MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA PEDAGOGICKÁ FAKULTA Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury

Larp (Live Action Role-Playing) as a Teaching Tool

Diplomová práce

Brno 2013

Vedoucí práce: Autor práce: Ailsa Marion Randall, M.A. Bc. et Bc. Lenka Schormová

Anotace Diplomová práce „Larp (Live Action Role-Playing) as a Teaching Tool“ pojednává o různých typech rolových aktivit využitelných pro výuku. Hlavní důraz je kladen na larp jako na prostředek, který umožňuje pomocí netradičních metod zapojit aktivně žáky do výuky a nabízí jim bezpečné prostředí, ve kterém si mohou prožít různé situace a sledovat, jakým způsobem je mohou svými rozhodnutími ovlivnit. Část práce je věnována hernímu designu, který poskytuje učiteli přehled aspektů, které by měl vzít v pota, když larp připravuje. Důraz je kladen na aspekty, které se dotýkají výuky, jako například vytyčení cílů aktivity a jejich zpětné hodnocení a rozbor s žáky. Pozornost je také věnována bezpečnosti při hře, a to jak po fyzické, tak psychické stránce. Praktická část práce je věnována výzkumu, který se zabývá mírou využití rolových her na různých typech škol a v různých předmětech. Poskytuje přehled důvodů, kterými učitelé podporují využití, popřípadě nevyužití, rolových aktivit ve výuce. V závěru výzkum nabízí stručný přehled toho, do jaké míry jsou učitelé seznámeni s larpem, zda jej považují za využitelnou metodu pro výuku a jestli by měli zájem takovéto aktivity do výuky zařadit, kdyby byly běžně dostupné. Abstract Diploma thesis “Larp (Live Action Role-Playing) as a Teaching Tool” deals with different types of role-playing activities that could be employed in education. Main focus is on larp, which can be seen as a mean which enables through nontraditional methods involve learners actively in the classes and offers them a safe environment in which they can experience different situations and observe how they can influence these situations by their decisions. Part of the thesis is devoted to game design which should provide a teacher with a variety of aspects s/he should take into account when preparing a larp. Emphasized are aspects which are important when using larp as a teaching tool, such as defining the aims of an activity and their evaluation and review with learners. Topic of safety, not only physical, but also psychological is covered in the thesis. Practical part is devoted to research in how much are role-playing activities used at different types of schools and in different subjects. It offers a summary of reasons teacher have for using or not using role-playing in their classes. Last part of the research explores how much are teachers familiar with larp, it they see an educational potential in it and if they would be interested in employing such activities in their classes, if they were easily accessible.

1 Klíčová slova Rolové hry, larp, herní design, reflexe, pedagogické využití larpu

Keywords Role-playing activities, larp, game design, review, pedagogical use of larp

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Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci zpracovala samostatně a použila jen prameny uvedené v seznamu literatury.

V Brně dne 20.4. 2013 Bc. et Bc Lenka Schormová

...... …...... podpis

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I would like to give my thanks to my supervisor Ailsa Marion Randall, M.A. for all her valuable comments and helpful suggestions throughout my work.

4 Contents

INTRODUCTION ...... 7 I. THEORETICAL PART ...... 9 1. TYPES OF ROLE PLAYING ACTIVITIES ...... 9 1.1 ROLE PLAYING EXERCISES ...... 9 1.2 SIMULATIONS ...... 10 1.3 LARP ...... 12 1.4. EDUCATIONAL APPLICATION OF ROLE-PLAYING ACTIVITIES ...... 13 2. LARP ...... 14 2.1 HISTORY OF LARP ...... 14 2.2 FACTORS OF LARP ...... 15 2.3 TYPES OF LARPS ...... 16 2.3.1. Types of larps suitable to use in the classroom ...... 16 2.3.1.1. Chamber larp ...... 16 2.3.1.2. Freeform larps ...... 18 2.3.2 Outdoor larps ...... 19 2.3. EDU-LARP (LARP USED AS A TEACHING TOOL) ...... 20 2.3.1. Edu-larp in the context of curriculum ...... 21 2.3.2. Motivating learners through game ...... 22 2.3.3 Experiential learning ...... 24 2.3.3.1. LARP and experiential learning ...... 25 2.3.4. Larps with educative potential ...... 26 2.3.4.1 Project System ...... 26 2.3.4.2. Misie MDCXLI ...... 28 2.3.4.3 Fat Man Down ...... 31 2.3.4.4 Other larps with educational potential ...... 32 3. LARP DESIGN ...... 34 3.1 DEFINING THE AIMS ...... 34 3.2 DRAMATIC STRUCTURE ...... 35 3.3. CHARACTERS ...... 38 3.4. LARP IN TEN STEPS ...... 40 4. PRESENTING LARPS ...... 41 4.1. SAFETY MECHANISMS ...... 41 4.2. REVIEWING (DEBRIEFING) TECHNIQUES ...... 43 II PRACTICAL PART ...... 46 1. METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH ...... 47 1.2 RESPONDENTS ...... 47 2. EVALUATION OF RESEARCH ...... 50 2.1 USE OF ROLE-PLAYING IN VARIOUS SUBJECTS ...... 50 2.2 WHY TO USE ROLE-PLAYING ...... 53 2.3 DISADVANTAGES OF USING ROLE-PLAYING AND SIMULATIONS IN CLASSES ...... 56 2.4 USE OF LARPS ...... 59 CONCLUSION ...... 64 RESUMÉ ...... 66 SUMMARY ...... 66 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 67 INDEX OF PICTURES ...... 72 INDEX OF GRAPHS ...... 73

5 INDEX OF APPENDICES ...... 74

6 Introduction

Role-playing activities have been part of education inside and outside the classroom for a long time. Various forms of simulations are used in classes to illustrate processes in the society such as elections or court sittings in social studies or market behaviour in economy as well as to experience different non-standard situations in psychology, experiential education and even psychotherapy. In some Nordic schools role-playing became the main teaching tool. Live action role-playing (or larp) in the Czech Republic is at the present time more perceived as an entertainment for adolescents and young adults. However, due to its close relation to experiential education it offers a wide range of topics well adaptable for educational purposes. For the theoretical background of my work I primarily draw the data from collections of texts on larp from the conferences held in the Czech Republic and in the world as well as from texts on experiential education and psychology. The aim of my thesis is to find a border amongst a simulation, role-playing and larp, to describe a variety of live action role-playing activities, their examples and characteristic features as well as possible applications to teaching of different subjects. I would also like to shortly introduce how larp corresponds to the Czech Framework Educational Programme and provide examples of larps applicable as a teaching tool and games which were either created with educational purposes or they could be easily adapted. Another goal is to describe the attributes of larp in terms of experiential education. As a principal part of the work I want to design my own game which should offer reader an accessible parallel to the theory of larp design offered in my thesis. Described game should provide the reader with a clear idea how to use larp in classes and what to be aware of when using it. The topic of the game is chosen from British history. However, apart from the facts, which are in the game introduced as a minor topic, it is predominantly focused on practicing the language and certain structures. I have chosen history because it is possible to assess the pure knowledge of facts as well as broader understanding of the issue in context. It also provides me with an attractive background for the game and pupils might find it useful as British history is usually a part of Maturita exam topics. This game should be fully accessible for teachers interested in trying out such an

7 activity in their class with all the necessary information, texts for characters as well as a manual for the teacher. For teachers interested in using larp in the class I want to offer some important aspects that should be considered when designing such a game. The research itself I would like to focus on the level of use of simulations and role-playing activities in different subjects and what kind of goals teachers usually fulfil through role-playing activities. The data are collected from questionnaires. The respondent group are teachers of different types of schools. For the purpose of my work it is not important whether the activity is held in a foreign language or in Czech. Through my work I would like to demonstrate the differences between traditional learning and learning through the experience and role-playing and to introduce live action role-playing as a helpful teaching tool. The thesis contains a recapitulation of different types of role-playing activities, their analysis and implication for the teaching of different topics. My thesis should encourage teachers to use the role-playing activities and simulations in the classroom on purpose and understand the opportunities they provide in comparison to the simple explanation of the issue, provide them with basic types of these activities with a comprehensive recapitulation of their advantages and disadvantages.

