KyEdRPG Spotlight: Librarian Laura Mann and TTRPGs for Literacy

 

Librarians -- and the library -- are often the heartbeat and hub of a school.  Since extracurricular game clubs are frequently held in such learning spaces and therefore led by a librarian, it shouldn't be a surprise when such educators also use an innovative approach like tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) as part of their instructional time too.  They recognize it as an engaging way to enrich student literacy (and a little numeracy as well).

When librarian Laura Mann told me about the TTRPG she had created around a book her middle school students were reading, I was eager to see it in action.  Last month, I visited Laura at Bernheim Middle School (Bullitt County), a beautiful and recently renovated building.   

Walking around the nooks and tables, I was impressed with the sixth graders' eagerness to play the game.   I took pictures and conducted an interview with Mann to share the details (and her resources!).  As an aside, I am also proud for Laura to be our first Kentucky librarian to be featured on the Kentucky Educators for Role Playing Games website!

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

My teaching and library careers have been a dynamic journey, to say the least.

I first stepped into the classroom in January 2011 as a substitute teacher in Bullitt County, fresh off graduating from Campbellsville University the previous month with my BS in Elementary Education. I quickly gained a host of diverse experience, moving into specialized roles such as Reading Interventionist at Vine Grove Elementary (Hardin County, 2011-2012) and Math Interventionist at Old Mill Elementary (Bullitt County, 2012-2013). This period of focused, one-on-one teaching truly helped me get my foot in the door and it was during this time that the library truly began calling to me. 

While working as a Math Interventionist, I took on a part-time role as a Library Page at the Louisville Free Public Library and began work on my Master of Science in Library and Information Science. This paved the way for my first full-time role as a Library Media Specialist (LMS) at Nichols Elementary (2013-2014). After a brief return to the classroom to teach second grade in 2014-2015, I took a sabbatical to complete my MSLIS. The question was, where would I take my skills? Back to the public schools or into the public library?

I decided, at this point, I would try the public library again and took on a position at Spencer County Public Library in 2016, where I continued until 2018. I loved the job, but discovered my true love was students. I was offered a position as the LMS at Bloomfield Middle School in Nelson County Schools (2018-2019) before moving into a District LMS for the next 5 years. All of this rich experience has led me to where I am today: the Library Media Specialist (LMS) at Bernheim Middle School, back in Bullitt County. This is a role I absolutely love, and I can't wait to continue it for the foreseeable future.

What is your personal experience with playing TTRPGs?

My experience with actually playing TTRPGs is limited, but my interest is not! I've always loved playing board games, and hearing a good story. TTRPGs combine the best of both worlds into one.

I watch streams and videos of others playing on various platforms, and it always looks like such a great time. I was struggling to find friends to play with, but I'm hoping to join the TTRPG group that meets at my local Bullitt County Public Library branch—as soon as I can clear my schedule for their next play night!

Some people outside of education may be surprised that school librarians “teach classes.”  Can you briefly describe your related arts schedule with your middle school students?

One of the great perks of my current role is the flexibility it offers. School librarian schedules often fall into three main categories, depending on the school's needs:

• Fixed: While not exclusive to elementary schools, this is very common in such settings, where the librarian is part of the Related Arts rotation teaching classes for most of the day.
• Responsive: This is the ideal scenario—the librarian is free to schedule their time as needed to serve students and staffulty (staff + faculty).
• Partially Responsive: This is the schedule our school uses. 

I'm very lucky to only teach two classes per day, which rotate every nine weeks. This partial teaching schedule is a huge benefit because it frees me up for the rest of the day to focus on critical library operations. With the help of my fantastic library aides, we manage the constant flow of activity: fixing Chromebooks, checking out books, and making sure the library runs smoothly all day long.

What inspired you to bring TTRPGs into your learning space?

I wanted to add TTRPGs to include a little more fun to our learning, but also to deepen the learning with Kentucky Academic Standards for Library Media—especially in the Collaborate domain. I'm thinking specifically focusing on pushing past basic "group work" (like dividing up a poster project) and moving toward the high-level collaboration detailed in standards like M.CL.T3.A “Learners identify collaborative opportunities by: Deciding to solve problems informed by group interaction.”

I love how you wrapped your TTRPG adventure around a text the students are reading.  Tell us about your game!

The official title is “The Bernheim Riddle”, a play on the book we are reading The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin.  The game mechanics are based on a simplified version of Dungeons & Dragons.

The first step in setting up the game was making sure the students had a grasp on Character Sheets and how to use them. At the start of the term, students made Character Sheets for themselves. This was to help them understand the sheets for later game play, but also to help me get to know them better. We played a brief game using where students had to follow the Community Agreements (being respectful, responsible, safe, kind, courageous, and using excellent work ethic) while finding a lost library book. 

