topic of role-playing games, mostly just media hype, and the beginning efforts of Patricia Pulling and her organization Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (B.A.D.D.).
I remember including a portion on a depiction of Donahue conflating devil worship groups and role-playing gaming, and a kid they had on the show that did a very poor job trying to explain things, only further exacerbating the issues.
I am keeping this section as a place holder in case I ever find the original essay. I don't expect it is any masterwork of writing, but I would love to see what sources I was able to dig up at the time.
Many of the girls, and a few of the guys in hough I ran into similar issues later at public schools as well) began mocking us during gaming sessions we had during lunch or other break periods. I thought they were ridiculous and just misinformed, generally didn't really care what they thought (though a little annoyed at their interruptions). I offered to show them the game (they of course refused). Later though, as the media became worse, the initially light mockery became more serious. Accusations began being made about "spells", "witchcraft", and "demon worship", etc. I became disgusted with their ignorance and wrote an 8 page essay on the topic for my AP English course. The teacher then had me read this to the entire school since the issue was getting especially heated in various communities. After that, some of the girls and boys that had been mocking before, took me up on the offer to let them watch or try the games. Some became casual or even avid gamers, others did not, but as as I know, most no longer harass those who game.
Later (either that year or the following, I forget which), as this was a small private school, we were temporarily without a theater class instructor, so the school converted the time slot to a study period until they could find a replacement drama instructor. I had the "crazy" idea to make that a role-playing gaming period that could fill the slot, especially since I saw a reasonable relationship to the theater period and role-playing gaming. I wrote up a formal proposal and met with the Headmaster, proposing to run a course on role-playing gaming during that time for anyone that wished to attend, until they had a new teacher. He tentatively agreed.
I was allowed to use the biology classroom (since it had the most large tables instead of just student desks, or floor space as the theater room only had), and setup several tables with different genres of games and systems. If I remember correctly they were:
We only had about 44 students from 9th through 12th grade (more in the lower grades), and during that month almost all of them joined us in the "class". I was overwhelmed by the response at first, and so had to learn to delegate to those that already knew how to RPG, to help run the other tables.
Everyone took turns as players and GM's (Game Masters), while I went around providing pointers, guidance, and demonstrations. It was such a blast! It was a shame when they hired the new instructor and I had to end it after only a month. As far as I know, no one in the school had anything negative to say about role-playing gaming afterwards.
When I was 13, I attended this summer-long camp, with a lot of horse-related activities as part of the draw. I went on many 5+ day cross-country horseback trips through mountains and more.
I also had the chance to introduce my cabin mates and camp counselors to role-playing games. It is also where I learned to juggle, which later had a ripple effect at Realms of Inquiry, and my teaching juggling there leading to Bobby going on to become a professional juggler.
... more details pending ...
Okay, maybe "Experiment" is too formal, it was definitely trying out different approaches at intensity levels of gaming. From around age 13 to 16 the time I spent gaming significantly ramped up. Somehow I still had time for the school (or working at the Lost Packer Mine during the summer), the school basketball team (I was always "center" due to my height), hacky sack, skateboarding, BMX biking, going to the local video game arcade, writing software programs, hiking, survivalism in the High Uintahs and out in the Utah desert, swimming, and much more.
For more details on the 3 AD&D World of Greyhawk groups I was running, see the section under Groups of this document titled: "Running Multiple Simultaneous Groups in the Same Campaign".
During one summer month, I had a friend staying with us (he was about 3.5 years older than I, most of my friends older than I). In addition to the multiple regular groups on the weekend that I ran (AD&D, MERP/RM, Twilight 2000, Thieves' World, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, ...), or the occasional groups I played in during the week (FASA's Star Trek, Doctor Who, Elfquest, Robotech, Car Wars, Paranoia, ...), this friend and I were running one-on-one sessions, sometimes with him as GM, other times I was GM. We started to wake up, have breakfast and begin gaming, and nod off gaming, to the point where it was something like 16+ hours of gaming on some days! We were having a blast.
It was also very different with the intensely long one-on-one sessions. Since they were almost daily, there wasn't much time to prepare ahead, so we were both greatly enhancing our improvisational DM skills, while still keep long-term coherence through an ongoing campaign. These skills were extremely valuable with regular groups, but actually much more intensely tested in one-on-one ongoing "binge gaming".
Besides using my own several campaigns with my own worlds (that would in later years merge into the "Worlds of Beru" multiverse setting, a favorite for one-on-one was the Thieves' World boxed set. The TW book series was still actively cranking out books, and we very much enjoyed the setting. While it worked fine with a gaming group, it really was an ideal setting for one-on-one gaming, with a rich setting of NPCs to draw upon.
At some point in the past, I had come up with the concept of "The Arena of the Gods", and had playtested it myself, but not with others. The concept was pretty straightforward. Your character arrived at this special arena on the Prime Material Plane (in the Greyhawke manifestation of the multiverse). And the PC could challenge any entity that was listed in the Deities & Demigods (at that time I still had the original with Cthulhu, Melnibonean, and other pantheons that were later removed due to copyright issues, unfortunately someone stole that book some time later).
The summoned entity would appear in their physical form this plane, with the specified stats.
The PC and entity would bandy words, allowing for some ROLE-play fun.
Sometimes they would come to an agreement other than fighting, but most of the time, it would sooner or later lead to them duking it out.
If the PC was victorious, that entity could no longer manifest their physical form on that plane (I later added a time limit rather than all eternity, anywhere from 1 year to 1,000 years, with 100 being the most common).
As for consequences to the PC, it depended if this was part of an ongoing campaign, or just a, "Hey, let's fight some gods just for some hack and slash fun for your high level character". If the former, then the PC could definitely die, or have many other consequences at the whim of the victorious entity. The the latter, then usually it "didn't count". They neither gained nor lost anything, it was just for fun.
Experimented with various group sizes, locations, multiple groups in same campaign, merging groups into one mega (20+ players) group, multiple DMs at same table, LARP, SCA, egg-timers for round duration control, ....
The Lost Packer Mine ( http://www.idahogold.net/tag/lost-packer-mine/ ) is a gold mine in the central Idaho mountains. It is a family-owned mine and I grew up working summers there, as did my uncle, & cousins. My grandfather (James Ivers III ) and great-grandfather (James Ivers II) worked year-round there, from a long line of mining, with my great-great grandfather a blacksmith and miner as well (James Ivers I).
The mine is located deep in the United States' second largest wilderness, the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness, near the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, with the mine around 7,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level, accessibly only by very rough remote dirt roads during a narrow window of the Summer/Fall, snowed in the rest of the year.
Because of the remote location taking at least half a day to get to any civilization, we worked 10 days on and 4 days off, often around 12-16 hours a day of hard physical (though rewarding) labor. One year, the crew wanted to see the Grateful Dead in Boise, so we worked 25 days on to get 10 days off. This is where I learned how cabin fever might have lead the "old-timers" to kill each other off. By the end of second week people were getting a bit snappish, but the end of the third week, most conversation consisted of short grunts.
At some point, around 1986/1987 or so, when my uncle (James Ivers IV) took over running the day to day mining operations from my cousin (Matt Ivers), on some slower days (sometimes after blasting there would be a good even lull since we couldn't go back in the mine until the next day), I proposed running the crew through a role-playing game session. I wanted to see how this population responded to this activity. I was heavily into Iron Crown Enterprises Middle-earth Role-playing, and most of them had read the Hobbit and/or the Lord of the Rings, so it was an accessible setting. Though 1 of the miners I think had not graduated high school (Woody?) and so reading was problematic for him.
I walked them through making their own characters and then for several nights, I GM'd them through a few hours of RPG fun. My uncle seemed both especially mocking but also especially into it, he (at 6'4" IRL) had chose to play a hobbit and he decided to use an extremely high-pitched voice when speaking as his character.
At the end of the ongoing adventure, while I don't think I converted any of them into becoming regular gamers, they had a better understanding of the game, and they admitted they did have fun, which after all is the whole point.
I think I still have the characters and notes from that adventure somewhere, so if I come across them, I will update this section with more details.
I could be mistaken, and this may be corrected later in consultation with friends of the time period, but as far as I can recall, I was either too busy, or too much in dire straights (homeless, broke, etc.) and didn't have any time for gaming during these years.
An entire (large) family of in-laws and their friends in a MERP campaign .... details pending .... observations of sibling and parental dynamics, religious preconceptions (Mormon), and more....
See the section under technology and using CuSeeMe to have a remote player join a local face-to-face tabletop RPG campaign regularly.
In October 2000 I moved from Utah to accept a job as Chief Technology Officer for a tech company in Santa Clara, California.
I was working 90 to 120 hours, so I didn't have any time for gaming, except for a short few months when it things were down to "only" 50-60 hours a week (it felt like a vacation), so had very limited time availability, but still managed to fit in a little bit of RPG play time. Some things interesting about the Silicon Valley population and gaming .... details coming ....
Due to many variables, including severe back injury working on one of my Internet radio towers during a snow storm in Malad, Idaho, leading to being bedridden for about 2 months, and catching severe Strep to compound things.
The early part of 2004 was spent mostly in rehabilitation from the events of 2003, but I did manage to run some games with my very young boys (ages 4, 6, & 8), using MERP.
In 2005 I started trying to form new RPG groups, and found it very difficult because everyone in Spokane only wanted to play wither Warhammer 40k wargaming or D&D 3.x (which I had never played).
I eventually caved and bought 3.x
Back around 2012-2014 I ran 12 groups for over a year with various controlled changes.
All groups completed various self-report assessments after each session. No therapeutic or educational goals were attempting to be accomplished. The primary focus was trying to figure out how to maximize player enjoyment.
