KyEdRPG Spotlight: Chris Broussard and The DRAGON Codex

I first heard of Chris "Savage" Broussard from LinkedIn.  Over several posts, Chris shared his classroom journey where Dungeons & Dragons is completely integrated into the coursework of his high school English classroom (what I call a Full Infusion from one of the frameworks in my book).  But what was even more intriguing was the location of the classroom: Guatemala. 

I teleconferenced with him to learn more, and after an hour of casual talk, I was determined to tell his story on Kentucky Educators for Role Playing Games.  I then asked Chris if he would be willing to be interviewed for my blog, and I am delighted he said yes.

From Chris Broussard's website "Not Your Typical Teacher."

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

I always start this conversation by saying I never wanted to be a teacher. I'm originally from Louisiana, and I graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with degrees in Modern Languages, concentrating in Spanish, and Criminal Justice.

In 2012, I traveled to Guatemala for what was initially intended to be a three-month experience abroad to improve my Spanish skills. During that trip, I fell in love with the country and its culture. I returned in 2013, and Guatemala has been my home ever since.

That same year, I began my teaching career with Education for the Children Foundation, an organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty through education. There, I worked with students across several grade levels, from elementary through secondary school. I taught English as a second language and eventually became the English Program Coordinator.

In 2016, I joined Intellego Bilingual School, where I've spent the past decade teaching high school English Language Arts. Over the years, my role has evolved beyond the classroom to include professional learning and instructional coaching, helping other teachers think more intentionally about how they design learning experiences.

Along the way, I earned my master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the American College of Education.

One of the most important things I've learned from teaching abroad is that education isn't confined to a single country, culture, or approach. Working with multilingual students has challenged me to rethink what engagement looks like and how we can create meaningful learning experiences.

That curiosity continues to shape much of my work today, including my exploration of TTRPGs as a tool for teaching literacy.

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

I actually had no personal experience playing tabletop role-playing games until I brought them into my classroom. In fact, I didn't even know what they were until late 2020!

However, I've been a lifelong gamer, playing video games for as long as I can remember. During my early years of teaching, conversations about video games became one of my favorite ways to get students talking and build relationships with them.

In 2021, I began incorporating video games into my classroom as an engaging way to explore concepts such as character motivation and narrative structure. My old PlayStation 3 is still one of my most valuable pieces of classroom equipment!

Every day during recess, my classroom transforms into an arcade. The first rule is simple: the room is an English-only zone. Students are welcome to come in and play video games as long as they maintain their conversations in English.

Imagine my surprise when some of the students with the lowest levels of English proficiency became the ones who regularly came in to play video games and speak English!

I believe this happens because the environment removes much of the pressure associated with making mistakes. Students aren't worried about getting an answer wrong or receiving a grade. They're focused on playing, having fun, and communicating with their friends. The motivation to participate is immediate, and the perceived risk of failure is much lower.

Through this experience, I've noticed that students who were initially hesitant to participate in class have become more willing to speak up and take risks with their English.

It was this experience that helped me recognize the potential of games as a tool for language learning and eventually led me to explore tabletop role-playing games in my classroom.

A great segue! Tell us more about how your journey began using TTRPGs instructionally.

I first discovered the concept of tabletop role-playing games and their potential in the classroom in 2020. At the time, we were conducting classes via Zoom, and student engagement had become one of our biggest challenges. We were competing with cell phones, televisions, and the newfound freedom students had to mute their teachers whenever they wanted!

Toward the end of that year, I had been binge-watching The Walking Dead, and my ninth-grade students were studying a unit about the end of the world. We had read several works by Ray Bradbury, as well as The War of the Worlds. Having finished our textbook content, I needed something that would keep students practicing their English for a few more weeks.

With zombies on my mind, I decided to create a survival game.

I presented students with a scenario: They were alone at school, and the entire campus was surrounded by zombies. A helicopter would land on our soccer court in five days, but they had to survive at school until then.

My first question was simple: "Who do you work with, and where do you set up your camp?"

Once students established their teams, I placed them into Zoom breakout rooms and visited each group to ask what they wanted to do next. Some ventured into the cafeteria to search for food, while others made weapons and built barricades to protect themselves.

On the second day of our game, something unexpected happened. When I started the session, the Zoom waiting room was full. As I admitted students, they immediately began asking whether they could do certain things in the survival game. They were already thinking about their next moves before class had even started!

Seeing that level of engagement, I knew I was onto something.

Later, while recounting the experience to a friend back in Louisiana, he told me, "You're basically doing Dungeons & Dragons in your class."

That was the first time I learned what D&D and tabletop role-playing games actually were. I spent the next month researching the concept and exploring how it could be used in education.

In 2021, I brought back the zombie survival game with another group of students and saw similar results. Encouraged by the experience, I ordered my first set of dice and a Player's Handbook from the one store I could find in Guatemala City that sold them.

Toward the end of 2021, I was given the opportunity to lead an enrichment program for students who were falling behind in English. I had the freedom to structure the program however I wanted, so I decided to build it around D&D.

Students created characters, designed costumes, and came to class dressed as their characters to introduce themselves to everyone. It was another huge success!

Over the following years, I gradually incorporated more and more elements of TTRPGs into my instruction. What started as a single lesson became an enrichment program, then an entire unit, and eventually the backbone of my curriculum, with TTRPG experiences designed to support and reinforce our textbook content.

That is amazing!  Can you walk us through how your course begins for the school year?

Today, the experience begins with character creation.

I dedicate the first two weeks of school to helping students develop their characters. I want them to become fully invested in who they are creating, from their backgrounds and personalities to their motivations and abilities.

Their first major assessment is a character introduction activity. On presentation day, it's not unusual to see tieflings and elves walking toward my classroom, ready to introduce themselves to their classmates in the Common Tongue!

Once students understand their characters, we move on to worldbuilding.

I take them on a field trip around our school campus, which students from the original 2021 enrichment program transformed into a fantasy kingdom. They created a map of the entire school, turning familiar locations into points of interest within our game world.