 A copy of the Filling Out You Character Sheet (Google Slides).

Then, we began reading our book. I wanted to create a strong connection to the historical world of Bletchley Park. We started with some light research on the people who actually worked there. We would play our game as these people.

Students used the official Bletchley Park website, using its "The Roll of Honour" page to find their historical figure. Their research was focused on discovering key information such as who the person was, what their specific job was at Bletchley Park, and any other available biographical details.

A copy of the Bletchley Park Research Sheet (Canva).

Then, we completed Character Sheets for their historical figures. This was a challenge for them as strengths were not listed on the Bletchley Park website. We had to think about what specific job they had and what skills the person doing that job may have. I used a base character sheet I found from a member of the Dungeons and Dragons Aotearoa NZ Facebook Group (posted by Abigail Ea) and edited it to ensure the skills and strengths perfectly matched the historical context we were working with.

A copy of Laura's adapted Character Sheet (Canva).

The original Kids Character Sheet by Abigail Ea.  (Please support the creator!)

Copy of Filling Out Your Historical Figure Character Sheet (Google Slides).

Once students had their historical figure’s sheet completed, we could begin our game!

Each student has taken on a role within their group. There is a leader, an ambassador, a dice tamer, an adventure tracker, and a writer. Each person has specific roles/jobs they are responsible for.  For example, the ambassador is the only person who can come ask me questions!

The narrative centers on a mysterious person named "Enoch" who has been causing problems at the famous code-breaking facility, Bletchley Park. Throughout the game, students take on the roles of their Bletchley Park workers and must figure out Enoch's plan by breaking codes and ciphers, making decisions as a team, and dealing with the repercussions of their choices.

To make the game manageable, I split the entire story into four weekly sections, each with a clear stopping point: "Part One: The Whispering Witness," "Part Two: The Missing Machine," "Part Three: The Double Agent’s Diary," and "Part Four: The Evacuee’s Enigma."

Since I have so many groups and can't possibly be a Game Master for all of them, I built a self-guided system that requires minimal involvement from me after set-up. This allows groups to move at their own pace and collaborate without interruption.

The two main components are the Canva Slide Decks which function as the narrative and clue delivery system,  and a Google Form which acts as a sort of Game Master.

For example, if students are required to interpret a Morse code message, they submit their answer into the Google Form. If they put in an incorrect answer, the Form simply tells them, "That is not the right code." If they get it right, the Form validates the answer, links them to the next section of the Form, and provides the link for the next Canva slide deck.  

[Editor's note: you can learn how to create "Response Validation" rules for how a person answers on a Google Form from this help site, to replicate what you might see in a Breakout EDU game.]  

If students choose to talk to a certain non-player character, the slide deck will take them on that path. They'll get information that is either helpful or sends them right back to their choices—simulating the consequences of real TTRPG interaction. While this system does limit the range of options, it allows groups to work through the game on their own, making decisions without the need for constant intervention from the teacher.

As an example, here are the "Part Three: The Double Agent’s Diary” Canva Slides which were what the students were playing on the day you visited:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

How have the students reacted?  

Some students are excited to play and ready to take on the challenges. Others are not sure where to begin and don’t participate as much with their groups. I'm thinking of revisions for next time to keep everyone involved.  Students do regularly ask when we are going to play the game again, since we only play on the last day of the week.

What feedback have you gotten from the staff at Bernheim Middle about using a TTRPG for instruction?

Our band/music teacher is very much into RPGs of all kinds and was a bit jealous of my class. He mentioned skipping his classes to come play with mine! My principal Chase Goff came into the class to see my students playing.  He later shared with me, “I really enjoyed talking to the students about the tabletop games.  Honestly, I have never played these or engaged with them so it was really cool to see it.  I also thought it was great to see the students productively struggling, having to back up and try again.” 

What’s next for TTRPGs in your library?

I plan to incorporate TTRPG with my classes the rest of this year. I will, however, use different books for each grade level just so I don’t have to read the same book twice a term for the entire year! I will choose from Kentucky Bluegrass Award books in an attempt to drum up excitement for those selections. I know we will not finish our current read and I already have students clamoring to be the first on the list to check it out! It shows me that the students are in love with the book, regardless of how they feel about TTRPGs.

This has been awesome, Laura!  Thank you for sharing your story.  Last question:  What advice would you give to a school librarian who wants to start using TTRPGs in their library?

Just try it! Even if it is with one class or coordinating with another teacher. Was there a big learning curve? Yes. Is there a lot of prep before you can even start? Absolutely. Has it been a fun adventure and a good opportunity to try something new? For sure. 