These experiments did not go through any kind of Institutional Review Board (IRB), so though we have found the data extremely useful internally, it continued to be problematic publishing anything specific about any individuals. We learned a significant amount of information about how to get higher Likert style scale of their enjoyment scores. These scores seemed to impacted fairly consistently by changes in environmental factors, among others things (duration of sessions, frequency of sessions, game play style, game aides, etc.).
This time period was all in-office groups at the Monroe Street offices.
For more details on this hypothesis:
Being elaborated upon here: http://www2.rpgresearch.com/blog/what-tools-do-you-use-for-your-campaigns
I expect to incorporate that article into this document over time.
http://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/what-is-question-hypothesis-of-the-rpg-research-observation-group-1
http://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/approximate-group-demographics
http://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/biofeedback-and-rpg-research
http://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/gender-bias-in-gaming
http://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/trpg-in-online-format-1
http://www.rpgresearch.com/about/about-rpg-research
http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/rpg-group-discussions/470390155?b_start=0#995057063
http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/rpg-group-discussions
http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/rpg-group-discussions/470390156
http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/looking-for-gamers/961189118
http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/world-of-beru
http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/world-of-beru-group-6
http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/worlds-of-beru-group-7
https://www.meetup.com/SCdA-RPG/
http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/rpg-group-discussions/470390163/964522606
http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/rpg-group-discussions/470390166
http://www.merpcon.com
http://www.tolkienmoot.org
http://www.spokanerpg.com/archives/game-master-types
http://www.spokanerpg.com/archives/rpg-sessions-code-of-conduct-for-the-spartan-show
Babylon 5 Group Formation through Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/SCdA-RPG/events/207984092/
Tolkien d20 3.5 Group Formation through Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/SCdA-RPG/events/101647222/
MerpCon III Article Review by Joe Mandala -
Example Evil Campaign - http://www.spokanerpg.com/forum/rpg-group-discussions/248207091?b_start=0#224074808
Tolkien Moot XII Live Streaming
Session 1 of 3 The One Ring RPG - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4fkfdIkZvg
Session 3, Jul 16, 2016 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIwIy6sTNI4
Tolkien Moot IX Live Streaming - Palantir of Weathertop
Session 1, Aug 3, 2013 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLK2OastfLw
Session 2, Aug 3, 2013 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jShIZ4Di5GU
Session 3, Aug 3, 2013 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bn2nV-nI3I
Day 3, Aug 4, 2013 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDnKOkDNy80
Last session, Aug 4, 2013 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjWqe4MJAVU
Tolkien Moot VIII 2012 Day 1 table 1Gaming Session Long Excerpts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHg05XN0jms
Tolkien Moot 2007 MerpCon 3 Behind the Scenes and Miscellaneous - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz_D1jShnaU
Tolkien Moot 2007 MerpCon III Excerpts and Final Adventure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8sLpyl5SV0
Tolkien Moot 2005 MerpCon I Adventure Introduction and Excerpts with Chris Seeman and Hawke - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y6nrwfqKGc
The One Ring Role-playing Game TOR RPG Tolkien Gaming Group:
D&D 3.5 with 2 Jet City Improv members (Google Hangout):
D&D 5e with The Spartan Show: Adventurer's Guild (Twitch):
“Hypothetical Therapeutic Recreation Program Plan for Clients with
Traumatic Brain Injury Using Role-Playing Games as Therapy”
Essay (short version)
INTERVENTIONS
March 11th, 2013
The RPG Research Project
by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson (c) 2013
Revised for Creative Commons License Release: March 31st, 2013
Hypothetical Therapeutic Recreation Program for Clients with Traumatic Brain Injury Using Role-Playing Games as Therapy Essay (Short Version)
by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at
http://www.rpgresearch.com/documents/rpg-research-project/RPG-for-TBI-short-essay.pdf.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.rpgresearch.com/disclaimers.
Table of Contents
Applicable Therapeutic Recreation Interventions 4
Needs addressed by intervention 6
Description of clients served 8
Qualifications of program facilitator 8
Intervention #2 - Computer-based RPG Use and Modifications for Client With TBI 9
Needs addressed by intervention 9
Description of clients served 11
After consultation with the family and care-takers, it is determined that prior to injury, one of the client's favorite activities included various forms of role-playing games (RPGs). The client mostly preferred tabletop, but had dabbled with both computer-based and live-action forms. As the client slowly regains various levels of functioning, modified versions of RPGs can be presented in which the client may participate to stimulate neurological recovery.
While other therapies are assumed to be undertaken in parallel, this document will focus on the use of therapeutic recreational techniques in treating the client, specifically using variants of role-playing games, with various modifications as warranted to fit specific client needs, throughout different stages of impairment and recovery.
One of the major obstacles in writing this section is that role-playing games appear to have not yet been considered by many health professionals as a potential therapeutic intervention, let alone specifically the recreation therapy industry in the USA. I have had multiple dialogues in person and via websites, with various RT professionals, many with decades of experience, and in speaking with them, they never even considered, or ever heard of anyone considering, using any version of role-playing games for therapeutic intervention. The closest I have been able to find included drama therapy, and standard game therapy, but nothing in the full form of “role-playing game therapy”. There are a few possibilities outside of the United States, and there are a number of educational programs using RPG's, so this document is purely hypothetical in the proposed interventions for TBI clients, but is based on closely similar approaches, but using the structure of RPG forms. Hopefully some recreation therapists will attempt these in the future and report on the results and modifications necessary for maximal efficacy.
Not counting purely experimental research projects, after researching and searching worldwide now for several years, there appears to only be one actual ongoing RPG-related therapy program that I have found to date, and this is in Israel through the Romach group (http://www.lance.co.il/). (Update: Their program ended in the Spring of 2015, due to the store closing where they provided sessions.) Unfortunately the site is completely in Hebrew, though I have had some dialog with them in English through email.
There are however any number of educational programs using role-playing games for instructional purposes, including the Danish public high school (Østerskov Efterskole - http://rpgr.org/blog/osterskov-efterskole-danish-public-high-school-teaching-all-subjects-using-larp) with an entire curriculum taught using live-action role-playing (LARP). Because using RPG as a therapeutic intervention is not (yet) established for TBI, every effort was made in this document to extrapolate likely scenarios matching the use of related activities, expected implementations, and outcomes, using hypothetical suggestions based on the information to be gleaned from the aforementioned areas.
When the client is actually in the coma and at the Rancho Los Amigos Cognitive Level I, RT is not able to implement anything in the way of an interactive intervention. However, once the client is out of the coma, even at just Rancho Los Amigos Cognitive Levels II & III, the RT can begin to implement various modifications of role-playing games as a recreation therapy intervention.
Initially the client is too disoriented and has such significant cognitive and memory impairment that using the “Choose Your Own Adventure” CYOA form of RPG is probably contraindicated, but after just a few days, when the functioning is closer to b11428.2, and within a week around b11428.1. At this stage the client may be able to engage in “let's pretend” imaginary scenarios and differentiate from the real and imagined situations. Though the client has memory issues, and may not remember every detail from 30 seconds to a few minutes ago, the exercises could still be useful for stimulating
“neuro-plasticity” related recovery. The client may need repetition and occasional reminders, but is now potentially ready to begin the CYOA form of RPG TR treatment.
Though the client had previously enjoyed and participated in RPGs, he/she did not do so constantly, so it is not believed to be an “over-learned leisure skill”(Porter, p 144), so that it may still be a reasonable activity for monitoring and assessment of overall recovery.
Once the client is out of the coma, and rated at just Rancho Los Amigos Cognitive Levels II & III (able to open eyes in response to stimuli such as a spoken request or physical touch) (Burlingame, 2002), the RT can begin to implement various modifications of role-playing games as a recreation therapy intervention. At this stage, the RT could begin to implement the most rudimentary of RPGs, the Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) form. As long as the client can make a binary/Boolean responses indicating yes or no, whether verbally, by number of eye blinks, hand squeeze, or other method, the client potentially qualifies for participation in this therapeutic intervention.
After establishing that the client meets sufficient cognitive functioning, and determining that client has a sufficient means of response and interaction with the recreation therapist, the RT asks the client, “Would you like to play a simple version of a role-playing game?”. “Squeeze/blink once for yes, two for no.” Client indicates yes...
“This adventure is set in Chicago during the 'Roaring '20's'. It is a mystery-style adventure.”
Of course any genre/setting will work.
“You will have three characters you can choose from. I will first list the three options, then I will ask you which one you prefer as I go through the list a second time. You will then indicate 'yes' when I mention the character you want.”
“You may choose to play: 1. A Police Detective, 2. A Private Eye, 3. An Investigative Reporter.”
“Would you like me to repeat that list again?” (yes/no)
“Have you decided which option to pick from those 3 choices?” (yes/no)
When the client indicates “yes” to being ready to choose, the RT states, “I will now repeat those three choices. Squeeze once for yes when you hear the option you want.”
Client squeezed yes for “Private Eye”.
“You selected 'private eye', is that correct?”. (yes/no).
The RT continues, “You have chosen Private Eye, is that correct?” Client confirms with single squeeze/blink.
The RT continues, “The story unfolds as follows. An old man has come to your office. A family heirloom has been stolen from his house. The police have no leads, but he says everyone knows that you, as the ace private detective that you are, can use alternate channels to find things the police can't or won't....”
If the client is continuing to be responsive to this form of modified RPG, and if it is deemed appropriate, as the client's functional level continues to improve, the client's family, friends, and caretakers may be able to engage the client in continuing the “adventure” when the RT is not around.
This intervention addresses a number of the diagnosis A&P codes, some of which include:
d163 Thinking
d310 Communication with - receiving – spoken messages.
d1750 Solving simple problems
d177 Making decisions
d9200 Play
Any environment that is relatively quiet and distraction free, allowing the client to focus on listening to the storyteller's voice.
