Play RPGs To Unlock This UX Design Superpower
(It’s workshopping)
First, a confession. I am not a genius UX designer, or even a genius game designer. I have no special talent at coming up with ideas for games or products, no hidden design knowledge that others don’t have. I’m not even especially good at most games, and as a visual designer, I stink!
So how is it that that I am able to design incredible games and playful interventions that change behavior, generate valuable data, teach vital skills, and literally save lives?
I’ve spent years developing simple process skills.
The particular skill I want to touch on in this article is workshop design and facilitation, the one I consider my superpower. If I do have a talent that sets me apart from other designers, this is it. I’ve been using workshops as a central component of my design methodology for as long as I’ve *had* a design methodology.
One day, I was running a workshop, something I’ve done many times before, and everything was really gelling. We were generating great outputs, one thing logically flowed to the next, and by the end we’d created a solid data set and plan for the future. But all day, something about it felt, well, familiar. Like something else I’d done before. Then it hit me: running the workshop was just like playing a tabletop roleplaying game.
By now, almost everyone on earth is familiar with RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons. And most of us are at least aware that there are other, more modern games, in the same general ballpark as D&D. It happens that I love to play these modern roleplaying games, and in my spare time I also design them. This has given me a good deal of insight into storytelling procedures. But even I was surprised when I realized that running workshops was almost the exact same thing.
How is this possible? It’s because of the nature of RPGs themselves. Like a workshop, they require people to gather around a table in a semi-private space. They utilize sets of rules and procedures: in RPGs, it’s game mechanics and in workshops, exercises. Both generate outputs. In RPGs they are scenes, stories, and encounters. In workshops it’s data. Both have a flow and a shape, starting with setup, moving into play (or work), then analyzing data before proceeding, and both require intense concentration, fast ideation, and well-developed improvisation skills. Both hinge on a key way of being human: listening and giving back.
Get good at playing and especially running TTRPGs, and you will become better at workshops.
You could stop reading here and go play some roleplaying games to practice these skills and become a better designer and facilitator of workshops. You wouldn’t need a single other bit of instruction. Get good at playing and especially running TTRPGs, and you will become better at workshops. But if you’re curious about exactly how this happens and specific games to try to build your skills, then come with me on a little journey.
In the remainder of this article will list some of the best modern RPGs for you to play to build your skills, call out the specific competencies they will help you train, and explain how.
Skill: Listening
RPG: Apocalypse World
I mention Apocalypse World here because it started an entire movement in RPG with a different way of playing. But you could actually play any of the so-called “powered by the apocalypse” or PBTA games out there and get the same effect.
In these games, instead of saying they use an ability on their character sheet, players just say what they do and the game master tells the player what they need to roll (if anything) and then what happens.
This requires careful listening. Also, unlike many other games where a roll means a success or failure, in PBTA games, most rolls create situations that must be interpreted. For instance, if a player says they hot wire a car and drive off, and rolls a mixed success (the most common outcome in the game) the GM must decide what that means. Maybe they drive off and then realize there’s a baby in the car. Maybe the car loudly backfires and draws attention. But it boils down to “OK, you said this, so therefore, that.”
This is very similar to workshopping when people are following the procedures of exercises and sharing their thoughts. It’s not enough to just record the thoughts, they must be interpreted and built upon. But most importantly, a good facilitator is always, always listening to what the participants say, and pulling out the bits that need to be unpacked and built upon.
Skill: Improvisation
RPG: Fiasco
“Fiasco” is a game that simulates capers gone wrong, similar to Coen Bros films like Fargo. In Fiasco, there are almost no dice rolls that determine the outcomes of events. Instead, players generate scenes through improvisation, using standard improv rules like “Yes, and.”
But there’s more to “Yes, and” than agreeing and then saying something else. I’ve seen many Fiasco scenes go nowhere because the improvisers don’t realize that your “and” needs to actually move the scene forward. Coming up with a good idea quickly is difficult and takes practice. This is why many workshops tend to sputter out and ideas get left forgotten and unaddressed.
We are often told to “yes, and” each other in workshops so that people feel validated and included, but it’s not just about feelings, it’s about taking people’s ideas and outputs and turning them into useful data. This is the skill you will build by playing games like Fiasco.
Skill: Ideation
RPG: The Quiet Year
The Quiet Year is a stunning game that is played using a slim deck of playing cards. Each card holds a prompt that players will use to add information to a blank slate that is their community and its story in the intervening year between cataclysmic events.