Special thanks to Ms. Mann for taking the time to answer my questions, and inviting me to visit!

Serious Play Conference 2025

Ever since the first time I discovered the Serious Play Conference, I was eager to attend.  However, for several years it was at the University of Toronto and therefore didn't seem to be an affordable option for a work trip.  This year, however, it was at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York.  I was thankful to have the conference approved by OVEC as my annual out-of-town professional learning, and doubly grateful when I was asked (along with my TTRPG educator colleague Kalli Colley) to speak on a panel!  On a side note, I've been curious about the Erie Canal ever since I sang a folk tune in pre-school, so I was also glad for the chance to see it in person, as it ran just outside of our hotel.  (On a side note to my side note, the Del Monte Lodge was a beautiful place to stay, run by an incredibly friendly staff.)  While in Rochester, I even ate a version of their local delicacy: a "garbage plate" (it was delicious).

Canals and garbage plates aside, how was the three day conference?  In a word: illuminating.   Like the Play Make Learn conference in Wisconsin I attended last year, it was energizing to be around hundreds of educators and game designers who enthusiastically believe in the power of play- and game-based learning.  While I created an extensive Wakelet covering the depth and breadth of the sessions I attended and the resources I gained (also embedded at the end of this blog entry), here I will share a dozen highlights:

• Michelle King, our keynote for the first day of conference, inspired us with the notion that "words create worlds," and told us a paraphrase of Brian Eno's difference between the solitary genius (an "egosystem") and the collective innovation from a scenius (a vibrant and healthy "ecosystem").  What kind of playful and positive world will we create together?
• Stephen Reid, our second day keynote, implored us to not forget that "play matters."  We are often limited by anti-play policies and taught to be suspicious of adults who engage in what is perceived as frivolous activity; as a particularly evocative example, he showed us the difference between what you find when you google "man in a tree" and "child in a tree."  Reid also shared anecdotes of using Command and Conquer and Minecraft in his classrooms.
• Deb Fuller and Luigi Guarniccio discussed the need for accessibility in games.  As Fuller reminded us, things like curb cuts are not just niceties for those permanently in wheelchairs, as "we are just temporarily abled" and, with age or an accident, will eventually need such supports.  How can we design better for those that are (among many other examples Fuller and Guarniccio provided) left-handed, or have vision challenges?
• Meghan Gardner discussed what makes a game truly "transformative" versus merely "remarkable."  Additionally, Gardner is the founder of Guardian Adventures, a treasure trove of educational gaming resources and examples.
• Kelly McNeil, a Learning Experience Designer with Digital Promise, shared her journey in bringing play into professional development.  She reminded us that while fun can help in engagement, we still need to construct adult learning around evidence-based practices, such as Darling-Hammond, Hyler and (Madelyn) Gardner's "Seven Models of Effective Professional Development."
• I first read about Dr. Megan Connell's work using Dungeons & Dragons as a part of her therapeutic pedagogy in Shelly Mazzanoble and Greg Tito's book Welcome to Dragon Talk.  So I was particularly excited to hear her speak, alongside learning what teacher Greg Gordon has done in his own classroom.
• MagiKids is a charitable foundation that donates Magic: The Gathering kits to learning spaces.  From that session, I was also blessed to meet Lyla Ross, the head of the Washington State-based 501(c)(3) Gamers Engaged, one of the many "backbone organizations" that help fund MagiKids.
• Sharon Peck demonstrated multiple examples of how games can improve literacy.  (Also, check out Professors at Play!) 
• Speaking of professors...University of Toronto professors Leslie Stewart Rose (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) and Quinn Jacobs (Department of Arts, Culture, and Media) shared "How Play Solves Problems of Practice in Classrooms."  One of the examples indicated was the use of Dungeons & Dragons!  I appreciated their ample research references throughout their presentation, and how we better appreciated play in a learning setting by actually playing a game.
• Lt. Col. James "Pigeon" Fielder (ret.) uses a semester-long simulation game for one of his political science courses at Colorado State University.  He was candid about what worked, and what he would do differently in the future.
• I picked up two books while at the conference:  Becky Keene's AI Optimism and Tracy Fullerton and Matthew Farber's The Well-Read Game: On Playing Thoughtfully.  I can't wait to dive into both!
• Last but not least, I visited The Strong National Museum of Play twice for after-hours conference events.  It was a charming and delightful institution, and it alone would make planning a trip to Rochester worthwhile.  (For a plethora of pictures, check out my Facebook post from my KyEdRPG Page.)