No special equipment required. TR might need a Choose Your Own Adventure Book, or else a prepared adventure outline or script.
Using hand-squeeze or eye-blink with Boolean-only (yes/no) questions for the client to answer (one squeeze/blink for yes, two squeezes/blinks for no). As client progresses, may be able to use simple multiple choice questions instead of only Boolean choices.
After spending hours searching, I was unable to find any existing programs using this exact form of intervention. This intervention meets the requirements for activities addressing the functional impairments listed, but so far I am unable to find any research information or current programs that have tried this approach.
The closest match I could find was an article about the Lincoln University (Snow, 2009) program requested by the Missouri National Guard using a “choose your own adventure” style interactive computer video (Hemmerly-Brown, 2010) for military personal suffering from suicide due to complications from PTSD and TBI. I was not able to find a second program that was even remotely relevant.
The Home Front interactive video.
Online: http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/videos/HomeFront_New/the-home-front/index.html
For at-risk military personnel to attempt to reduce the levels of depression and suicide from personnel recovering from PTSD , TBI, and other causes.
Basic computer and online skills. Typical therapeutic background.
Lengthy search for any kind of “choose your own adventure” and “Traumatic brain injury” through many books and online resources.
Client is now at Rancho Rating IV+. Though client's cognitive functioning is now higher, the client's ability to communicate is still significantly limited. Based on client's current functioning, it is recommended to have the client try using a mouse (or Wii-mote) to participate in a computer-based RPG that is turn-based rather than real-time. The client is able to move and click both buttons on a mouse, can see the computer screen clearly, and has enough cognitive functioning to interact in the game at a much higher level than before.
As client slowly regains various levels of functioning, modified versions of RPG will be presented in which the client may participate.
Client will initially use a mouse with large buttons to interact with computer. This requires the functioning of at least one arm, hand, and finger, as well as usable visual capacity. The compute-based RPG should initially be turn-based, using the mouse and then using Wii-mote later as grasping improves.
Client with click on various options, direct the digital character to take certain actions, and solve various levels of simple to complex problems.
In addition to addressing some of the previous codes in intervention #1, this also addresses:
d1751 Solving moderately complex problems
d440 general fine hand use
d4401 grasping development.
Client's functional arm (and hand/finger(s)) are placed upon the mouse (or later Wii-mote as grasping capacity develops). The client navigates on screen prompts to develop character, and than guides the character through the many challenging scenarios in the game.
In this scenario, ICU or long-term care facility, but potentially usable anywhere that has a computer.
A computer with screen, mouse, and installed software. Optional Internet connection.
Different means of interaction with the computer through different interfaces.
There are a number of programs using computer games as interventions for many needs, including TBI recovery, though I was not able to find specific mentioning of computer-based RPGs specifically, it is not a difficult stretch to extrapolate the benefits. The closest I found was an online game created by Jane McGonigal (2010) that experienced post-TBI depression and created the game to help herself recover. I had heard some of the NPR interview about this, and was able to track that down (Flato, 2011).
Jane the Concussion Slayer by Jane McGonagal & Co.
Online: https://www.superbetter.com/about
Clients that enjoy computer games that will benefit from stimulus to help recovery from illness or injury, including traumatic brain injury. The program was created when the creator experienced a TBI, and was struggling to recover, creating games she found helped her, and other's, recovery process.
Some computer skills, recreation or other similar therapy background.
Web searches for any computer-based games aiding recovery of TBI patients.
Burlingame, J. & Blaschko, T.M. (2002). Assessment tools for recreational therapy and related fields (3rd edition). Ravensdale, WA: Idyll Arbor.
Flato, Ira. (2011, February 18). Talk of the Nation: Could gaming be good for you?. National Public Radio. Retrieved March 11th, 2013, from http://www.npr.org/2011/02/18/133870801/could- gaming-be-good-for-you
Hemmerly-Brown, A. (2010). Army creates new scenario-based suicide-prevention video. Retrieved March 11th, 2013, from http://myarmybenefits.us.army.mil/Home/News_Front/Army_creates_new_scenario- based_suicide-prevention_video.html
McGonigal, J. (2010). Achievements: Unlocked. Retrieved March 11th, 2013, from http://janemcgonigal.com/2010/12/23/achievements-unlocked/
Porter, H.R., & Burlingame, J. (2010). Recreational therapy handbook of practice: ICF-based diagnosis and treatment. Enumclaw, WA: Idyll Arbor.
Snow, T. (2009). Soldiers at risk: Mo. Guard responds to threat. Retrieved March 11th, 2013, from http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=287534
Hands-On-Adventure! Flyer
Role-playing gaming in American Sign Language.
What
Have you ever read a book, and wished you could be the character sharing in the adventure? Now you can! Participants gather around a table for interactive shared adventures using just paper, pencil, dice, and their imaginations. Just bring yourself, your ASL signing skills, your imagination and a willingness to have fun! The get together is completely free. Everyone is encouraged to bring some munchies and beverages to share.
When
To be scheduled based on availability and participants. This will be at least once per month, and potentially as frequently as once per week. Sessions typically run about 3 hours.
Who
Anyone proficient in American Sign Language (ASL), but most especially anyone from the Deaf or Hard of Hearing community.
Where
RPG Research: 1213 North Monroe Suite 114, Spokane, Washington, USA.
More Information
Or email asl@rpgresearch.com
Flyers will also be posted at the EWCDHH (Eastern Washington Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) building.
RPG Research Project Document ID: #RPGR-A00007-20111212b-part-12.cc
by W.A. Hawks-Robinson
Role-Playing Gaming Adapted for the Deaf Using American Sign Language Flyer by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.rpgresearch.com/documents/rpg-research-project/rpg-for-deaf-using-asl-flyer.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.rpgresearch.com/disclaimers.
Contact Information here: http://www.rpgresearch.com/about/contact
More information about project goals, mission statements, background information, volunteering opportunities, professional training, etc.: http://www.rpgresearch.com/about
Below is a combined listing about the project and the project founder Hawke Robinson, including: panel sessions, Q&A sessions, interviews, articles, essays, presentations on the effects of role-playing games, rpg therapy program plans, rpg education, research and examples from using role-playing games to achieve therapeutic and educational goals for many populations including Autism spectrum (ASD/PDD/Asperger's), ADHD, brain injury (TBI, stroke, etc.), spinal cord injury (SCI), at-risk youth, incarcerated youth and adults, the Deaf and hard of hearing, Muscular Dystrophy (MD), Cerebral Palsy (CP), and others.
Hawke begins playing AD&D periodically.
Hawke first introduced to D&D by cousin.
The world's first published Role-playing game: Dungeons & Dragons.
Email: rpgresearcher at gmail dot com
Phone/Text: (509) 481-5437
Twitter: rpgresearch
Youtube: http://youtube.com/rpgresearch
There are now some fake and/or questionable articles floating around that claim to cite the efforts of W.A. Hawkes-Robinson (aka Hawke Robinson). While I hate to perpetuate their showing up in searches, some may be worth comment/correction.
Also available in presentation mode…
Original version 2011-05-09
Revised 2011-12-09 - PDF version available here: http://rpgr.org/documents/rpg-research-documents/RPGR-A005-Personalities-and-Alienation-of-Dungeons-and-Dragons-Game-Players-long-commentary-version-Ver-2-20111209c.pdf/view
Web version posted & revised 2012-11-29 http://rpgr.org/documents/rpg-research-documents/web-version/analysis-of-alienation-and-dungeons-and-dragons
The report was written based on research undertaken to determine if there was any empirical evidence supporting, or refuting, the media's various negative claims about the supposed harmful effects on those who participate in the cooperative, social, recreational activity of role-playing gaming, using the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game system, and if playing the game leads to players having higher levels of alienation.
Among other claims, the media has published repeatedly the belief that participating in the recreational game of D&D causes participants to become increasingly detached from “real life”, distanced from family and society, and even claims that it can lead players to become suicidal or even homicidal. If the claims by the media were true, proper evaluation techniques using industry standard questionnaires should find a strong correlative difference between players versus non-players in their levels of alienation. At the time of this 1990 study, there had been only a handful of studies, and none of them found any significant correlations supporting any negative effects of D&D participation that would substantiate the media's claims, and only a little hard data available to refute the claims. Though this type of study would be unable to determine causality, potential correlative results could generate guidance on relevant variables to test for potential future research studies and attempt determination of causality.
The research study selected 70 volunteer participants. Half of the volunteers had never participated in Dungeons & Dragons, so were used as the control group. The control group members were from the general psychology course at the university participating in the study for credit towards their class. The other half of the research subjects were recruited from the local campus role-playing game club.
Research subjects completed a series of questionnaires attempting to determine their levels of alienation, and other factors, using a series of different established tests:
Most of the data did not find any significant correlation in differences between gamers and non-gamers and the relevant tested variables, though there were a few significant exceptions in the areas of meaninglessness and cultural estrangement, and some correlation between commitment level to D&D and these two specific variables.
On the one hand a moderate correlation relating to meaninglessness was found in the opposite direction of the media claims.
Based on these results, for the demographic studied, role-playing gamers are 2.7 times less likely to have feelings of meaninglessness than non-gamers.
The other variable with correlative significance was regarding specific cultural estrangement based on how much the participant reported interest in mainstream media from television, magazines, movies, etc.
Based on these results, for the demographic studied in 1990, role-playing gamers are 2.1 times more likely to experience cultural estrangement from the mainstream interests in the main stream popular media, than non-gamers.
However the test was unable to determine if this difference was because of participation in the game, or because of being previously uninterested prior to ever participating in the game, and if any changes in interest level occurred after becoming regularly involved with the game.
