Transformative Play Initiative

New publication! Check out this article by TPI members Alex Schreiber, Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, and Sarah Lynne Bowman, "Practicing Conflict Transformation Skills through Role-playing
Games for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education." Published by the Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM this article explores the design, implementation, and assessment of an intervention for students from the Erasmus+ Rocket Cooperation Partnership.

https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/jrpssteam/vol5/iss1/3/

Abstract

This study describes and assesses an educational intervention implemented to teach conflict transformation skills and address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education. Developed within the European Union's ROCKET project, the initiative connected courses across the Universities of Göttingen, Groningen, and Uppsala through Critical Virtual Exchange (CVE), incorporating both synchronous and asynchronous online learning activities.

Role-playing game scenarios were facilitated to provide experiential engagements with conflict, allowing students to practice nonviolent communication, identify positions, interests, feelings, and needs, and explore distinct conflict styles. Utilizing a mixed-methods evaluation framework, the research collected demographic data alongside quantitative assessment via subscales adapted from
the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) and qualitative student feedback. Findings indicate positive student responses, characterized by medium-to-high scores across the Interest/ Enjoyment, Value/Usefulness, and Relatedness subscales, demonstrating the potential of role-playing games within virtual exchanges to support intercultural communication skills in higher education settings.

LARPOCRACY Research Recognised at ISAGA 2026

We're delighted to celebrate an exciting achievement from the LARPOCRACY community!

At ISAGA 2026 (International Simulation and Gaming Association Conference), Sarah Lynne Bowman presented the paper:

The Assembly: Designing a Role-playing Intervention to Foster Skills in Democratic Deliberation

The paper, co-authored by Sarah Lynne Bowman (Uppsala University), PerOla Öberg (Uppsala University), Kjell Hedgard Hugaas (LARPifiers), and Josephine Rydberg (Stockholm University of the Arts), received the Best Paper Award – Runner Up.

The Assembly explores how live-action role-play (larp) can cultivate the skills essential for democratic deliberation in increasingly polarised societies. Drawing on research in deliberative democracy, transformative game design, and simulation studies, the project presents a 3–4 hour larp designed to foster active listening, respectful dialogue, openness to diverse perspectives, and thoughtful engagement with complex political issues. The paper also introduces a longitudinal mixed-methods assessment framework to evaluate the intervention's long-term impact.

Congratulations to the entire research team on this well-deserved recognition!

Special thanks to Sebastiaan Meijer from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, one of the conference organisers, pictured here with Sarah during the award presentation.

Reminder: Join us in Oslo on July 11!

EDGE – Empowering Game Design Education Guidelines for integrating various types of technology into the analog role-playing experience, including pros, cons, and best practices

Check out the next poster presentation from the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar 2025, "House Rules" by Alejandro Ruiz del Sol! This hybrid outreach event was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Rocket Cooperation Partnership; the Uppsala Forum on Democracy, Peace and Justice; and Region Gotland.

https://youtu.be/cHdPc6E-sOU

Description:
Every game has standard rules, rules that the developer prints and puts in the box. House rules complement, replace, or otherwise alter the standard rules. These house rules are often established for accessibility (game is too hard), logistic (ex: not enough players), and interest (games is too boring), among other reasons. Standard rules are typically rigid, yet house rules for physical games are created based on community involvement and evolve over time. House rules are acknowledged and agreed upon before or during play. Some house rules are common among global play communities (ex: stacking in UNO), while other house rules are as unique as the house itself (ex: “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” (Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing). House rules should be an encouraged accessibility feature of standard play rules to allow for an inclusive play experience.

In terms of the typical play experience, formal rules are the base and the house rules are the modifiers. The player modifies the game as they see fit. House rules can be described in ways that align it with meta gaming. As described by Boluk and Lemieux, “the metagame ruptures the logic of the game, escaping the formal autonomy of both ideal rules and utopian play via those practical and material factors not immediately enclosed within the game as we know it” (p. 2). While metagames are said to be an exclusive aspect of video games, the spirit of metagames is mirrored in physical games with house rules.

House rules are typically established at the start of play. But who communicates the house rules? Is there a ritual to establish the rules? This article will discuss and define some of the features of house rules, and will argue for the conscious inclusion of house rules as a feature of physical games.