8 I. Theoretical part

1. Types of role playing activities

In this chapter I would like to introduce three groups of role playing activities which will be discussed in my thesis. This division is artificially created for the purpose of this thesis but I hope it can offer a clear insight into the topic. The three terms which will be used in this thesis are role playing exercises, simulations and larp. To create this division following criteria were taken into account: length of an activity, how much the activity reflects real world experience, type of a role participant represents, the aim of the activity, what skills does the activity require and level of improvisation. Through this division I would like to describe the specific aspects of larp, which is the main topic of my thesis, and how it can be beneficial for a teacher and learners.

1.1 Role playing exercises

As it was formerly mentioned, this term and its definition are artificially created for the purpose of the thesis. Role playing exercises are here understood as all types of activities which are used to practice conversational structures and communicative skills, not only in language classes. This type of activity is quite short, usually prepared for smaller group of learners and the participants are given a setting (similar to the real one in which they would use such conversational structures), task and often also a desired structure of the activity. Therefore, the aim of the activity is predominantly to practice, not to learn or discover new things and the level of improvisation is rather low, because the situation does not require it. Role which learner adapts for the activity is very simply described, often well- known from everyday life and there is no necessity to differentiate a character from the player. Usually in these types of activities learners represent themselves and for successful enacting of the role they only need to know the setting and required vocabulary. Role-playing exercises, due to their primary purpose of conversation practice, are not based on process of decision taking and learners do not get possibility to significantly affect or change the situation given in the exercise.

9 Such activities are useful primarily in language classes and they are often provided by the authors of course books as additional materials for teachers. One of the main advantages of these exercises is that teacher has at disposal an activity that is primarily designed to practice the desired topic. On the other hand, if a teacher wants to offer enough conversational exercises, s/he has to create also his/her own activities. To show that role-playing exercises do not necessarily need to be part of only language classes I offer an example of its use in medical studies. Lane et al. (2001) describe advantages of this type of exercise in a following way: “Role play is a technique that allows the exploration and discussion of patient-, process-, and environment-centred skills. This is a small-group exercise where, after reading brief descriptions of the part they are to play, two or three learners simulate a situation before a group of observers. Although the learners are assigned scenarios, much of what they bring to the role play reflects their own response and bias. Role play, therefore, can be a powerful way of self-discovery and self-understanding not only for the simulators but also for the observers who respond to what they see simulated.” (Lane et al., 2001)

1.2 Simulations

Longman dictionary of Contemporary English (2013) defines simulation as “the activity of producing conditions which are similar to real ones, especially in order to test something, or the conditions that are produced.” Business dictionary (2013) defines simulation as “acting out or mimicking an actual or probable real life condition, event or situation... they are gross simplifications of the reality because they include only a few of the real-world factors...” In this thesis as a simulation is understood such kind of activity that enables participant to experience a situation, that is close to the real life conditions. In simulation participant gets an opportunity to watch consequences of his/her decisions in safe environment of simulation. This kind of activity is more focused on processes and sets of events and it should prepare a learner to act more successfully when facing similar situations in real life, as well as to explore how different processes work and which factors influence them. This kind of activity is usually longer, often with time limit and it is structured in order to have a clear output. There are often given conditions under which are the participants in the simulation considered successful or unsuccessful. It is beneficial

10 when the activity offers a feedback to participants where they can evaluate their performance in the activity as well as find solutions to improve results. In this kind of activity level of improvisation is usually high, because participant has to employ all the knowledge and skills s/he has and, even though the activity is usually designed to employ some particular set of skills, it in practice requires more then these. When talking about the role of a participant, there is not usually stressed difference between the player and character – participants represent themselves and act the way they would under the given conditions. This representation of themselves should help the participants to apply their own ideas and opinions in situations where it is safe to make mistakes and explore their consequences; simulations should help the participants to develop their skills, not to discourage them, to evaluate their attitudes and methods and modify them, if necessary. This is what makes feedback so important in such an activity. “Then, the session after the beergame session is called the debriefing session. In this session he data collected during the game play is being presented and discussed. Moreover, the causes of the bullwhip effect - both with regards to the beergame and the real world - are being explored and discussed. Having established the fact that a lack of information sharing, the structure of the supply chain and a lack of collaboration are at the heart of SC coordination problems, the following sessions can then delve into the richness of E-Commerce initiatives and technologies (see course outline). In doing so, all things discussed can be motivated and related back to the beergame experience.” (Riemer, 2012) Simulations can be used in different subjects, there are some simulation games designed to describe supply chains in business (The beer game1), sustainable resource management (Fishbanks2), in classes of Civic education simulations can be used to teach topics like legal system or elections, we can simulate a job interview or mock test to show learners how different exams look like and what to expect. When designing a simulation it is necessary to enable participants to employ their skills and think about the decisions they make. Simulations are usually designed to be participatory activities, where there are more people working on one task, or even though each participant is working on his or her own task, their decisions can influence entire game, which makes

1 www.beergame.org 2 https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/simulations/fishbanks/Pages/fish-banks.aspx

11 simulations close to the real-world experience where the conditions are persistently changing, too. As Lane et al. when talking about simulations in medical training claim: “Simulation offers an alternative to learning with real patients and allows a wide range of skills to be practiced and mastered. Specific learning goals and objectives can be defined, and all learners can successfully fulfil the goals and objectives, because learning takes place using trained instructors in dedicated teaching time rather than patient care time.“ (Lane et al, 2001)

1.3 Larp

Larp in the context of role-playing games up to some extent offers similar experience as simulations do, though it more often works with situations which are more abstract, not so directly connected to real world experience and they often work with social relations and emotions. Falk and Davenport (2004) define larp in a following way: “A live role-playing game is a dramatic and narrative game form that takes place in a physical environment. It is a story-telling system in which players assume character roles that they portray in person, through action and interaction. The game world is an agreed upon environment located in both space and time, and governed by a set of rules – some of which must be formal and quantifiable.” Larp is a kind of activity where participant accepts a role, which is different from what s/he knows from his life. As Jonsson et al. (2006) claim “in larp the primary enjoyment comes from acting like somebody else.” Through the setting larps enable to experience different historic periods, situations and even worlds. In its nature larp is a dramatic activity. Jana Pouchlá (2012) in her talk on Theatrical Larps clearly describes the difference between larp and theatre. In theatre you are touched statically, you are only an observer, in larp one of important aspects is immersion into the game – participant accepts the setting of the game as a reality for the time of the game; s/he lives through the situation his/her character experiences and feels the same feelings as the character, which makes the game experience more real. Second term connected to larp experience is bleed – “the player inherits experiences, feelings and sometime hang-ups from a character” Wieslander (2012). Bleed basically means that the border between the player and the character starts to be

12 unrecognizable as the experience of the player influences his/her character‟s acts or vice versa. Larp is nowadays often perceived as a leisure time activity, but some of the authors also use larp for educational purposes. Larp is not usually focused on use of particular skills, more it emphasizes experiencing the situation and acting according to the role. Therefore one of the aims is to put oneself into different role and experience the situation from different point of view. Aim of the activity and its fulfilling might be retrospectively identified through the feedback process and sharing the experience with other participants. Level of improvisation is very high because participants often enact characters from which their own life experience is distant and they have to deal with situations which they probably do not know from their everyday life. However, this necessity of empathy might offer an interesting experience for the participant. One of the following chapters is also devoted to larp and its different genres.

1.4. Educational application of role-playing activities

As it might be already visible from the basic description of the three groups of role-playing activities I talked about, the easiest to use and prepare are role-playing exercises and through my research I would like to prove that they are also the most used type of these activities. Simulations and larps due to their complexity are more demanding not only on preparation, but also on their introduction to learners and final feedback on the whole activity. Though they offer a very practical tool to visualise the complexity of real life processes and experiences and therefore they should be employed in teaching. Their nature makes them part of experiential education and teacher should work with them in that way, because when s/he is aware of what they offer, what are the purposes of an activity or the message that is to be delivered, s/he might use the tools experiential education offers, such as different ways of feedback, to gain from the activity as much as possible.

13 2. Larp

Even though I described some important features of larp in the previous text (where I focused mostly on how to differentiate it from the other two types of activities), I would like to look at it more closely, not only in terms of terminology and its characteristics, but also in terms of its history, types of larps and ways it is nowadays used. Finally I would like to describe larp in context of education, how it might be included in teaching and how does it correspond with the objectives of education in curricular documents of the Czech Republic.

