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First Prototype of Tabletop RPG as a Modality for Therapeutic / Educational
Intervention - http://www.rpgresearch.com/blog/first-prototype-of-tabletop-rpg-for-therapeutic-intervention


This is my first prototype rough draft in the development of
role-playing gaming as a modality for therapeutic / educational
interventions. For a Recreation Therapy course in which I am currently
enrolled at Eastern Washington University, our task last week was to
"Develop a Tabletop Leisure Education Game" for a group of Autism
Spectrum (and other) adults in a facility near the Seattle area (we are
in Spokane, WA). Of course I selected (with the approval of my assigned
partner in the project, Tabletop Role-Playing Gaming (RPG ) for this
assignment, in this case a 1940s Gumshoe Detective-style mystery set in
urban Chicago...

Overview


I submitted the complete bundle this Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014, to
the professor with all my fellow Recreation Therapy classmates. She,
with the help of her husband and others, will be going through all of
the activities over the following weeks, and evaluating them for
compliance with a specific checklist.
A few of the submissions may be fortunate enough to be selected for
submission to a facility on the west coast with an adult special needs
population, which we may potentially have the opportunity of
implementing during the Summer break as part of our many required hours
(1500 related volunteer/paid hours, before eligible for starting the 16
week internship).


I tried to distill the the simplest components of a tabletop
role-playing game down to the bare necessities. For dice, a single
six-sided die, since that is the most likely to be available in a
household or facility, and keeping it numerically simple so that the
widest range of populations could still find the game accessible. Even
if the participants are unable to read the rules, a Game Facilitator
(GF), likely the Recreation Therapy Specialist (RTS) can teach the rules
to the participants verbally as they go through the process of
character creation (or selection of pre-generated characters) and the
actual game play, teaching the rules incrementally as they proceed
through the adventure itself.


As far as the classroom assignment itself, and the evaluation sheet, I
am concerned that the level of complexity of an RPG, even one this
stripped down to the basics, may be problematic within the limited scope
of the assignment and/or an RTS's available time for learning and
teaching a new activity if they have not previously engaged in tabletop
role-playing games (tRPGs).


We only had about a week to work on the activity, and I was not able
to finish polishing it all. I did not have enough time to really convert
it to language more appropriate for a Recreation Therapy Specialist
(RTS), so I am not sure how well my draft will score related to the
assignment, but at least I am finally applying years of ideas and
research to finally creating a tangible work related to a therapeutic
role-playing game. Consider this an "alpha" draft proof-of-concept
prototype. It is extremely rough, I can see flaws and problems abounding
left and right, but at least it is a starting point for the iterative
revision process toward a complete and working therapeutic/educational
intervention modality using role-playing games.


I submitted a complete kit, with dice, miniatures, pencils, all the
rules, and a summary adventure, everything necessary for a small group
to immediately engage in the adventure (once someone is determined to be
the Game Facilitator (GF, aka Game Master (GM)).


I changed the term for Game Master (GM) to Game Facilitator (GF) to
be more in line with terminology in the recreation therapy profession,
hopefully more obviously self-explanatory to a prospective Recreation
Therapy Specialist (RTS) considering using tRPG as a modality for
intervention.


I was assigned a partner, that has never had previous experience with
RPG (half my age), and we worked together on this project. I guided her
where I could to help determine a setting that would be fun and
familiar to her. Admittedly I did about 80-90% of the total work for
this project, since this really was my bailiwick, and she had never had
any previous experience with RPG, but every chance possible she engaged
in the process. As we worked through the process, especially the
storyline creation, she become increasingly excited and engaged in the
process, and repeatedly commented how much fun it was, and she stated
she felt she had to keep reigning herself in because she was "Getting so
into it" during the storyline creation. As I submitted the rules to her
for review, she began to increasingly understand how this would work,
and was increasingly enthusiastic.


The Rules System


The rules are based on my Tolkien-based Ea RPG Basic Rules (
http://www.earpg.com
), but with all the Tolkien and fantasy aspects shaved off, and instead
changing the font, language, and examples to be more fitting for a
1940s setting. NOTE: The GF Guidebook still has a lot of the old
Tolkien/fantasy related material lingering, I ran out of time to convert
the rest of it. After I get the notes and feedback from my professor, I
will heavily revise the rulebooks based on her play-testing and
professional feedback, and while at it, finish the conversion, as well
as increasing the language in the GF book to be more RTS-related.