Bio:
Alejandro Ruiz del Sol is a game writer, academic, and educator. He is interested in games that build community, games that develop communities, as well as games that tell uniquely personal stories. His work experience is colorful and varied, from working as an event photographer to working as a writing tutor for St. Petersburg College in Florida. Alejandro holds an MFA degree in Creative Writing from New Mexico State University. He also leads narrative design workshops with GeDi in Games, a Swedish-based networking community for gender diverse game developers.

***

The seminar is hosted by the Transformative Play Initiative in the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design, Uppsala University Campus Gotland. The Transformative Play Initiative explores the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change.

See the complete program: https://gamesandsociety.speldesign.uu.se/2025/05/01/programme-available-transformative-play-initiative-seminar-2025-games-conflict-and-education/

Learn more about Transformative Play at Uppsala and join the TPI mailing list: https://www.speldesign.uu.se/research/games-and-society-lab/transformative-play/

Learn more about the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design: https://www.speldesign.uu.se/research/games-and-society-lab/

Like Transformative Play Initiative on FB: https://www.facebook.com/transformativeplay

Like the Games and Society Lab on FB: https://www.facebook.com/gamesandsocietylab

Graphic Design by Liliia Chorna. Music by Elias Faltin. Video edited by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas.

https://youtu.be/cHdPc6E-sOU

House Rules -- Alejandro Ruiz del Sol This presentation was delivered on June 12, 2025 at the Transformat...

We are excited to announce that International Journal of Role-playing Issue 19, our special issue from the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar 2025: Games, Conflict, and Education, is now available! The hybrid outreach event was co-funded by the Erasmus+ ROCKET project; the Uppsala Forum on Democracy, Peace and Justice; and the Department of Game Design.

Link to the issue here: https://journals.uu.se/IJRP/issue/view/147

Table of Contents:

"Editorial: TPI Seminar 2025: Games, Conflict, and Education"
Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, Sarah Lynne Bowman, and Josefin Westborg

-- This issue of the International Journal of Role-playing is based on the proceedings of the Transformative Play Initiative (TPI) ROCKET seminar on “Games, Conflict, and Education” in Visby, Sweden, June 12th and 13th 2025.

"Asteria and Neurodiversity in Role-Playing Games: Inclusion or Tokenism? Examining Community Conflicts Over Autism Representation"
Kevin Rebecchi

-- This article examines how representations of autism in games can polarize gaming communities. It explores inclusion of neurodiverse characters can foster meaningful representation or constitute tokenism and virtue signaling.

"Masculinity at the Table: Untangling the Male Preserve in Indie and Mainstream Gaming"
Irene Hilman, Alula Hirst, Wescott (Scooter) Flanagan, and Diana J. Leonard

-- This article looks at how the differences in values and practices between mainstream RPGs and indie games allow indie games to serve as a space away from the male preserve, and can provide players with a stronger sense of real-world agency.

From Digital to Analog: Disco Elysium’s Conflict Transformation Mechanisms for Educational Larps
Minyue Wu

-- This article looks at the narrative and mechanical elements of the role-playing video game Disco Elysium (ZA/UM 2019). It looks at the “character sheet” and internal monologue as tools for self-reflection, and it discusses the character arc of the NPC Cuno in particular.

"Transformative Play for Building Resilience to Misinformation"
Lars Konzack and Chris Coward

-- This article explores how transformative play can be used to build resilience against misinformation. Through the educational escape room – The Euphorigen Investigation – it shows how this type of gameplay can foster critical reflection, emotional engagement, and epistemic growth.

"Press Start for Heritage: Representing University Sports Rivalries in EA Sports College Football 25"
Guus van Tilborg and Peter Groote

-- Focussing on the video game EA Sports College Football 25, this article illustrates how universities can be compelling places for worldbuilding in games, by arguing that university heritage is both inherently conflictual and deployable as a tool for conflict.

"Aesthetic Conflict in the Musical Role-Playing Game Runic Soundscapes"
Tom Blancarte

-- This article examines the concept of aesthetic conflict, both in relation to role-playing and improvised music. It focusses on the musical role-playing game piece Runic Soundscapes and how aesthetic conflict can be a valuable lens for role-playing game designers.

"Bleed as Intrapersonal Conflict: Understanding Bleed Management and Resilience as Parts of a Homeostasis Recovery Process"
Kjell Hedgard Hugaas

-- This article explores how the instability and imbalance that are associated with bleed experiences can be explained with the theory of physiological and psychological homeostasis.

"Let’s Do It Together!: Why Participatory Design and Co-Creation Are Promising Approaches for Designing an EduLarp"
Olivia Fischer

-- This article looks at benefits of participatory design approaches when designing edu-larps, including the quality of the edu-larp, the empowerment of students and working towards societal transformation.