As I mentioned at the beginning, Kalli Colley and I were asked to speak on a session panel: "Adventures in TTRPG: Building Learning Worlds with Dice, Devices, and Dialogue."  It was wonderfully moderated by Sana Alimohamed, and we were joined by an impressive group of educators: Sharon Lee De La Cruz, Phill Cameron, and Huaidian (Daniel) Hou.  Thank you to the 50+ attendees of the session, who leaned in with great interest and questions!  A special thanks to Sana, who in addition to her moderation duties took the time to curate and share several resources discussed in the panel in a LinkedIn post.

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From left to right: Sana, Phill, Kalli, me, and Huaidian.

Besides the learning gained at the Serious Play Conference, I am grateful for the chance to have met so many admirable people in person.   A final shoutout needs to be given to Paul Darvasi and Elisa Navarro for putting together the event (and for Dr. Darvasi's personal reach out that led to Kalli and I submitting proposals).  If you have a chance to attend a future Serious Play Conference, I highly recommend it.

Speaking of Kalli Colley, our "Dungeons & Desks" FREE regional PD series returns this fall to two Kentucky locations:  London (October 20) and Hazard (November 3).  Come play and learn with us!

 

Google Vids (and other Google updates for Summer 2025)

Google has had a busy summer with plenty of updates, including a new product that I've finally had some time to play with: Google Vids.  But before we get to Vids, let's briefly cover some other territory that educators will find important to know.

If you're a teacher who has logged into Google Classroom lately, you've probably noticed that your workspace now includes Gemini baked in, and more specifically, has multiple tools at your fingertips to help you more effectively complete tasks.  It's clear that the popularity of the "custom bot dashboards" prevalent in several other AI learning platforms has encouraged Google Classroom to do the same. 

While the built-in capability of Gemini is currently only available for the teacher side of Google Classroom, Gemini itself is now available for students of all ages.  Additionally, Google NotebookLM (perhaps the most pragmatic AI tool I currently use) will also be available for "all ages in the coming months" (per a Google Workplace Team email sent June 17, 2025).  You can read more in Google's June 2025 blog announcement.  Of course, your Google Admin may choose to keep this toggled off for certain age groups (or for all of your students!) and/or for one or both tools; it's worth asking what your district's plan might be.  Remember that for educational accounts only, Google has made assurances that AI data and usage will remain private to the domain itself, usage will not train Google's AI machine, and inputs/outputs will not be human reviewed, as they first announced back in May 2024. 

Speaking of NotebookLM, it's perhaps no surprise that it continues to upgrade.  The output language can now be changed, and that can include the (in)famous "Audio Overviews."  You've likely been wowed by the Audio Overviews feature (and if you're like me, also a bit disturbed by its capacity for human mimicry); customization can now allow you to make them shorter or longer in length, or give the Overview specific topics to focus upon.  But perhaps the most dramatic leap for NotebookLM is the beginning of Video Overviews:

I was able to try this out on a personal free gmail account (upgraded features usually tend to chronologically lag behind for educational domains, so be patient if you don't see the feature yet).  I picked a Notebook with two sources that were focused on the topic of flexible learning spaces: a Google Slide conference presentation I did back in 2021 about the then just opened K-8 school Marnel C. Moorman in Shelby County, and a 2018 article in Edutopia. Despite only having those relatively short sources, the generation for what turned out to be a seven minute Video Overview took at least ten minutes on a Friday night.  While it's likely this will get better, or possibly be another incentive to go Pro (for faster generations?), I would caution you from expecting a Video Overview to load in the same short time it currently takes to generate an Audio Overview.  Yes, yes, you might be asking, but what was the quality?  Well...I was blown away, just like I was about Audio Overviews only a year ago.  As I'm still impressed and mulling over the possibilities of what an Audio Overview can bring to the table for learners, the Video Overview comes along. It basically creates your very own short documentary of your uploaded sources.  And like Audio Overviews, you can share or download the videos.  (In order to watch the video via a shared hyperlink, you have to share viewing rights to the entire Notebook.)  As always, the AI was not perfect, but I'll take some of the blame too. For example, my presentation had a quote from a different Edutopia article spoken by a teacher in a California school (attributed by the article name and hyperlink on the slide), but the video narrator mistakenly stated "as one of the MCM teachers Stacey Lamb said..," which, given the slide scanned superficially as is, seems a fair misunderstanding.  Watching the whole seven minutes, I found very little else to nitpick, especially considering if my goal was to create a sophisticated summarization of my sources.  Here's the Video Overview it generated for me, also downloaded and saved to my Google Drive:

Staying on the topic of videos: one of Google's tools getting some considerable press recently is Veo 3. This is another example of the continual evolution of text-to-video genAI in the marketplace; the outputs are longer, more sophisticated, and can now include AI-generated sound and dialogue.  It's impressive, and brings more ethical concerns, but I mainly passed it by for practical reasons -- it's not cheap, and therefore not likely to be in a typical K-12 teacher's classroom anytime soon.  (However, Google is offering a free year of their AI Pro plan to college students, if they redeem the offer by October 6.)