2.1 History of larp

Word larp describes a phenomenon which appeared in the 1980s in the UK and it spread quite fast all over the world. The name was derived from an abbreviation of Live Action Role Playing. “Modern live action role-playing for leisure and entertainment stems from two origins. There have existed re-enactment groups in the U.K and the U.S. for a long time, focusing on the detailed study and re-enactment of a historical event or time period. One such example is the US-based medieval recreation organization SCA, Society of Creative Anachronism, which was started in 1966. This society has grown to a worldwide organization including over 24,000 paying members and with many more participating in events. The other origin is the development of tabletop role-playing games during the 1970s. In the early 1980s some players, influenced by improvised theatre, started to perform their adventures with their physical bodies in a real surrounding, thereby inventing the current form of larps.” (Söderberg et al., 2009) At the beginning of the 1980s appeared an idea to transform these kinds of narrative games into outdoor activities. As Raasted (2011) claims at first most of the games were inspired by fantastic worlds from literary works as The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and more than actual role playing was emphasized the combat aspect of the game. At the beginning of the 21st century larp had differentiated into different genres and this differentiation continues up to now. Nowadays one of the most popular types of larp are chamber larps which enable players to experience the story in a short time of about one to ten hours.

14 Larps generally work with emotions and it is good to take it into account. There might occur strong immersion into the character and the player really lives through the emotions of the character s/he enacts which usually leads to realization and learning from it.

2.2 Factors of larp

Morten Gade (2001) in his article Factors of larp describes seven basic factors which, as he claims, “should explain what the players want from a larp and what potential larp has”. Not all of these elements necessarily need to be included in every game, more they describe factors that appear up to some extent in most of the games. The first one, and also probably one of the original factors that shaped larp in its beginnings is adrenaline. In the game it is mostly represented by the combat experience but also through emotions. The second factor is fun. This is the basis; no one would invest time into a leisure time activity he or she does not enjoy. Another factor are intrigues, it means the basic conflict and goals each character needs to fulfil during the game, his/her objectives that help the player shape his/her character, its behaviour and relationships, because the relationships are what enables the interaction among the players. Another three factors can be also viewed as those most useful when creating larp for educational purposes. It‟s the personality, which enables each player experience the game from a point of view of a totally different person, and which can be used e.g. to point out different, more or less serious, issues such as xenophobia, disapproval of people of different origin, religion or just opinion. When regarding larp as strictly educational tool, we can use it to reconstruct a historical event, but mostly the historical events are used as a frame of the game and therefore give player more independence and space to act. And history is definitely not the only discipline in which larp can be used to introduce various topics. The factor named “media” also helps larp to carry out a certain message, in this case it is meant as sociological, political or economic one. The last factor is art. If we understand art as something “what is created by artists in moments of inspiration”, larp definitely fits the definition quite well. We can therefore say that larp is a dramatic activity in which players act in different characters to narrate a story together, and which usually carries a message that can be interpreted by the players according to the characters they represent.

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2.3 Types of larps

During more than 40 years of larp development different formats and genres of larp have appeared. In this chapter I would like to describe larp formats I see suitable for use in education, either directly in the classroom, or as a subject to an out-of-school program or school trip.

2.3.1. Types of larps suitable to use in the classroom

Larp is an activity strongly working with imagination and improvisation and if we want to use such an activity as a part of our teaching, we need to consider several factors that should help us choose the most suitable format of a larp. Even though drama education is a part of Framework Educational Programme, schools do not have enough time to employ it efficiently in teaching. Therefore firstly, when wanting to introduce larp as a part of class work, it is good to make it approachable enough for the pupils. Larp is in its nature kind of theatrical performance, even though there is no audience except for the players themselves. Therefore costumes and props might be important to create a desired atmosphere and to help player better immersion into the role. In standard classroom it is difficult to create really authentic atmosphere, though there exist larp formats which work with more abstraction, for example freeform larp. As at school it is difficult to occupy too much space, more suitable format of larp is chamber larp, story of which is usually designed to take place in only one room, which however should be decorated to create the atmosphere. Even though there are several similarities between chamber larp and freeform larp, they are different in the way the game is organized.

2.3.1.1. Chamber larp

Moudrá (2010) in her thesis describes chamber larp as a kind of game usually aimed for smaller number of participants (usually from about five to twenty). Another limiting factor is time; the game is often restricted to about two to ten hours. Gotthard (2012) adds one more important aspect of this type of game – that is dramatic conflict which is in the centre of the game. Nowadays it is difficult to talk about other specific

16 features of chamber larp because due to the development there are many games created on experimental basis. However, one of the features, which usually differs chamber larp from freeform is that game works with Aristotle‟s unity of time, place and plot, i.e. if the game is four hours long it depicts four hours in the lives of the characters. To adapt chamber larp to teaching purposes we can use several larp features. Primarily, it is the way characters are created. In many chamber larps roles are written by the authors before the game in a very detailed way so that they fit into the plot of the game. This approach has several advantages – the author / person who runs the game knows all the characters in detail, therefore s/he can suppose what kinds of conflicts might emerge and lead the players to them on purpose; when the characters are pre- written, it is easy to offer them enough stimuli for the game so that the player, even when not very experienced, will have enough to do and will not get bored. Also, when creating larp for educational purposes, teacher can design roles so that they correspond with the goals he wants to achieve through it, as well as offer a wide scale of different points of view on the subject of the game. Other things teacher can work with are props and costumes. If the topic of the game enables it, it is good to offer the player at least a piece of costume that would well represent the character. It is clear that for some topics it is more difficult to get appropriate props than for others. If we choose historic topic for the game, it will be difficult to get costumes, on the other hand if the game takes place in the contemporary world, players can be asked to keep some dressing code – for a larp from court environment it might be a shirt and a tie for example. As Ericsson (2003) states: “The skill to enter into a state of suspension of disbelief seems to be an ability we all possess, but are also able to develop over time. I have the pleasure to know many people highly skilled at entering into story-worlds at the drop of a hat, but most of us require help to leave our everyday mindset. Games designed for this purpose are one of the most effective ways of achieving this shift in perception. Most larp players I have discussed the subject with agree that consistency between perceived sensory reality (location, props etc.) and diegesis (the game world and backstory) is a powerful tool to make the game engaging and it is often considered aesthetically pleasing in it‟s own right.” Props are also important for the game, because for the players they represent objects they can really use in the game. Props might be essential for the game, for example if we want them to move the story (in this case they can be letters, different

17 newspapers etc.), or if the prop is subject to the game (it is more realistic for player to search for a key to some box which really exists, then to simply imagine it). Props should be also help to players, something that might inspire their acts. Chamber larps do not usually enable significant development of the characters, they more work with conflict of the characters, not only conflicts with others, but often also with inner conflicts. In the game player can also experience the consequences of his decisions or be influenced by the decisions of others.

2.3.1.2. Freeform larps

These kinds of larps are a bit younger than the chamber larps, they appeared as a consequence of a will to offer different way of narration of the story, stronger emotions and they often enable to skip in time, therefore, on one hand they can depict longer period of time in the lives of the characters, on the other hand they also enable to watch consequences of decision making process on a long time scale, and how these decisions might be apperceived after shorter or longer time. Nordic larp wiki describes freeform as “larp-like in the sense that players may move and gesticulate in-character, but are played with only 3-8 players who remain in the same room. Freeforms tend to be strongly narrative, with a game master taking the players from scene to scene. They are usually based on a repeatable, written, scenario.“ Freeform larps are of a similar length as chamber larps, so they don‟t take more than several hours. Costykian (2011) however defines freeform as “a kind of larp, characterized by a minimal rules set and no predetermined outcome.” From these two approaches it can be understood how ambiguous might be an approach to this form. One specific form within a freeform is a jeep form. It “is intended for play by a handful of players in a short period of time, along with one or more gamemasters, who often have roles to play within the jeepform itself. Jeepforms are shaped toward the creation of story rather than „roleplaying for show,‟ and are often designed so that characters emerge over time through play – and often so that the player of a character has only partial input into the nature of his or her character, with both the gamemasters and the other players able to establish things about the character. As a result, they tend to foster wild and rapid improvisational roleplay.” (Costykian 2011) Often these types of games are more strongly scripted, they are divided into scenes and the content of the scenes is given, though the characters can affect the way

18 this content is delivered and sometimes also what will be the result of the particular scene. This can enable teacher or presenter of the game to deliver some knowledge s/he wants to impart through the game. Also, when having an explicit script for each character, what are his/her goals in each scene etc. it is easier for inexperienced player as s/he has not to improvise so much. On the other hand, it is really difficult to write such a larp for a bigger group of people in a way that each character gets enough space for his/her story. Some of the freeform games even work with the fact that one character is played by more players. In freeform larp costumes and props are usually less dealt with. Partly it is because these games work with the topics which are not necessary to be set in a particular time or place (such are relationships), partly it is because the games are ready to work with more abstract concepts and imagination.

