Embodied Learning Through Role-Playing
By Dakota Hinchman
The Turmoil in Thudor team has worked hard to provide a unique experience that is accessible to anyone regardless of their experience with Dungeons & Dragons. One of the main reasons for this is because the issues we’re discussing, the polarizing nature of politics and the difficulty of having civil debates around it, reach far beyond the tabletop role-playing game audience. Our team chose Dungeons & Dragons because we saw the potential for it as a learning medium—specifically through embodied learning.
Embodied learning is a form of learning that involves engaging more than the intellectual mind when teaching. For instance, if someone is tossing a beach ball back and forth while answering multiple choice questions—that would count as embodied learning. You’ve engaged both the mind and the physical body. Embodied learning can also focus on feelings such as empathy, and other mental factors that aren’t traditionally considered part of education.
Turmoil in Thudor was designed to encourage embodied learning through role-play. Using our character background generator, players receive a faction affiliation, a core belief, and a leverage. Everything else pertaining to the character is left for the player to come up with. Ideally, a player will consider the background traits they’ve been given by the generator and think critically about what they mean regarding their character’s personality, upbringing, and other beliefs. What would their character feel about a particular issue? Would they value justice over loyalty or freedom over security, for example? We want players to rationalize their character’s core belief—even if said belief may not align with their own outside the game. With this, the player can come closer to understanding and articulating their character’s beliefs, emotions, and logic.
During the debates and negotiations, players will also have more opportunities to think about their character and the choices they can make. Some debates will involve a topic that has little to do with a character’s core belief or background—the player will have to make a decision based on what they feel the character would do. Similarly, an adventure may leave a character shaken and perhaps the player may feel the core belief they once held may no longer apply or may not apply in certain instances. Contradictions, changes, and developments are all wonderful things to explore in role-play and as long as the players are conscious of their choices and are always asking themselves, “Is this what my character would do?”
Embodied learning remains crucial to this entire piece because it is what allows the players to develop skills that can promote healthy, civil discussions in a low-stakes environment. Taking what they can learn in the one-shot we provided, or any game inspired by Turmoil in Thudor, we hope players might walk away with a better understanding of how to compromise and articulate what they value, as well as receiving and empathizing with those who hold ideas different than our own.
To learn more about how a DM can facilitate the conversation before, during, and after a game to better ensure players have some takeaways and things to think about from this one-shot, check out our article, “How to Run a Turmoil in Thudor Game.”