The Potential Intersection of Megagames and Learning

What is a megagame (sometimes stylized as "Mega Game," "Megagame" or "MegaGame")?   Gen Con's 2024 program defined them thusly:  "Combining aspects of board games and [Live Action Role Playing],  megagames often involve dozens of players weaving interconnected storylines through multiple stages of play.  Each player is assigned a role (sometimes with a backstory, personality, or a secret goal), and as they play through multiple sub-games, the outcomes of their play drive the story of the larger game."  They are generally credited to have started in the United Kingdom by Jim Wallman in the 1970's, but the moment that really made the concept go viral was in 2014, when Wallman's megagame Watch the Skies was highlighted by Shut Up and Sit Down (warning: the article contains some adult language). In the last decade, megagames have become a staple of gaming conventions and major cities.  

The megagame definition could also be stretched to include other experiences.   For example, Andrew Ashby (proprietor of the game store We Geek Together in a Provo, UT mall) had a dream of beating the Guinness World Record of most Dungeons & Dragons players simultaneously playing the venerable tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), which stood at 500.   In April 2023, with the blessings of the mall owners and the help of a volunteer team of Dungeon Masters (DMs), Ashby staged a massive "megacampaign" across two hundred tables; each table had a DM and up to seven players battling through a scenario.  The battles and successes at each table contributed to an overarching narrative to defeat an ultimate "boss."  By the end of the day, Ashby achieved his world record dream by a country mile, with 1,227 players.  Another adjacent example closer to the classroom level are the dozens of role-playing historical simulations of Reacting to the Past (RttP), a curriculum first started by Mark C. Carnes of Bernard College (NY) over a decade ago.  Like a megagame, these simulations often involve 30+ college students in various, specific roles played over several instructional meetings.  While the use of RttP has spread to universities across the United States, they have recently also been adapted for high school as well.   

Nearly three month ago, I had the opportunity to attend my first megagame in person.  I had discovered Tony Dougherty and The Dukes of Highland last summer and periodically checked their website for the upcoming Kentucky megagaming schedule.  (The Dukes of Highland, while based in Louisville, have held events in multiple states and several cons.)  

Tony Dougherty, in costume as the "Lead Control."

Coincidentally, on one Saturday at the end of September, Dougherty was running It Came from the Skies, a variation of the classic Wallman scenario.  Although I was tempted to play, I instead thought it better to observe and take notes.  And with Dougherty's warm permission to join the fun, note-take I did.  

What first impressed me was the organization to keep nearly fifty players joyfully engaged.  Firstly, each participant was given a role of an near-present Earth nation which formed a team of four players (Head of State, Chief of Defense, Chief Scientist, and Foreign Minister); other options included playing as the Aliens, or as a member of the Press.  Dougherty was the Lead Control (a overall "Gamemaster"), with four staff members as the Control Team.  Each Control Team staff member ran one of the four role nation groups' "games," where Aliens sometimes made appearances and the Press wandered around to cover the happenings.  (It's important to note that It Came from the Skies occasionally had dice rolling to determine outcomes, but megagames can either lean into or away from this mechanic.)  Over various turns, the nation players rotated in and out from their role group game back to their "country table" to share details and plan next steps, feeding into the mega-narrative.   As the day continued, the nations of the world had critical questions to answer:  Are the Aliens benevolent or here to invade us?  What should (and what can) we do about it?  And what diplomatic alliances should we make or betray along the way? 

Each nation team/table received a packet explaining rules, how their various roles worked, and more.

Like a typical TTRPG, Dougherty and his Control Team offered guidance, made rulings, and imposed gaming structures, but the story was truly co-created by all the participants; the ending could not be pre-determined, nor could a "win" or "loss" for Earth be neatly defined.  That sense of uncertainty, urgency, agency and play added to a giddy feeling that stayed with the megagame until its conclusion.  Afterwards, Dougherty, the Control Team, and the players socially debriefed at a local bar, sharing the behind the scene conversations they didn't hear and reflecting on choices they did or didn't make.  