The primary school playground became a small, welcoming village inhabited mainly by halflings and dragonborn. The soccer court became the orcs' military training grounds. One of our gardens became a settlement divided by a river, with tieflings living on one side and humans on the other. The two communities don't get along, creating opportunities for conflict and storytelling.

Our school even has a forest in the center of the campus, which adds another dimension to the world students can explore.

During the field trip, students take notes on the locations and their relationships to one another. This helps them understand the geography of the game world when we begin playing through our campaigns.

For example, if their characters need to travel from the village to the city, students understand that they must find a way to cross the river. They might need to locate a boat, negotiate with someone who owns one, or come up with an entirely different solution.

Because the fantasy world is based on a physical environment they know, students can visualize distances, understand where locations are in relation to one another, and make more informed decisions during gameplay.

Once students understand their characters and the world they inhabit, we begin our campaigns.

Each campaign is designed to give students experiences that connect to the themes and concepts they will encounter in our textbook. Rather than simply introducing a topic and asking students to discuss it, I create situations where they can experience aspects of that topic through their characters' decisions and interactions.

After each campaign, students complete a written reflection connecting their experiences to the overall unit topic or essential question.

The goal is for students to have something meaningful to draw upon when we begin exploring the textbook content. They've already encountered ideas, faced challenges, and made decisions related to the topic. Now, they can use those experiences to deepen their understanding.

What began as a spontaneous zombie survival game during the pandemic has evolved into an approach that allows my students to become active participants in the learning process rather than simply observers of it.

How did students react to the game?   How do you know it positively impacted their learning?

Students have reacted very positively to the game, and their enthusiasm has been one of the biggest reasons I've continued developing this approach.

Sometimes, when the structure gets away from me or we become too focused on the textbook, a student will simply ask, "When are we going to use our characters again?" That question immediately reminds me that this is something students genuinely look forward to.

I've even had younger students approach me and ask if I'm the teacher who teaches students how to play D&D. It's exciting to realize that a reputation is being built and that there are students waiting for their opportunity to become part of our shared world.

One of my favorite moments happened this year. I structured our first unit so that students would begin with D&D experiences before moving into the textbook content. At the end of the unit, one student asked if we could reverse the order for Unit 2. She explained that she would rather get the "regular boring stuff" out of the way first so that we could save the fun stuff for later.

What made me smile was that she was referring to writing assignments, presentations, collaboration, and critical thinking as the fun stuff!

These are the very activities that students might normally approach with hesitation, but within the context of our shared world, they become something students genuinely want to do.

I see the positive impact on learning most clearly in students' willingness and motivation to participate. Students seek me out during their free time to talk about their characters and the decisions they've made. Some independently research their character classes even when they haven't been assigned homework. They're choosing to engage with the material beyond the time we spend together in class.

For multilingual learners, I believe this willingness to participate is especially important.

Similar to my experience using video games in the classroom, the fact that students perceive this as a game changes their relationship with the learning process. There is less pressure to perform perfectly, and mistakes become part of the experience rather than something to fear.

When students are focused on solving a problem, developing a character, or communicating with their teammates, they're less concerned about whether every sentence is grammatically correct. They're using English because they have something they genuinely want to communicate.

That willingness to take risks is often one of the biggest hurdles language learners need to overcome.

While I wouldn't claim that enthusiasm alone proves measurable improvements in academic achievement, I can see meaningful changes in how students approach learning. They're voluntarily practicing English, engaging with complex ideas, and showing greater confidence in their willingness to participate.

For me, that's an important indicator that the approach is making a difference. Students aren't simply completing assignments because they have to. They're becoming invested in the learning experience itself.

As a native American English speaker teaching in Guatemala, were there any student language or cultural challenges you had to overcome?

Language hasn't been a major challenge. Most of the time, I'm simply reminding students to use their English.

Culturally, the biggest challenge I've faced as a foreign educator has been navigating traditional expectations of what teaching and learning should look like. Guatemala is a country with strong traditions, and education is no exception.

During my early years in the classroom, I spent a lot of time trying to fit in and avoid making waves. I followed the established routines and taught in ways that were familiar to both students and colleagues.

Eventually, I started thinking more critically about the student experience. I considered what it must feel like to spend every day moving from one classroom to another, listening to teachers lecture and copying notes from the board. Period after period, the same routine. I began to understand just how bored students must feel.

I knew there had to be a more engaging way for them to learn.

As I started developing and embracing my own teaching style, I encountered resistance. I received criticism from colleagues, administrators, and even some students because my classroom didn't always look or function the way they were accustomed to.

That was challenging, especially as a foreign educator trying to establish myself in a different educational culture. I had to learn to trust my instincts while remaining open to feedback and demonstrating that my approach had a clear educational purpose.

The turning point came when teacher evaluation results began to show that I was among the top-performing teachers at my school. Suddenly, the unconventional things I was doing in my classroom began to be taken more seriously.

That experience taught me an important lesson: Sometimes, you have to be willing to challenge expectations before people can see the value in a different approach.

It also helped me understand that innovation isn't simply about introducing something new or exciting. It's about creating meaningful learning experiences and being able to demonstrate why they work.

Today, I see my approach to teaching, including the use of TTRPGs, as an extension of that philosophy. I'm not trying to abandon traditional education or suggest that everything we've done in the past is wrong. I'm simply asking whether there might be another way to help students connect with what they're learning.

And sometimes, that means being willing to teach a little differently.

You mentioned initially encountering resistance from your school leadership.  Can you tell us more about how your administration reacted to your use of TTRPGs in the classroom, and how it evolved?

When I first started experimenting with TTRPGs in my classroom, I think my administration assumed I was simply putting on a play or something. After all, students were walking around dressed as wizards and druids.

They didn't fully understand the scale of what I was doing until late 2025, when I was accepted to speak at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention. My presentation focused on how I use Dungeons & Dragons in the classroom and introduced The DRAGON Codex, the framework I developed to help educators approach campaign design with an instructional mindset.