"Larp with Erasmus: A Quantitative Study of Live Action Roleplay Projects Funded by EUs Erasmus+ Program Between 2014-2022"
Karin Johansson and Mafalda Morganti

-- This article presents and analyzes a database of 111 larp related projects that have received funding from Erasmus+ between 2014-2022. It showcases how the EU gives substantial funding to larp related projects.

Check out our ROCKET Open Educational Resources - now available for download! 👀✏️

🔎 You are interested in learning about aspects on Diversity, Equity & Inclusions within educational contexts?
🔎 Would you be eager to apply one of the following concepts to your teaching practice?
· Conflict Transformation,
· Role-Playing Games, or
· Critical Virtual Exchange

The ROCKET training and workshop materials for students, teachers and administrative staff are available as Open Educational Resources under a CC BY NC license, so that they may be re-used, adapted, and shared by colleagues interested in learning about aspects on Diversity, Equity & Inclusions within educational contexts or applying these concepts to their teaching practice. 👨‍🏫
New additions to the OER material include an online student training pathway in form of a Critical Virtual Exchange, a collection of student-centred role-playing scenarios, or a video on how to safely implement RPGs in practice.

🔜 These materials will soon be followed by online training pathways for teachers and for admin staff (as common cartridge).

📽️ All videos are also available on the ROCKET youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/-Erasmus

👉 Link OER here: https://rocket-erasmus.eu/oer-materials/

Feel encouraged to browse through our OER and share the materials with interested colleagues! 🤩



Georg-August-Universität Göttingen | Uppsala University | University of Groningen

Check out the next poster presentation from the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar 2025, "Alone Together: Teen Solo RPG Coffee Shop Meetups" by Katie Donahoe! This hybrid outreach event was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Rocket Cooperation Partnership; the Uppsala Forum on Democracy, Peace and Justice; and Region Gotland.

https://youtu.be/dcozzNo1jLs

Description:
The Mt Lebanon Library (Pittsburgh, PA) has a strong following for children's and teen Dungeons & Dragons games, as well as many young creative writers. As the Teen Librarian, I wanted to find a way to combine our young role players and storytellers, knowing they would find much in common. It was also important for me to do more outreach in the community at large. While I do get some limited chances to visit the schools during the school year, rarely are the local community events, like farmers markets or holiday festivals, designed to include special activities for the teen population. This is something I also am hoping to change. Our teens are a maligned population in our community, even by some of my cowokers at the library. I wanted to help bolster the community's opinion of the local teenagers, as well as helping the teenagers feel more welcomed by local businesses. So my idea for a group outing in the form of journalling RPGs was born. I found the Strollplaying game event series to be helpful in building mindfulness skills, and to experience the familiar in new ways. This allowed for our teens to build community outside of our four wall of the library, learning about themselves together, while also being in a safe, chaperoned environment.

Bio:
Katie Donahoe (she/her, Pittsburgh, PA, USA) is a children’s librarian better known to the kids as “Miss Katie.” She has worked in libraries throughout the region since 2011. She currently works at her hometown library in Mount Lebanon where, for the past seven years, she has run events and planned activities for middle and high school students. She lives with her wife Julien, who is also a librarian, two dogs, two cats, and a big garden. Her interests include learning languages, writing and recording Gothic Americana music (as Katie Dee & The Quaking Aspens), travelling, and playing D&D.

***

The seminar is hosted by the Transformative Play Initiative in the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design, Uppsala University Campus Gotland. The Transformative Play Initiative explores the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change.

See the complete program: https://gamesandsociety.speldesign.uu.se/2025/05/01/programme-available-transformative-play-initiative-seminar-2025-games-conflict-and-education/

Learn more about Transformative Play at Uppsala and join the TPI mailing list: https://www.speldesign.uu.se/research/games-and-society-lab/transformative-play/

Learn more about the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design: https://www.speldesign.uu.se/research/games-and-society-lab/

Like Transformative Play Initiative on FB: https://www.facebook.com/transformativeplay

Like the Games and Society Lab on FB: https://www.facebook.com/gamesandsocietylab

Graphic Design by Liliia Chorna. Music by Elias Faltin. Video edited by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas.

https://youtu.be/dcozzNo1jLs

Alone Together: Teen Solo RPG Coffee Shop Meetups -- Katie Donahoe This presentation was delivered on June 13, 2025 at the Transformat...