2.3.2 Outdoor larps

For the purpose of this thesis I consider outdoor larps as games that take place out of the school environment, not necessarily in the open air. These games, apart from the chamber larp and freeform, can be much longer and work with more active playing in terms of fulfilling the practical tasks, not only discussing the topics. Outdoor larps enable to choose a suitable place to introduce particular topic, make bigger production (involve more players in the game), involve instructed volunteers (characters, that are part of the game, but have more information from the organizer, they might be experienced players that in the beginning help novices to accommodate in the game, they might play some necessary characters in the game with important, but difficult role; they might serve the organizer also as a information channel about the events in the game.) Bryhn, Movold and Raaum (2001) describe a game they designed for a group of thirty ninth graders, which was aimed to introduce topic of the Second World War in the context of their region. To this article I plan to return later when talking about how to design a game for pupils and which factors it is necessary to take into account with this quite a specific age group.

19 2.3. Edu-LARP (LARP used as a teaching tool)

Mainly in Scandinavian countries the potential of LARP was also explored in education. In Denmark Østerskov Efterschole was first school to implement edu-LARP as a general teaching method and their results compared to the other schools in Denmark are above average. Also other teachers are trying to employ LARP in teaching and their experience is very positive, though, teaching through LARPing brings along a lot of issues to consider. “There are many reasons why larp can and should be used for educational purposes. Larp is an adventure from which you can learn – a chance to understand another era. While preparing for a larp, most subjects can be integrated, everything from home economics to geography and maths. This way we can help students see practical uses of these subjects. Larp can also help the students to make up their minds concerning moral and political issues... Playing out another personality helps people learn more about themselves and their limits... Larp is also brilliant way of teaching them teamwork – both in the preparations and during the event.” (Bryhn, Movold, Raaum, 2001) Hyltoft (2008) also supports the idea of cross-subject teaching enabled through larp. “When the teacher is not afraid to waste time covering another teacher’s subject, s/he can cover whatever relevant learning matter expands naturally from the activities of the day in the secure knowledge that another teacher will later cover what may have been lost due to time restrictions. The process covers complex learning matters very effectively pertaining to time and effort, since the subjects are taken up when they feel relevant to the students and within a contextual framework that often makes them easier to remember.“ First of all, there are always three parties involved in edu-LARP – these are the teacher, learners and their parents, whose positive attitude to LARP is vital and all these people need to have enough information about the aims of the LARP, predominantly when we want to organize a game which exceeds the frame of a school lesson and works more with emotional aspects and topics which could not be really psychologically safe. When using edu-LARP in a common class, we need to suppose that almost all the learners are novices in this kind of activity, they will not be experienced in creating interesting situations and also to get to the flow and start to really enjoy the game and

20 fully participate would take them more time. Therefore we either need to modify the format of a game or employ the mechanisms which can help us overcome these difficulties. Bryhn, Movold and Raaum (2001), in their game mapping the situation in Norway during the WWII solved this problem thanks to the instructed volunteers from LARP community who represented some of the characters and therefore offered the organizers insight into the game as well as a tool to intervene if it was necessary. One of the basic tools for a teacher, and now we employ the techniques which experiential education offers, is the review, that is a kind of structured discussion over the experience from the game and issues teacher would like to emphasize. This topic will be also discussed later in my thesis.

2.3.1. Edu-larp in the context of curriculum

In the Czech Framework Educational Programme there are several thematic areas which cannot be fully covered by a single subject but are interwoven into the topics of most of the subjects taught. They are not so important for the knowledge itself, more they are related to contemporary issues and prepare the pupil practically for a life in our world and society. There are six thematic areas in Framework Educational Programme mentioned – Personal and Social Education, Democratic Citizenship, Education towards Thinking in European and Global Contexts, Multicultural Education, Media Education and Environmental Education. All of these topics can be discussed in most of the subjects taught, some of them are very closely related to teaching languages. These topics are a mandatory part of course plans at primary and secondary schools in the Czech Republic, though not all of them have to be covered in each grade level. In the Czech Framework Educational Programme for Basic Education also Drama education is included. In the first period (first to fifth grade) amongst the expected outcomes of drama education there are following: “to express basic emotions using voice and movement and recognize them in the conduct of others; differentiate acted from real situations; acknowledge the rules of acting; put oneself into simple roles and act naturally in them; explore themes and conflicts on the basis of personal acting; with the teacher‟s help, reflect upon experiences from watching a work of drama.” (Jeřábek et al. 2007) For older pupils (lower-secondary level) following outcomes are desired: “to involve and combine somatic skills for the purpose of expressing their personal inner

21 state and emotions as well as those of a specific character; work with rules of acting and variations thereon; put themselves into a role and act naturally and convincingly in an acting situation; identify themes and conflicts in situations and stories; look at them from the position of different characters; think about the impacts of characters‟ actions; work together in a group to create a short staged performance while using various tools of expression; present their staged performance in front of their classmates and continue to work on it on the basis of self-reflection and classmates‟ response; watch and evaluate classmates‟ presentations.“ (Jeřábek et al. 2007) Actually all of these outcomes larps can offer along with some other that are more related to cross-curricular topics. Sanne Harder (2011), a Danish teacher at Montessori schools describes some of beneficial aspects of using larps in education in her talk Role Playing as a Teaching Method. Nowadays most of the teachers in the classroom are the leading element. They do most of the talking and pupils have too little space to apply knowledge, which seems to be considered the essential outcome of school attendance. However, in the curricular documents there is not only knowledge embodied, more the practical skills are required, too. Sanne Harder (2011) believes that apart from knowledge, purpose of school is to enable pupils to socialize and to discover basic facts of life. Pupils should learn how to integrate the skills they have learnt in different subjects, competences such as taking action, voicing an opinion and speaking up for themselves.

2.3.2. Motivating learners through game

Another aspect of larp in the classroom is motivation. I strongly agree with Sanne Harder‟s statement that motivation is the biggest challenge of a teacher. It is partly because “flow of the game induces the pupil to strive for learning” as it is claimed in the introduction of Østerskov Efterskole on their webpage.3 Mudr. Mgr. Radvan Bahbouh, PhD. (2012), professor of psychology at Charles University in Prague, talks about the term flow in the context of motivation in his lecture about procrastination and efficient work. Flow is a state of absolute immersion into an activity, when concentration is effortless due to the fact that the person is enjoying the activity. When experiencing flow person is naturally learning because his attention is paid only to the

3 (http://osterskov.dk/?page_id=213)

22 particular activity and s/he is willing to go through it successfully and fulfil all the necessary tasks the activity includes. Similar state of mind describes Montessori as a “polarization of attention”. “They were observing a three-year-old child during the game with a board with ten holes of different size and cylinders of corresponding size. Child repeated the manipulation fourty-four times without letting anyone to disturb him. Montessori recognized and practically verified that such a concentration is vital and for person‟s development and educational processes essential.” (Jůva, Svobodová, 1996) Flow is what most of the alternative teaching methods work with - natural interest of children in learning. For young children flow is a totally natural state of mind. When watching children playing, you can see they are interested only in the game, nothing around disturbs them, all of their focus is on the thing they are doing at the moment. Later on, when they start school, most of these natural approaches to learning are almost forgotten because educational system does not have time for playing, even though game, when well designed, gives teacher a great tool to practice efficiently, and sometimes even to teach, almost any subject desired. Hyltoft and Holm, teachers in Østerskov Efterskole, in their didactic larp based on Harry Potter stories describe the use of larp in teaching Chemistry. Their goal was apart from teaching their pupils a particular topic (periodic table of elements) also to keep them active and participating. Interesting is difference between the students of Østerskov Efterskole (the larp school), who are used to learning through game, “who are already skilled at understanding and navigating complex rules systems” (Hyltoft and Holm, 2009) and who are motivated through the storyline when compared to pupils from regular school, where the game was run without the storyline. At Efterskole the players accepted the game well; they participated eagerly the whole time it ran, and due to motivation from the storyline they really worked hard and kept all the rules given. On the other hand, at regular school, pupils from the beginning were not willing to participate, some of them even tried to excuse themselves from the game. Also during the game they lost concentration quite early and started breaking the rules. Another difference in the attitude was in the evaluation of the game, where authors compare the willingness to share the opinion of students at Efterskole and lack of interest in any form of feedback activities of the pupils at the regular school. But as Hyltoft and Holm (2009) conclude in their article: “this may simply reveal a difference in the pupils‟ opinion about school activities in general. They do not,