Gamer commitment level did show some correlation to increased general alienation, money =.47, and a slightly stronger correlation with meaninglessness, money = .61, time = .42, level = .45. However the study was unable to determine if the subject reporting these higher levels of estrangement and meaninglessness had different levels prior to involvement with the game, or if they may have had higher levels previously and were drawn to the social interaction of playing in a group to attempt alleviation of previously high alienation and meaninglessness levels.
The paper concludes that there is not any solid empirical evidence supporting the media claims that D&D is harmful to those who participate in this cooperative, social, recreational activity. It does point out some possible areas to consider for further research to determine if the correlations between the narrowly defined areas of meaninglessness and alienation, versus commitment levels, shows any causality from game participation.
Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a game product series used for the cooperative, social, recreational, shared narrative, activity known as role-playing gaming (RPGing) first created in 1974. Participants typically sit around a table using paper, pencil, dice, rulebooks, and optional maps with miniatures representing their imaginary “player characters” (PCs), while using verbal communication for the advancement of the game.
There have been hundreds (more likely thousands) of other RPG systems and companies since D&D, but it was the first and until 2012 (1), was always the best selling single RPG product series with an estimated market share between 10-20 million people in the United States alone (2). D&D specifically, and role-playing games in general, experienced exponential growth through the 1970's and 1980's, peaking around the mid to late 1980's, then began a steady decline. This decline may possibly due to the media's, initially intense, but still to a lesser degree, ongoing (though dis-proven) claims, creating a social stigma against those who participate in such games. Meanwhile competing products such as card games like Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, and Yu-gi-oh, as well as improving computer-based "Role-playing Games" (1) and online Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft (WoW), Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO), and Lord of the Rings online (LotRo) have generally grown. This trend has seen some reversal in both the hobby gaming versus computer gaming industries from 2009 through 2012, showing role-playing game sales growing, while computer game sales slowing, for the past 3 years (1).
In the late 1970's and early 1980's, D&D specifically, and role-playing gaming in general was an increasingly mainstream activity without social stigma, as illustrated in the 1982 Steven Spielberg movie E.T. In the United States, the media in its complicity with Patricia Pulling, who blamed her son's participation in D&D as the cause for his committing suicide, along with others, began developing in the early 1980's a negative narrative about players of D&D that reached the zenith of media hype in the mid-to-late 80's and early 90's in conjunction with much of the “satanic panic” and "moral panic" of that time period.
The study “Alienation and the Game Dungeons & Dragons”, as most other studies on this topic, still does not establish causality, at best only some correlative information, most of it actually indicating possibly positive benefits, which directly refutes the media hype. Based on the results of this study it may be that those who already feel alienation were drawn to D&D as a means to improve their social connections and reduce their feelings of estrangement.
Most notable, are the following two points (for the demographic studied):
If there is any causal relationship to playing D&D and increased feelings of alienation, it may be from the media distortion and cultural acceptance of the media distortion, that has lead to many people condemning gamers, rather than anything to do with the social recreational activity itself causing alienation. The previous causal theory could be tested over time with a longitudinal research project, but might not be able to factor out the latter issues of external social condemnation having an effect, unless a cultural group or locale could be found where their peers, parents, teachers, media, etc. did not have any established predisposition towards a view of D&D and role-playing gaming. Then a longitudinal study could be performed to determine if alienation levels increased, decreased, or remained the same.
I was first introduced to RPGs (through D&D) in 1979 by a cousin (I was 9 years old). I played it intermittently until I met a new friend in the neighborhood around 1983 or so, and we began gaming weekly. Later I advertised and developed multiple gaming groups, joined the Role-playing Game Association (RPGA), and hosted some gaming conventions myself.
Prior to my regular involvement with RPGs, I spent a lot of time working various labor jobs during school holidays, engaging in various physical hobbies like the school basketball team (center), skiing, hiking, martial arts, swimming, archery, hacky sack, horseback riding, skateboarding, biking, etc, and also enjoying writing software programs (also starting in 1979). Many of these hobbies were usually solo activities. All of these activities still continued to various degrees when I began to game more. Taking on the role of DM/GM (Dungeon Master/Game Master) was an extremely social activity, that developed stronger skills in social relationships, dispute resolution, learning to “read” people better, etc. Many of the activities that I had previously participated in as solo recreation, became increasingly social as gamer friends offered to join. We even took breaks from longer gaming sessions to take physical breaks as a group playing hacky sack ("we won't go back until we get a triple hacky!", very difficult with 8 people), swimming, etc.
I have participated in scores of recreational activities in my lifetime, but none has provided a better sense of reducing feelings of social alienation than participating in role-playing games. Except for the stigma that later developed from the media and misinformed non-gamers, it was always a very positive social experience. That external scorn slowly turned into feelings of wariness to admit to others that I enjoyed role-playing gaming. Even as an adult I sometimes still feel hesitant to mention to people my enjoyment of RPGs, if I do not think they are already a gamer.
Prior to 1981, I do not recall feeling alienated at all because of playing D&D and other RPGs, it was “just another game” like monopoly, card games like "Fish", poker, etc. But by 1982 or so, people began harassing me, and my friends, especially other students at school, and those who attended local religious institutions. These people claimed that D&D caused people to go insane, commit suicide, become homicidal, that it was the tool of Satan, and other ridiculous accusations. This only worsened over the years. For years we used to have many game sessions at the local public libraries. In the mid-80s this changed when some of the librarians began banning RPG groups after the Donahue show and 60 Minutes perpetuated the negative ongoing myths, directly quoting those shows as the reasons why they banned the gaming groups from using their facilities anymore.
In the long run, I think it became a somewhat self-fulling prophecy that only “freaks and geeks” played role-playing games. More people believed that only certain types of people played RPGs, and so increasingly those not fitting those stereotypes would shy away from the game. I suspect the alienation is artificially induced by individuals like Patricia Pulling, her Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (B.A.D.D.) movement, and the media providing them with a megaphone to spread their misinformation, and not because of the game itself. Since the game is by nature a purely social cooperative activity, participation in this activity would be expected to have the opposite effect from increasing feelings of alienation.
Some other points on the research report, noting the demographics information on the ratio of men to women for the experienced gamers; 30 men and only 5 women, a ratio of 6 men to 1 woman. This actually seems about typical in my experiences of RPG groups, there is definitely a noted dearth of female participants in tabletop role-playing gaming groups, though what the actual amount is, no one actually knows.
The paper takes a little time defining some very rudimentary mechanic variables of D&D, without very well defining how the game is actually played. The paper also provides some odd extraneous statements about having their player character (PC) needing to reach certain levels before the player can become the Dungeon Master (DM - referee and story teller), that really has nothing to do with how the game is played, and how different people assume different roles in this shared narrative. It is true that you want someone experienced with playing the game to act in the role of Game Master (GM), but there are no hard and fast rules to when someone is allowed to become the GM/DM. It appears the researchers gathered that misinformation from one of the rule books suggestions, without ever actually experiencing the game themselves, or else having a strange approach to playing the game in an unusually rigid fashion, if they did.
As the article indicates, the gaming participants tested showed significantly more “meaning” than the non-gamers. Only 17% (less than one-fifth) of the gamers showed a “meaningless” result, compared to 46% of the non-gamers (nearly half). The article conjectures this may be a result of the selection method they used by recruiting these gamers from the local gaming club. It could be argued however, since the very nature of D&D is a cooperative social group activity that it would be very likely for similar results from other gamers recruited elsewhere. Of course this should actually be tested for validity. The very nature of D&D participation is playing as part of a group, working together, and supporting each other through trials and tribulations, so it would seem very possible that this may not be an anomaly for D&Ders in general.
49% of the gamers did however experience CULTURAL estrangement, compared to only 23% for the non-gamers. Again, as was stated earlier, it could be argued this is because of the media-based impact on cultural misinformation about the game and those who play it, and not a result of the actual game participation itself. One possible explanation is avoidance of the negative media “bashing” their activity.
What would be more interesting to ascertain, is if the players would already have scored with those results before they ever started playing. As the paper suggested, it is possible those who scored with stronger feelings of meaninglessness and alienation, may have had high levels prior to engaging in D&D and sought the social activity as a means to reduce those high levels. As stated before, this research did not establish causality, only correlation. I also wonder if the media cultural estrangement testing took into account less mainstream sources like hobby magazines, alternative media, etc., or if it phrased the questions in such a way as to negate those other sources as being of interest, since "geek culture" has a very robust version of media culture.
There are currently documented to be approximately 70 studies on various psychological aspects of role-playing gamers and gaming, many of them D&D specific, with results that are almost all correlative. The few that attempt to ascertain causality are very small in scale and duration. All of the empirical studies come to much the same conclusion as this project did, that the media's claims about the harmfulness of D&D specifically, and role-playing gamers in general, are unfounded.
The report rightly points out that all the data is just correlative, does not establish causality, and that further research should be undertaken to ascertain if the higher meaningless correlations for level, game time, and monetary commitment were for individuals who previously had higher levels of meaninglessness prior to the game, and that engaging in the game activity helped lower or increase those feelings of estrangement and meaninglessness. Or is there a “sweet spot”, as has been recently found with video game participation, where participants achieve the maximal benefits of stronger meaning in their lives, while minimizing the feelings of alienation by avoiding exceeding a certain level of commitment. This could be determined with trials of different commitment levels from participants, and then comparing their scores over months, or years, between more and less intensive gaming time, monetary investment, or other measures of commitment level, to determine if any causality could be established and set some recommended maximum healthy guidelines (as is recently being recommended by research on video games, recommending no more than 1-2 hours per day for maximum benefit, and minimal deficit) (3). By adjusting the independent variables for hours of game time per week, and dollars spent, then observing any changes in the dependent variables of meaninglessness and estrangement (since the other areas did not show any significant variance in this study), then more useful judgments could be made about the ideal amount of game commitment level on average for maximal benefit and minimal deficit, thereby establishing how much game commitment time and money equates to the lowest levels of meaningless and alienation.
