EDGE

Empowering Game Design Education

Course Content
Course Information
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Course Calendar
Schedule & Instructions
Department Standards
Learning Objectives and Success Criteria
Course Materials
Policy on Generative AI
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Unit 1 Introduction to Role-playing Games
This course explores foundational concepts and practices to consider when designing for transformative impacts. In addition to lectures, discussions, and journals, you will be designing a game.
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Unit 1 Overview: Introduction to Role-playing Games
Discussion Forum Instructions
Discussion 1: Introduction to Role-playing Games
Instructions for Major Assignment 1: Transformative Nano-Game Design Document
Quiz 1: Role-playing Games
Unit 2: Introduction to Transformative Role-playing Game Design
In this unit, we will discuss three different types of contexts: transformative leisure, therapeutic, and educational role-playing games.
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Unit 2 Overview: Introduction to Transformative Role-playing Game Design
Reflection Journal 1: Transformative Game Design and You
Quiz 2: Transformative Game Design
Unit 3: Transformative Role-playing Game Design in Practice
In this unit, we will share our model of transformative role-playing games
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Unit 3 Overview: Transformative Role-plaaying Game Design in Practice
Discussion Forum Instructions
Discussion 2: Setting Brainstorming
Quiz 3: Transformative Game Design in Practice
Unit 4: Character, Culture and Mechanics Design
In this unit, we will provide some techniques and additional considerations when adding these facets to your game.
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Unit 4 Overview: Character, Culture, and Mechanics Design
Discussion Forum Instructions
Discussion 3: Character and Relations Design
Quiz 4: Character, Culture and Mechanic Design
Unit 5: Myth, Symbolism, Ritual and Magic
In this unit, we will discuss some of the factors that can make role-playing games such powerful and transformative experiences, including the use of mythic structures, symbolic images, and ritual activities within games and also in the act of play itself.
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Unit 5 Overview: Myth, Symbolism, Ritual, and Magic
Discussion Forum Instructions
Discussion 4: Myth, Symbolism, Ritual, and Magic
Quiz 5: Myth, Symbolism, Ritual and Magic
Unit 6: Culture and Conflict in RPGs
In this unit, we deepen our understanding of culture, thinking about it as something surrounding games and also embedded within them.
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Unit 6 Overview: Culture and Conflict in RPGs
Discussion Forum Instructions
Discussion 5: Culture and Conflict
Quiz 6: Culture and Conflict
Unit 7: Designing Safety Structures
In this unit, we will deepen into concepts related to safety design. Several issue that can arise with regard to psychological safety during games.
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Unit 7 Overview: Designing Safety Structures
Reflection Journal 2: Designing Safety Structures
Quiz 7: Designing Safety Structures
Unit 8: Game Technologies and RPGs
By its very name, analog role-playing emphasizes interactions between people unmediated by technology, but of course in reality, we often use technologies during play.
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Unit 8 Overview: Game Technologies and RPGs
Reflection Journal 3: Game Technologies and RPGs
Unit 9: Offering and Receiving Design Feedback
In this unit, you will be providing feedback on the scenarios of other students. Figuring out the best way to give feedback can be difficult.
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Unit 9 Overview: Offering and Receiving Design Feedback
Discussion Forum Instructions
Discussion 5: Transformative Nano-game Design Document Feedback
Quiz 8: Inclusion and Sensitive Content
Unit 10: Transformative Game Design and You
In this unit, you will reflect upon the course as a whole.
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Unit 10 Overview: Transformative Game Design and You
Reflection Journal 4: Transformative Game Design and You
Major Assignment 1: Transformative Nano-Game Design Document
Transformative Role-Playing Game Design

Unit 8 Overview: Game Technologies and RPGs

Welcome to our unit on game technologies and RPGs! By its very name, analog role-playing emphasizes interactions between people unmediated by technology, but of course in reality, we often use technologies during play. Facilitators might include special lighting or sound to a tabletop experience to augment the experience. They might add special effects to a larp to intensify the immersion into environment. Analog role-playing games are often played online, just as we have been on Zoom, or on platforms like Roll20 or D&D Beyond. Complex games like Dungeons & Dragons are now played with technical tools that update character sheets and do the math for players.

But how will newer advanced technologies be integrated into analog role-playing games, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), extended reality (ER), mixed reality (MR), and other methods of shifting visual and aural reality. How can 3D modeling and additive manufacturing help create impressive tangible, custom game pieces, costumes, and props? How will AI affect the writing process of games or the types of interactions we can have? What types of technologies can enhance the role-playing experience? What experiences detract from the spontaneous and improvisational co-creation of play? What are the ethical implications of the use of such technologies for designers, organizers, artists, and players? We will be exploring these questions throughout the programme.

In this Unit, we will cover:

  • Various technologies and tabletop RPGs
  • Various technologies and larp
  • Technologies to play tabletop
  • Extended reality
  • Augmented reality

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Required materials:

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