KyEdRPG Spotlight: Teaching Science Through TTRPGs with Cara Rupp

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

Students from Cara Rupp's classroom designing a game.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

View this post on Instagram

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

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!

 

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.