Reading Sage: The Writer's Journey: Using Tabletop RPGs to Teach Nonfiction Craft

The world of tabletop gaming offers rich opportunities to engage students in the nonfiction writing process. As the gamemaster, you guide your students on an interactive journey where their choices shape epic stories and conflicts. At key moments, challenge them to take on the role of war correspondent, historian or investigative journalist. Let their creativity flow as they craft nonfiction accounts of the adventures their characters experience.

The journey begins when you invite them to create characters and select their game world. Will they explore a medieval fantasy realm filled with magic and monsters? Or command futuristic super soldiers battling alien hive minds?

If they choose fantasy, describe how their elf ranger, dwarf warrior and human wizard meet in a tavern. A mysterious old man approaches their table, offering a lucrative job for a group of adventurers. Ask them to write the dialog as the man gives them their call to action.

This short vignette allows them to practice scene setting, character development through dialog and advancing a story’s plot.

If they select sci-fi, narrate how battle alarms blare across their spaceship as it comes under attack. Explosions rock the hull as they sprint through smoke-filled corridors to reach their battle mech bay. Ask them to draft this opening scene using vivid sensory details and action-driven prose.

Through this vignette, they learn how to inject immediacy into their writing while mastering technical terminology.

From there, each game session presents new writing opportunities...

The journey continues as you remind them that every choice could lead the story in unpredictable directions. Will their writing drafts document tragedy or triumph? The power lies in their hands.

Here is a glossary of literary elements and how they could be incorporated into the "choose your own adventure" article on using tabletop games to teach nonfiction writing:

Characterization - Describing the backgrounds, personalities, appearance, values and roles of the player characters and non-player characters the students encounter.

Dialogue - Crafting the conversations between the gamemaster, players and NPCs to advance the story and reveal character.

Conflict - Establishing the central conflict, whether defeating an evil wizard, solving a mystery or winning a war. Conflict drives the narrative forward.

Plot - Structuring the key story elements like exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution into an adventure outline. Player choices alter the plot progression.

Setting - Bringing all game locations to life, whether a haunted castle, cyberpunk city or space fleet combat zone. Vivid sensory details establish mood.

Pacing - Interspersing high action dramatic scenes with lower tension character interactions. Varied pacing maintains student engagement.

Theme - Embedding themes related to the student experience like coming of age, moral choices, leadership and sacrifice. Thematic significance elevates the narrative.

Tone - Gamemaster narration and descriptions set an overall tone, from serious to humorous to horrifying. Tone aligns with genre and conflict type.

Imagery - Incorporating figurative language like metaphors and sensory imagery to allow students to visualize each story element. Imagery amplifies emotional impact.

Foreshadowing - Planting clues and subtle hints to alert students about future storyline twists and turns their writing will need to integrate.

Worldbuilding - Creating detailed cultures, governments, religions, technologies and histories to construct an immersive game environment that grounds the narrative in realism.