Overview: Transformative Game Design: Implementation Basics

Transformative Game Design 2

Overview: Transformative Game Design: Implementation Basics

Welcome to Transformative Game Design 2! This course explores foundational concepts and practices to consider when implementing analog role-playing games for transformative impacts. Remember the concept from the Larp Design book that everything is a designable surface. Implementation strategies must also be designed as well to ensure your game runs as intended, as we have emphasized in previous classes with your Playtest Plans.

In addition to lectures, discussions, and journals, you will also be planning a Session 0, facilitating 1 existing game by another author, and playing games facilitated by your group members.

Most class activities are asynchronous, meaning that you will submit your work on specific due dates, but there are no assigned class times where you must log in. These activities are typically discussion boards, journals, peer reviews, and major assignments.

Discussion forum engagement is the lifeblood of the course. Since we are all in different time zones, please post your initial discussions the night before the class day. Then, engage in the discussion forum by responding to at least two (2) of your peers in Ask a Question, Answer a Question format. See the Discussion Forum Instructions in the Unit for more information.

Reflection journals are viewable only by your instructors, although in many cases, you will also post assignments in the discussion board for your peers. In Reflection journals, you will consider the work you have read, watched, and discussed all week and tie it to your personal thoughts and experiences.

Playtesting and feedback sessions will take place over video conferencing within your peer group. We recommend Zoom, as Uppsala provides this software for free linked here. We will give you options for groups, but you will schedule meeting times within your group. Please try to be as flexible as possible with one another, as we are logging in from various parts of the world and have different schedules of availability.

You must facilitate one (1) game with your group members during this course, which you will hack to emphasize a particular transformative impact and/or learning objective. These games are written by other authors, so you will be practicing your facilitation skills and receiving feedback from your peers.
You will run one (1) of these games for your group members for a maximum of four (4) games per group. Each playtest should last no longer than 2 hours: 45 min-1.5 hours for workshop, play, and debriefing (depending on the game), and 15-30 minutes on player feedback on facilitation/implementation.
This process will take likely a minimum of 3 sessions: one meeting (1) for Session 0 and two (2) playtest sessions of a maximum of four (4) hours each. Please plan accordingly.

Major Assignments are papers you will write for the class. The emphasis for these assignments will be creating an implementation plan to scale one (1) of the nano-games you designed in Intro to Transformative Game Design or Transformative Game Design 1.

Please familiarize yourself with the contents of the course including the syllabus, the calendar, and the units, then take your Orientation Quiz, which is linked in this Unit.

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Unit 1 Overview

In Unit 1, we will discuss role-playing implementation basics for tabletop, freeform, and larp. Some of you may be highly familiar with this content, whereas for others, it will be new for you. Our hope is that this basic introduction will give you much of the vocabulary needed to understand the rest of the content in this course and future courses in the Transformative Game Design Certificate. We also want you to consider these concepts in terms of transformative impacts and goal-setting, as implementation choices can enhance or inhibit these processes depending upon the circumstances. We will also be learning some of the basics of facilitation, a key skill when running transformative games.

In this Unit, we will cover:

Basics of Scaling and Implementing Transformative RPGs
Facilitating Role-playing Games

Note: Some of the materials below may not be available outside of this course. We are providing them as part of your education within this course. Do not distribute PDFs.

Required materials:

Videos:

Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2023. “Transformative Role-playing Games: Implementation Basics.” Transformative Play Initiative. YouTube, January 14.
Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2026. “Chapter 1: The Basics of Implementing Transformative Role-playing Games.” In Implementing Transformative Role-playing Games, edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman, Simon Brind, and Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, 27-54. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Transformative Play Research 2. Uppsala University Publications.
Bowman, Sarah Lynne, Angie Bandhoesingh, Simon Brind, Elektra Diakolambrianou, Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, Felipe García-Soriano, Alessandro Giovannucci, Josephine Rydberg, and Josefin Westborg. 2026. “Chapter 4: Theory and Practice in Facilitating Transformative Role-playing Games.” In Implementing Transformative Role-playing Games, edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman, Simon Brind, and Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, 191-248. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Transformative Play Research 2. Uppsala University Publications.

List of Games for Playtest Facilitation:

Crumrine, Tyler. 2024. “Least Trivial Pursuit.” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 97-104. Play Story Press.
Dahlgren, Paul. 2024. “Eloquence! A Game about Rhetoric, Style, and Creativity.” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 223-242. Play Story Press.
Eguia-Gomez, Jose Luis, and Ruth S. Contreras-Espinosa. 2024 “Social Media Puppeteers.” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 215-224. Play Story Press.
Euteneuer, Jakob. 2024. “The Available Means.” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 405-416. Play Story Press.
Haarman, Susan. 2024. “Dewey Dilemma.” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 445-454. Play Story Press.
Mainzer, Kendall. 2024. “Someone Else’s Compass.” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 455-462. Play Story Press.
Sciutteri, Matteo. 2024. “The Voice in the Woods.” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 319-327. Play Story Press.
Torner, Evan. 2024. “Berliner U-Bahn 1932.” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 473-484. Play Story Press.
Wan, Shu. 2024. “How to Be Confucians in the 21st Century?” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 271-278. Play Story Press.
Wardell, Jason. 2024. “Dungeons & Graduands.” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 485-494. Play Story Press.
Yu, Elliot Bear. 2024. “A Request for Archival Assistance.” In Roll for Learning: 51 Micro Tabletop Role-playing Games to Use in the Classroom., edited by Camilla Zamboni, Michael Farber, and William Merchant, 297-305. Play Story Press.