Before I left for the conference, my administration asked if I could deliver the presentation to the English teachers at my school.

That turned out to be a turning point.

During the presentation and workshop, I was able to explain the difference between simply playing a game in the classroom and intentionally designing a game to support student learning. I walked my colleagues through the framework, the planning process, and how the campaigns connect to our curriculum and learning objectives.

After the workshop, one of my administrators stayed behind to speak with me. She told me how impressed she was because she hadn't realized just how much went into the system or how deeply I had planned these experiences.

That conversation meant a lot to me. For years, people had seen students dressed in costumes, creating characters, and playing games, but they hadn't necessarily seen the instructional design happening behind the scenes.

It was an opportunity to show that what might look like an unconventional classroom activity is actually a carefully planned learning experience.

What was the biggest thing you learned last year that you are doing differently this year?   

One of my biggest takeaways from this experience has been the importance of consistency in my planning.

I dare say it's much easier to pick up a textbook and follow along with the teacher's guide. Designing campaigns takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, and that's not always time I have available.

In previous years, when I was only experimenting with the occasional campaign or TTRPG-inspired activity, I could treat each experience as a one-off lesson. There wasn't necessarily an expectation that another adventure would follow.

But once I began fully integrating TTRPGs into my curriculum, I realized I'd opened Pandora's Box.

Students look forward to the campaigns. They ask about them even when I've gotten caught up in other responsibilities and forgotten that we were supposed to continue. They enjoy the challenges, and overcoming those challenges becomes part of the reward.

I've come to realize that inconsistency can be disappointing for students. When they become invested in their characters and our shared world, they expect opportunities to return to them. If those opportunities become too infrequent, that excitement can gradually turn into disinterest.

This year, I'm focusing on making the approach more sustainable. Rather than constantly creating new campaigns from scratch, I want to build a library of experiences we've already used, refine them based on what worked, and have several additional campaigns ready to go.

That way, I can spend less time reinventing the wheel and more time adapting the experiences to meet my students' needs.

What advice would you give to a teacher who wants to start using TTRPGs to improve literacy in their own classroom? Or for someone who wants to use TTRPGs with multi-language learners?

I could simply say, "Just start!" But I know the next question many teachers would ask is, "Where do I start?"

The good news is that you don't have to be an expert in the rules of tabletop role-playing games to bring them into your classroom. To get started, all you really need is the outline of a story, a way to determine whether students' decisions succeed or fail, and a clear learning objective.

For example, in an English class like mine, we could read Romeo and Juliet, or we could have students take on the roles of two rival families whose children have fallen in love. Through role-playing, students could explore the motivations, conflicts, and consequences that drive the story. They would still be engaging with the same literary concepts, but from a different perspective.

History and social studies offer similar opportunities. Students could step into historical scenarios, explore different perspectives, and consider how decisions might influence the events unfolding around them.

Subjects like math and physics might require a little more creativity when developing a story, but that doesn't mean they can't be incorporated. Imagine students discovering a locked door hiding a treasure. To unlock it, they must solve a series of equations or apply their understanding of a scientific principle. Suddenly, the problem has a purpose within the experience.

For multilingual learners, I believe the most important element is creating an engaging situation that gives students a genuine reason to communicate. The story itself doesn't have to be elaborate. It simply needs to capture their interest and encourage them to speak, ask questions, explain their decisions, and interact with one another.

When students are invested in what happens next, language becomes a tool they use to accomplish something rather than simply a subject they're studying.

To help teachers get started, I've developed a framework called The DRAGON Codex, which breaks the process into six steps:

• Design the World: Create the setting and establish the learning objective.
• Role Creation: Identify the characters or roles students will take on.
• Apply Through Play: Place those characters into the world and introduce the challenges they must overcome.
• Guide Through Story: Facilitate the experience, allowing students' decisions to shape what happens next.
• Observe and Adapt: Monitor student progress and adjust the experience based on their needs.
• New Perspective: Give students an opportunity to reflect on what they learned and how the experience changed their understanding of the topic.

The framework helps me approach TTRPGs as an instructional design tool rather than simply a game.

My biggest piece of advice is to start with something small and manageable. You don't need an elaborate campaign, expensive materials, or an encyclopedic knowledge of D&D rules. Start with a single scenario connected to something you're already teaching.

See how your students respond, reflect on what worked, and build from there.

You might be surprised by how much learning can happen when students are given the opportunity to become part of the story.

That DRAGON Codex is amazing!  Chris, I’m so glad we met and talked online!  If people want to reach out to you or follow your story, what’s the best way to do so?

First, thank you so much for inviting me to share my story with Edtech Elixirs! I've really enjoyed our conversations, and I appreciate the opportunity to connect with other educators who are exploring creative ways to make learning more engaging.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn or through the company page for Not Your Typical Teacher, where I coach and support educators in developing engaging, student-centered learning experiences. My work focuses on helping teachers move beyond traditional instructional approaches, rediscover their passion for teaching, and create classrooms where students become active participants in their own learning.

The best way to reach me directly is by email at chris@nyttcoach.com.

You can also find me on Instagram at @savagedragon1047, where I share a mix of education, travel, and everyday adventures.

This year, I'll be presenting a review of a year of D&D classroom integration at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention. [Editor's Note: the NCTE conference will take place in November 2026 in Philadelphia.] I'm always excited to connect with educators who are interested in game-based learning, teaching abroad, or simply trying something different in their classrooms.

I hope my story encourages other teachers to take a chance on an idea they've been curious about, even if it doesn't look like traditional teaching. Sometimes, all it takes is a little imagination and a willingness to try something different.

Thanks to Chris for taking the time to be interviewed and for sharing his insights! For more with Chris's story, check out his guest appearance on the Area of Effect:  A TTRPG Show for Parents & Educators podcast, hosted by Allison Kunz of The Kids' Table.  Listen to Episode 36 (54 minutes) on Spotify or your favorite podcast platform, and consider a subscription! 