23 however, indicate a difference in the academic level of the pupils. In this respect, the two groups are evenly matched. If there was indeed a difference in the opinion of the pupils regarding school activities in general, it still remains to gauge whether this difference stems from a higher level of motivation obtained by presenting teaching as larps rather than regular lessons.” Another very interesting conclusion from the same article is: “using games and narrative frames to keep learners inside the learning activity is not foolproof; but it does make it a lot harder to quit than just putting down your pencil.” (Hyltoft and Holm, 2009) I believe that motivation is really key aspect of learning, even though for teacher, as it was formerly written, it is a very difficult challenge. Employing larps and simulations in the classroom might be a mean of how to increase the motivation of the pupils through showing them that they are able to use skills and knowledge they have learnt at school, which would make learning more meaningful for them.

2.3.3 Experiential learning

David A. Kolb in his Experiential Learning (1983) implies that in learning it is the process that is important and that every time we experience something we actually re-learn and modify the experience we gained earlier and it involves an interaction between the learner and the environment. Experiencing the situation provides us the most efficient form of learning as well as an opportunity to reflect our experience more carefully and accurately. This principle is broadly employed in experiential education. It is one of the basic principles which help us to identify the aims and goals of an activity and later evaluate its outputs. Inseparable part of the activity is then a feedback which not only enables the participant to formulate the experience s/he gained but also helps the organizer (teacher, tutor) to draw the attention to deserved outputs of the activity.

24 Figure 1. The Experiential Learning Cycle

Source: Kolb, Kolb, “Meta-cognitive Experiential Learning”, Simulations and gaming vol. 40 (2009)

2.3.3.1. LARP and experiential learning

Malečková and Zemene (2012) assume that principles of experiential learning are piece of any LARP activity, even though in most cases neither author nor the players perceive it. However, only when we are aware of this potential we can consciously develop the larp with an implication to teaching and learning. Many teachers in their classes use different kinds of simulations or role-playing activities to demonstrate various processes and behaviour of the society. Larp would enable them to acquaint their pupils with these issues more closely. Role-playing offers secure ways of experiencing real-life situations in advance with enough space to examine different possible solutions, to discuss the questions raised from these demonstrations and make the person more confident in the situation when s/he will face them in reality.4 Hickson describes the contribution of drama (which is very close to LARP) in the following way: “Experience with drama enables to build up self- confidence and develop communication skills amongst which belongs the ability of social contact with other people.” (Hickson 2000) Jevická in her article talks about the advantages of larp in the educative process. “Larp requires personal activity, pro-active approach to searching for information and

4 Formerly mentioned situations are employed also in psychotherapy to help the patient to cope with the situation and find out possible solutions.

25 interaction with other players. Remember the foreign language classes. If you were lucky to have an enlightened teacher you could have experienced group work, watching series with following interpretation or even playing sketches. All techniques of making learners active are used in larp as well, only no one realizes that he could learn something when playing and therefore s/he approaches them without prejudices.” (Jevická, 2010)

2.3.4. Larps with educative potential

In this chapter I would like to introduce some of the larps written not only by Czech authors, some of them were written intentionally with educative purposes, some of the games represent larps which could be well adapted for classroom environment, but they were not primarily written for educative purposes even though they carry a strong message corresponding with the cross-curricular topics. Probably only one of these games was presented to a class as such – Misie MDCXLI was a part of university course of history at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University, the other games were written to transmit ideas and opinions, to make people think and experience interesting situations and also simply to amuse. Topics of most of the games are historic issues, but as I illustrate, larps can be used in different subjects.

2.3.4.1 Project System

“The promise of a better, happier life is the beginning of every totalitarian society. We see totalism as one of the greatest threats the mankind must face today. But what exactly is the totalism? We know that it is wrong. But do we also know why? And would we even recognize the moment when things start taking the wrong direction?”5 (Court of Moravia, 2009) This is a part of a text used to introduce Project system, experiential role-playing game, probably the most promoted larp event in media in the Czech Republic. Up to this time game experience inspired several articles in different newspapers and magazines and recently (2013) there has been produced a documentary film “5 pravidel” (Five Rules)6 which maps the game experience and its background. Since its

5 http://www.projekt-system.cz/en/ 6 http://www.csfd.cz/hledat/?q=5+pravidel

26 first run in 2010 there have been five more runs and over 200 players participated in the game. At the beginning of this game, as authors claim, was their feeling that “fear of totalitarianism has disappeared from the children” (Gotthard, Zlatohlávek, 2010) and the increasing popularity of the Communist party in the Czech Republic. “Life in submission is one of the strongest Czech national themes. In spite of this whole national culture heritage, the young born into free Czechia seem not to be touched by it.” (Gotthard, Zlatohlávek, 2010) From this belief there was created the conception of Project System. The organizers had set three main goals they wanted to achieve through the game. “The larp must restore critical views of totalitarianism in its players... The larp must be open even to players not from the larp community and without any larp experience... The larp must be well made in every aspect” (Gotthard, Zlatohlávek, 2010) so that it will astonish the players. The whole game is thoroughly prepared; it is opened with initial workshops where the players are introduced to each other, to the characters and also to the whole world of System (name of an imaginative state where the game takes place), its rules and routines. One of these workshops is devoted to drama. The game itself lasts for thirty hours from Friday evening to Saturday evening and it is closed with reviewing session where player can share their personal stories, emotions and experience and which are also meant as a tool to “make players start thinking critically about totality.” (Gotthard, Zlatohlávek, 2010) Reviewing activities are also added to enable participants to cope with their experience, to give vent to the emotions and to evaluate their game behaviour. They are one of the methods to make the game as psychologically safe for the players as possible. One of the following chapters is devoted to different aspects of safety in larp and how to ensure them. As the game is predominantly meant for general public, there are no difficult game mechanisms or stylization, the game adheres to 360° illusion concept introduced in Nordic larps. “the physically immersive 360° illusion, strives for physical indexicality where the game environment is perfectly crafted. Every object represents itself, and disbelief needs not be suspended: the mood and the atmosphere of the setting, the solidity of it all, is paramount. The goal is to create a feeling of truly being there. The setting doesn’t need to be realistic, but it must be complete and follow its own logic to the letter.“ (Montola and Stenros, 2008)

27 From the reactions of some of the participants it is possible to see the difference between simple introduction of the topic at school or reading a book and the larp where player lives through the game. Jakub Míšek after the game wrote: “When I read Orwell, I could have only such an idea which the author (even though ingenious) had. In addition lessened by what I was able to imagine myself. And the feelings from the reading quickly melted away.. The same when I read stories about Stalin‟s purges.. Here I really lived it through... Now I hopefully can imagine what it would be in real. Feelings of helplessness, despair, fear.”7 (2011) Another participant, at the after game forum called Petrius, who, as it emerges from his contribution, is a larp player, writes: “for me the added value is also for larp unusual self-reflection and persistent thoughts. It usually does not happen to me that I would spend hours thinking about what still is and what already is not moral. Eventually, also how our world works and what is my role in it.” 8(2011) From both of the contributions it is evident that even though the game was set in an imaginative world and all the facts were fictitious, it led its players to compare their experience to what they know from the real world and to assess their values. Project System is an example of a game that introduces topics of freedom, tolerance and citizenship as well as responsibility for what one does. These topics correspond with the cross-curricular subjects of the Framework education programme therefore it might offer an alternative approach to teaching them. However, Project System is primarily offered to people over eighteen years of age due to its emotional demands and probably also because most of the younger learners do not have at least basic information about the period of communism in Czechoslovakia as it is a topic usually taught in the last year of school and usually there is not much time left for it and it is a topic still difficult to handle as it is not a very far history. Another reason for the age limit of the game is probably the simple reason of personal responsibility people over eighteen years of age can bear themselves.

