KyEdRPG Spotlight: Teaching Science Through TTRPGs with Cara Rupp

Cara Rupp's name first came up in a direct message exchange I had with Geoffrey Sperl.  Sperl wrote an excellent article for Roll20 about using TTRPGs in his high school English class, and after reading it, I introduced myself virtually.  It turns out that Sperl had heard of KyEdRPG already, through a meeting with Cara at a gaming convention.  When I saw her name again as a registrant for an upcoming "Dungeons & Desk" session that happened back in March, I looked forward to meeting Cara, and I was not disappointed!  After Cara told me how she has implemented science TTRPGs across elementary and middle school grade levels, I knew her story needed to be celebrated, and was delighted that she agreed to be interviewed for Edtech Elixirs.  

Students from Cara Rupp's classroom designing a game.

Cara, welcome to Edtech Elixirs!  Please share your educational journey. 

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I began my education career as a 5th grade teacher in Yuma, Arizona circa 2011. From that point on I have primarily taught middle school science. When I moved to Kentucky in 2016, I experimented as a long term substitute, elementary interventionist, and even a high school science teacher. However, I quickly went back to teaching middle school science. To me, middle school science offers a unique challenge due to its interdisciplinary nature. At any given time I am not only teaching science, but also incorporating math, language arts and even social studies.  Currently, I work for Warren County Schools as an advanced science teacher between Warren East Middle and Moss Middle School, but next year I will start teaching at Bowling Green Junior High School, part of the Bowling Green Independent district. 

What is your personal experience with playing tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs)? 

I am fairly new to TTRPGs as I started playing D&D in 2022. A co-worker invited me to her husband’s group in Bardstown. My character was only supposed to be there for one session but she was so memorable they continued to play her as an NPC for the remainder of the campaign. While I have not had much luck with a regular D&D group, I have been GMing for Lurking Fears [a professional gamemastering organization that works on behalf of game publishers at conferences] almost a year now. I have also GMed games such as Magical Kitties for my own children in addition to hosting a TTRPG club at Moss Middle. 

What inspired you to bring TTRPGs into your learning space? Can you share some examples? 

Since beginning my education career, I always tried to incorporate engaging activities into my curriculum. Starting out in middle school social studies, I would have students write and act out historical scenes as skits. This further developed through teaching elementary and science to include more game based learning. After attending Chaosium Con, I met fellow teachers who used TTRPGs in their classrooms and decided to include a wider variety of games in my classroom as well. It was also at this point I realized that I would need to create my own version of TTRPGs to match district curriculum and state standards. So down the rabbit hole I went! I started off developing games that were extremely mechanics heavy. One of my first TTRPG experiments was with Food Chains. Students would create their own animal with varying adaptations and trophic levels. They would then role play as that animal and try to locate food, survive and reproduce by rolling dice. From that point, for some insane reason, I decided to go even more mechanics heavy and create my first Natural Selection game. 

[Here is the complete folder for the Natural Selection TTRPG, with all its iterations and materials. Note the docs marked ORIGINAL indicate the first version Cara made.  – Adam] 

However, the following year, finally learning from experience, I created a simpler role playing activity that can be used throughout the year. In this one, students chose a science career and create a character based on their science field with subsequent stats. Students use their character to accomplish missions but also to discuss our current science topic as their scientist would envision. Besides using standard dice mechanics, I have also created a STEM project where students role play as racoons and use playing cards to swap for “garbage” to create the best gadget.

All of these TTRPGs are amazing!  You mentioned working with elementary schools as well.  Did you implement any TTRPGs with younger students?  

During the past few summers, I have taught at a summer literacy academy for elementary English language learners. Drawing on my early teaching experience in 3rd and 5th grade, I created TTRPG activities for these younger students. I started out with a water cycle activity. Students role play as a water molecule and travel through the water cycle. Initially, they walk around the room to do this with large foam dice. I place posters of the parts of the water cycle around the room and students use a paper with tables to roll and see where to go next. They walk around the room (or stay in the same spot) depending on their role. We then discuss as a class how it went, did they get “stuck” on one part of the water cycle, did they make it to all the parts of the cycle, etc. Next, I have a printed “map” of the parts of the water cycle. Students roll again, but this time they draw arrows and label the phase change. I also made a table for rolling a d10 instead of a d6. Both tables are weighted to model how water molecules move and stay in certain parts of the water cycle. From that point, I modified the water cycle TTRPG to create a rock cycle TTRPG. These ideas can be translated into similar activities and topics such as ecosystems and human body systems (future TTRPGs I plan on creating). 

