While role-playing games are great at turning abstract content into choices with consequences, the catch, of course, is time. Designing and creating a quality simulation is a great deal of work, with scenario writing, role design, rules, pacing, assessment, and debriefing. Thankfully, faculty don't need to design a game from scratch to get the benefits of gameful active learning. You can just choose from a growing number of classroom-ready games, with the hard parts already done—including role sheets, facilitation guides, and (in many cases) assessment support.
Below is a short list of games that you can adopt with minimal prep. These role-plays work best in face-to-face or hybrid classrooms.
Fast, current-events role-play: CFR Education simulations
If you want a simulation you can run in a single class session without weeks of setup, the Council on Foreign Relations' education simulations are built for exactly that. Their mini simulations are often around an hour, and can be scaled up or down depending on your schedule.
What makes these especially faculty-friendly is the scaffolding. Many simulations include Roles & Goals sheets (who's in the room, what each role wants, what they can plausibly do), and the facilitation guidance is explicit about how to establish the meeting structure. CFR also offers extended simulations that can run for days or weeks, with supporting materials like background readings and assignments.
Even outside political science, the core mechanics—briefing, constrained decision-making, persuasion, collaboration—transfer well to courses that emphasize argument, ethics, policy, leadership, or communication.
Pro tip: Use a short simulation as a capstone for a unit by assigning roles at the end of one class, having students prep a short position memo, then running the simulation in the next meeting and basing grades on a post-sim reflection.
The classic higher-ed role-play ecosystem: Reacting to the Past
Reacting to the Past (RTTP) is one of the most widely adopted role-playing games in higher education, and it's built around the simple premise that students learn by inhabiting a historical (or historically rooted) conflict and arguing their way through it. In RTTP, students are assigned character roles with associated goals. The class sessions are largely run by students, with an instructor guiding and assessing written and oral work.
The range of topics is impressive and continues to grow, with the Reacting Consortium housing over 90 games spanning disciplines, places, and eras. RTTP also has a strong onboarding culture, offering workshops and conferences where instructors can learn by playing the games first, which lowers the adoption barrier for faculty new to role-play pedagogy.
RTTP games are incredibly "plug-and-play" because they come with structured materials like student books, instructor guides, and role sheets, plus a community of practice that helps faculty avoid reinventing the wheel.
Pro tip: Not every course can spare weeks for a full Reacting title and some may want to try something new without investing too deeply. Consider RTTP's shorter formats (including games designed for fewer class periods) when you want the pedagogy without a full unit takeover.
Conflicts in Chemistry (Science History Institute)
The Science History Institute's Conflicts in Chemistry role-playing games are built as debates with competing perspectives. They're explicitly designed to be student-centered and classroom-ready, with everything you need to facilitate discussion about science-in-society issues. During these sessions, students are using chemical knowledge to argue about policy, industry, environment, and social impact, instead of just recalling chemistry facts.
If you're feeling inspired to create your own simulation after playing these in your class, you can get a sense of what to expect from our Student Voice article.
International Particle Physics Outreach Group game collection
The International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) resources portal includes a surprising number of classroom games, such as board games, escape games, and other gameful learning artifacts. This can be a goldmine for STEM faculty seeking hands-on play with complex topics.
For example, if you're teaching technology ethics or governance, science policy, or international relations of emerging tech, you may want to check out the Quantum Diplomacy Game. It's an immersive role-play designed to raise awareness of the geopolitical implications of quantum computing and the negotiation and diplomacy challenges around access and governance.
Poverty Simulations
Poverty simulations, and most games that teach empathy, are designed to simulate constraint and stress to build understanding of systemic barriers. Indiana University Kokomo has run poverty simulations as experiential learning, explicitly framing them as a way for students (including future educators and healthcare professionals) to gain insight into day-to-day struggles.
Pro tip: While games for empathy can be powerful tools, they require trauma-informed facilitation and a comprehensive debrief. The learning doesn't come solely from the game experience. The complete experiential learning journey requires unpacking systems, assumptions, and policy realities afterward.
Searching through Canvas Commons
If your keywords are fairly unique, you may be able to find gameful activities in Canvas Commons. Of course, it may take a bit of luck, and you will need to ensure that the content is accessible after importing. But you will have a foundation to work from. One example from Canvas Commons is a role-play for freshmen who are learning about the meaning of life called Philosophy Quest! A Fantasy Role-Playing Introduction to Philosophy.
Starting from a solid foundation
You will notice that many instructors who are using gameful strategies in their classrooms started with an off-the-shelf product. This is a perfectly normal place to start your own adventure in this space, and a great way to get ideas for how to make these experiences better. The more exposure you have to different approaches, the easier it is to determine what works for you, your subject matter, and your students. Eventually, instead of fitting an activity into your course, it will become a natural part of your students' learning experience.
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