My Recent Intersections with the University of Louisville

The University of Louisville has always held a special place in my life.  In my youth (and currently as an adult!), I rooted for the Cardinals in sports.  My wife and I were married on campus at its Rauch Planetarium in 2003.   (Sadly, the university's plan for the planetarium -- not open since the pandemic -- is to remain permanently closed.)  It was at U of L where I earned my Bachelors (2005) and Masters (2007) degrees and began my teaching career through its Alternate Certification program.  

This year, I've had three intersections with U of L that I wanted to share.

In spring 2025, I taught my first online, asynchronous, graduate-level course for U of L.  At the end of last year, the College of Education and Human Development reached out.  A series of blended learning classes had been shuttered when the original instructor retired.  CEHD leadership asked: Would I be willing to teach additional courses, in order to revive the blended learning track?  I enthusiastically said yes.   The fourth and final course of my current commitment begins next week, and I'm thankful to give back to my alma mater as well as help future and early career educators!   I plan to begin the cycle again in 2027, so if you're interested in enrolling (you can still try to register for the upcoming fall term!), here are the titles of my online classes:

• EDAP 688 Designing a Technology Integrated Curriculum (last taught spring term 2026)
• EDAP 585 Digital Methods for Teachers to Design and Deliver Instruction (last taught summer term 2026) 
• EDAP 587 Digital Methods for Students to Demonstrate Learning (last taught summer term 2026)
• EDAP 690 Teaching with AI (begins August 17, 2026)

You can visit this page for more information on U of L registration.

When I was a U of L student, I always enjoyed the Ekstrom Library as a place for study, collaboration, and research.  When I was recently on campus, I discovered to my delight that my book was part of its third floor collection!  

When I looked up the book's entry in Ekstrom's database,  I also found out that Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Classroom is located at several other university libraries, including Vanderbilt, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), University of Mary Washington, SUNY Geneseo, University of Southern Maine, University of Nevada (Las Vegas), Loyola Marymount, The King's University (Edmonton, CN) and the University of Saskatchewan.  I'm humbled that my book sits on so many shelves.

My book leads to my last University of Louisville connection.   For its recent Spring and Summer issue of U of L Magazine, I was featured in a two page spread!  The photo shoot was particularly fun -- members of the magazine staff came to our OVEC Middletown office, and in one of the setups, I lay on a table surrounded by my personal TTRPG materials as a photographer stood above and over me and took the picture.

Special thanks to Audrie Lamb and the rest of the U of L Magazine staff for the feature article!  

As I wrap up this entry, I want to share a heartfelt moment of my gratitude to many people -- some of which I haven't met, but left replies on my social media -- for showing their love my way.  I mentioned at the beginning that my wedding was held on the U of L campus.  The person I married was April Lynn Watson, another Cardinal graduate.   April was a beautiful, beloved, brilliant wife and my best friend.  I talked about her original battle with cancer here in my blog in 2019.  Tragically, the cancer came back after several years of remission, and April passed away on July 1.   Writing her obituary and eulogy was incredibly hard, but I was honored and privileged to share how wonderful she was to me and so many others.   Thank you to every single person who has expressed their condolences.  I will repeat what I said in a LinkedIn post: "It seems strange to breathe without [April], much less eat, laugh, or post online about work or writing accomplishments. I ask for two things. Firstly, your warm thoughts and support for myself and my family in the painful journey ahead. Secondly, for your grace and understanding as I post in the days and weeks to come. I know April wanted me to thrive, not just subsist, even as I now struggle in the tilted frame of my new 'normal.' I hope to continue to use my social media voice to uplift the topics I love: education, technology, game-based learning. Doing so helps me live, and endure, and honor April's life by trying to make a difference in others."

Origins Game Fair 2026

Back in January, I was flattered to be asked by Maryanne Cullinan and Jennifer Genova to present at this year's Game-Based Education & Therapy Conference (GBET), which occurs simultaneously with Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio.   (Origins is the main "open to the public" annual event ran by GAMA, alongside some retail-only conventions throughout the year.) Despite the fact that Columbus is not terribly far from where I live -- about three hours -- I had never been to Origins before, so I was thankful for the opportunity when I attended last week.

GBET runs over three days (Friday through Sunday) in a dedicated area of the convention center, mere steps away from the exhibit hall and other gaming opportunities.  I ended up presenting two sessions on Friday, June 19.  

Much of what I shared was parts of the professional learning on educational tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) I've been doing over the last few years, although clearly I moved quickly past the "What are TTRPGs?" with the crowd at Origins!  I was grateful for all those who attended, as well as their enthusiastic participation.  A special thanks to several members of The Hills Have Nerds (Aaron! Cody!) who came to my first session -- in particular, a shout out to Josh Damron who took several pictures and videos:

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A post shared by Kentucky Educators for Role Playing Games (@kyedrpg)

(Josh also ran a wonderful Call of Cthulu one shot he created, which allowed me to play that TTRPG for the first time -- my character even survived!  More gratitude for Josh's generosity of time and service.)

A conference like Origins/GBET gave me the chance to not only meet several people in person for the first time, but to learn.  Some highlights:

