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Offers a focal point in lessons integrating the four skills. Gives experienced teachers fresh ideas, and less experienced teachers lots of practical support.
This study takes an analytical approach to the world of role-playing games, providing a theoretical framework for understanding their psychological and sociological functions. Sometimes dismissed as escapist and potentially dangerous, role-playing actually encourages creativity, self-awareness, group cohesion and "out-of-the-box" thinking. The book also offers a detailed participant-observer ethnography on role-playing games, featuring insightful interviews with 19 participants of table-top, live action and virtual games.
Role-play as a Heritage Practice is the first book to examine physically performed role-enactments, such as live-action role-play (LARP), tabletop role-playing games (TRPG), and hobbyist historical reenactment (RH), from a combined game studies and heritage studies perspective. Demonstrating that non-digital role-plays, such as TRPG and LARP, share many features with RH, the book contends that all three may be considered as heritage practices. Studying these role-plays as three distinct genres of playful, participatory and performative forms of engagement with cultural heritage, Mochocki demonstrates how an exploration of the affordances of each genre can be valuable. Showing that a player’s engagement with history or heritage material is always multi-layered, the book clarifies that the layers may be conceptualised simultaneously as types of heritage authenticity and as types of in-game immersion. It is also made clear that RH, TRPG and LARP share commonalities with a multitude of other media, including video games, historical fiction and film. Existing within, and contributing to, the fiction and non-fiction mediasphere, these role-enactments are shaped by the same large-scale narratives and discourses that persons, families, communities, and nations use to build memory and identity. Role-play as a Heritage Practice will be of great interest to academics and students engaged in the study of heritage, memory, nostalgia, role-playing, historical games, performance, fans and transmedia narratology.
Updated to reflect the changing (and increasing) use of role play to reinforce learning both at school and work, this text also now incorporates advice on the use of computers in training and educational role-plays. All the practical tips are based on a firm theoretical basis.
Role-play simulations are a popular method for active learning in business education. Instructors in a variety of business disciplines use role-plays to facilitate student engagement and promote more dynamic class environments. In this book, the authors provide instructors of all experience levels with frameworks for understanding role-play simulations and implementing them in their classes.
Role play, or simulation, techniques are used as important tools in many contexts and disciplines, including research, psychotherapy, organizational change and education. Role play is generally characterized as a method to approximate real life' experiences in certain settings, yet the results can be disappointing due to lack of knowledge and understanding of the techniques involved. Amply illustrated through helpful and practical vignettes, this wide-ranging volume provides an explanation of role play theory and practice. Readers are shown how role play differs from other experimental or therapeutic techniques, and are introduced to the key requirements of good technique. The author does not offer a recipe book of solutions, but surveys the literature to offer a solid theoretical grasp of the subject.
This handbook collects, for the first time, the state of research on role-playing games (RPGs) across disciplines, cultures, and media in a single, accessible volume. Collaboratively authored by more than 50 key scholars, it traces the history of RPGs, from wargaming precursors to tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons to the rise of live action role-play and contemporary computer RPG and massively multiplayer online RPG franchises, like Fallout and World of Warcraft. Individual chapters survey the perspectives, concepts, and findings on RPGs from key disciplines, like performance studies, sociology, psychology, education, economics, game design, literary studies, and more. Other chapters integrate insights from RPG studies around broadly significant topics, like transmedia worldbuilding, immersion, transgressive play, or player–character relations. Each chapter includes definitions of key terms and recommended readings to help fans, students, and scholars new to RPG studies find their way into this new interdisciplinary field.
Fully updated to reflect the changing (and increasing) use of role play to reinforce learning both at school and work, this seminal work has now been adapted to incorporate advice on the use of computers in training and educational role-plays. Packed with practical tips yet firmly fixed upon a sound theoretical basis the book provides an ideal introduction to the topic. This book describes the full range of role-play methods available, offering tips about the advantages and limitations inherent in them. The author challenges readers to look beyond their current practice and examines other and sometimes better ways which may be more suited to the particular task at hand.
