I’ve been a fan of roleplaying games (RPGs) since I was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) in the late 70’s. As a teen, RPGs gave me a creative and social outlet I couldn’t find anywhere else.
Throughout my 20’s, I played various RPGs as a hobby, and during that time I spent most of my summers working with children at camps and apprenticing with inspiring teachers. When I discovered live-action roleplaying games (LARPs) in the late 80’s, I recognized their potential as an experiential learning tool for kids and teens.
While directing summer camps from 1990-1994, I experimented with a simple Native American themed LARP using foam spears, daggers, and arrows. The impact on those kids made it clear to me that a well-run LARP or RPG can challenge kids in diverse ways – physically, intellectually, socially, morally, and ethically. The youth were passionately engaged in the LARP. They learned a lot about themselves and others. I discovered then that roleplaying is an incredible tool for learning cooperation, teamwork, decision making, creative problem-solving, and self-esteem. LARPs, run in a certain style, encourage and support self-confidence, cooperation, critical thinking, and communication skills, and the kids have a blast!
I moved to Boulder in 1995 and founded Renaissance Adventures with the dream to lead quests and inspire youth to learn through play. Since then, I’ve worked with hundreds of adult leaders and thousands of children and teens, co-creating a fun and inspiring experiential learning program through LARPs and tabletop RPGs.
Over the last twenty-two years of developing LARP experiential learning programs for children and teens, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. Listed below are a few of my discoveries.
1. Participants learn when they are wholeheartedly engaged
LARPs and RPGs have the potential to offer an exciting, engaging story that captures the attention and passion of participants. You can do this by including the following elements:
• Design the adventure to have a highly motivating plot – great tragedy will befall if the players do not act swiftly and effectively.
• Make it personal by passionately roleplaying those who are in need of aid.
Over the last twenty-two years of developing LARP experiential learning programs for children and teens, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. Listed below are a few of my discoveries.
1. Participants learn when they are wholeheartedly engaged
LARPs and RPGs have the potential to offer an exciting, engaging story that captures the attention and passion of participants. You can do this by including the following elements:
• Design the adventure to have a highly motivating plot – great tragedy will befall if the players do not act swiftly and effectively.
• Make it personal by passionately roleplaying those who are in need of aid.
2. Participants learn when they have frequent, impactful decision-making opportunities
LARPs and RPGs offer frequent decision-making opportunities that have a large effect on the characters, world, and story.
• Quest Leaders (aka Referees or Game Masters) can hold a framework for the adventure, but must be flexible to allow co-creation by the players’ decisions.
• Players learn by experiencing the in-game consequences of their decisions while feeling safe to experiment, explore, and make poor decisions without real-world negative consequences.
In seeing how a well-crafted LARP is different than most standard RPGs, Consider the old-school gaming model of the dungeon crawls. The plot is often the same: open the door to the north; slay the evil monsters; get the loot; level up your powers; repeat. Not many decisions need to be made in that kind of adventure. Now compare it with a more complex situation that involves different political realms, races, and the conflicting needs and goals of diverse people. This more complex and realistic way of setting a storyline fuels an amazing, dynamic environment that requires creative problem-solving, ethical decision making, planning, and teamwork among the players.
3. Participants learn when faced with diverse tough challenges
Experiential learning that includes LARPS and RPGs help develop critical thinking skills and creative problem-solving skills by exposing participants to mysteries, riddles, puzzles, and ethical dilemmas. In this way, participants:
• Learn how to brainstorm ideas and share feelings.
• Learn that you learn more by doing and from mistakes, and these “mistakes” are easily handled with acceptance and a light-heart. In fact, very often “mistakes” in a quest add to the drama and ultimately increase the feeling of shared victory when the quest is successful.
• Develop cooperation, teamwork, and communication skills through challenges that require that the players to invest in each other’s unique perspectives and powers, both in-game and personally. Every player, as well as the character each participant plays, has unique skill-sets and perspectives that the team needs. When appropriate, facilitate the group to hear each participant’s perspective, and to make a decision together as a group, not as one boss ordering the rest to follow. This kind of discernment, and the resulting negotiations and problem-solving, translate into skills the players can use in real-life challenges outside of the game.
4. Participants learn when supported by a physically and emotionally safe environment
When the Quest Leaders and LARP support an environment that is physically and emotionally safe, players can relax, engage, play, and learn. Physical safety is straightforward – if you are sword dueling with foam Swashers, point out potential hazards (such as rocks and trees), and get an agreement from the participants to follow the swasher dueling safety rules.
Emotional safety takes a lot of experience and skill to support. If players are bullying, name-calling, taunting, putting down other people’s ideas, or teasing, then everyone in the group may not feel safe unless that behavior is dealt with swiftly, clearly, and with compassion and fairness. How to do that is a complex subject that is beyond the scope of this article – Renaissance Adventures has developed a program called Inspiring Invitations™, which explores this issue.