• Adam Davis (an early and influential person who used TTRPGs in therapy, currently with foundry10) presented on the importance of gamemasters sharing power with their players to make a truly co-created story.
• I finally met Steph Campbell of TTRPGKids face-to-face! (Their website is full of resources and self-published materials, and I am still thankful to have been interviewed last year.)  I got a copy of Making a Tabletop RPG for YOUR Particular Kid: A Guide for Families, Friends, and Facilitators. I look forward to reading it.
• Carolyn Noe (of Superheroines Etc) had a session on how disabilities are represented in games.  It's an important topic, and one that reminds us that as we know better, we should do better.
• Zachary Reznichek has been in the educational TTRPG space for several years, running workshops on the topic and self-publishing his book Teacher-Gamer Handbook, although I learned of his work only recently.  After connecting on social media, I was thankful to meet him in person when he attended one of my sessions.
• Back in March, I was a guest on The Twenty-Sided Gamified Podcast, hosted by Jared Fishman.  Jared and his organizational partner Kelly McManus had a session on "Designing Classroom Games and Game Based Learning," which included a chance for me to play a few rounds of Diplomacy (and meet Jared face-to-face) for the first time!
• For pure fun, I had the chance to playtest (alongside Josh) an upcoming rules-light TTRPG called Further Adventure to be published by Limitless Adventures.  (They have always been a big supporter of educators in various ways; one of their resources is highlighted in my book.) You can follow when their new TTRPG launches on Kickstarter later this summer.
• Besides Maryanne, I was also thankful to meet her organizational partner Garrett Monroe in person.  Maryanne and Garrett's Tabletop EDU has resources, self-published books, and ongoing engagement opportunities to learn from others on educational TTRPGs (follow them across social media for the latest).

I really enjoyed Origins, and the city of Columbus.  The convention center and connected hotels allowed for a conference that was large with lots of options, but still inviting and not overwhelming.  In particular, I was impressed with the sessions and presenters offered by GBET, and I believe its value for educators and therapists will only grow in the years to come.

Did you attend GBET this year, or in the past?  What are your thoughts on Origins?  How do you think it compares to other game-related convention opportunities such as Gen Con's Trade Day?  Please share in the Comments below!

For more pictures from Origins 2026, see my KyEdRPG Facebook Page post here.

KyEdRPG Spotlight: Dan Burkey and using TTRPGs as "Structured Improvisational Art"

 

Headshot from Dan Burkey's website.

I first met Dan Burkey virtually.  Dan, who has a strong background in theater and performance,  reached out to share about his artist-in-residency offerings in northern Kentucky, but more to the point, he had come across my work with "Polyhedral Pedagogy" -- using tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) in education.  As it turns out, Dan had also been using TTRPGs with students as part of his substitute teaching, and he regaled me over Zoom with some of his tales.   We finally met in person when he attended a "Dungeons & Desks" professional learning day I co-facilitated in Louisville, part of an ongoing regional series.

Dan contacted me recently to let me know about an educational resource document he had made along with the latest success he was having implementing a simple TTRPG rules system with students.  With that, I knew we needed a full-blown interview!

Enter Dan, stage right...

Dan, welcome to Edtech Elixirs!  Please share your educational and artistic journey. 

I graduated from Centre College in 2009 with a degree in Dramatic Arts, a rough cut of my first feature film (a noir adaptation of Euripides’ Medea) and a strong Liberal Arts interdisciplinary mindset. It was the middle of the Great Recession, and I started substitute teaching while I worked on various creative projects and sorted out what might come next. With my theatre background, I couldn’t help finding ways to liven up sub plans every day: singing, juggling, showing up in character as an eccentric scientist, etc. This caught the attention of the Étude Group schools, a public charter network in Sheboygan, WI, that focuses on project based learning and arts integration. In 2014, they brought me on as an artist-in-residence to work alongside teachers to interpret academic content through a dramatic lens. I earned my teaching certificate in Theatre Education from UW-Milwaukee, then continued at Étude as a certified drama teacher for 6 years- mostly at the K-8 level, but also some high school classes. I taught drama, filmmaking, animation, script writing, and game design, usually working with grade-level teams and other arts specialists to weave together form and content. Our projects included student-written plays about settlers coming to Wisconsin, games designed to simulate bird migration and population dynamics, and creative drama journeys through the human body with the Magic School Bus, among many others.

In parallel with my work at Étude, I was developing my career as a theatre director. I started Mad Yarn Theatre Company to produce offbeat plays at Paradigm, the local coffee shop and hub of Sheboygan’s creative community. We became better known for our MadCap 24-hour Play Festival, where teams of writers, directors, and actors created plays from scratch in a single day. I also worked with Warped Dance Company over several years to develop an aerial dance adaptation of The Nutcracker (in the process I invented and performed a new form of aerial unicycling).

After the pandemic and the birth of our first child, my wife and I moved to Northern Kentucky to be closer to family. After a couple years finding my footing in the area, I started working as a teaching artist with American Legacy Theatre and The Carnegie, and I remembered how much I love collaborating with other educators to bring vibrant learning into their classrooms. Last year, I was accepted to the Kentucky Teaching Artist Directory, which means that schools and libraries can apply for Kentucky Arts Council grants to bring me in for programming. I typically consult with teachers to create and facilitate drama, creative writing, and media arts (including game design) experiences that are tailored to their specific classrooms and curriculum.

This year, KAC grants are funding three of my projects: guiding students to make and perform a dramatic sequel to The Giver at St. Cecilia in Independence, introducing tabletop game design concepts to patrons at Campbell County Public Library, and making storybooks come alive through creative drama with youth at Kenton County Public Library. In addition to grant-funded work, I can also contract separately for residencies with schools and nonprofits. So far, my work has taken me to Kenton, Boone, Campbell, and Pendleton Counties, but I’m open to working within about a one-hour radius of Covington. There’s more information on residencies at my website, danburkey.com.

When I’m not doing a residency, I continue to practice substitute teaching as a structured improvisational art form, along with various writing and game design projects.

What a lovely set of experiences you've had!  Tell us more about your personal experience with playing tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs).   What was your first TTRPG?

My first TTRPG was a homebrew fantasy thing my high school friend made up on a road trip. It had no dice, and as GM he would just say how he thought actions would resolve. We also did a lot of freeform boffer LARP- live action roleplaying while fighting with foam swords. This guy in our class was seven feet tall and his actual name was Hrothgar; he played a troll and wielded a war hammer made out of a couch cushion folded in half and covered in duct tape on the end of a long PVC pipe. We were the coolest people we knew.

