Table-Top Role-Playing Games and Therapy
What are Table-Top Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs)?
A Table-Top Role-Playing Game is a game played either in-person or virtually, where one assumes a character and engages in narrative gameplay. Typically, there is a “Game Master” who narrates the world and story and “Players” play a character they help bring to life through roleplay! The Game Master brings the story to life with vibrant descriptions, colorful characters, and creative worldbuilding. Players interact by role-playing in the world and cooperate to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, and explore the world and themselves. Rules vary for each type of game, but you can count on making dice rolls and problem-solving!
What Does a Therapeutic TTRPG Look Like?
While every Game Master has their own approach to integrating therapeutic techniques into TTRPGs, the most popular use is to strengthen social skills, organizational/ADHD coping skills, behavioral activation for Depression and Anxiety, Exposure and Response Prevention, and ACT skills. By engaging in a TTRGP therapy group, interventions may look like facing your trauma through roleplaying or exposures; build self-esteem and confidence that's been bogged down by Depression or Anxiety by achievement; or learn ACT skills such as Cognitive Defusion and Self-as-Context when confronted with difficult choice points. This is not an exhaustive list of interventions you might see, but some of the most common uses of TTRPGs in therapy. Your Game Master will plan interventions or a campaign unique to the needs of the group and players.
What Does the Research Say?
While using TTRPGs for therapeutic purposes is still being researched, they show great promise for promoting psychosocial and cognitive skills, as well as complement treatment for depressive symptoms, social anxiety, and autism (Yuliawati et al., 2024).