5. The Difference between LARPs and RPGs in Experiential Learning
Both LARPs and RPGs provide great opportunities for learning. If you are willing, I have found that LARPing is a superior tool for experiential learning because, rather than sitting and rolling dice, participants are running around, swinging Swasher swords, throwing beanbag spell packets, and acting out their characters in an embodied expressive way. That level of physical engagement and kinesthetic learning vastly increases emotional engagement and holistic learning. At Renaissance Adventures, we run our Adventure Quest™ and PlayQuest™ LARPs differently than most adult LARPs – our approach is more similar to how tabletop RPGs are run. One Quest Leader (QL) facilitates the adventure for a group of 4-6 players (Questers). The QL playacts all of the creatures and monsters that the group encounters, sometimes with the help of one or more Teen Leaders. The Questers work together to solve the mysteries of the quest. In this relationship, the QL can fully enter the role of mentor and educator – not just a mere “game master.”
6. The Impact of Swasher™ Sword Dueling
The Swasher equipment in our Adventure Quest LARP programs are extremely popular among our Questers. They love to sword fight! And why is that? First, it’s fun! Beyond that, kids are physically small and have comparatively little power and responsibility in a world of big people telling them what they can and can’t do. This leads many children to feel disempowered. Disempowerment can present itself as a lack of self-esteem, confidence, and determination. It can also force children to withdraw into insecurity and shyness, or to overcompensate by becoming a bully or blindly rebellious to authority figures. Sword is seen as a tool of power that is very attractive, symbolic, and meaningful to the kids.
We’ve found that Swashers can be a very useful teaching tool to awaken a respect for physical and emotional safety, and an awareness and understanding of the bully-victim dynamic. Our Quest Leaders use the LARP and Swashers to bring awareness to these dynamics and other issues like competition. The QLs role-model how to play fair and be empowered while simultaneously being respectful and compassionate. Those children who are unconsciously or consciously hurting others with their swords or with their words become highly motivated to act less impulsively when faced with the potential consequence of not being allowed to use the Swashers– their symbol of power. In other words, they are given the chance to act responsibly with their power, and if their actions become unsafe, their symbol of power is suspended until they can learn to act safely.
7. The use of LARPs and RPGs in Education
I believe that interactive storytelling and roleplaying can truly transform traditional education. One of the long-range goals of Renaissance Adventures is to partner with educators and summer camps, creating a product line of books and training programs that support teachers and counselors to use these tools in the classroom and camp setting.
If this article inspires you, then consider how you can use your passion for games or experiential learning to help others. Who do you like working and playing with? I have a friend who volunteers at an in-house treatment facility for teens with substance abuse issues. He leads a tabletop roleplaying game with the teens once a week. The teens really appreciate the gaming, and he gains the satisfaction of knowing that, not only is he bringing them some joy and play, he’s facilitating their learning and growth.
LARPs and RPGs offer frequent decision-making opportunities that have a large effect on the characters, world, and story.
• Quest Leaders (aka Referees or Game Masters) can hold a framework for the adventure, but must be flexible to allow co-creation by the players’ decisions.
• Players learn by experiencing the in-game consequences of their decisions while feeling safe to experiment, explore, and make poor decisions without real-world negative consequences.
In seeing how a well-crafted LARP is different than most standard RPGs, Consider the old-school gaming model of the dungeon crawls. The plot is often the same: open the door to the north; slay the evil monsters; get the loot; level up your powers; repeat. Not many decisions need to be made in that kind of adventure. Now compare it with a more complex situation that involves different political realms, races, and the conflicting needs and goals of diverse people. This more complex and realistic way of setting a storyline fuels an amazing, dynamic environment that requires creative problem-solving, ethical decision making, planning, and teamwork among the players.
3. Participants learn when faced with diverse tough challenges
Experiential learning that includes LARPS and RPGs help develop critical thinking skills and creative problem-solving skills by exposing participants to mysteries, riddles, puzzles, and ethical dilemmas. In this way, participants:
• Learn how to brainstorm ideas and share feelings.
• Learn that you learn more by doing and from mistakes, and these “mistakes” are easily handled with acceptance and a light-heart. In fact, very often “mistakes” in a quest add to the drama and ultimately increase the feeling of shared victory when the quest is successful.
• Develop cooperation, teamwork, and communication skills through challenges that require that the players to invest in each other’s unique perspectives and powers, both in-game and personally. Every player, as well as the character each participant plays, has unique skill-sets and perspectives that the team needs. When appropriate, facilitate the group to hear each participant’s perspective, and to make a decision together as a group, not as one boss ordering the rest to follow. This kind of discernment, and the resulting negotiations and problem-solving, translate into skills the players can use in real-life challenges outside of the game.
4. Participants learn when supported by a physically and emotionally safe environment
When the Quest Leaders and LARP support an environment that is physically and emotionally safe, players can relax, engage, play, and learn. Physical safety is straightforward – if you are sword dueling with foam Swashers, point out potential hazards (such as rocks and trees), and get an agreement from the participants to follow the swasher dueling safety rules.