[The water and rock cycle TTRPG materials can be found here. – Adam]

 

You recently attended a “Dungeons & Desks” PD facilitated by Kalli Colley and myself, which is where we met!  Clearly you were already strong in Polyhedral Pedagogy, but did anything you learn that day help you back in the classroom?  

Attending “Dungeons & Desks” was incredibly insightful. After experimenting with TTRPGs, I realized that I needed a simpler approach especially in the middle school classroom. The original games I developed, while educational and fun, were mechanics heavy and overly complicated. I immediately latched onto using random events tables like the one from Mayflower II. [The TTRPG is one I adapted from a simulation scenario created by Teach Democracy; the simulation is also described in my book. -- Adam]  The following week I came up with a different Natural Selection TTRPG with similar random event tables as the Mayflower II.  I created two event tables that followed a broad storyline.  

[Here is the complete folder for the Natural Selection TTRPG, with all its iterations and materials. Note the docs marked REVISED indicate the latest version Cara made.  The two “Events Tables” in the tabs of the Doc offer different focal points of environmental change – one has fire and volcanoes, the other has flooding and use of dams –  but from a play perspective are otherwise relatively equal.  You may decide to have groups that are side by side play two different tables to ensure variety, or have all students use the same table to better fit your instructional needs, or have the group choose the table they want to play – whatever you think is best!  – Adam]  

In this game students create their own organism and then in teams of 2-4 roll for events within a realistic, fictional ecosystem. They have to record their rolls and how it affected their organism then write a reflection at the end. For the creation of their organism, they were given a set of dice modifiers. Whatever they believed their organism was good at, got the highest dice modifier and vice versa for the lowest modifier. I had students play this twice with two different sets of dice modifiers. One set was designed to make it harder for their organism to survive certain events. The other set was more lenient and allowed for greater survival chances. At the end of both games we had a class discussion about how survival can be drastically different given certain advantages or disadvantages. 

First page of a student example, revealing how unicorns survived the random events of natural selection.

The second page.  Note the reflection at the end -- a highly important step after playing an educational TTRPG!

I also teach a Science Methods class. This class allows me to have more freedom in instruction. With that freedom, I decided to have a unit where students play and design educational games. While I allowed for all types of games, I focused on TTRPGs in my instruction, since most students did not have prior experience with that type of game. I initially started with the same Scientist RPG character creation and used a simple scenario for the whole class. I had each table (2-4 students) play together and I was the GM walking to each group. I would give information to the whole class at the beginning then go to each table and ask what they would like to do. I had them roll the appropriate skill, give them the information they learned from that role, then tell them to talk and think about what to do next. I would go to the next table and repeat. When I made my way around the room, the first table would be ready with their next move. This at first was helpful, but it did concede a significant amount of down time between groups. However, I used this as a teaching opportunity. As a class, I talked about what I did as the GM and had them reflect on what they did as players and how a GM interacts with them as a player. I shared what I did as a GM when they wanted to make a specific roll or had a question. I ended with asking the class if anyone thinks they could do what I did, but only with the people at their table. Several raised their hands and I told the class that they would soon be doing this as well. The next day I picked one student from each team and spoke with them as a group. I gave them a one page scenario with potential information and rolls. I told them to give their table the beginning information (background on the event) and ask them what they wanted to do next. I explained that all their team needed to do was discover the ending information on the scenario. The potential rolls and other information in the middle did not have to be followed exactly. If their team wanted to go in a different direction, they could come up with the skill to roll and the difficulty (we had already talked as a class about what different difficulties mean). I told the future GMs they could be creative and just have fun.  In the first scenario the GMs used the middle information almost word for word, but by the second scenario they took off with their own ideas! All students were engaged and having fun! One student was so nervous and unsure of himself, but by the end of class he was a pro and begged to be able to GM again. 