I didn’t get back to TTRPGs until about 10 years later when I became a drama teacher. I was looking for ways to scaffold character creation for improv and scene devising with middle school students.  A friend introduced me to Fiasco, a GMless indie RPG by Jason Morningstar, and we tried it out at game nights with a couple other teachers. Content-wise, the game is hilarious but not appropriate for middle school (it’s designed to emulate a Coen Brothers style crime caper gone horribly awry). But its mechanics opened my eyes to some brilliant ways to start a story: a network of character relationships, a shared problem, and some objects and locations to get the imagination running. The game’s rules actually shaped my approach to playwriting and improvisation. The latest version trades out dice and roll tables for a card-based engine that smooths out setup and features a “Let’s Not” card (like the X-card safety tool) to empower players to reshape any story content that gets in the way of safe and enthusiastic fun.

These days, I have three small children, so most of my roleplaying is freeform improv adventures in the yard chasing bad guys and pirates. My oldest is getting big enough to enjoy more structured games, so we’ve tried some simple RPGs, including Super City with the VRBS system.

You mentioned that TTRPGs opened a door for you to teach improv and scene creation with students.  Can you tell us more details on how you made that work? 

When I first got the idea for using TTRPGs in the classroom, I was teaching a middle school drama class and using the technique of improvisational devising to create scenes. Instead of having one playwright create a script and then give it to actors to perform, the devising process shares the story creation work with the whole ensemble. In our version, each actor created a character, then we put those characters into different situations to see how they would respond. I wanted to get students thinking about their characters’ lives beyond a job description, so I looked at the idea of character sheets from the TTRPG space. You could call this “Elemental Infusion” on the classroom RPG spectrum- we used the character sheet to fill out character ideas, but we didn’t run the whole creation process as an RPG.  [Dan is referring to the Depth of TTRPG Infusion Framework from my book. -- Adam]  I started researching other ways we might bring together drama and TTRPGs.

Last fall, I got to do an arts residency with students at Prince of Peace Catholic School in Covington, and I really got to put my research into practice. We played the game Super City by David Garrett, and adapted it to fit the settings and problems with their science and social studies units. This was in their STEAM class, so after the residency, they used the stories from our games to inspire visual art pieces.

You’ve already mentioned VRBS and an example TTRPG that uses that rule set, Super City. From our previous conversations, I know it was created by David Garrett, the system is free under Creative Commons, and that you are a big fan of it!   Can you tell us more about how VRBS works, and the advantages of VRBS over other TTRPG rules or systems?  

VRBS – by the way, I usually pronounce it “verbs”** – presents the ideal balance of flexibility and structure to teach students the core loop of traditional TTRPGs. Players take action to respond to a problem in character, roll dice to find out how well it worked, and take turns until the team solves the problem or fails. For years, I couldn’t find anything in the goldilocks zone between games with daunting three-pound rulebooks and games that assumed too much improv skill and previous knowledge of RPGs to work with beginners (especially without a GM). A typical VRBS game (rules, scenario, character sheet, and space for note-taking) fits on two sides of a sheet of letter paper, but it gets players straight into the action.

Instead of traditional stats, each character starts out with 3 verbs they are good at doing. In Super City, David Garrett’s game about students at a superhero school, these are themed as your character’s superpowers. So maybe you start with Fly, Blast, and Lift. The scenario has roll tables for setting, problems, and citizens to save, so you roll up a situation and someone describes it (the game can be played with a GM or with players sharing the GM role). On your turn, pick ANY verb and say how you use it. If it’s a verb on your sheet, you have better odds of success, but you can try anything you can imagine. In our example, you could Blast the giant robot’s processor and get a bonus to your resolution roll. Or could try to Interrogate it, which would be riskier because you don’t already have that skill.

Resolution happens with a 1d6 system, which makes it accessible to anyone who can find a standard die. Add any bonus points from the verb you used to your roll. Whether you succeed or fail, you get to describe what that success or failure looks like. A total of 5-6 is a Success. A 7+ is a Big Success- describe how it’s even better than you expected, and add one point to the team’s Energy pool (Energy is a team resource- if it runs out, the scene ends in failure). Rolling a 1-4 is a failure. When you fail, lose one energy, describe how something unexpected happens when you do the verb, and gain a bonus point for the verb you failed at.

The fail-forward mechanism is where the game really shines as a learning tool. Characters (and all humans!) learn through their mistakes. This is what makes stories interesting. The game highlights this important storytelling lesson; it rewards players with improved chances on future dice rolls (an extrinsic reward) and the chance to describe their character’s failure and how it affects the story (an intrinsic reward). If you try a new verb and fail, you get to add it to your sheet with a bonus point. The only way you can get new skills is by trying something new and failing at it!

VRBS is adaptable by design, thanks to the System Reference Document (SRD) that powers the mechanics of the game. D&D is like a luxury sports car: to tinker with it you need to consider a lot of different systems and mechanisms that all interact to make it work. VRBS is like a hot rod: there aren’t a lot of moving parts, so anyone with a wrench and a blowtorch and a free Saturday here and there can modify it and make something unique that will run pretty well. So I’ve found lots of ways to hack it for the classroom.

It sounds like VRBS would be great for younger students, but have you also used it with older students? Can you share other examples of how you’ve used VRBS in schools?   

During my residency at Prince of Peace, I ran Super City with two groups of students during their Art and Technology block: a 3rd-4th grade combined class and a 5th-8th grade class. I wanted to support students in independent GMless (or, more accurately, co-GM) play, so I divided the duties of the GM into four roles. Each role received a card listing their duties and a tool to help carry them out:

• The Scene Setter used roll tables to choose the next scene situation and was also in charge of describing it.
• The Note Taker summarized main events for each scene so that stories could be adapted into comic book form later.
• The Goal Setter used a problem progress bar tool I made (not native to VRBS, but helpful for collaboration) to set a difficulty (number of successes) for each scene’s problem. 
• The Peacemaker resolved disagreements using the questions: Does it follow the rules of the game? Is it helping all players feel safe and comfortable and have fun? Does it make sense in this story world? 