On a player’s turn, they draw a card. It might say something like, “Outsiders arrive in the area. How many? How are they greeted?” Then, the players need to answer those questions in a way that creates an interesting narrative that builds on what came before it.
Brainstorming is a deceptively difficult task, but not for the reason most people think. I’ve seen all kinds of brainstorming techniques: group, individual, team, ones based on random word generators, and ones based on absolutely nothing but a blank page and your own thoughts. The best designed brainstorms have good prompts to get participants thinking and creating. “The Quiet Year” not only gives great examples of prompts, it presents wonderful opportunities to practice creating and evaluating ideas.
If a player answers the question from paragraph two above with, “It’s two outsiders, they’re women and they’ve traveled a long way,” another player might add “And they’re sick,” or “What if they were actually a mother and a daughter?” These are ways of building on others’ ideas and also evaluating them, but in an affirming way.
Skill: Writing Prompting Questions
RPG: Dread
If you’ve heard of Dread, you probably know it as “the horror game that uses the Jenga tower.” But I want to talk about the other amazing game mechanic of Dread, and that’s the Questionnaire. In Dread, instead of filling out a character sheet with stats and abilities, each player answers 13 questions about their character in plain english in order to create an interesting, three-dimensional character that the players’ can picture in horror scenarios.
But the questions aren’t boring ones like, “What’s your favorite color?” They’re juicy, leading questions, like, “Why are are you angry at your sister?”
Questions like these add information. You have a sister now. You are angry at her.
But the player decides what this means. Maybe she borrowed 20 bucks and hasn’t paid you back (no big deal), or maybe she turned your entire family against you. Or maybe the answer is, “Because I’m petty.”
Often when I design workshops, I have to write questions like these that get people talking and creating useful outputs. This could be for a brainstorm, or an exercise like SNAP that is designed to surface insights. But writing proper prompts is key. For instance, “What are the most important ports in the Caribbean,” will give you outputs you could have just looked up yourself. But, “Why is it hard to build maritime infrastructure in the Caribbean?” will yield very interesting and diverse answers.
Creating character questionnaires in “Dread” can give you practice with this skill, so your prompts will lead participants to productive and unexpected answers.
Skill: Program Design
RPG: Steven Universe RPG
OK, I’ve allowed myself one game that I myself designed for this list. It’s the “Steven Universe RPG,” a game I created based on the Cartoon Network series. It’s a free, fan work that I do not profit from.
It’s based on a game called “Swords Without Master” that is highly improvisational. “Swords Without Master” utilizes phases of play where different interactions can happen, and “Steven Universe” is the same in that respect.
Where it differs, is that my game has a five-act structure that strongly resembles both the narrative of a typical episode and a well-designed workshop.
In each act, there is a specific procedure with prompts and responses. An Act does not end until a certain output is generated. Then, you use that output to begin the next Act. So Act 1 might establish a problem and then Act 2 shows how the characters begin to resolve it, and Act 3 reveals the reason why those attempts fail, and so on.
The important bit here is that each unit flows into the next. A good workshop is the same. Having five discrete bits of data is nice, but if the data from the first module is transformed into something useful by the fourth module, you’ve created data that can actually be used. Thinking about workshop design in this way is the difference between an amateur and a professional.
Skill: Understanding Power and Privilege
RPG: Dog Eat Dog
It’s a tall order to expect a game to explain power and privilege, but if any game does it, it’s Dog Eat Dog. The game, written about colonialism, uses roleplaying procedures to show how imperialist attitudes infect and destroy the colonized, and the real impact that these toxic ideas have on individuals and societies.
One of the most genius aspects of the game is laying bare the difference in power and privilege in its players. Not only does it ask that the player with the most wealth (in real life!) play as the colonists, necessitating an uncomfortable conversation about privilege, it then gives that player, through this role, almost unquestioned power over the others. It asks, requires, them to behave in brutal ways to fulfill their game role.
One of the dirty truths of human-centered design is that there is a massive difference in power and privilege between designers and the humans they are “centering” their designs around. Playing a game like “Dog Eat Dog” can help you become familiar with that dynamic and the problems it creates in a relatively safe way. If it helps instill a sense of righteous indignation, all the better.
Go Play!
These are just a few examples of games you can use to hone your skills as a workshop designer and facilitator. You don’t have to play these ones, but I do recommend you play *something*. You will be glad you did, and so will the participants of your next workshop.