It should also be noted that the study did not use a very diverse selection method for test subjects, using mostly just college students in a narrow age range and location, providing very little in the variety of demographics.
Since the publication of that 1990 study, there have been a number of other studies, also pretty much unable to substantiate the media claims, and finding some correlations to some potential beneficial possibilities that call for more research. One theme that does recur, as with almost any activity, is a theme of balance being the best approach, and that taking role-playing gaming too far, as with most other recreational activities, could have some detrimental effects as would reading too much, sleeping too much, and other activities.
Again, the study does not determine showing causality, instead showing what may be personality distinctions in those drawn to the activity initially, with distinctions that would have shown up in other activities in similar manner if RPGing had not been available to them. It is also possible that due to the social and interactive nature of the game, that they were actually far better off participating in RPGs than if they had retreated to excessive “escapist” material like books, TV watching, etc.
The author, Hawke Robinson, is nearing completion of an Interdisciplinary bachelor's degree through Eastern Washington University (EWU) with a focus on Therapeutic Recreation, Music Therapy, and Research Psychology. He plans to continue on towards masters and doctoral programs in these related disciplines. One of his goals is to build a comprehensive body of scientific work useful towards creating an effective set of tools implementing recreation and music as modalities for therapeutic benefit. In relation to the RPG Research project it is hoped the research data will indicate methods for developing effective therapeutic modalities using role-playing games for treatment of diverse populations and needs including but not limited to the Deaf Community, depression, PTSD, Autism, ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer's, traumatic brain injury recovery, and other areas.
More detailed information can be found here: http://rpgr.org/staff/hawke-robinson
While some of the original, shorter versions, of these papers (including the shorter version of this one) have typically undergone iterations of some (student) peer review, and some professor(s) review as part of a course, the longer versions have not undergone the same editing and paring down to meet the classroom page count restrictions. The longer versions of these essays are posted to help the community increase awareness of projects and information growing in the studies related to the therapeutic and educational aspects of role-playing games.
The News and Blog postings do not undergo any sort of review process, and are generally just postings of information that seemed relevant and interesting to those curious about the role-playing game industry, and other topics.
These papers do not (yet) undergo formal peer review process, however, useful feedback is always appreciated as the RPG Research Project slowly gains momentum, and continues to "debug" the process.
(1) Dungeons & Dragons was the very first commercially produced role-playing game, first released in 1974. It has always been the number one selling role-playing game system until 2012, when Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder exceeded the sales of D&D 4.0 according to the quarterly reports of the game trade magazine Internal Correspondence. It could however be argued, since Pathfinder uses a modified version of the open d20 3.x D&D rules, that D&D as a system is still very much the number one selling RPG product.
(2) Wizards of the Coast, current owner of the D&D line, does not generally publish their sales information, so everyone has to extrapolate a lot of information regarding market share. While tabletop RPG's were in decline from the 90's and 2000's, the last 3 years have seen significant growth in hobby gaming and role-playing games, while video games sales have been inversely down. D&D is also known to be very popular in Israel and other countries, but it is unknown how many people in those countries role-play, and how many are specifically using D&D.
(3) Report on optimal time spent on video games, benefits versus deficits. _____________________________ <citation pending>
The RPG Research Project
Hawkes-Robinson, W.A. “The Battle Over role-playing Gaming”. Other Minds
Magazine. Vol I, Issue 1 (2007, February): 6-8.
History and Therapeutic Aspects of role-playing Gaming. RPG Research Website
< http://rpgresearch.com/project-
documents/HistoryAndTherapeuticAspectsOfRPG20040930a.pdf >
Viewed November 19th, 2008.
60 Minutes: Dungeons & Dragons. Host Edward Rudolph Bradley. Jr. ABC. 15 Sep. 1985.
Bay-Hinitz, April K.; Peterson, Robert F.; and Quilitch, H. Robert.
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in Frequency, attacks on role-playing games are still popular with The Defamation of Role-
playing Gaming and Gamers the mass media”.
(Winter): 157-165. Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 18, No. 2 (1994, 10)
Cowper, R.G., Young, M. Joseph, Cardwell, Paul, The Christian Gamers Guild Frequently
Asked Questions.
< http://www.christian-gamers-guild.org/faq.html >
Viewed November 17th, 2008.
Dear, William. The Dungeon Master. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
DeRenard, Lisa A. and Kline, Linda Mannik. “Alienation and the game
Dungeons and Dragons.” Psychological Reports, 66, (1990): 1219-1222.
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< http://www.nhmgs.org/articles/historyofwargaming.html >
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< http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/literacy/kestrel.htm >
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Role-playing Games Used as Educational and Therapeutic Tools for Youth and Adults
by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson
RPG Research Project Document ID: RPGR-A00004-20120930-F.cc
Original Version 2008-12-10
Revised 2011-12-06
Revised for release under Creative Commons: 2012-09-30
Role-playing Games Used as Educational and Therapeutic Tools for Youth and Adults by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.rpgresearch.com/documents/rpg-research-project/rpg-for-ed-and-therapy.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.rpgresearch.com/disclaimers.
Role-playing gaming (RPGing) is a cooperative recreational activity with many variants. There was a considerable amount of negative press in the 1980's about a specific fantasy role-playing game (RPG) called Dungeons & Dragons. This controversy created a stigma that contributed in part to significantly slowing the adoption, acceptance, and growth of the role-playing games (RPGs) by the general public. Despite this stigma there is slowly increasing use of RPGs in educational and therapeutic settings. There are strong indications from dozens of scientific studies that role-playing gaming can benefit many, if not most, population groups from children to elderly, from learning disabled to physically disabled, and even for help with some forms of mental illness.
Role-playing games are cooperative, improvisational, structured, and free form “interactive stories” (Phillips) that take place in the participants' imagination, usually seated around a table and using paper and pencil to keep track of events and persona of note. Typically one of the participants is chosen to act as the narrator, or referee, of this non-competitive recreational experience, known variously as the Game Master (GM) or Dungeon Master (DM). The GM creates or modifies the settings in which the other participants, the Player Characters (PCs), will interact with each other and various Non-Player Characters (NPCs) under the control of the GM. The group of participants then dynamically unfold a series of social interactions and events for an improvisational-theater-like experience, but generally, except in the case of live action role-playing (LARP), without physically acting out any of the activities of their characters.
There are a nearly limitless number of settings available for these games, ranging across all genres from medieval fantasy to science fiction, “Wild West”, horror and suspense, mysteries, historical recreations, military settings and more. If there has been a scenario of interest to people expressed through writing, visual arts, movies, audio, legend, folklore, history, or other medium, there is likely a role-playing game to fit that setting.
Unlike most social games that are frequently competitive in nature, most role-playing gaming is cooperative, with no clearly defined winners or losers and potentially no defined end to the game. Instead the goal is for a mutually rewarding experience for as long as the participants wish.
Just as it is very difficult for anyone to really understand the experience of performing in a live theater, concert, skydiving, or racing, without having participated in the activities, many people find it difficult to understand exactly what role-playing gaming is like without experiencing it firsthand. However a small taste of the experience can be hinted at by taking the time to illustrate a sample game session. In his unpublished psychological study Looking Through the Glass: An Exploration of the Interplay Between Player and Character Selves in Role-Playing Games, Nicholas Yee phrased the overall feeling of RPG participants very aptly when he stated that “RPG’s are not just a game; they are an experience.”
It is already well established within the therapeutic and psychological industries that role-playing, sans the gaming aspect, can be a very powerful therapeutic tool (Tietel). There are already a variety of well established therapeutic role-playing-related modalities including Gestalt (Perls) and psychodrama (Bell). The Therapeutic Recreation industry, represented by organizations such as the American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA), has established for decades that recreational activities, and specifically games, have very strong therapeutic benefits (Austin and Crawford 203-204).
There is a steadily growing movement in recent years to use non-RPG games for education (Moursand 6) and therapy . Oddly, the various branches of the psychotherapy world have not yet significantly delved into the bridge of these modalities, namely the current separation of role-playing as therapy, and games as therapy which would then be united together as role-playing game therapy.
This resistance could be due to the ongoing stigma caused by the controversial publicity of role-playing gaming in the 1980s (Walton), but there is no clear indication as of yet why RPGs would not be logically included in the tool set of modalities for recreation therapy specialists at the very least, and for consideration by more generalized psychotherapists looking for alternative modalities.
RPGing overlaps with a number of other domains' benefits, specifically recreation, education, therapeutic, and socialization, as illustrated in the Venn diagram below.
Diagram 1
In reaction to the strong negative publicity of the 1980s, there have been dozens of research studies performed to prove or disprove the negative claims made against role-playing games. It is possible that this much publicized controversy has been the contributing factor in delaying the adoption of role-playing games by the psychotherapy community. The end result is that a large number of people have avoided or even banned role-playing gaming and the related books and components due to their being “fearful of the kind of influence that they may bring with them”(Walton). Over the years there were incidents of schools and stores removing and banning the books, and forbidding the activity after school. “A hobby that entertains millions has become the subject of scorn;” (Walton). This debate is covered in more detail in the RPG Research document The Defamation of role-playing Games and Gamers. Further discussion on this debate is beyond the scope of this document.