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! The Implementing Transformative Role-playing Games textbook is now available for free download and print on demand! The book is the second in a series of two developed by the EDGE Consortium, an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership, featuring authors from Uppsala University, Dragons' Nest, Avalon Larp Studio, Chaos League, and Turku University of Applied Sciences. The peer-reviewed book has been published in the Transformative Play Research Series within Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis at Uppsala University.

Link here: https://books.uu.se/uup/catalog/book/55

Table of contents:

Preface
Sarah Lynne Bowman, Simon Brind, Kjell Hedgard Hugaas

Chapter 1:
The Basics of Implementing Transformative Role-playing Games
Sarah Lynne Bowman

Chapter 2: Implementing Transformative Role-playing Games in Specific Applied Contexts
Sarah Lynne Bowman, Angie Bandhoesingh, Elektra Diakolambrianou, Felipe García-Soriano, Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, Josefin Westborg

Chapter 3: Production and Logistics for Transformative Role-playing Games
Simon Brind, Halfdan Keller Justesen, Sarah Lynne Bowman, Alessandro Giovannucci, Felipe García-Soriano, Kjell Hedgard Hugaas

Chapter 4: Theory and Practice in Facilitating Transformative Role-playing Games
Sarah Lynne Bowman, Angie Bandhoesingh, Simon Brind, Elektra Diakolambrianou, Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, Felipe García-Soriano, Alessandro Giovannucci, Josephine Rydberg, Josefin Westborg

Chapter 5: Cultivating Safer Transformational Communities
Sarah Lynne Bowman, Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, Nikola Sekulić

Chapter 6: Theory and Practice in Playing for Transformation
Sarah Lynne Bowman, Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, Guus Quinten van Tilborg, Simon Brind, Alessandro Giovannucci, Nikola Sekulić, Josephine Rydberg

Chapter 7: Playtesting and Researching Role-playing Game Implementation
Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, Joshua Juvrud, Sarah Lynne Bowman, Josefin Westborg, Guus Quinten van Tilborg, Felipe García-Soriano, Josephine Rydberg

Synopsis:

This textbook explores implementation practices for running transformative analog role-playing games, such as transformative leisure, educational, and therapeutic applications. We foreground central considerations for hacking existing games, framing, scaling up existing designs, adapting to the needs of specific populations, creating functional groups, and working with stakeholders.

Additionally, the textbook covers many practical considerations when producing and running logistics. Examples include project management, organizational teams, establishing the setting, character writing, location logistics, as well as tech, interaction, and sensory design. We offer suggestions for communication, casting, documentation, guiding player preparation, workshop design, and onsite logistics.

Next, the textbook discusses different facilitation roles and responsibilities. We describe several skills associated with good facilitation and recommendations for working in different settings. Additionally, the textbook presents general principles for cultivating safer and more accessible transformational communities surrounding play. We discuss ways to address physical and psychological risks in implementation for both organizers and players, such as injury, psychological overwhelm, and inappropriate behavior in the community.

The textbook also features theories connected to the play experience, including motivation, creative agendas, and labor. Then, we present several concepts related to transforming one’s self concept, social identity, relationships with others, and spiritual development through transformative play. We include various practical recommendations for working with preparatory activities, steering, bleed, different types of immersion, interpersonal dynamics, group dynamics, and gathering play experiences through feedback and documentation.

The textbook closes with a chapter offering practical advice for playtesting, iteration, and conducting research on transformative play, including study design, ethics, data gathering, and analysis. We conclude with a list of studies offering empirical evidence for the affective, cognitive, and behavioral benefits of these games.

We recommend also reading the first book in this series, Transformative Role-playing Game Design, edited by Bowman, Diakolambrianou, and Brind.

Learn more about Erasmus EDGE: https://erasmusedge.eu/

Learn more about the Transformative Play Initiative: https://tinyurl.com/t8ba637d

Learn more about Turku University of Applied Sciences' Game Lab: https://www.turkugamelab.fi/

Like Avalon Larp Studio on FB: https://www.facebook.com/avalonlarpstudio

Like Dragons' Nest on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dragonsnestgr/

Like Chaos League on Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/yc73r4jy

Graphic design by Kate Blomgren, Daria Shpak.
Layout by Bora Haxhirai.




https://books.uu.se/uup/catalog/book/55

EDGE – Empowering Game Design Education Guidelines for integrating various types of technology into the analog role-playing experience, including pros, cons, and best practices