[Dan is describing an innovative "Student-Led" role-playing experience, one of the "degrees" from my Degree of TTRPG Facilitation Framework. I love how he's taken what can be a complex task and structured it in a way to "share the burden" amongst the students!  -- Adam]

We also used a version of Beau Jagr Sheldon’s Script Change tool to empower students to pause the game and call for a re-do on choices that overstepped the boundaries those questions imply.

We started with a couple play sessions to learn the game- once with me as GM, and once with the shared GM roles in place. Then we started folding in academic content. Using a Chalk Talk routine, we brainstormed setting, character, and problem ideas to get characters interacting with ideas from science and social studies units. The 3rd-4th grade class was studying US regions, so students’ ideas included landmarks (San Andreas fault, farm in Kansas), jobs related to regional resources (lifeguard, miner), and natural disasters common to different areas (earthquake, tornado).

In 5th-8th grade, students were learning about cell structures in their life science unit. We generated ideas that used a city’s buildings and institutions as a metaphor for a cell’s organelles based on their functions. Combining different students’ ideas, Cell City became an archipelago of island neighborhoods in a sea of cytoplasm, surrounded by a seawall representing the cell membrane. It included an Endoplasmic Reticulum Airport for transporting goods between the islands, a Ribosome factory that supplied local KroGoo stores with food goo, a Mitochondria power plant, and it was controlled by a nucleus: a giant neon sign that sent out reminders about the laws of the city (the DNA). After a few sessions of adventures with individual super squads, we finished with a whole class showdown when the Nucleus got a virus that sent the Nuclear membrane guards to attack the whole city, while at the same time a giant bacterium was attacking the cell wall. Students were invested in the story and characters because of their independent play sessions, but the whole-class session allowed everyone to share out their character actions and pursue shared goals. As a facilitator, the whole class session gave me an opportunity to assess how students were approaching gameplay, and also call out great examples of the Cell City metaphor in action.

I also had a chance to adapt Super City for an AP French class at Boone County High School during a residency with American Legacy Theatre. We started out trying to do more improv-based work, but we ran into some challenges. It was a tiny class divided between three fluent heritage speakers and two non-native speakers. As a result, class discussions often involved three students chatting comfortably in French while the other two struggled to keep up or get a word in. The uneven comfort with conversation was especially challenging for improv, with the triple challenge of understanding a scene partner, deciding what to say, and how to say it in French. 

The TTRPG structure brought us a softer approach: giving each player a turn to describe what they are trying to do, then roll the dice to determine the outcome and describe what it looks like. This gave a natural rhythm of spotlight shifting that allowed everyone to share and get help when needed without feeling like it was interrupting the flow of the story. Since the current vocabulary unit was about Self-Discovery (describing strengths and weaknesses, comparing the inner and outer self, etc.), I translated and expanded the Super City character sheet to include descriptions of each character’s secret identity to target the unit’s grammar and vocabulary in a new context. It worked especially well with the small student-teacher ratio. I could see this being a good rotation station style activity in a larger foreign language class (a great way to practice transitive verbs in particular!).

I put an outline of my hacking process and links to the tools I created into a document and resource folder to help other educators hack VRBS games for their classrooms. Hopefully others can join the quest!

In June 2025 you attended a “Dungeons & Desks” PD facilitated by Kalli Colley and myself.  You told me in previous talks that you found it valuable, which I'm glad!  How did something you learned there help you in your educational work?   

For starters, it was a great example of hands-on PD that uses the methods to teach the methods. We were playing educational games pretty early in the session, cycling through small-group and whole-group discussion as we reflected on the rules and the various stages we played through. One of the example games that stuck with me was a simplified D&D-powered scenario that recast the dynamics behind the Mayflower Compact into a space mission. In the scenario, a small group of scientists doing planetary research ends up stranded with a larger group of workers who just want to survive.  [The TTRPG is one I  adapted from a simulation scenario created by Teach Democracy; the simulation is also described in my book. -- Adam] The experience showed the power of pre-generated characters and Auto-GM scenarios for guiding a story.  ["Auto-GM" is another example from the Degree of TTRPG Facilitation Framework. -- Adam]  By bolting down a lot of variables in character creation, it opened up focus on the debate at the heart of a significant historical moment. I recently heard a talk by Susan Haarman through Tabletop EDU, who described the gaming table as a micro-democracy, and connected gaming to John Dewey’s idea of a “dramatic rehearsal” for civic life. Putting those two ideas together, I like the idea of a whole-class campaign structured like a representative democracy.

Coming from a drama background would be a huge asset for playing or running TTRPGs.  If nothing else, I would think it gives you confidence to model for, and lead students in, role-playing and structured imaginative storytelling.  But what if we don’t have a background in theater?  If we are educators wanting to use TTRPGs but we aren’t actors or directors, what can we learn from the dramatic arts? 

I think the biggest thing I bring over from drama is a sense of playful collaboration. Inside the magic circle of a game or the given circumstances of a scene in the rehearsal room, we have a lot of freedom to try new things, make mistakes, and then try something different. We get comfortable doing silly acting exercises, then use the safety of that space to experiment with ideas for telling the story. As a director, I try to empower my actors to make their own choices by helping them understand the stakes and situation their character lives in. Then I can ask them what they would do instead of telling them what to do. 

Some of the best GM advice I’ve read is to ask your players questions about the world, and then incorporate their ideas into play. It lightens your cognitive load, honors the creativity of the people around you, and gets others invested in your shared journey together. It’s equally good advice if you’re a teacher, a director, or any other role where your leadership guides someone else’s experience.

A side note on the subject of verbs: one of my favorite drama tools is action analysis (sometimes called beat analysis). Actors can break down a scene based on their character’s motivation, objectives and tactics, each expressed as a verb. I think this process primed me to see the VRBS system as a bridge between TTRPGs and dramatic storytelling.

