Discovering Your True Selves Through Analog Role-Playing

This course will explore the potential for psychological growth through analog role-playing games (RPGs). These games involve spontaneous, improvisational co-creation in which participants enact characters in a fictional world. These characters can be quite similar to their self-concept or distinct. Such play allows for a process of group individuation to occur, in which players participate in a form of active imagination and engage with archetypal content through their characters, the stories, and their interactions with others. This playfulness takes place inside what is often called the “magic circle” of play, in which players have permission to experiment with different ways of being, behaving, and relating.

Whether these games take place in leisure, educational, or therapeutic settings, these spaces can become transformational containers from which players can distill insights leading to lasting personal and social change. This potential is increasingly explored by therapists and educators working with tabletop, freeform, and live action role-playing games. This series will discuss archetypal engagement woven into the design of several of games, including archetypes such as the Sage, the Witch, the Trickster, the Divine, and the Mother. We will also explore the types of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills that role-playing games can practice.

What you will Receive:

• 4 Live Webinar Sessions with Q & A
• 4 Links to the Recordings
• 4 CECs

This Course is Ideal If:

You are interested in:

• Storytelling, narrative, and co-creativity
• Identity and relationship exploration through play
• Imaginative play as a form of group active imagination and individuation
• Engagement with archetypes
• Working with specific populations on personal and social development
• Skill building in leisure, educational, and/or therapeutic contexts

Course Overview:

Week 1: The Transformative Potential of Role-playing Games

We will discuss the transformative potential in analog role-playing games to help catalyze processes of change. We will connect role-playing games to “cousin” forms of creative expression such as fiction writing, improvisational theatre, and psychotherapeutic role-play. We will introduce role-playing game theory, including concepts such as alibi, bleed, immersion, identity, ritual, and safety. We will discuss processes for creating transformative containers of play that support exploration and facilitate integration of insights into everyday life.

1. Introduction to role-playing games
2. Cousin forms of transformative play
3. Transformative role-playing game design theory and depth psychology
   1. Alibi
      1. Persona
   2. Bleed
      1. Ego bleed
   3. Immersion
      1. Active imagination
   4. Identity
      1. Individuation
   5. Ritual
   6. Group active imagination/individuation
4. Safety
5. Integration practices
6. Q&A

Week 2: Identity and Interpersonal Transformation through Role-playing Games

We will explore how role-playing games allow for exploration of identity and engagement with the personal and collective unconscious, including archetypes and the Shadow. We will discuss the concepts of active imagination and individuation through a group lens, considering how imaginative enactment within a community might contribute to both individual and collective processes. We will consider psychological and counselling theories relevant to role-playing games, including narrative therapy, internal family systems, family constellations, person-centered approaches, transactional analysis, and others. We will then discuss how role-playing games can enhance existing modalities by providing an accessible and engaging mode of collaborative exploration.

1. Introduction to role-playing games and identity
2. Identity theories and therapeutic modalities
3. Role-playing and the personal and collective unconscious
   1. Archetypal play
   2. Shadow work
4. Personal and group active imagination and individuation
5. Q&A

Week 3: Archetypal Exploration and Individuation through Narratives in Role-playing Games

We will discuss specific archetypes in detail and their potential for empowering players, including the Hero, Sage, the Witch, the Trickster, the Divine, and the Mother. We will investigate Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey from the perspective of role-playing games, including the positive benefits of such story arcs and also relevant critiques in the current discourse. As role-playing characters are often considered “heroes in their own story” through the first-person subjective experience of play, we will discuss how narrative structures in RPGs can reproduce, but also challenge norms about traditional storytelling.

1. Role-playing games and depth psychology
2. Narratives and myth in role-playing games
   1. Narrative therapy and identity work
   2. Mythic engagement
   3. Drama Triangle and Empowerment Triangle
3. Archetypal enactment in role-playing games
   1. The hero and monomyth
      1. Benefits
      2. Critiques
   2. Archetypes of the feminine
      1. The Mother
      2. The Witch
   3. Archetypes of divinity, shapeshifting and wisdom-bearing
      1. The Divine
      2. The Sage
      3. The Trickster
4. Personal and group active imagination and individuation
   1. Archetypal integration work
5. Q&A

Week 4: Shadow Work in Role-playing Games

We will explore ways in which the personal and collective Shadow are explored through role-playing games. We will discuss several themes that often emerge through play. Some players

experience loss, violation, and/or trauma through their characters, while others exert power over others. Players are often able to portray undesirable personality traits in-character and express mental health challenges. Interpersonally, role-playing games allow participants to explore dysfunctional or maladaptive social dynamics. We will discuss some of the risks associated with Shadow play, as well as the potential benefits if such experiences are thoroughly processed and integrated through Shadow work.