But if you are looking for a practical Google video tool for teachers and students, it's now finally time to discuss Google Vids.  In a nice flip, this is currently available for all educational users at no charge, but is not available for free/personal Google accounts.  Here's a quick elevator pitch to describe the tool: "An online video editor that's as easy to use as Google Slides."

Creating a new Google Vid is like creating most products in the Google Suite: it's an option for the New button in your Drive, or a choice on your waffle, or simply typing vids.new in your address bar.  There are templates you can choose from if you want to create your project more quickly.  

You can import media (such as Google Slide decks, audio files, and screencasts), make everything from scratch, or do a bit of both.  A tip: I think it's easier to "compose" the skeleton of your video by starting in Google Slides, then importing it into Vids. However, note that anything animated, or clickable, will simply "flatten" once it gets into Vids (after all, you can't hyperlink inside a video), much in the same way that Slides downloaded as a PDF may lose the same features.

Once in editor mode, you can easily add transitions between "scenes," or lengthen/shorten a scene by dragging it by the end.  You can also record a video or audio file to insert into your project, making choices like doing a voiceover a breeze.  One of my favorite features of Vids is Script, located in the sidebar.  You can type what you want to say and it will scroll like a teleprompter while you record your audio or video.  If recording a video, this also means you can look directly into the webcam while you speak.

This screenshot of creating a Script is courtesy of a Google for Learning course.

This screenshot of using a Script as a teleprompter while recording video is courtesy of a Google for Learning course.

Collaboration in Vids happens like a typical Google doc -- you can share viewing, commenting or editing rights to your project. If it's viewing only, the viewer will actually only be able to play the video from your project.  This deserves a bit of emphasis, because in a practical sense it means your Vid becomes a real-time living artifact just like a Doc or a Sheet; you could share a link just once and the viewer will always see the most recent updates, as opposed to having to delete an old video and resharing a new link to the latest uploaded version.  This alone can save significant time and increase workflow.  That capability aside, you can also download the final video as a MP4.

You can create Vids as an assignment in Google Classroom for your students!  First, create a template that you want students to customize and add their own text and materials. (One of the fun Inserts to consider is a "Video Placeholder," available in various cutout frames; when an editor comes across one of these icons, they can click on it to record their own video that will be automatically matted to the chosen shape.)  You can then assign it in Classroom, making sure it "force copies" for each student.  Students can open the assignment, edit it and turn in the Vid like any other Google doc.  Here's a short video about creating Vids assignments in Classroom, from a free Google for Learning course:

There is admittedly a cookie-cutter aspect that could occur when students are creating videos within the templated perimeters of Vids.  However, the intuitive ease of editing in Vids "in the cloud," as well as the ability to quickly share and collaborate, means that students should be able to spend more time on the content than on the clicking.  The bottom line: you can make polished videos in a fraction of the time it took before, and for free.  

This screenshot is courtesy of a Google for Learning course.

It's worth noting that if you pay for an upgraded AI license, you can also use Gemini inside of Vids to create genAI video content or voiceovers.  Here's a video (7:59) showing how Gemini integration with Vids works:

It used to be that improvements or new tools in Google were incremental -- you might be lucky to see something new every few years.  As with all edtech nowadays, that speed of change has rapidly increased.  By the time we hit spring 2026, I will expect new Google features that will likely make even the amazing ones in this blog entry seem quaint and "sooooo 2025."

Rollin' Down to Richmond for The Twenty Sided Tavern (and +2 on Keynotes)

Summer for a professional development facilitator and digital learning consultant is a busy time. I've also found time for play!  As we cross the mid-point of the season, I wanted to highlight some of my summer adventures so far.

Let's go chronological.

Soon before kickoff at the Cave City Conference Center on June 18.

On June 18 (right before I left for a family vacation), I was both the morning and afternoon keynote for an artificial intelligence conference held by the Green River Regional Educational Cooperative (GRREC). (I also squeezed in a breakout session on AI and PLCs.)  In a packed ballroom at the Cave City Conference Center, more than 250 educators from across Kentucky learned, collaborated, and shared.  One teacher from Allen County came up afterward to tell me it was the best keynote she's ever attended -- a high compliment I'm not sure I deserved, but I humbly thanked her for it.  And speaking of thanks, I'm very grateful to GRREC's Jessica Turner (who I congratulate for just taking a principal position at Meade County!) and Merissa Waddy for asking me to keynote their conference.