Emotional safety takes a lot of experience and skill to support. If players are bullying, name-calling, taunting, putting down other people’s ideas, or teasing, then everyone in the group may not feel safe unless that behavior is dealt with swiftly, clearly, and with compassion and fairness. How to do that is a complex subject that is beyond the scope of this article – Renaissance Adventures has developed a program called Inspiring Invitations™, which explores this issue.
5. The Difference between LARPs and RPGs in Experiential Learning
Both LARPs and RPGs provide great opportunities for learning. If you are willing, I have found that LARPing is a superior tool for experiential learning because, rather than sitting and rolling dice, participants are running around, swinging Swasher swords, throwing beanbag spell packets, and acting out their characters in an embodied expressive way. That level of physical engagement and kinesthetic learning vastly increases emotional engagement and holistic learning. At Renaissance Adventures, we run our Adventure Quest™ and PlayQuest™ LARPs differently than most adult LARPs – our approach is more similar to how tabletop RPGs are run. One Quest Leader (QL) facilitates the adventure for a group of 4-6 players (Questers). The QL playacts all of the creatures and monsters that the group encounters, sometimes with the help of one or more Teen Leaders. The Questers work together to solve the mysteries of the quest. In this relationship, the QL can fully enter the role of mentor and educator – not just a mere “game master.”
6. The Impact of Swasher™ Sword Dueling
The Swasher equipment in our Adventure Quest LARP programs are extremely popular among our Questers. They love to sword fight! And why is that? First, it’s fun! Beyond that, kids are physically small and have comparatively little power and responsibility in a world of big people telling them what they can and can’t do. This leads many children to feel disempowered. Disempowerment can present itself as a lack of self-esteem, confidence, and determination. It can also force children to withdraw into insecurity and shyness, or to overcompensate by becoming a bully or blindly rebellious to authority figures. Sword is seen as a tool of power that is very attractive, symbolic, and meaningful to the kids.
We’ve found that Swashers can be a very useful teaching tool to awaken a respect for physical and emotional safety, and an awareness and understanding of the bully-victim dynamic. Our Quest Leaders use the LARP and Swashers to bring awareness to these dynamics and other issues like competition. The QLs role-model how to play fair and be empowered while simultaneously being respectful and compassionate. Those children who are unconsciously or consciously hurting others with their swords or with their words become highly motivated to act less impulsively when faced with the potential consequence of not being allowed to use the Swashers– their symbol of power. In other words, they are given the chance to act responsibly with their power, and if their actions become unsafe, their symbol of power is suspended until they can learn to act safely.
7. The use of LARPs and RPGs in Education
I believe that interactive storytelling and roleplaying can truly transform traditional education. One of the long-range goals of Renaissance Adventures is to partner with educators and summer camps, creating a product line of books and training programs that support teachers and counselors to use these tools in the classroom and camp setting.
If this article inspires you, then consider how you can use your passion for games or experiential learning to help others. Who do you like working and playing with? I have a friend who volunteers at an in-house treatment facility for teens with substance abuse issues. He leads a tabletop roleplaying game with the teens once a week. The teens really appreciate the gaming, and he gains the satisfaction of knowing that, not only is he bringing them some joy and play, he’s facilitating their learning and growth.
I was once asked by a parent of a four-year old if I could help the boy stop his daily habit of hitting other kids. I met the boy for an afternoon of play, and I never even mentioned his bullying behavior. He and I hiked into a park with Swasher swords, and within the LARP, the boy – his character – witnessed an ogre bullying a small fairy. Seeing the poor fairy’s fear, hurt, and tears, the boy chose to defend her against the ogre. Then he started talking with the ogre and eventually befriended him. By interacting with the ogre within the context of a simple LARP, that boy learned to step into a different role than the bully, learning a tremendous amount. His habit of hitting kids was transformed by one afternoon of roleplaying.
Conclusion & Call to Become an Adventure Quest Leader
I’m passionate in my work with children and teens. At Renaissance Adventures, we lead summer classes with 80-100 participants who sign up for week-long programs, Monday through Friday, either half-day or full-day. Those children and teens are divided into small questing groups of six similarly-aged players. Each group is lead by an adult who is trained and skilled at leading Adventure Quest adventures, acting, storytelling, and leadership. We also run PlayQuest birthday parties, school holiday programs, and afterschool programs. We see the potential to offer these programs and methods to others, but cannot do it alone. If you are interested in learning more about launching your own experiential learning LARP for kids by starting a licensed business, or adding this program to an existing camp or activity, please feel free to contact us!
I hope that this article will be useful and inspiring, and that we can revolutionize children’s education through interactive, kinesthetic storytelling – through a live-action roleplaying game. Thank you.
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To contact Renaissance Adventures regarding this article or any idea surrounding experiential learning through live-action roleplaying games, feel free to contact us! Thank you for reading, and may your adventures be heroic!
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Boulder, Colorado, 80301
Phone: (303) 786-9216
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