1. Role-playing games and Shadow work
2. Examples of personal and collective consciousness in RPGs
3. Examples of personal and collective unconscious in RPGs
4. Shadow work in role-playing games
   1. Experiencing loss, violation, and/or trauma
   2. Exerting power over others
   3. Portraying undesirable personality traits
   4. Expressing mental health challenges
   5. Exploring dysfunctional or maladaptive social dynamics
5. Shadow work risks
6. Integration
7. Q&A

By the End of This Course You Will Be Able To: (Feel free to use bullets)

• Identify basic terminology in transformative role-playing game theory
• Connect role-playing games with other imagination, play, and narrative-based methods
• Reflect upon the potential of role-playing enactment to contribute to processes of personal and social change
• Understand how archetypal engagement and Shadow work through role-playing games can contribute to a more balanced psyche
• Conceptualize how group active imagination and individuation processes might unfold through play
• Consider how transformative role-playing games might be useful in your own leisure, educational, or therapeutic settings

CEC Objectives:

• Participants will be able to compare role-playing games with five other imagination, play, and narrative-based methods
• Participants will be able to identify the potential of role-playing enactment contribute to at least three processes of personal and social change at the cognitive, affective, and behavioral level
• Participants will be able to identify how four concepts — archetypal engagement. Shadow work, group active imagination, and individuation through role-playing games — can contribute to a more balanced psyche
• Participants will be able to identify transformative role-playing games principles to at least one of their own leisure, educational, or therapeutic settings

Course Addendums:

Bibliography, Reading List, PDFs, Creative Prompts/Reflective Questions, Films to Watch

Baird, Josephine, Sarah Lynne Bowman, and Kjell Hedgard Hugaas. 2022. “Liminal Intimacy: Role-playing Games as Catalysts for Interpersonal Growth and Relating.” In The Magic of Games, edited by Nikolaus Koenig, Natalie Denk, Alexander Pfeiffer, and Thomas Wernbacher, 169-171. Edition Donau-Universität Krems.

Bastarrachea Magnani, Miguel Angel In press. “The RPG Self: Bleed, Constellation, and Consent.” International Journal of Role-playing 16.

Bastarrachea Magnani, Miguel Angel. 2023. “A Coin with Two Sides: Role-Playing Games as Symbolic Devices.” International Journal of Role-Playing 13: 57-67.

Beltrán, Whitney “Strix.” 2012. “Yearning for the Hero Within: Live Action Role-Playing as Engagement with Mythical Archetypes.” In Wyrd Con Companion Book 2012, edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman and Aaron Vanek, 89-96. Los Angeles, CA: Wyrd Con, 2012.

Beltrán, Whitney “Strix.” 2013. “Shadow Work: A Jungian Perspective on the Underside of Live Action Role-Play in the United States.” In Wyrd Con Companion Book 2013, edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman and Aaron Vanek, 94-101. Los Angeles, CA: Wyrd Con.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2010. The Functions of Role-playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems, and Explore Identity. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2012. “Jungian Theory and Role-playing Immersion.” In Immersive Gameplay: Essays on Participatory Media and Role-Playing, edited by Evan Torner and William J. White, 31-51. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2017. “Active Imagination, Individuation, and Role-playing Narratives.” Tríade: Revista de Comunicação, Cultura e Midia 5, no. 9: 158-173.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2023. “The Epiphany Experiment: Role-playing for Personal Transformation.” In Fictional Practices of Spirituality I: Interactive Media, edited by Felix Schniz and Leonardo Marcato, 23-52. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2024. “Finding the Self in Role-playing Games: Weaving Myth, Narrative, and Identity.” Media Practice and Education (March 2).

Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2024. “Immersion and Shared Imagination in Role-Playing Games.” In The Routledge Handbook of Role-playing Game Studies, edited by José P. Zagal and Sebastian Deterding, 393-408. London: Routledge.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne, and Andreas Lieberoth. 2024. “Psychology and Role-playing Games.” In The Routledge Handbook of Role-playing Game Studies, edited by José P. Zagal and Sebastian Deterding, 261-279. London: Routledge.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne, and Karen Schrier. 2024. “Players and Their Characters in Role-playing Games.” In The Routledge Handbook of Role-Playing Game Studies, edited by José P. Zagal and Sebastian Deterding. Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne, and Josefin Westborg, eds. 2024. Role-playing Games for Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations. CIRCUS Interdisciplinary Insights, Uppsala University.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne. In press. “Games of Personal Horror: Shadow Work and Role-playing Experiences.” In Monstrosity in Games and Play: A Multidisciplinary Examination of the Monstrous in Contemporary Cultures, edited by Sarah Stang, Mikko Meriläinen, Joleen Blom, and Lobna Hassan. Amsterdam University Press.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne, and Kjell Hedgard Hugaas. In press. “Philosophies of Psychological Safety in Analog Role-playing Game Discourses.” International Journal of Role-playing 16.

Hugaas, Kjell Hedgard. 2024. “Bleed and Identity: A Conceptual Model of Bleed and How Bleed-Out from Role-Playing Games Can Affect a Player’s Sense of Self.” International Journal of Role-Playing 15 (June): 9-35.

Page, Craig. 2014. “Playing With Myth: Applying Mythic Imagination to Live Action Role-Play.”  In Wyrd Con Companion Book 2014, edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman, 60-67. Los Angeles, CA: Wyrd Con.

Creative prompts:

• If you were to play a character that you admire, what qualities or abilities would they have?
• If you were to play a character that has traits opposite to your own, what qualities or abilities would they have?
• If you were to play a character that has traits from the collective Shadow, what qualities or abilities would they have?