In spite of the aforementioned stigma, there does at least appear to be some traction gaining in some educational settings using role-playing games to enhance the learning experience in classroom settings. This started with a handful of instructors and schools trying “alternative” approaches to teaching a class here and there using role-playing games to enhance a particular subject such as social studies (Haddad). In recent years role-playing gaming as a part of the curriculum has grown to be more widely accepted in more main stream academic settings for all ages from elementary and middle-to-high school through college level (Haddad;Cruz;McClain 1;Phillips). These courses cover a broad range of disciplines, ranging across the spectrum including language arts (McClain 1), mathematics and statistics (Walton), social studies (Haddad), history (Cruz), and English as a second language.
“Because RPGs are language-centered communication games, they have a definite positive effect on student socialization skills [and language development] which are central to RPGs“(Phillips).
Since even the simpler role-playing games are typically written for at least for an eighth grade reading level, and many are at a more challenging level, role-playing games strongly encourage and enhance reading skills. Another benefit for those who participate in role playing gaming, is that they are often inspired to learn to research in specific areas of knowledge such as history, language, politics, demographics, craftsmanship, geography, sciences, literature, and many other aspects that they feel will enhance their experience in future game sessions.
Most, though not all, role-playing games typically use dice as a means of representing the uncontrollable randomness of circumstances in determining whether a player's character succeeds in various actions. This constant use of variables means participants will frequently be immersed in mathematics, statistical analysis, and algebraic calculations.
Despite the negative clichés to the contrary, RPGs are inherently a social, and social skills developing, activity. Participants frequently develop life long friendships, and others learn to work with people they normally would have nothing else in common with.
On the therapeutic side of the RPG coin, there are a large number of other benefits for those who engage in role-playing gaming. There have been several dozen official scientific studies related to RPGs since the 1980s. Most of these studies have been correlative rather than causal in their data acquisition and comparison. This means that two, or more, sets of data are compared to determine if there are any trends in the data that match or overlap. When a strong matching pattern is found, then there is a direct, positive correlation. Sometimes there are inverse, negative correlations as well. Most of these studies have been very small in the number of test subjects, the scope of variables tracked, and the time periods observed, so only a few causal aspects have been somewhat defined. This leaves the possibility of a high bias in data due to the limited selection size of the populations studied, and the lack of single, double, or triple blind study methodologies. This leaves a significant gap still waiting to be filled. The RPG Research project intends to fill many of these gaps over time.
Despite the notable paucity of well-funded research on the therapeutic aspects of RPGing, what research there is has been for the most part very promising in indicating the great potential for role-playing gaming being a powerful therapeutic modality for many population groups.
Studies have shown significant benefits in allaying depression. As Wayne Blackmon colorfully stated in a 1994 case study on the effects of allowing a suicidally depressed 19 year old to use D&D as an outlet and emotional development tool, “The use of this game as an adjunct to therapy can allow patients an opportunity to explore their mental dungeons and slay their psychic dragons” (Psychotherapeutic 624).
One of the key tenants of the Therapeutic Recreation profession is finding the balance between too much challenge and boredom, to achieve, maintain, and maximize the state of awareness known as “flow” (Austin and Crawford 99-100). Many a gamer can attest to being taunted by non-gaming peers, or scolded by parents, for those times when a great game session had them so caught up, that one moment it was 6:00 pm, and the next time they looked at the clock it was 2:00 am. This was humorously well illustrated in the docu-comedy RPG video movie The Gamers II: Dorkness Rising (Gentlemen 2008).
Though this loss of time is generally a positive thing, as with any other activity, it is possible for anyone in any enjoyable activity to become obsessive and let things get out of balance. It is important not to let responsibilities such as work, school, or relationships begin to experience a negative impact from getting carried away for a prolonged period. Fortunately, since communication is the primary implement of role-playing gaming, having healthy communication is usually very productive in helping keep “real life” and gaming balanced. For parents with gamers, it can help reduce their concern considerably if they make the effort to understand, communicate, and learn about their child's recreational activities.
There has generally been the assumption, even among gamers, that since RPGing is escape-oriented, the last person you want to participate regularly would be someone suffering from various dissociative disorders such as schizophrenia. Though the jury is still out on this, there have been several studies done with this population, and surprisingly only one study, involving long term inpatient adolescents and taking an “unstructured” approach, had to be terminated because it was reinforcing negative pathologies (Ascherman 335). However, the other related studies actually contradicted the popular media and public assumptions (DeRenard and Kline), showing that, when structured and properly managed, the participants benefited significantly by actually improving their ability to differentiate between reality and dissociative events, as well as develop their ability to relate to others and self more effectively (Hughes;Blackmon).
There is currently estimated to have been at least 20 million players of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons since 1974, the game that started the entire genre. The creators thought it might sell 50,000 copies. There have been many millions more playing other RPGs besides D&D over the decades. As the generations that grew up with this activity become doctors and scientists, it is not surprising that there is an increasing momentum for ongoing research on the the benefits of role-playing games for enhancing education and as a potential therapy tool. In the thirty five years since the inception of role-playing games, the studies have just reached the tip of the iceberg, the potential benefits indicated so far, seem to hint at something that could be very beneficial to many populations in the next thirty years of research.
Works Cited
Ascherman, Li. The Impact of Unstructured Games of Fantasy and role-playing on an Inpatient Unit for Adolescents”. International Journal of Psychotherapy, 43.3 (1993): 335-344.
Austin, David and Crawford, Michael. Therapeutic Recreation: An Introduction. Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon, 2001.
Bay-Hinitz, April K., Peterson, Robert F., and Quilitch, H. Robert. “Cooperative games: a way to modify aggressive and cooperative behaviors in young children.” Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 27.3 (1994): 433-446.
Bell, Robert. “Practical Applications of Psychodrama: Systematic Role- Playing Teaches Social Skills.” Hospital & Community Psychiatry 21.6 (1970): 189-191.
Blackmon, Wayne D. “Dungeons and Dragons: the use of a fantasy game in the psychotherapeutic treatment of a young adult.” Journal of Psychotherapy 48.4 (1994): 624-632. 28 Nov. 2008 <http://www.rpgstudies.net/blackmon/dungeons_and_dragons/>.
Cruz, Laura. “The Great War in the Classroom.” Academic Exchange Quarterly 8.1 (2004) <http://www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/mo2491sep.htm>.
DeRenard, Lisa and Kline, Linda. “Alienation and the Game Dungeons & Dragons”. Psychological Reports. 66 (1990): 1219-1222.
Gamers II: Dorkness Rising. Writer and director Matt Vancil. DVD. Dead Gentlemen and Epic Level Entertainment, 2008.
Haddad, Sam. “The Results of Playing The Game of Social Studies Knowledge in an Eighth Grade Classroom.” Diss. Wayne State University of Michigan, 2003.
Lafferty, Mur. “D&D Therapy.” The Escapist 29 Mar. 2006. 4 Dec. 2008 <http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_60/353-D- D-Therapy>
McClain, Rachel. “Imagine That! Developing Fantasy Role-Play in the Language Arts Classroom.” The New York Times Learning Network. 8 Dec. 2000 <http://www.wbrschools.net/curriculum/reading7/imaginethat.pdf>.
Moursund, D.G. Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents. 2007. Using Games in Education. 30 Jan. 2007. David Moursand. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://uoregon.edu/~moursund/Books/Games/ Games.pdf>.
Papert, Seymour. “Does Easy Do It? Children, Games, and Learning”. Game Developer Magazine. June 1998. <http://www.papert.org/articles/Doeseasydoit.html>
Perls, Frederick, Hefferline, Ralph, and Goodman, Paul. Gestalt Therapy. New York: Bantam Book, 1977.
Tietel, Jay. “Wanna Play?” Psychology Today Aug. 1998. 28 Nov. 2008 < http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=19980701-000027&page=1 >
Walton, William. “Role-Playing Games: The Stigmas and Benefits.” The Escapist Dec. 1995. 27 Nov. 2008 <http://www.theescapist.com/rpgpaper.htm>.
Yee, Nicholas. “Looking Through the Glass: An Exploration of the Interplay Between Player and Character Selves in Role-Playing Games.” Unpublished Psychological Study Haverford College, 1999. <http://nickyee.com/rpg/paper.doc>
Annotated Bibliography
[1] Bay-Hinitz, April K., Peterson, Robert F., and Quilitch, H. Robert. “Cooperative games: a way to modify aggressive and cooperative behaviors in young children.” Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 27.3 (1994): 433-446.
Abstract: 70 children, ages 4 to 5 years old, were involved in a behavioral comparison of competitive and cooperative games. The study found a direct correlation between increases in aggressive behavior during “free time play” after competitive games, and a directly correlative decrease in aggression after cooperative play. Suggests that increased use of cooperative games could significantly increase self-esteem and peer socialization.
[2] Blackmon, Wayne D. “Dungeons and Dragons: The Use of a Fantasy Game in the Psychotherapeutic Treatment of a Young Adult.” Journal of Psychotherapy 48.4 (1994): 624-632. 28 Nov. 2008 <http://www.rpgstudies.net/blackmon/dungeons_and_dragons/>.
Abstract: This is a case history of a depressive, suicide, schizoid personality 19 year old male that was not responding to traditional therapies. Using the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons as a bridge to help him develop a communication and rapport with the doctor, he began to increase in his openness, and ability to analyze the relationships in games, to increase his ability to become aware of relationships in “real” and improve his socialization, empathy, and communication skills. He was able to use it as an outlet for anger he had towards his father, and then discuss those actions that were “in game” and begin developing skills of awareness and introspection that he was able to generalize in his every day life in a very productive fashion. The only caveat is to keep the hobby from becoming too all- consuming as with any other activity if it becomes out of balance and obsessive.
[3] Cruz, Laura. “The Great War in the Classroom.” Academic Exchange Quarterly 8.1 (2004): <http://www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/mo2491sep.htm>.