As soon as vacation ended, I was off to Washington Community High School (Illinois).  My old friends Dan Reem and Tom Gross (Teachers in the Dungeon) are WCHS's head of social studies and librarian/game club sponsor, respectively.  For years, they have run an annual student RPG summer camp, with multiple breakout session options and two different strands (a player and "Dungeon Master" [DM] track).  Community partners lead sessions or facilitate games; for example, d20 Dinner show students how to make homemade dice.  This year (with the help of Stefanie Crawford of Illinois Digital Educators Alliance), Dan and Tom arranged a precursor to the student camp with a teacher "express conference" on July 7 and invited me to kick it off with a keynote on tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) in education.  On July 8, attendees were able to shadow students on the first day of their camp.  (Chris Tatum of NerdLouisville also came up to talk to the educators and ran some breakout sessions for students.) 

Dan Reem (left) and Tom Gross.

Students rolling up their D&D characters on the first day of camp.

There was such great enthusiasm from attendees eager to bring TTRPGs back to their own schools, and the adults encouraging them to do so.  (Special nod to Dan Crawford of Cabbages and Kings Games for donating dice to the teachers as well as DM'ing a student D&D game!)  I was particularly inspired by the students at the camp, who were positive, polite, excited, and focused.  I had the chance to teach students by running a breakout camp session for budding DMs on building an adventure, but more importantly,  I was taught how to better DM from a D&D one-shot led by a just-graduated WCHS senior.  The summer camp isn't just for fun -- it creates leaders.  

As always, I'm grateful for the chance to learn from others, and of course special thanks to Dan and Tom for inviting me up!  As they shared on a recent episode, they seem committed to having the conference again next year, so stay tuned to their podcast for updates.

As a final share, my wife and I were fortunate to attend the kickoff of the world tour for Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty Sided Tavern in Richmond, Kentucky on July 18.   While the EKU Center for the Arts might seem a inauspicious site for such an endeavor, it's a beautiful theater, and it was full of raucous fans.  The traveling company could not have picked a better place to preview their show.

For more pictures, visit this Instagram post.

Note the "Hit Point" bars at the top of the screen, representing the real-time health of the three "player characters."

With a sly sense of humor, the story is infinitely changeable (no two shows on this tour will be exactly the same!), as one would expect from a theatrical experience based on D&D.  In a sense, the show is a liveplay of a D&D adventure, and my wife -- who has never played -- began quickly catching on to the basic mechanics.  The embedded improvisation is not only hectic (the actors often asked for shouted out answers to feed the story, such as names for monsters), but haptic; it's also powered by audience interaction via our mobile phones and a browser-based platform from Gamiotics.  We were involved from the start, voting on which kind of characters each of the three "players" would take on; choosing whether they should go left or right, which shop to visit, or which spell to use; and even valiantly mashing a screen button to give characters enough "oomph" to accomplish goals.  Kudos not only to the actors portraying the DMs and players, but to the production crew -- the stage sets, lighting and backdrop screen effects keep you perpetually delighted and immersed.

The Twenty Sided Tavern definitely had my mental wheels turning (and mental dice rolling?) for applicability to a classroom.  While you might need a DM to rule set and give players a sandbox to play in, a true D&D adventure needs everyone to participate in order to complete a journey, much as a cohesive classroom is one made up of learners, not just "teacher and students."  A community of learners is a community of trust, with room to both fail and play.  Speaking of play, I wonder how the kinds of interactive polling that makes The Twenty Sided Tavern so much fun can also be an innovative strategy for teaching?  For years, we have used such real-time tools for judging comprehension (i.e. pushing out a question, seeing if students get the right answer), but what if teachers similarly used them to transform direct instruction into a story with agentic student control, provided we are prepared to quickly pivot? Imagine a social studies class learning about ancient Egypt:  

Okay, the archaeologist goes inside the pyramid's inner chamber and finds...a sarcophagus!  Does she look closely at the sarcophagus, or at the various objects placed around it inside the chamber? [class voting on their devices] Looks like...you want to see the sarcophagus!  You notice the intricate hieroglyphics....

Lastly, the story that binds the discrete parts is key in both D&D and in teaching -- and narrative is what makes learning memorable.  Indeed, all TTRPG stories are co-created, and truly vibrant learning is similarly an act of a co-created classroom.

I'll wrap up this blog entry by wishing you all the rest and rejuvenation you need and deserve this summer, while realizing that even in your most playful moments, you are likely still plotting for the school year ahead! 

For more resources on TTRPGs in the classroom, visit Kentucky Educators for Role Playing Games.