2.3.4.2. Misie MDCXLI

Misie MDCXLI was a larp organized as a finale of a Church History course at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University resulting from the project of “Innovation of

7 from http://www.projekt-system.cz/termin-4/ - translated from the Czech by the author 8 from http://www.projekt-system.cz/termin-4/ - translated from the Czech by the author

28 history studies at Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University” in 2012. It is probably the first larp organized in cooperation with academic sphere. Its organizers define the topic and aims of the game in the following statement: “Unspecified Jesuit reduction9 in the area of today‟s Paraguay in 1641. On this background takes place crucial conflict of cultures and religions from the general point of view (Jesuits versus Indians) as well as from the point of view of different ethnics (different opinions on faith, internal discords). The aim is not the literal narration of historic events but to capture the spirit of the period under the conditions of a functional game. Important element will be also introduction of contemporary facts supplemented by direct application in the conditions of the game and the feedback following the game.” (Wagner, 2012) On the web page of this game10 it is possible to find several documents aimed as study materials for players, most of them are intended for a specific group of characters and all of them have to provide players with information they should use during the game. As the game was designed to introduce historical topics concerning clash of cultures and religions as well as different perspectives of the situation and also to illustrate European superior attitude to indigenous people, it had to provide players with a lot of information because modern thinking is very different from how Europeans perceived world several centuries ago. The main plot of the game was designed to lead to a decision of the leaders of an Indian tribe about accepting Christianity or not. In the game there were different pressures that could influence this decision, starting from simply economical and political ones up to the questions of disbelief in the European culture and justice. Story, for the educative purpose was more emphasized on the level of groups, but also the individual characters‟ storylines were interestingly designed. As authors of the game claim there were four main topics covered there. First was faith and ways of how to express it; it was a topic not only for the representatives of the Jesuit Order with their missionary objective, but also the conflict of Christianity and Indian pagan mythology as well as different interpretation of Christianity itself. Second topic covered the negative influences European colonisation had on the native people, even though in the game there was not an explicit interpretation of this influences because along with illnesses and alcohol Europeans brought also the medication for a lot of diseases.

9 A type of settlement for indigenious people in Latin America created by the Jesuit Order during the 17th and 18th centuries. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesuit_Reductions) 10 (http://misie-mdcxli.larpard.cz/dokumentace)

29 Third topic was an anthropologic one, racial superiority of Europeans and economic and political problems it carried along led to the discussions over the social questions which are topical up to now. Fourth topic opened question of exploitation. The game was not designed to bring answers to the questions, more it had to provide participants with different points of view and with a thought that the interpretation of history is a very subjective matter. Pre-game preparations were thorough; even though the game itself lasted only two days, the rest of the week before was devoted to different lectures led by experts on baroque culture and South America; they had time to discuss their characters as well as to participate in different workshops. The game was divided into four blocks after each of which there was time for reflexion, explanation of some of the aspects of the game in the historical context as well as to map the story development. From the outputs of the game there are some important ideas summarized in the text of Kristýna Obrdlíková: “Students realized that history is a pliant reality interpretation of which depends on the context; immediacy of the personal experience also led to a change of the point of view on that part of history than before and they realize the complexity of historical events (civil and economic administration, relationships between ethnical groups, clash of faiths, dynamics of communities etc.) It led them to think about the questions they would not normally ask, about the possible motivations and attitudes of individuals which according to contemporary research formed the history. Students also realized that contemporary state of research is deeply influenced by time and place where they live and that it is difficult to understand mentality of that period: we always project our modern insight which prevents us from the authentic understanding of how the situation perceived people in the past. They experienced the shift of morality and interpersonal relationships of past and present times.” (Obrdlíková, 2012) Further thoughts mentioned in the same article were personality development in the context of perceiving responsibility even for people around, decision making processes, empathy and conflict solving. Participants also discussed possibility of using larp activities in the teaching process but their attitude was a bit sceptical, mainly in the context of primary and secondary school teaching, though they could imagine its role in university education: “they felt its advantages in its immediacy, new approach to history, active participation of students in practical lesson and lively contact with microhistory.” (Obrdlíková, 2012)

30 Misie is another example of a game that uses historical theme but uses it in a different way than Project System. Misie works with history and tries to present it with a great authenticity; it is predominantly designed to transmit historical facts shown in the context of perspectives of different participants in this situation which are usually forgotten in the history interpretation. Project system, even though it evokes a real historic totality, works more with the ideas, not the facts and the emphasis is on the experience of an individual with an overall story in the background.

2.3.4.3 Fat Man Down

Fat Man Down is a game by Danish larp writer Frederik Berg Østergaard and from the previous two games differs in the topic. It is not a game primarily designed for educational purposes and even I personally would be afraid to use it with younger students and without appropriate knowledge of debriefing techniques. “Fat Man Down is a game about treating people right. No matter their skin colour, ethnicity, ethical or political standpoint. Or weight.” (Østergaard, 2009) The game reacts to the media campaign against overweight people, but it is not meant as an excuse or a protection of anyone. However, in a very similar way as Jane Elliott, American teacher, introduced the topic of discrimination and tolerance in her exercise “A class divided” as a reaction to the assassination of Martin Luther King to a class of third graders11, this game works with feeling of injustice, and concerning players apart from “The Fat Man” probably also with the feeling of the guilt.12 Fat Man Down is a game using principle of a group of people acting against an individual, enacting different situations in which the main character is treated badly and even bullied. Both parts in the game are, though, informed about the manner the game is run and there are some safety techniques to stop the game when it is too physically demanding for the players. I am sure I would not use this game with primary or secondary students, though in psychology classes it might be an interesting experience. This game is written as a jeepform and it works with quite quick changing of scenes. After the game it is almost necessary to do some kind of debriefing to vent up all the

11 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html 12 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html

31 emotions and to let participants realize different forms of injustice our society applies against different groups of people. As I already mentioned Jane Elliott, she also used an interesting experiment in her class, but with very young students of the third grade. Her exercise was based on dividing a class into two groups according to the colour of eyes and showing some principles of segregation in practice. The first day the blue-eyed half were those superior – they could behave practically the same way they were used to, the teacher supported them a lot, but the brown-eyed group had several restrictions – they could not use the outdoor playground equipment, for lunch they had to go as the last and several other things young pupils can perceive negatively. There was a short documentary shot about this exercise and it is well visible that the persecuted children felt really bad. The next day the roles switched. Interesting was, that the group which was the persecuted one performed overall worse than the day they had the superior role. Jane Elliott used this exercise to show young children the feelings of people, who, without any rational reason, are treated differently from the majority. What was fascinating about this activity was how it was approachable to such young pupils. I mention this exercise here because it also works with roles, even though the characters are not different from the protagonists, and also because it is a kind of simulation that is useful also for young age pupils and it shows that role-playing activities are approachable to any age group if the topic and design is appropriate to the learners.

2.3.4.4 Other larps with educational potential

There were written several other games that could be suitable to introduce some interesting and important topics with educative output. Larp Hranice tells a story of a borderline Sudeten village between the years 1940 and 1950. It describes changes in lives and attitudes of villagers, who are of Czech as well as German origin, and who are affected by the changes in the ruling power. Jude Raus was written for educational purposes and it depicts a situation at the end of the war in the town of Kolín. The historic background is interesting, but the game does not work with it much, more the game is about the conflict of responsibility for you and for the others. Pika-Don is a larp which depicts an imaginative meeting of political representatives of different states discussing the question of bomb attack on Hiroshima. This game again opens the topic of personal responsibility for others and even more it

32 shows that even such acts of violence as Hiroshima bomb attack might have been a mean of saving lives of several million more people. Any larp game, even when it works with reality or history, provides different point of views, even two different people playing the same character usually act differently, partly because of their life experience, partly because there is never one correct interpretation of the character. Eirik Fatland (2011) in his talk “Can Playing Games Teach Us about War?” describes the value of larping in this context simply – “it enables you to get into someone other‟s shoes.” In the same talk also acknowledges what most of the formerly written games were about – “to see beyond the maps, uniforms, skin colour...” If any aspect of larp has its undeniable benefit for personal development of a player, it is the experience mediated by the larp, experience that player would probably never encounter in hisher real life, but which might help him/her understand other people‟s feelings, that every situation has at least two points of view, and also it might give him/her some clues about how would s/he personally react in such a situation. Even though I formerly described several games with quite serious topics, larps can as well provide its players entertainment practically without any serious topic.

