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| Aberzanzorax |
 Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 9:17 am Post subject: Roleplaying and Mental Health (Psychology) |
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I'm abandoning my prior dissertation for clinical psychology, and I'm starting a new one.
I'd like it to be on a protocol of how to teach children (or perhaps socially impaired adults) a number of things using a roleplaying game.
These include (but are not limited to):
-social interaction skills
-problem solving
-improved math skills
-improved vocabulary
-emotional control
What game would be best for this? Factors I want to consider:
-free or licensable (or in print). I'm considering the SRD, but I also wonder if there are other games out there that would work. The SRD is helpful as I could include the actual rules in the dissertation. Are there other free systems that might work better? OSRIC, FUDGE, others?
-Easy to learn. I'd like it to be something that could be quickly picked up by the kids (adults) who may have other factors that limit their educational or intellectual levels.
-Stimulating. I'd like it to have some degrees pushing players to use intelligence, make hard choices, and become immersed in the setting/world.
As part of the protocol/dissertation, I might even include a "sample adventure" that I write as well.
Any and all information that you can provide would be wonderful. Your thoughts, any knowledge of roleplaying being used for mental health purposes, anecdotes of how it has helped people with mental illness that you've experienced or heard of, etc.
Thank you!
(I originally posted this at enworld, but thought the good folks here might have some input as well.)
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/255759-roleplaying-mental-health-psychology.html#post4783737 |
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| AncientSpirits |
| Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 21 Jan 2008
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I recently ran a "game day" for my (very smart and motivated) college students. But it wasn't anything nearly like D&D. Rather I kept it visual and simple and emphasized team work.
I created a 2 ft x 2 ft dungeon map in Photoshop and then had 6 of them printed, laminated, and mounted on rigid backing at Kinkos. The map squares are 1 inch each. It was pretty much a classic AD&D underground maze.
The students were in groups of 4 to 6, and each group got a plastic baggy with minis, d20s, and d6s, plus character cards (1 per mini) and a set of rules.
The entire rule system is based on skill checks. So if you want to jump over a 10 ft pit that's DC 10 Jump check (DC here means "dice check" because that's everyday English). Each character was different skill modifiers. Combat also uses skill checks (Aim check vs. Dodge check). And characters have Health points, a speed, some equipment, and one special power. For example, the obvious female mini is called "Princess" and has great Dodge and Befriend modifiers and has a "Witch Fire" ability. There are social skills because there are monster minis on the board and the Befriend and Intimidate skills allow a PC to ally or frighten monsters.
I made the "aid another" feature very obvious and some skills relatively hard to use (such as climbing out of a 10 ft pit) in order to encourage teamwork, though players seem to really enjoy pushing each other into pits.
I've run 12 groups so far, each for 90 minutes. At the start there was some confusion because only a few have played RPGs or online games like WoW and most have never played board games beyond Monopoly or such. But by half way through, it was great to see them having fun, smiling and laughing and interacting far more than I ever see them do in class!
You'll notice there is no GM. And the instructions encourage everyone to decide together what to do when they encounter a situation not clearly covered in the rules, such as tying a rope to an arrow and shooting it.
Afterward, each group debriefed what they liked most / least, what roles they played, the learning curve, simulation realism vs. fun factor, etc.
Now that they've done this game day, I feel comfortable to ramp them up to a 2nd game day with a GM and no game board and give them some kind of guided mini-adventure.
Overall, I run a lot of simulations with people. If your aim is to use games to help people learn and come together, then I think you're on to something because there I've seen a lot of proactive learning and friendly interaction while gaming. That said, it's important to KISS (keep it simple and stupid) at first and then go deeper -- design a 2 or 3 stage process that draws them in.  |
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| Aberzanzorax |
| Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 4:22 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| If your aim is to use games to help people learn and come together, then I think you're on to something because there I've seen a lot of proactive learning and friendly interaction while gaming. |
That is exactly my goal!
There's a shade more to it, but I'm still in the research phase. I'd like to benefit a vulnerable population that is mental health related (this need not be a specific diagnosis). It could be children who are shy, people who have difficulty making friends, people with social phobia, people with learning disabilities, people with anger management issues, and so on.
The population will be determined by the applicable research...though my guess is that this is something that all sorts of people can benefit from. |
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| varianor |
| Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 4:51 am Post subject: |
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Two simple and easy systems are FUDGE and RISUS. For an off-the-rack game that's affordable and interesting, consider Savage Worlds. For a game that's known almost universally, you could even go with D&D, or a drastically reduced version.
That said, I know that although directly measurable results are not always available with such experiments, I have seen many players improve their social skills as a result of gaming. Even in myself, I think it's helped me socially a great deal. |
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| Zherog |
| Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 6:04 am Post subject: |
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I'd be remiss if I didn't toss out a link to the new product line I helped write: Arcana Minor. The goal is to simply make D&D accessible to a younger audience, through slightly simplified plots combined with magical creatures in a truly magical world.
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| Therabyd |
| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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Which system is best depends a lot upon the precise skills you're trying to teach, as I think the mechanics of each encourage different kind of player behaviors. All systems teach social interaction and problem solving, but Hero system (for instance) is much more math-heavy than Savage Worlds, and so would encourage more mathematical learning.