Abstract: A history professor wished to enhance the appreciation and experience of learning history, specifically the issues leading up to World War I, for her students through the use of a role-playing game scenario. She used a combination of mostly in-clase interaction with some online enhancement. She had some issues with some students not carrying their fair share, but she developed creative means of tracking and “encouraging” them. There is some debate about whether allowing alternate outcomes really correctly teaches history, but the professor found that this approach engaged the students into really delving into the real facts and then have a much deeper understanding and appreciation of their study.
[4] Haddad, Sam. “The Results of Playing The Game of Social Studies Knowledge in an Eighth Grade Classroom.” Diss. Wayne State University of Michigan, 2003.
Abstract: A middle school instructor used a role-playing game to enhance the participation, involvement, interest, and retention of his students in two different classes when teaching social studies course material. The students would participate in the game scenarios for 35 minutes of each class, and then spend the last 10 minutes in question and answer sessions and open discussion. The study ran for only 10 weeks, but notes a slight increase in knowledge retention and decrease in absences during the study compared to the baseline. The study would likely have shown even more improvement over a longer period. Allowing the students to chose their own teams rather than random assignment I believe was not as beneficial as random assignment. In my view this was a more competitive implementation than other typical role-playing game settings. As the study notes to some extent, a longer, and more cooperative, approach might have helped increase the overall class unity and results significantly.
[5] Hughes, John. “Therapy is Fantasy: Role-playing, Healing, and the Construction of Symbolic Order.” Unpublished Essay Australian National University, 1988 <http://www.rpgstudies.net/hughes/therapy_is_fantasy.html>.
Abstract: The writer interviewed several participants, and focused primarily on a single female participant who had a history of severe depression. It was noted that her depressive and psychosomatoform symptoms were suspended during times when she role played. As she continued to play, her fellow participants and the author encouraged her to analyze the distinctions of her (male) character, and note the traits and contrasts between the pretend character and her own traits. As she became for cognizant, she was able to use role-playing gaming to help resolve a number of issues and improve her quality of life markedly.
[6] Lafferty, Mur. “D&D Therapy.” The Escapist 29 Mar. 2006. 4 Dec. 2008 <http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_60/353-D- D-Therapy>
Abstract: Covers role play, games in general, role-playing games, puzzles, and computer games, in their abilities to soothe, heal, develop hard skills such as math, speech therapy, problem solving, and reading, also soft skills such as socialization, intuition, and empathy. Provides example of severely brain damaged individual having an exceptional recovery very much attributed to participation in old fashioned role-playing games.
[7] McClain, Rachel. “Imagine That! Developing Fantasy Role-Play in the Language Arts Classroom.” The New York Times Learning Network. 8 Dec. 2000. <http://www.wbrschools.net/curriculum/reading7/imaginethat.pdf>.
Abstract: Using Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game as a talking point and illustration tool, this lesson plan outlines approaching role-playing gaming from various perspectives including participation in role-playing, self expression through related journal writing through the D&D character personification, and critical thinking when analyzing an article on the game.
[8] Moursund, D.G. Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents. 2007. Using Games in Education. 30 Jan. 2007. David Moursand. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://uoregon.edu/~moursund/Books/Games/ Games.pdf>.
Abstract: This lengthy 155 page document is only about regular games (though briefly mentions MMORPG Runescape), not RPG's. But excellent for the bridging of gaming as a learning tool in both formal and informal settings.. Also, not the overlapping spheres diagram between education and games, This would be good to do the same with RPG and Therapy too in my own paper.
[9] Papert, Seymour. “Does Easy Do It? Children, Games, and Learning”. Game Developer Magazine. June 1998. <http://www.papert.org/articles/Doeseasydoit.html>
Abstract: This paper covers the convergence of “edutainment” and advises game designers to not be dishonest about “learning without knowing it” or making it too easy. He makes a great statement about most kids don't complain about school being too hard, but too boring. This focuses mostly on computer based games.
[11] Tietel, Jay. “Wanna Play?” Psychology Today Aug. 1998. 28 Nov. 2008 <http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php? term=19980701-000027&page=1>
Abstract: The author covers a diverse range of games, including various manifestations of role-playing games, with historical, psychological, and social implications in many scenarios, used for more than just recreation. The author illustrates the many facets and benefits role-playing provides from recreation, education and social normalization, to therapeutic benefits.
[12] Walton, William. “Role-Playing Games: The Stigmas and Benefits.” The Escapist Dec. 1995. 27 Nov. 2008 <http://www.theescapist.com/rpgpaper.htm>.
Abstract: This paper gives a fairly comprehensive coverage of the evolution and societal reactions to role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. It provides a breakdown of the social dynamics that developed in the 1980s and the remaining stigma that has continued to impact those who participate in RPGs. It also covers some of the aspects of RPGs and their beneficial use in educational facilities.
[13] Yee, Nicholas. “Looking Through the Glass: An Exploration of the Interplay Between Player and Character Selves in Role-Playing Games” Unpublished Psychological Study Haverford College, 1999. <http://nickyee.com/rpg/paper.doc>
Abstract: Great quote on RPGs being more than just a game, they are an experience. Comments on a considerable number of studies and their implications on role-playing gamers personalities. Analyses questionnaire data results that once again show positive traits in gamers in the face of the public misconceptions, but also continues to leave a lot of questions open between correlative versus causal benefits of role-playing or role-playing gamers.
“Hands-On-Adventure”
(ASL signed role playing gaming)
Role-Playing Gaming Adapted for the Deaf Using American Sign Language
by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson
RPG Research Project Document ID: #RPGR-A00007-20111212b-part-1.cc
(c) 2007
Revised for Creative Commons 2012-10-01
Role-Playing Gaming Adapted for the Deaf Using American Sign Language by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.rpgresearch.com/documents/rpg-research-project/rpg-for-deaf-using-asl.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.rpgresearch.com/disclaimers.
Provide a social activity to deaf, hard of hearing, and any signing-capable (hearing) participants through a social recreational event to help reduce isolation and encourage interaction in a cooperative, fun, team/friendship-building series of activities using role-playing gaming with American Sign Language (ASL).
RPGs (Role Playing Games) meet this goal by providing an unprecedented range of benefits for a leisure activity, including: social cooperation with diverse peoples/cultures/backgrounds on common goals, leadership, walking in others' shoes/experiences, religions, histories, languages/linguistics, multicultural mythologies, learning to follow the rules while also "thinking outside of the box“, intellectual challenges (math, reasoning, problem solving), technical and creative reading/writing, many types of engineering and sciences, demographics, warfare tactics and strategies, past and present architecture and technologies, creative areas such as theatrics/acting and many other social, creative, and intellectual benefits.
Safe, quiet, comfortable, non-distracting room, or outdoor setting. Seating reasonably close enough and sufficient lighting for everyone to see each others' signing. Seating usually best in the shape of a circle or a square rather than a rectangle so signing can be seen by all fairly equally (compared to long rectangle making it a bit more difficult to see everyone).
Deaf and hard of hearing, or anyone who can sign in ASL (or any signing language) with sufficient proficiency. Ages can range in groups from 8 to 13, 14 to 21, and 21 on up. Both male and female can equally participate.
Participants gather around a table for an interactive shared imaginary adventure(s) using just paper, pencil, dice, agreed-upon rules/game-system and their imaginations.
In this particular variation of the role playing gaming theme, an added difference is that participants will be using sign language to communicate rather than verbal communication.
Also for maximum therapeutic benefit the adventure setting must be cooperative not competitive, and all participants must play “good” aligned characters rather than “neutral” or “evil” alignment.
The game referee/narrator, commonly known as the Game Master meets with the players in a comfortable setting around a table, or anywhere they find comfortable, and begins with a description of the imaginary setting.
An example game start: "You and your friends have just walked into the courtyard of an ancient building. The courtyard is approximately forty feet square. The walls, built of a tan colored stone material apparently indigenous to the area, are built to the points of the compass. They are about thirty feet high. You entered from an opening in the south wall. You see the north wall has some stairs going up, and the east wall on your right has what appears to be a solid metal door hanging open on rusted hinges. The walls are crumbling in places, and much is overgrown with ivy and weeds. In the center is a large fountain about fifteen feet high in what appears to be the form of a series of three flower-like terraces. Surprisingly, the fountain is currently spouting clear and cool-looking water. Viewing the water, you're more acutely aware of how dry you mouths are after the long day's hike to arrive here, with no water previously in sight. The wind is picking up as a storm from the south, with lightning and dark clouds gathering, quickly approaches. It is getting colder by the minute. What do you do?"
At this point, those playing in the game each take turns telling the GM and the other players what actions they take. Some will have mundane results, others could have surprising consequences. Dice are used to simulate the random events that can occur in life. For example, someone may decide to climb the stairs, there are some loose steps, and depending on how agile the player's made-up "character" is, with a roll of the dice, that character may leap to the top unscathed, or may have a bit of a fall to deal with. Of course, there also could be trouble in the form of "ill-intentioned bandits" lurking within the entrance of the door to dispense with...
Entry/participation is free. Food and beverages will be provided by sponsors and/or participants in a “pot luck” style to share with other participants.
One person to play the role of referee/narrator, also known as Game Master or Dungeon Master (GM or DM). Typically a ratio of 1 GM per 1-8 “players”.
Required equipment:
Table(s)
Chairs (enough for GM and as many players participating)
Paper
Pencils
Polyhedron dice
Player and GM rulebooks
Optional additional equipment can include:
Gridded and/or hexagonal “battle mats”
Miniature figurines.
GM and participants fill out evaluation forms provided at the end of each gaming session covering mostly subjective information. Additionally event organizers fill out a form related to statistics and other measurable areas.
The questionnaire would include for example (see attached sample combined evaluation form):
Rating of fun factor
Level of interaction with others
Comfort level
Number of participants and type
Level of opportunity for involvement
Challenge level
Suggestions for improvements
Ratios of hearing, deaf, etc.