KyEdRPG Spotlight: Ben Little and his Periodic Table TTRPG

When I presented about TTRPGs in education at the Aurora Institute Symposium last year, one of the attendees was Benjamin Little, a secondary science teacher in Massachusetts.  Mr. Little teaches as part of "an innovative, competency-based program at Brookline High School for up to 48 students, entering grades 10-12, who feel they will find more intellectual satisfaction and be more academically successful in a non-traditional setting," where "students get the chance to experience engaging, experiential learning that takes thematic topics and explores them in great depth – often culminating in performance-based assessments" ("About ACE").

As I heard about his clever approaches of incorporating some TTRPG-style play in his classroom, I was intrigued.  After we talked briefly at the conference, we promised to stay in touch.  

Ben -- or "Mr. Ben," as his students call him -- has tried some new things since our November meeting, and in the spirit of reflection we all find ourselves doing at the end of the school year, I thought it might be a good opportunity to celebrate his accomplishments! Here is our interview.

Ben, welcome to Edtech Elixirs!  Share your educator story.

I began teaching biology in 2006 in Tanzania, where I was stationed for the Peace Corps. I spent the next decade adding science subjects, countries, and states to my teaching repertoire. It was the perfect preparation for the job I have now, teaching Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Forensics and Nutrition to mixed grade level classes of sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the ACE program at Brookline High School.

What kinds of games do you personally play?

I’ve been interested in the fantasy and sci-fi genres since I was old enough to read. I distinctly remember the original Final Fantasy video game on Nintendo, and how immersed I became. I have been playing games ever since, although my experience with full-blown TTRPGs has been limited.

You’ve shared in previous conversations that you use a TTRPG gaming mechanic in your Chemistry class.  Share what you’re doing, and how it’s evolved and changed.

Student art of the character Plutonium.

I invented a TTRPG to teach the periodic table that I call Elementopia.

The unit on the periodic table is traditionally one of the most boring units in chemistry, as teachers focus on atomic radii, electron configurations, and ionization energies. This reductivist approach can help some students see the patterns that will become important later on to understand bonding patterns and molecular formation, but it completely misses the depth of properties that the elements have or what technological applications any of them are used for. For any students not interested in chemistry for chemistry’s sake, this is a huge turnoff, as they don’t even know why they’re supposed to be learning all of this boring garbage.

I started doing an “adopt an element” project to get students to become familiar with elements’ personalities. This finally got them to appreciate the character and uses of a single element, but students still didn’t learn much about trends of properties across the table or, for some, spark their interest.

Student art of the character Fluorine.

I then had them illustrate their elements, personifying them as characters. They would incorporate a number of properties into their designs, and put it on a poster with information about its properties and uses. These really got students engaged, but I noticed that they still weren’t necessarily learning the trends on the periodic table, and realized I needed a different product.

Next, I invented a simple turn based game where they would turn their research about properties into character attribute scores. I took the basic mechanic from Dungeons & Dragons, but modified the attributes to reflect chemical and physical properties. Some of them were the same, like Strength and Constitution, but things like their magical ability and Charisma changed to Reactivity and Luster. The scores for the attributes were determined by the properties the element displayed: Strength would depend on density, hardness, and weaponization, Dexterity on malleability and state at room temperature, Reactivity on toxicity, flammability, ionization energy and electronegativity, etcetera, with a total attribute score calculated by adding up the points from each indicator.

Once they had their character's attributes, they needed to come up with attacks and defenses. These could be based on attributes, such as “I am going to body slam you with my density,” but students also needed to incorporate uses and applications, like “I negate your electricity attack because my element is used in lightning rods.” The power of each move is based on the attribute score that it draws from plus the roll of a 6 sided die. One character attacks while the other tries to defend, and the one with the highest power move (attribute plus roll) wins out, as in if the attack score is higher the attack is successful but if the defense move is stronger no damage is inflicted.

Student art of the character Sulfurious.

The first round of this was fun, but it quickly became apparent that I needed a lot more structure. I added hyperlinks to the character attribute sheet to resources and tables to streamline the research process. I simplified the basic attacks so that they all inflict one Hit Point (HP) of damage after a student who ran the D & D club at the school made a broken Boron dragon whose moves were all ridiculously overpowered. I added the opportunity to get creative by allowing a single super move and single passive ability that could afflict conditions, break the simple turn based mode, or do extra damage.

At this point the kids were really into it, but the tournament at the end was kind of a let-down because they did all this work then only used their character once or twice. So, I added other modes of play, like exhibition matches, where they could gain experience points by playing each other for homework outside of class that would increase their base HP. I had prizes for winning battle royales and beating raid bosses like score boosts or 8 sided die that they could upgrade to. Kids really got into it!

Student art of a Mercury Alien.