"At the end of a MegaGame, players and volunteers alike will often sit around, just discussing what happened throughout the day. The thing with a MegaGame is that everyone gets to feel like a main player in their own little story, and those little stories make up the grand narrative of the game."  -- Derek Shuck, "The Intrigue of Massive Scale MegaGames," 2/4/17, VICE

As I reflected on the experience in the weeks since, I realized that there could be some takeaways from megagames for the K-12 teacher of a classroom, particularly one that wants to incorporate large-scale TTRPGs into learning.

1. Teachers and students already have relationships with each other.  This gives it advantages over a typical megagame, where at least some of the participants start the day as strangers.  Norms and the classroom culture can accelerate the learning past what may initially be awkward moments at the start of a general public megagame event.
2.  Megagames provide a proof of concept for organizing classwide goals into smaller, unique subsets. When you're a gamemaster of a TTRPG, the idea player size is 4 to 6.  Therefore, being the GM of 30+ students simultaneously playing is nearly impossible.  While there are different ways to approach this issue of facilitation -- for example, each group playing the same scenario and guided by a teacher-created slide deck of events to overcome -- megagames offer an alternative.  Remember, a key component is that each group has their own unique obstacles to roleplay through that feed into an overarching story.
3. Jigsaw movement in and out of different student configurations can improve learning and agency.  Teachers have done jigsaws for years, but megagames present a reason to do this as a continual cycle over the course of the lesson/game.  In It Came From the Skies, each person had a unique role, so the turns moved players from a "role group team" (i.e. all the Chiefs of Defense) to their "nation team" and back again.   Mirroring this in a classroom environment constantly reinforces the importance of what each student brings to the table while providing accountability for what they have to learn and do while away from their "ground base team" and also what they have to do when they return. 
4. "Press Conferences" can be a valuable "catch and release" feature.   Built into It Came From the Skies was a "Breaking News Story" moment where the Press shared headlines and revealed information to the whole group they may not have otherwise heard.   In a classroom, the teacher could play this role, either for narrative purposes (moving the story along), in a "meta" way ("I have to praise team #3 for how well they are listening to each other"), or as a way to promote inquiry ("What questions do you currently have or mysteries you are working to solve?  Have we answered any of your previous questions yet?").  This shows how the strengths of the workshop model of instruction parallel what could happen in a megagame.
5. Consider spatial and human capital.  A megagame is blessed with a Lead Control and several Control Team Members, while a typical classroom has just one adult.  What are ways you can lean into co-teaching structures with your educator colleagues or other paraprofessionals to help?  Additionally, megagames have lots of movement and could get noisy, so spread out if you can.  Where are spaces in your school that allow for this (hallways, gyms, outside playground, etc.)?  One solution for both could be utilizing your school's library and partnering with your librarian to help facilitate the experience.
6.  Props are powerful.  Having tactile objects to interface with significantly improves the megagame experience, as does costumes.  Nevertheless, these don't have to be expensive or cumbersome.  It Came From the Skies had simple global maps with tokens representing military forces, and Aliens with cheap masks to establish their difference from the rest of the players.  What are ways you can create a vibrant, immersive learning experience with interactives of your own?  Remember, such props should add to the overall story, not be used as distracting ends in themselves.
7.  Extensive reflection at the end is key.  After a long day of playing, the importance of the socialization debrief at the end is not to be underestimated.  In a similar way, when you get to the finish line of a multi-day project (whether it be a PBL or an educational megagame), consider ways you can lengthen and deepen reflection beyond a few questions on an exit slip.  This could be a class discussion on what was the least and most favorite parts, or what they would do differently next time.  (Since it is important to reflect throughout a learning journey and not just at the end, you might also incorporate a "character journal" where the students periodically reflect on what is going on from the first person perspective of their role.)   After this debrief occurs, you could also set up a rigorous assessment for the students to demonstrate their mastery of learning, based on the content schema they experienced during the megagame.  

The idea of a learning megagame, where collaboration occurs both within and between small groups of learners to achieve a greater goal, is a seed that was planted in me thanks to Tony Dougherty, The Dukes of Highland, and the highly engaged participants of It Came from the Skies.  As with PBL and many other transformative teaching pedagogies, it will take patience and the front-loading of planning time to prepare for such an experience.  I'd love to see future iterations of learning megagames that teachers will attempt in school, and even better, the partnership of megagame designers and educators to create academically rigorous models that others can implement.