33 3. Larp design

In this chapter I would like to focus on practical aspects of using larp, I would like to offer some ideas about how to progress from the idea of using a larp at school, through the process of writing it to building dramatics. I will explore approaches to creating the game and characters, how to keep the pace of the game and offer enough space to everyone. All of these steps will be shown on a practical example. The following chapter is then devoted to the game itself and factors to consider when presenting it. Gotthard mentions two basic approaches to larpwriting – intuitive and systematic. Intuitive approach is more based on the previous experience and writers put the ideas together as they feel it might work, on the other hand, systematic approach adheres more to theoretical principles. “The advantage of intuitive approach is amusing creativity process. The advantages of systematic approach are faster process of writer‟s development, possibility of sharing experience amongst the organizers (unspecific inspiring stimulus is impossible to transmit in intuitive approach) and above all the fact that systematic approach always guarantees at least average result.” (Gotthard 2012a)

3.1 Defining the aims

“Reflection is seen as a mean for transferring knowledge across contexts, thereby forming the basis for the creative application of knowledge onto new problems, and games clearly have a potential for meeting this purpose. It is therefore relevant to investigate what challenges such objectives places onto the designers of learning games, and how they can be overcame.“ (Henriksen, 2006) Defining the aims of an activity is the most important aspect of the process. Every time it is necessary to start with the message we want to transmit, not with the means of doing it. Defining aim of the larp also should help with finding the best topic suitable for fulfilling the aims. Another reason for defining the aims of an activity should be the following reflection - if there are aims of an activity defined, it is then possible to adjust the debriefing process to the selected aims and to focus during the activity on acts relevant for the aims as Reitmayerová and Broumová (2012) suggest. Malečková and Zemene (2012) acknowledge this approach. They propose to define the aims on at least two levels – general aim of the larp in which the assumed

34 participant group is reflected, what means organizers have and how they want to use the larp – if it should be focused on some specific skills, transmitting some particular knowledge or simply to amuse? Lower level then are the specific goals. “Specific goals use to be addressed in more detail and they can be divided into three subgroups: cognitive goals (domain of knowledge), affective (domain of attitudes, habits and social skills) and psychomotor (manual and physical skills)... When defining the aims we should not forget that specific goals should be subjected to general aims, they should be appropriate to people and situations, progressive, explicit and controllable (for evaluation purposes)” (Malečková, Zemene 2012) For my larp, which is attached to my thesis I had two main issues. The first one was to introduce a topic from British history; I have chosen a period of Scottish history around the year 1297, which is a year of William Wallace‟s defeat of British army at the Battle of Stirling. I do not want to deal with many facts, the game should be exercisable from the lower secondary level (eight graders and older), it should introduce some basic facts about that period which might have interfered with the life of ordinary people. One of the materials used for the game is the film Braveheart, which should be introduced to learners, from which they could get some visual ideas about the period. My larp can be a part of a longer project during which learners would be introduced to the main issues of the period (fight for the independence of Scotland, English claim to the Scottish throne etc.) but they should interfere with the game just marginally. The main issues are more practical skills – expressing and defending opinion, evaluation of situation and decision making. The game is primarily aimed to be held in English and therefore it should not be too demanding on the knowledge and specific vocabulary.

3.2 Dramatic structure

Susanne Gräslund describes dramatics as an actual course of events. In her article she recognises three levels of dramatics according to how big groups of players are considered when creating a dramatic structure. “The first level is the political one and contains the main plot... At the second level you find groups of people and their social conflicts, and the third level are the single characters and what Swedes call the personal intrigues. Summanen and Walch‟s idea was that one level only could influence itself and the one closest to it. Level three, the single players, should not be able to influence the main story.” (Gräslund, 2001)

35 Gräslund also draws attention to the fact that it is important to consider the perspective from which the story is built. More usual approach is the one starting from level one to the level three, that is from the main plot to the individual characters. This approach she sees rather problematic as these authors tend not to spend enough time on creating the characters, role of which would be meaningful for the game and which would have enough driving force for the game on their level and therefore they might feel that the important action is taking place somewhere else. Gotthard (2010) adapts different approach to creating dramatic structure, which in fact complements Gräslund‟s insight because he does not work with the levels of the story, more he is focused on gradation of the story and creating of narrative arc. In the game there should be three parts considered – the opening, core and the finale in which the game should reach its climax. I discuss these three parts in the same order as Gotthard does it – the opening, the finale and then I focus on the core of the game, which deserves more space. Opening of the game is an important part of it because it can add dynamics into the very first scene, or it can be more constrained. Gotthard (2010) recognises two types of opening – sudden or gradual. When author decides to use the first technique he situates the players directly into a position where they have to start solving the problem immediately. This approach might be problematic with inexperienced players who might not know how to react; on the other hand it really supports the dynamics of a game from the very beginning. Second technique works with letting the players into the game one by one. Ideally there should be some logical reason for doing that (it would be illogical if players would for example enact prisoners sharing one keep). This approach enables players to empathize into the character more naturally, though some shocking twist still is necessary to come quite early or the game would lose all its dynamics. Finale of a game consists of two main parts. First one is climax of the game, a really strong final scene which usually includes all the characters (when talking about larp concerning the educational purposes, in some other types of larps it might be different according to the aim of the organizer). Climax, though, should not be the very final scene of the game, because players need also some time to absorb the arisen situation, however, the final scene should not come long after it. Finale should provide players with a feeling that the story had an epilogue. The more the finale is impressive the more players have positive feelings about the game.

36 The core of the game needs to reflect several aspects of the game. Primarily, it is necessary to cover all the three levels of dramatics Gräslund (2001) mentions, secondly we need to focus on which means to use to transmit the story into the game, not only the overall plot, but also stories of individual characters. In this process might be several means used to create partial conflicts which should lead to the climax. As the characters deserve their own chapter I will talk about them later, however, their characteristics are one of the factors building the conflict. Another factor is activating elements. Gotthard (2010) mentions two types of activation and these are internal and external activators. Internal factors are those which are in the game present from its beginning. However, they can be activated only after the situation enables that. Example of such activating element might be a box locked with three padlocks, but each key owns a different character. External activation might be adding of some new thing or information into the game to create unexpected situation. External activators might enable the organizer to step into the game and respond to the situation if necessary. Most of the games work with some kind of a secret. It might be some information from the history of the character which might be important for the game; it might be information which will be later brought into the game externally. However, when working with these secrets on the level of dramatics, it is advisable to explain players that these secrets should be revealed somewhere through the game because it can provide the players with stronger experience and predominantly with subject to discuss. Instructed volunteers are another mean used, it depends on how organiser needs to control the game. From my point of view, when planning such an activity with learners, it can be beneficial to use such characters as Bryhn, Movold and Raaum (2001) confirm because they might give the game initial dynamics with which inexperienced players might cope with difficulties. Some of the games, for example formerly mentioned Fat Man Down, work on the principle of pre-game agreement with players, where players are informed about how to work with secrets and what to use to build dramatics. In my game I decided to use both of approaches, primarily to build the story with respect to Gräslund‟s (2001) approach so that every character has a meaningful role in the overall story, and then to use means Gotthard proposes to assure that there is enough stimuli in the game. Because I work with a smaller group of players I decided to start from the main plot and later on develop particular characters. Gräslund also proposes to

37 use maps of connections which help to visualize each character‟s relationships and possible experience and discover weak points.

