Throughout the emergency distance learning era of the COVID19 pandemic, Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs) achieved new heights of popularity with players all around the world (Abadía, 2021 November 30) often due to the ubiquity of remote meeting software also used for classes during this continuing era. Seeing the potential of a worldwide hobby that gives Japanese university students a vehicle for practicing their language ability with native and non-native speakers of English in a fun and creative way, the presenter began a TTRPG club at a language support center at a large university in Tokyo. The club used an open table approach (Alexander, 2016 August 15) during six sessions over the period of two semesters of the academic year. This presentation will describe the purposes, materials, and participants of the club as part of a descriptive case study (Yin, 2018). The presenter evaluated the club with short surveys given after several club sessions (n=8) and a small focus group interview with students who participated actively in the club. Survey results showed that students positively responded to playing TTRPGs at the center and intended to continue participating. Themes which arose in the qualitative data included (a) the complexity of the TTRPG rule set, (b) student understanding of the benefits of playing a TTRPG, and (c) the alignment of club participation between student and university schedules. The presenter will also describe how the TTRPG club is being integrated with the Extensive Reading program concurrently offered by the center. (247 words)

References

Abadía, T. (2021a, November 30). Why No RPG Company Truly Competes with Wizards of the Coast. The Alphastream Game Design Blog. https://alphastream.org/index.php/2021/11/30/why-no-rpg-company-truly-competes-with-wizards-of-the-coast/

Alexander, J. (2016, August 15). Open Table Manifesto. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/38643/roleplaying-games/open-table-manifesto

Yin, R. K. (2018). Case study research and applications: Design and methods (Sixth edition). SAGE.