To learn about all the trends on the periodic table, I came up with lore. Each elemental family acts like a class of character. Students in the same family have to write a tome of lore, or family biography, about their group. I make these available to students, and have an assignment where I ask them to identify strategies for playing against other elements. Finally, I was getting most students to learn about all the trends on the periodic table, because they wanted to win!

I noticed that the emphasis on competition was not motivation for some students, or even turned some anxious kids off, though. After all, they could still pass if they made a character but didn’t ever win. So, in my most recent revision of the game, I’m adding a mandatory campaign mode. I’m turning the periodic table into a “map of Elementopia” that they will use as an actual game board. In each region, there is a boss element that exemplifies that group of elements that they must defeat by strategically teaming up with each other to make a party that will counter that boss’s strengths and capitalize on its vulnerabilities. The cooperative nature of it should appeal to those kids that shy away from competition, and finally require that they really understand not just some, but all of the groups on the periodic table.

That's all so amazing! And kudos to you for all the work you've put into this project. How have the students reacted?

Students that have never played games are initially apprehensive, but it’s so highly scaffolded that they don’t usually have difficulty. Students that are really artistic or are gamers are always really excited, and many of them will start planning their character’s units before the project begins or continue playing the game long after the class has ended. The most interesting take is from students that took chemistry and didn’t pass it in the mainstream before coming to ACE; they all start out thinking they hate chemistry then fall in love with it. I just had one of those students visit me. They are studying music production in university now, but their favorite leisure activity is watching chemistry videos on YouTube. Most students really enjoy and learn a lot from the game, and a few have even made characters without taking the class because they just want to.

It could certainly be a challenge to convince non-gamer students to give this kind of instruction a try. It sounds like you've built in some very helpful supports.

Thank you! As I mentioned, the competitive nature of the tournament is off-putting for students with anxiety, and the open-ended nature of the moves can be hard for students on the autistic spectrum and other "concrete thinkers" to wrap their minds around. The cooperative modes that I’ve added have helped the anxious ones, and sitting with me to concretize ideas has helped those for whom abstraction is a barrier.

Besides some reluctant students, what other challenges have you encountered?  How did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge that I’m facing now is the traditional thinking of chemistry educators. It remains one of the most traditional, formulaic, and pedantic fields of both science and education. Most of them think there’s only one way to learn chemistry, even if that doesn’t work and isn’t interesting for many students. They also don’t value the completely novel content that the project inserts: nowhere in chemistry do they actually talk about technological applications or the intersection between physics properties like conductivity and magnetism. Most other teachers think what I do is boutique and cute; I think I have revolutionized the way that the unit on the periodic table can be taught, and made chemistry relatable for everyone, not just formulaic thinkers.

I plan to overcome this by going above and beyond. I’d love to launch a website that students can use to create characters. Every normal person that I talk to wishes they had learned the periodic table this way. Once enough people know that it’s possible, I hope that other chemistry teachers  will take notice. This actually started to happen after we met at Aurora 2024; students that saw the project in a workshop went home, found the chemistry teacher in the hallway, and demanded that he contact me about how to do the project. I hope that even more will contact me after reading this.

Student art of Dragoron the Boron Dragon.

Do you have some future plans for using TTRPGs in the classroom?

I plan to develop a version of Elementopia that is less work; it would still be educational, but more focused on storytelling and game play and geared towards the masses. That will probably be my retirement project.

I also use games in a bunch of my other classes. I use a game to teach about natural selection in evolution, competition and carrying capacity in population dynamics, the cycling of Carbon in climate change, and more! Most of these don’t rise to the threshold of TTRPGs, but I do have an idea for a TTRPG about the dueling energy and environmental crises. In it, students would play as countries. They would have to produce energy via various methods (solar, geothermal, nuclear, wind, coal, etcetera) to meet constantly rising energy demand, while also tabulating greenhouse gas outputs and avoiding catastrophic climate change. Each nation/character would have affordances and limitations according to its economic and political approach. For example, Germany would get to start with lots of wind but couldn’t develop nuclear power, or China would be able to build plants quickly due to government sponsored industry but would have their energy demand grow faster because of rapid modernization.

That would be a great educational tabletop role-playing game!  Last question. What advice would you give to an educator who wants to start using TTRPGs instructionally with their students?

Don’t get intimidated. It doesn’t have to be perfect to still be good, and you can tweak it continually to make it better, like how I developed my project over many iterations. Enlist student feedback! I use former students as bosses, and even had a few help me balance the attributes of the game so that no one attribute would be overpowered compared to others.

Thank you Mr. Little for all you do for your students!  Be sure to reach out directly to Ben via email with any questions, comments, or feedback.

This interview was slightly edited and condensed.