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

We closed each game session with a Stars and Wishes share-out, and students were always excited to share the highlights of their characters’ actions throughout the session. I was also intrigued by the way that the Cell City setting worked for students in various stages of the middle school developmental mind warp. For kids in the thick of the change, who often struggle with abstract thinking, there was a concrete task to latch onto, with a small menu of go-to choices to lean on. At the same time, the setting creation process let the students who were still in younger imagination-brain mode share wacky ideas and allowed students who had crossed over and regained their capacity for metaphorical thinking to apply it in a way their peers could relate to.

In the AP French class, I could tell the TTRPG was an effective learning tool because everyone was naturally applying their language content in a new context. Students at all levels of fluency were seeking out new vocabulary words to describe their superpowers and their impacts on the story world.

What’s next?  What would you like to try with TTRPGs in classrooms that you haven’t done yet?  

I have so many ideas! The structure of whole-class and small group play could be used to simulate representative democracy in a whole class setting. We saw a little of that with different superhero teams joining together, but it would be interesting to lean into that dynamic more specifically.

After reading Hamlet’s Hit Points by Robin D. Laws, I think it would be interesting to adapt the VRBS system to explore different ways an existing literary or dramatic scene might play out. The book shows a way to analyze a text by finding the inflection points of a character’s rise and fall. It would be interesting to actually roll some dice on an action at each inflection point and see where you end up.

My two-year-old daughter loves bugs, and as we were watching some ants together I got the idea to use nature observation as a tool to identify animal-action verbs for a game of heroes who merge with other creatures.

In a math class, I think there’s also a lot of potential in examining different probabilities in various card and dice resolution systems. It could be used to make stronger choices for a crunchy RPG session, or it might be used to show how designers choose different layers of probability to match their system to the stories they want to tell. Stories of bold risk-taking often use luck-pressing systems, card-driven prompt games offer variety in a predictable structure, and stories of gradual personal growth often give level-up bonuses to make success more likely over time. This might be a good hook for students with literary strengths who might have trouble relating to the world of numbers.

In any case, I’m always open to the adventure of making new discoveries with other educators. One of my secret powers as a teaching artist is sharing the planning load for weird new ideas, then helping unpack the surprises that emerge.

Dan, I am thoroughly impressed by your structured Polyhedral Pedagogical approach! A school would be lucky to have you as a teacher or as an artist-in-residence.   I usually end these KyEdRPG Spotlight interviews with a variant of the same question:  What advice would you give to a teacher who wants to start using TTRPGs in their own classroom?

First, don’t feel like it has to be a huge undertaking to plan. If you can engage your students in building out the game world with you, they will be more invested in it and it’s less prep up front. Build onto students’ ideas and ask questions that lead toward specificity and imagery, or show where the danger is in a place or situation.

Second, make sure to model the gameplay as a whole class before breaking into smaller groups. Take a day to teach the “what is this thing we’re doing” and another day to layer in any tools you are using to support GMless or co-GM play. I like to use a giant die we can toss to whoever is taking a turn in our first learning session.

Finally, remember to have fun and show that you’re having fun! Your energy and enthusiasm feed your players.

A big thanks to Dan Burkey for taking the time to be interviewed!  If you would like to work with Dan, be sure to reach out via his website.

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!

**Correction 4/20/26:  In the original interview, Dan shared reading in an old blog entry that VRBS may have stood for "Virtual Reality Battle System."  David Garrett, the creator of VRBS, explained in an email to Adam that VRBS was never an acronym, nor was "Virtual Reality Battle System" a phrase he used.  As Dan himself said, Garrett just pronounces it "Verbs." I've now amended my entry to avoid perpetuating the error.   Additionally, inspired by Dan, Garrett has now made four of his VRBS games (Super City, Spookytown, Dweomerdale, and .Agent Purrvocateur, all of which are appropriate for young players) free for digital download!  Find them at the Amalara Game Studio online store.

"Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Classroom" is now in print!

In August 2023 -- a year after launching Kentucky Educators for Role-Playing Games -- I began writing a book.  It was born from a pragmatic perspective; I had spend a lot of time and energy curating resources and stories for KyEdRPG, so why not package it for an outside audience?  But as I began, I had no idea if it would ever be published, much less seen by more than a handful of friends.  

Six months later in February 2024, the first complete draft of my manuscript was ready, but more importantly, I found a publisher in McFarland as part of their "Studies in Gaming" series.  I am so thankful that Matthew Wilhelm Kapell (series editor) and Layla Milholen (executive editor) gave me such early affirmation, and helped guide my book to publication.  Friends, educators, and rollers of the dice, I give you: Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Classroom: Infusing Gameplay into K-12 Instruction!

When I received my author's copies a few weeks ago, I did an "unboxing" video, and perhaps befitting the holiday season we are in, I was once again full of gratitude and thanks.  

My Acknowledgment section is long and full of names, but in this blog entry I'll add one more:  Kalli Colley, a Regional Innovation Specialist with the Kentucky Department of Education.  The first of our Kentucky "Dungeons & Desks" series (which continues!) was in March of this year, well past the point where my manuscript was locked in for copy editing.   Therefore, I was unable to include her in the Acknowledgements, so I'll make that up here.  It's been a joy co-facilitating sessions with Kalli, leading and learning with attendees from Kentucky and beyond about TTRPGs in education.  I'm thankful for her expertise!

And by reading this, thank you.  Over a decade ago, Edtech Elixirs began, and it's the practice of writing thousands of words over 200+ blog entries that gave me the confidence to tackle something as audacious as a book. I hope that Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Classroom is also something you can consider worthy of your time to read -- and inspires you to try some joyful instruction in your own learning spaces.

I'll end with helpful links and information for how you can order your copy:

More info about the book

Print ISBN Number:  9781476697550

eBook ISBN Number:  9781476657905

Direct from Publisher

Amazon (print, ebook)

Barnes & Noble (ebook)

Books-a-Million

I highly recommend special ordering the book via its print ISBN number at your favorite local brick-and-mortar independent bookstore (mine is Carmichael's!).  If you use my Bookshop portal, 10% of sales go to support independent bookstores, and I also earn a small percentage.