"I don’t have too much experience with aging" : Methods for more impactful time skips in role playing games

Abstract: This study used a research through design method to examine time in roleplaying games, particularly with regards to the emotional impact of time skips as affected by various mechanical and narrative factors. The design in question drew from prior work in games, films, and other narrative works with time skips, based on the assumption that time skips can have a great emotional impact, but that impact may be lesser or greater depending on how it is handled. I based the design on a theoretical framework which suggested that roleplaying games would be more impactful given a deep immersion into the reality of the gameworld, and specifically a sense that time’s passage in the gameworld realistically reflected the way humans experience time in the real world. As such, the game was built to reflect specific theories regarding the human processes of memory and aging. The tabletop roleplaying game ran over the course of three 2.5-hour sessions over several weeks, with three participants roleplaying pre-built characters who aged with the time skip that occurred between sessions. Following the final session, I moderated a focus group interview to collect data about the emotional impact of the experience. Generally, the game did have a profound emotional impact. I found that the most impactful game elements were those which highlighted change on several levels; in particular, mechanics and narrative moments which emphasized character growth – or losses which characters had undergone – were very effective. Though this study used a tabletop roleplaying game as its medium, the design was built to be general enough that certain findings could be tested with other mediums as well, which I explore in the discussion section.