I intend to keep the Players Guidebook more focused on laymen
language, with only a few notes more befitting the professional language
of an RTS, while the GF guidebook will increasingly focus on
therapeutic recreation (TR) professional terms, methodologies, theories,
etc.


Photos & Links to Documents


Here are some photos of the complete kit I submitted for the assignment:





DSC 0642


DSC 0640 DSC 0637





Here is a link to the Rules Summary sheet.


Here is a link to the (blank) character sheet.


Here is a link to the Players Guidebook itself:


Here is a link to the Game Facilitators Guidebook itself:


Here is a link to the assignment summary with the adventure details, and pre-
generated example character sheets:





Evaluation for the course - What Makes This Recreation Therapy, Not Just
Recreation


There are multiple factors make a recreation activity an actual
therapeutic (or educational) recreation intervention, but one of the key
factors is clearly stated and measurable objectives. One example could
be, through the use of the activity, increasing the client's ability to
initiate and maintain a conversation in a group setting, in the case of a
client with impulse issues causing social interaction dysfunction
(ADD/ADHD for example) improving from interrupting an average of 3 times
per minute of conversation with others, to no more than once per minute
(and then continuing to improve from there)..


This assignment utilized the Leisure Education Activity Planning Worksheet
(Appendix A on page 48) of the book Facilitation of Therapeutic Recreation
Services - An Evidence-based and Best Practice Approach to Techniques and
Processes, by Norma J. Stumbo, and Brad Wardlaw.


The intended population is anyone needing to work on cooperative
social skills, in this case it as assumed (as per the prompt) to be
higher functioning adult Autism Spectrum clients.


We were to pick at least one of the four components of the Leisure
Education Content Model (LECM) by Stumbo & Peterson (2009).


Those four components are 1.0 Leisure Awareness, 2.0 Social
Interaction Skills, 3.0 Leisure Activity Skills, and 4.0 Leisure
Resources.


My assigned partner and I decided to specifically target 2 components with the
RPG adventure:


LECM 3.0, Leisure Activity Skills, section 3.1 Traditional Leisure
Activity skills. After the adventure the participants should be able to
provide at least one hypothetical example of how they could develop
skills in a performance art (singing, acting, dancing) by finding and
utilizing a private instructor.
LECM 4.0, Leisure Resources, section 4.4 Community Resources. After
the adventure the participants should be able to provide an example of
how to find the various theaters in a given region, nd how to isolate
finding a specific community theater based on specific desired goals
(type of theater).

In addition to meeting the classroom assignment requirements above,
the participants will likely also be gaining many other benefits due to
the nature of the modality used to instruct the above 2 areas of the
LECM, namely that tabletop role-playing games (tRPG), are a socially
cooperative problem-solving recreational activity, so many other
potential beneficial outcomes are likely.


For populations needing to learn and improve appropriate social
skills, cooperative play, reading, writing, basic math, creative
visualization, verbal understanding and expression, and coordinated
group simple-to-complex problem solving, tabletop role-playing gaming is
an ideal modality.


I hope the community finds this first attempt useful, and I would
very much appreciate everyone's comments (good, bad, or indifferent),
creative suggestions, and any other feedback you can provide in this
ongoing iterative process.


Keep those dice rolling!


-Hawke


rpgresearcher at gmail dot com.
--
-Hawke Robinson

The RPG Research Project
http://www.rpgresearch.com
Office: (509) 252-0800
Cell: (509) 481-5437 (text okay)
Office and Postal Address
1312 N. Monroe Suite #114
Spokane, WA, USA
99218

Working on interdisciplinary degrees in recreation therapy, music therapy,
neuroscience, and clinical & experimental psychology, at Eastern Washington
University.
WSTRA (Washington State Therapeutic Recreation Association) member.
ATRA (American Therapeutic Association) member.
Retired computer scientist, AS/CS, SANS GIAC GCIH, MCSE, MCP+I, SCSAp1, CNA.
Role-playing gamer since 1979

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MISSION

1) To clearly establish, through rigorous scientific testing, the therapeutic
and educational effects of role-playing gaming on participants. To determine
the potential relevance of correlated factors, the primary focus will be
contributing to the body of causal research information.

2) Based on established research, using relevant evidence-based and theory-
based approaches to design, develop and implement intervention programs using
various forms of role-playing games (tabletop, live-action (LARP), and
computer-based) as a therapeutic and/or educational modality.

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