[I love this as an example of how to quickly “train” student gamemastering in a way that is uncomplicated and light. It’s a great model of a Student-Led game experience, the highest “degree” from my book’s Degree of TTRPG Facilitation Framework. – Adam]  

Also, at the end of class I held a whole class discussion to talk about the game and game mechanics. My science methods class also played the newest Natural Selection TTRPG. The class talked about how the random event table was easy, enjoyable and helped them learn more about the topic, Natural Selection. However, having a GM was even more enjoyable and allowed them to be creative and engaged. They did say they felt the Natural Selection game was more educational due to the tables, but also the scenarios for the GMs were not in depth and could be why it didn’t feel as educational. If they were to play longer scenarios, it would give more in depth learning. I was very pleased with their thoughts and ideas. Of course, the purpose of these games was to expose them to different game mechanics so they could create their own game. Several students decided to make their own TTRPG game. One student even created a map and cardboard minis to go with their RPG! Having students run TTRPGs and create their own scenarios gives them autonomy in their learning and allows them to demonstrate their leadership and creativity abilities beyond their academic knowledge. 

Additionally, at Moss Middle we have clubs during the school day. I run a TTRPG club which meets about every two weeks for 45 minutes. When I first started the club I soon realized the varying levels of my students, not only their role playing abilities but also language skills. Moss Middle School has a variety of international students. Given this I had to scaffold how I approached TTRPGs with my club. First, I gave students a simple line they could read. Then I gave a chart with different characters so they could say the same line as that character. I modeled each character before we began. After each student said the line as the character they rolled, we all guessed which character we thought they were playing. I also played games like Werewolf and Coup with them to introduce deception and displacement. This progression helped them immensely with role playing. From this point, they can also run and write their own scenarios. 

Have you had any challenges creating TTRPGs around your science academic standards, or for younger students?  How did you overcome those challenges, or upon reflection, think of ways to modify an educational TTRPG the next time you implement it?

The biggest obstacle with TTRPGs in the classroom for me is not aligning them with the standards but finding the time to create all the ideas I have. TTRPGs are flexible, creative and allow for many different uses in the classroom. As of now, there are not a lot of pre-made games and scenarios for middle school science that address my specific standards. I am hoping each year I can take one or two units and develop TTRPGs for those units. Until then, I can use the Scientist RPG to have students role play as scientists and discuss unit topics. For instance we might be in a genetics unit and a student is an astronomer. That student would need to role play and think of why their astronomer scientist would be interested in the genetics we just learned. Maybe the scientist is thinking about potential genetics of alien life forms yet to be discovered or how DNA exposed to space is altered. 

How have students reacted to your educational TTRPGs?  How do you know their learning is more vibrant, deeper, memorable?

TTRPGs are often defined as collaborative storytelling, this very definition lends itself to relevancy and authenticity in the classroom. Our lives are shared stories. TTRPGs model life as we combine our stories with each other everyday. To me, there is no greater vibrant learning I can incorporate into my classroom. Students themselves talk about how engaging the lesson is and how they can’t wait to do it again. With the Natural Selection TTRPG, students were writing CER responses without even thinking, or complaining. They were so busy having fun, they didn’t even realize they just answered reflection questions using test taking techniques. It’s like sneaking in vegetables with spaghetti. 

Cara, thank you so much for sharing your story!  I usually end these KyEdRPG Spotlight interviews with a variant of the same question:  What advice would you give to a middle school teacher who wants to start using TTRPGs in their own classroom?

My first advice is to just jump right in! It’s a learning experience for teachers as well, but you will get better each time you use a TTRPG. My next advice is to be proactive and intentional with student teams. I already used team leader grouping before I began using TTRPGs. This allowed me to have student leaders already in each group that could help me facilitate gaming in the classroom. Your students are your best resource to help you in your journey with TTRPGs in the classroom. 

I’m so grateful Cara gifted me the time to answer all of my questions, and so generously provided her cornucopia of instructional materials!  Be sure to check out the Google Drive folder with copies of all of Cara’s TTRPGs, as well as visit her professional teaching Google Site.

Kalli and I will be leading our next educational TTRPG session as a FREE two day workshop at the Frazier Kentucky History Museum on June 11 and 12, 2026.   For more details and a registration link, visit here.  Hurry -- seats are limited!