Among general systems, Savage Worlds and FUDGE/FATE are both very easy for players to learn, although unless you want to run a pulp game (via Spirit of the Century), FUDGE/FATE requires a lot of customization by the GM.
If you're looking for more focused attention on particular skills or themes, it might pay to look at the smaller press games. The social combat system in Burning Wheel, for instance, makes it very difficult for even a character who wins a conflict to avoid some sort of compromise with the loser. The conflict system in Dogs in the Vineyard allows a character to increase his chances of winning by accepting the possibility of negative consequences ("fallout") from the win; characters who lose initially can choose to escalate the conflict and try again, albeit at the risk of greater injury. In The Mountain Witch, characters can use the trust other characters have invested in them for mechanical advantage, but they get an even bigger mechanical advantage when they betray the very characters who trust them. So if you're particularly interested in compromise and negotiation, in escalation and risk/reward trade-offs, or in trust and betrayal, it might be worth your time to look into those games. Alternatively, the particular mechanics in question could be lifted from those games and grafted onto a more general system for greater freedom in choice of genre.
That's a longer post than I was expecting, so I'll stop now. Feel free to PM me if you want more info on any of these. And good luck with the dissertation! |
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| Dan Voyce |
| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 3:22 am Post subject: |
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I'd recommend the Seven Leagues 'fairy tale' roleplaying game. Its simple, narrative, uses interaction than number crunching, and comes with the added bonus that the "fairy tale" format is familar to just about everyone.
When it comes to younger gamers specifically, I'd also recommend browsing the Chatty DMs blog about gaming with his very young son and daughter... actually I'd recommend it to any gamer with kids. |
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| Neal |
| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 2:25 pm Post subject: |
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I think limiting yourself to systems that require group cohesion or that mechanically encourage group cohesion is a great first step in this sort of thing - though 4e with its party roles is the obvious choice, what I've heard of Luke Crane's Mousegard suggests it might be an even better choice.
My usual recommendation of "Hack Unknown Armies to do what you want" would be, in this case, wildly inappropriate.
-neal
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| Neostrider |
| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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The idea of a purely skill change dungeon sounds the best. Just make a few equal level Expert charactesr with skills in different areas. By making characters rely on each other, they'll probably have to communicate and learn to trust strangers (albeit, the strangers you say is ok to trust).
Stress the fact that either everyone wins or loses to make it obvious that they need to be concerned about others. |
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| Aberzanzorax |
| Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:45 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for all of the good advice!
I hadn't heard of 7 leagues, but it just made my Lulu list.
Mouseguard seems like a lot of fun, it would be an interesting and appropriate game for the younger set (or the much older set) but I don't think teenagers would go for it. Still, something to keep in mind once I've researched a bit more and have a "target group".
I like the idea of uncomplicated, premade characters. It could also be interesting for the players to have a specific role. Maybe even have the characters be designed to draw out specific issues for specific individuals playing them. Hmmm.
I've heard that Burning Wheel and Spirit of the Century are both wonderful games, but they also have a reputation (where I have read) of being fairly complicated. If so, I'd want to avoid this. Is this accurate?
Fudge, Risus, Osric, and Microlite D20 seem to be a popular set of systems for a powerful ratio of low rules but good gaming. I'll be looking further into all of those!
For Savage Worlds, I'm aware that there are several different Savage World books (genres? sourcebooks? gah?). Can someone pick up just any of the main genre books and get going? Also, if so, is there a particular version that lends itself more to this kind of project, or would be a particularly bad choice?
Thanks to everyone who has helped so far, and thanks to those who reply in the future! |
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| Jeremy Jones |
| Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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I had a lot of success with D&D 3.5 and high school students (some of them non-native English speakers). But it was 3.5 minus anything that seemed to slow down the fun in any way...
The effects on the students, esp. in terms of socialization and academic performance, was profound. A year of playing 3.5 with students, combined with some visiting fantasy authors (R. A. Salvatore and Greg Keyes), lead to this: http://shareworlds.wofford.edu.
j |
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| varianor |
| Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 5:38 am Post subject: |
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Only familiar with the basic SW book. It has the virtue of being $10 and short! So I would start there and then decide if any of the genre books fit better. Maybe after you talk to players?
Good luck with the project and please keep us posted! |
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:54 am Post subject: |
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| Jeremy Jones wrote: |
| A year of playing 3.5 with students, combined with some visiting fantasy authors (R. A. Salvatore and Greg Keyes), lead to this: http://shareworlds.wofford.edu. |
I am a bitter man. Salvatore and Keyes never visited MY school.
Damn lucky kids these days, is what I'm saying....
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Last edited by Wolfgang on Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:57 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| Zherog |
| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:57 am Post subject: |
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I know. They don't know how good they have it! They don't even have to walk to school, uphill - both ways - in 3 feet of snow, while barefoot! They have buses to drive them there.
*shakes his cane*
You damn kids need to get off my lawn!
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| varianor |
| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:03 am Post subject: |
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They just need to roleplay getting off your lawn.  |
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