EWDHHC (Eastern Washington Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center)
Could providing gaming facilities
Could provide ASL translators if non-hearing participants a little weak in ASL
Could generally promote the event(s)
Merlyn's Games & Hobbies
Provide gaming facilities
Could provide prizes
Provide gaming materials
Hobbytown
Could provide gaming facilities
Could provide prizes - such as a miniature used to represent their player character
Could provide gift certificate for discount on role playing gaming purchases.
There is far more on the Amalgamation page here: http://w3.rpgresearch.com/blog/amalgamation-of-panels-q-a-interviews-presentations-on-rpg-for-therapy-education
And the main research page here: http://w3.rpgresearch.com/research
But the following nicely sum up a lot of topics, and have been very helpful to many people working on their papers and research.
I have been involved with RPGs since the 1970s. I have been known to juggle a dozen or more monthly campaigns, all with completely different settings and game systems, simultaneously, so organization and efficiency are critical. Any methodologies or tools that can help improve this are very much welcomed. This might not be a bad topic to add to the RPG Optimization document: http://www2.rpgresearch.com/blog/rpg-optimization-1
Here is the link to the original post that triggered this discussion, and you can see others' responses there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GeekTherapy/permalink/1773320066305888/
Here is a Google Plus (G+) thread on the same topic: https://plus.google.com/u/0/110136358070289646661/posts/9fsgR7UvBM9?cfem=1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hashtag/rpgtools?src=hash
What tools do you use for your #rpgcampaign? #rpgtools #rpg #gaming #rpgresearch https://t.co/g0QD3indPA
— RPG Research (@rpgresearch) October 4, 2017
LibreOffice Writer for most of the text, but also use: Draw, Sheet, Plan . Visio / Kivio / Dia (for flowcharts / mindmapping / event mapping/logic), Campaign Cartographer and Gimp for maps, Sweet Home 3d for other maps and especially video/VR walkthrough/videos, and iPad Pro 12.9" draw for sketches, scenes, etc., all gets bundled in my campaign folder on my OpenSuse linux system, and an online copy on my website, and hard copies printed (just in case) and stored in a 3 ring binder. And finally: battlemats, whiteboards, dungeon tiles, and Costco large clear lidded tubs to store for each campaign and/or group which Okay, now I'm tired just thinking about all that work. Even more details are provided in the "Why" section below...
http://www.rpgtrailer.com -- http://www.rpgbus.com -- Donate today: http://gofundme.com/rpgtrailer
I used to have to drag ALL of the items listed below, back and forth to/from my offices or whatever location I was running the games at.
Now it can all be prepared and stored in the RPG Trailer and RPG Bus! (mostly)
This can be not only a huge time saver, but also saves my injured back and knees considerably!
I am a strong opensource advocate, and I mostly use Linux, but also do have OpenBSD, Mac, and Windows sytems, so I need something that will work on all platforms.
Opensource equivalent to Microsoft Word.
This is where I spend the majority of the time in creation, preparation, and logging. Often much is copy-pasted from here to the various other tools as needed.
I have dysgraphia which means both that my handwriting is atrocious, but also that it is extremely painful to write with a pen/pencil for more than 5 minutes.
Typing is far, far, better.
I do create a table of contents, and try to use headings liberally, and then update the TOC frequently, to make it much easier to find sections of information.
Also, when your campaign notes stretch into the hundreds, and thousands of pages per campaign, you can CTRL+F to find the keywords you need, though you better have a TOC or else it could take a while to find.
Also for larger campaigns, I try to start utilizing the Index features, so that specific instances can be found more readily.
I can't stand RPG books that do not have a decent TOC and a decent Index, that is just plain laziness any company that publishes their books without decent versions of each. This has become a terrible trend since the early 2000s.
Opensource equivalent to Microsoft Excel.
Statistical information, npcs, etc.
Extremely useful for keeping long term statistical information on key NPCs, creatures, weather, random encounters, character generation, and much more.
Can also be useful for creating charts to visually find information or analyze some concepts, it is surprising the stuff you come across visually that you might have missed otherwise.
A basic (mostly vector) graphics program.
(Gannt charting for orders of events, milestones, dependcies, resource allocation, and branching)
I haven't really settled on any one PM software product, I just listed that one for convenience. The key thing is a project management application can be very helpful for laying out epic quest, key events, tracking NPCs, minions, armies, etc. Gannt charts are very helpful visual aid for these events.
A powerful, but somewhat klunky, CAD-style mapping software suite. Very powerful, but lengthy learning curve. Not good for quick and dirty map creation, but if you have the time, great for well prepared multi-verse down to galaxies, solar systems, worlds, continents, countries, cities, streets, building, dungeons, and more.
Also has a basic character creation (image) tool that is somewhat useful, though I tend to use something like character animation programs instead for those features.
Really awesome opensource, free, community supported, floorplan software that also can render 3d photorealistic images, real-time 3d walkthroughs, and produce 3d rendered video walkthroughs/flyovers, etc.
Not really useful for medieval style castles and dungeons (see Campaign Cartographer for that), but any modern-to-semi-modern structures, extremely useful.
Both a powerful, but also easy to use, tool.
Opensource, cross platform, graphics and photo editing software.
Use the stylus a lot to whip up sketches, scenes, etc.
Also, with the protective case I bought providing a stand, I can prop it up on the table to use for signage, video presentations, etc.
I don't really use it for anything else.
Up to version 13.2 my preferred OS. Since LEAP I have not been happy with them, but I am even less happy with Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, and many others. OpenSuse has had the best laptop compatibility for me, though again LEAP has been disappointing.
I have been an OpenBSD supporter for nearly 20 years. It is the most secure operating system you can get your hands on. It has a lot of limitations on hardware and software, but for a web server it will make your life so much safer than any other option, which means a lot less hassle with constant patching, fighting off hackers, etc, so you can spend your time being productive working on, and running, your campaigns. :-)
A valuable resource for campaigns, and your players. You can have a lot of shared resources available.
Opensource, free, Python-based content management system (CMS)
This is what I run all my sites with. It is an incredibly powerful CMS.
I can control easily who can access which information based on their group membership.
So one group can see one part of the wiki or forum postings, while another group cannot, etc.
Extremely useful for sharing static world information. Especially when players wanting to make characters that fit the world, having this at their fingertips is very useful.
Also a useful format for organizing a lot of the concepts and ideas of the campaign, especially cultures, locations, events, etc.
Example: http://www2.spokanerpg.com/beru/
A nice way to have long-lasting conversations, rather than the fly-by-night social media sites like FB. This has longevity, and you can reference back easily. Much preferred format.
Useful especially for notifying groups of schedule/location changes, quick idea discussions, etc.
Can also be archived, but forums better for that.
Real-time chat is great for real-time needs.
Not good for long term archival (though logs can be stored and shared on website, not a clean format for long term use).
Lots of bots and plugins for RPG solutions.
Placed strategically
I video/audio record most of my sessions. This is useful for refreshing before each group about significant events and/or where we left off.
It is important that I am keeping a log, roughly timestamped so I can quickly jump to sections in the video as needed.
Also useful for long term research.
Also useful if contention about what happened previously.
Also useful if I improvised or let something slip, that I need to update/correct in the campaign for the future.
Also useful if some player(s) missed a session, they can catch up.
The list of benefits is considerable!
1 overhead above the table
1 showing group view, and/or one for each participant
Especially useful for LARPs
3 ring binder with pouches and/or accordion folder.
Not just for mapping, much of it is used to for PC and NPC rosters to have their stats at my fingertips for that session. Longer term I store them in spreadsheets and/or word processor documents.
Miniatures
Dungeon Tiles
Legos
Lincoln Logs
Large Costco, clear, lidded, tubs (storage for each group/campaign)
Schedule: January 28th, 2016, 5:00 pm to ...
Location: McMenamin’s Tavern & Pool - 1716 NW 23rd, Portland, OR 97210
Attendance Type: Presentation.
Conference Presentation (90 minutes, 2:20 pm to 3:50 pm): "Using Role-playing Games (RPG) as an Invention Modality from the Therapeutic Recreation / Recreational Therapy Perspective."
Schedule: January 29th, 2016, 7:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Location: Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital, 1015 NW 22nd Ave, Portland, OR 97210
Schedule: March 22nd through 25th, 2016
Location: Seattle, Washington.
Attendance Type: Guest (I am only attending, not presenting at this event).
NOTE I ended up unable to attend due to life-threatening illness.
Attendance Type: Presentation.
Conference Presentation: 90 minutes. "Role-Playing Games as Intervention Modalities to Achieve Therapeutic & Educational Goals for
Individuals & Groups from the Therapeutic Recreation Perspective."
Schedule: April 2nd, 2016
Location: Eastern Washington University, Cheney, Washington.
http://www.livinggamesconference.com
Attendance Type: Academic Paper Submission & Discussion.
Topic: "Therapeutic & Educational Uses of Role-Playing Games as Intervention Modalities for Individuals & Groups from the Therapeutic Recreation Perspective"
Schedule: May 19th, 2016
Location: Texas State University
NOTE, I was unable to attend in person due to life-threatening health issues. The essay paper for this event was submitted for peer review and rejected as the draft was, and I didn't have time at the time to make the needed changes to the paper. The non-academic track (not peer reviewed) related slideshow and recorded audio/video were accepted for presentation at the event (albeit a poorly done video that was painfully accelerated to squeeze into the allotted time).
Attendance Type: Guest, & Potential Presentations, Potential Panels, Potential Round tables.
Pending Possible Topics That I May Be Involved (pending approval still):
Schedule: May 20th through 22nd, 2016
Location: Austin, Texas.