EPISODE 16: ROLE-PLAY

What this episode covers

Episode 16: Role-Play | 10 March 2026 Stephen and Trent provide a professorial profile of performative play practice in their deconstruction of The Worldbuilding Workshop’s fourteenth chapter, “Role-Play,” including: Separating “role-play” from “simulation”; Inhabiting a character (first-person) vs. observing and analyzing a character (third-person); A brief history of role-play in education; Revisiting life-worlds and questioning what it means to “be in the same room”; Encouraging learners to role-play and reflect in a logically coherent way; Connecting in-character decision-making with real-world decision-making; “Bootstrapping” as an example of contextual complexity vs. overly simplistic reasoning; Thinking critically and empathetically about others’ perspectives; Attending to learners as complicated, changing people; The Ship of Theseus model for our moment-to-moment reconstitution of identity; Using role-play to interrogate stereotypes and essentialisms; Role-play for deconstructing complex systems in corporate environments; Voter ID legislation, drug testing for government benefits, and building a border wall as examples of reductive problem-solving; Good-faith vs. bad-faith argumentation; The “Do”s and “Do Not Do”s of educational role-play; Consent-driven role-play and why you probably shouldn’t position learners as oppressors/oppressed; The importance of debriefing role-play activities to break down power dynamics; Going meta on role-play, memory, and lived experience; How Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal taught commercial airline pilots about critical thinking and empathy via richly authentic, socially collaborative role-play; The critical difference between regurgitating rote information on an exam and demonstrating knowledge through performance; Using role-play to understand everything from sweeping historical events to an individual’s day-to-day decision-making; and Whether the arc of history truly bends toward justice (spoiler: possibly, but only if we bend it). Episode References: Deterding, S. & Zagal, J. P. (Eds.). (2018). Role-playing game studies: Transmedia foundations. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315637532 Morningstar, J. (2009). Fiasco [Tabletop game]. Bully Pulpit Games. Wizards of the Coast. (2014). Dungeons & dragons player’s handbook (5th ed.) [Tabletop game]. Wizards of the Coast. Härenstam, T. (2020). Vaesen: Nordic horror roleplaying [Tabletop game]. Free League Publishing. Howitt, G. & Taylor, C. (2020). Heart: The city beneath [Tabletop game]. Rowan, Rook & Decard. Harmon, D. (Executive Producer). (2013–present). Rick and Morty [TV series]. Harmonius Claptrap; Williams Street. Gilligan, V. (Creator). (2008–2013). Breaking bad [TV series]. Sony Pictures Television. Romero, B. (2009). Train [Board game]. Romero Games. Ferguson, A. (2017, May 26). Texas teachers give 'most likely to become a terrorist' award to 13-year-old. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/05/26/texas-teachers-give-most-likely-to-become-a-terrorist-award-to-13-year-old/ Schönberg, C.-M. (1998). Les misérables [Musical score/Script]. Alain Boublil Music; Hal Leonard. Orwell, G. (1949). 1984. Secker & Warburg. Fielder, N. (Writer/Director). (2026). The rehearsal [TV series]. Distraction Inc.; HBO. White Wolf Entertainment. (2018). Vampire: The masquerade (5th ed.) [Tabletop game]. White Wolf Entertainment. Choi, B., Slota, S. T., Lai, B., & Young, M. F. (2015). Influence [Board game]. UConn Two Summers Master’s Program for Educational Technology.

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