3.3. Characters

When creating a character there are several approaches. “In the Nordic scene, the world is typically written by the larpmakers, as is the plot, if it is relevant to the game’s design and structure (it usually is). How character is handled reflects great differences between game cultures and even individual games. Sometimes the larpmakers will define only the characters necessary for the plot (such as “the king” or “the murderer”) and allow the players to create characters within indicated culture groups as they please. At other times, when the characters are written by the larpmakers, the player is encouraged to fill in additional biographical and psychological information, as long as it is not in conflict with what has been previously written.“ (Koljonen 2008) “Characters have two functions in larp. Firstly, they are bearers of the character and they are means players can use to interact with the game, secondly they are important in the context of game design.” (Gotthard, 2010) His approach to characters is more focused on their role in creating dramatics in the game. He describes three aspects of a character, which are usually up to some extent included in every character, though there might exist characters with only one of these aspects. The first role of a character is what Gotthard calls bearer of conflicts. As it was previously mentioned conflict is essential aspect of larp, because it helps to create dramatic situations. Gotthard recommends that in a larp with ten characters each character should have two to four conflicting relationships and one or two positive ones; that is because positive relations do not help to build the conflict, so they are not so important. Gotthard (2010) also advises to refer the conflicts to the things which are in the game or it might happen that characters when dealing with an in-game conflict not influenced by their personal conflicts might easily start to cooperate. Second role of a character is a creator of an atmosphere. This character is not usually involved in the conflicts much, but it is used to support required mood of the game. Third role is then constituent of game action; that is type of character that is strongly involved in the game; he has the information that might influence the game and without him the shift in the game is almost impossible to happen.

38 Bryhn, Movold and Raaum propose, when creating larp for educative purposes, to offer learners roles they know. “If roles include elements like infatuation, school, friendship, conflicts with parents etc. they can more easily relate to the character, which in turn helps them to spot the turning points in the character‟s life... Age is important. It makes it easier for the students to experience the historical differences...” (Bryhn, Movold, Raaum 2001) Jacobson (2001) proposes that it is for players more beneficial to choose the characters on the basis of the emotions they would like to experience and qualities than according to their profession. “To make the characters come alive and becoming human I started with asking the participants what feelings they wanted to explore and how they wanted to express them. Other things like education and the professions of the characters became a later question, since a person‟s professional status rarely says anything about what she is really like.” (Jacobson 2001) Gotthard (2012) in another article proposes also the second approach to characters - he divides them into main characters and supporting roles or characters of minor importance. This approach is not only advantageous for the game design, but also for an organizer who can optimize the number of characters through omitting some of the supporting characters according to the number of players. For a teacher question of number of players might be significant because each class has different number of learners and if we consider using larp in language class, there might be even more significant differences in the numbers of players. Therefore the possibility to omit a character is definitely good one to consider. “Main characters are bearers of the general conflict. Main character therefore should have a direct impact on changes of a framework (usually important scenes that twist the story) or these changes have to influence these characters significantly. Main characters are those who will, through their reactions after the change of frame, subsidize the game and force other characters to finding solution of arisen situation.” (Gotthard 2012) With regard to the supporting characters we have to consider their role. “For functionality of larp it is important to check that game can run even after removing supporting character (i.e. when necessary the main character is able to act by himself) but equally this character cannot be just an additional adjunct of the main character.”(Gotthard 2012) For the removability of supporting characters it is not good

39 to bind them to the main plot of the game but to connect them to the specifics of the world or period where the game takes place. On a practical level a card of a character should contain his brief history, his contemporary status important for the game (family, job...) and the goals he wants to achieve, relationships to other characters and as mentioned in the chapter about dramatics also some kind of secret that might be revealed in the game. Again, cards of characters are available as an attachment of the thesis with the whole game material.

3.4. Larp in ten steps

As a conclusion to this chapter I introduce 10 steps in which Gotthard describes the larpwriting process in his article “I write a good chamber larp”. I consider this summary as a very useful tool to check if all the necessary aspects of the game were created and also a very brief outline to writing larp. If you are interested in more information about this topic, read the above mentioned article. “Step 1. Think about the main factor of a game (what will be interesting about it).” “Step 2. Choose setting and atmosphere, ideally in the way they are in conflict.” “Step 3. Choose aspects of the world that supports the topic and main factor.” “Step 4. Choose the suitable location so that it supports the atmosphere of the simulated setting. “Step 5. Create several changes of framework and think about how to get them into the game.” “Step 6. Create the structure, clarify the opening and finale.” “Step 7. Create the main characters and bind them to the changes of the framework.” “Step 8. Create supporting characters and connect them to the specifics of the world and to the main characters and sidekickers.” “Step 9. Connect the characters with positive and negative relationships” “Step 10. Make the beta test and correct the mistakes” (Gotthard 2012)

40 4. Presenting larps

In this chapter I would like to focus on two aspects of the game which have not been mentioned yet, but which are important if we want to use the game for educational purpose as well as when we want to keep the game safe.

4.1. Safety mechanisms

Johanna Koljonen (2012) in her talk introduces three levels of safety in playing larp – physical, social and psychological. It is necessary to take all these three levels into account even when playing larp in the classroom because even in indoor larps might appear physical risk, even though it is really lowered. In this chapter I provide some solutions to how to treat this challenge and how to practically avoid the risks. Physical safety is the one probably least important to focus on in terms of the indoor larps, when using outdoor larps it is much more important. The basic principle as Koljonen mentions is to make the players really clearly aware of what to expect. “Communication between the writers and the involved parties, students, teachers and parents is vital. They each have separate expectations and worries concerning the larp, and it is writer‟s responsibility to ensure they have a fair idea of what to expect, and that they are confident this is the right thing to do.” (Bryhn, Movold, Raaum, 2001) The participant should know what to expect, no matter if s/he chose to participate voluntarily or the larp is part of classwork. Therefore the presenter should inform all the participants about the means “how to break the game in case of emergency.”(Koljonen 2012). Most of the games in this case work with a “safe word”. Østergaard (2009) explains its role clearly: “As the theme and playing style is rather harsh, it may be necessary with a safe word. Safe words stop the action, letting the players have a time- out, regaining their composure and perhaps ending the game.” Safe word in the game, even when not used during the game, gives the player opportunity to step out of the game when it is too demanding for him to continue and mainly for inexperienced players it creates a feeling of safety. Psychological safety is probably the most important aspect of safety to take into account. Larp is an activity in which emotions and strong themes play an important role. Situations and relationships that are described in the game may some of the players

41 remind of what they have already experienced in their lives, similarly it can reveal some aspects of players‟ personalities they were not aware of before. As Koljonen (2012) claims, “fictional” experience is also “real” experience. Therefore she advises to use techniques to de-role and debrief – let the participant realize that the game has ended, take off their characters and discuss experience they had. Malečková emphasises role of reviewing techniques, too. “When we are going to play larp or experiential pedagogy activity, we should respect the safety, not only physical one, but also psychological, which is not of less importance. During our lives there come moments often “hundred times” harder than the game experience which we can solve ourselves or with friends‟ help and we would non search psychological or therapeutic help. But every person is an individuality – s/he perceives things differently, has differently set comfort zone and s/he can cope with stress differently. As organizers of an event, mainly when there are children participating, you must provide safety in all ways.” (Malečková, 2010) With regard to psychological safety Malečková mentions several aspects organizer should take into account. Some of the players tend to play characters too similar to their real life and they project themselves into their character. Sometimes, when partners play against each other, it can also cause them problems. From other factors organizers should take into account are also characters with negative roles. Fatland (2011) points out that debriefing is of greater importance for those who in the game are in roles of “gods”, who have the power to dominate the others. They usually feel much worse than their “victims”. “Because of all these reasons it is necessary to review the experience. Many organizers already realized that it is necessary to vent up the feelings after the game... It is necessary to open a game as well as to conclude it and debrief. It is necessary to separate reality from the fictional world.” (Malečková, 2010) Different debriefing techniques are at the hand, some of them are practically unstructured, others enable the organizer to focus more on the issues he wants to impart to the players. For teacher well designed reviewing activity offers not only an insight into the learners‟ experience but also a mean to draw attention to the issues which were the aims of the game or which arose in the game and teacher finds them important or interesting for the learners. “Thanks to the experienced formulated through the debriefing techniques person realizes much better what s/he can do to improve mutual

42 interactions, s/he gets an insight into his/her own situation and s/he realizes possible overlap of this information to future.” (Reitmayerová, Broumová 2012). Third aspect of safety issue is social safety. As it was mentioned here several times, in larp often people act in roles which are significantly different from their real nature. Some of the players have characters that are negatively perceived in the game. Koljonen (2012) reminds that it is important “not to judge the player on the actions of the character”. This is not so significant amongst people who know each other well because they know what is their friend like, but when playing with total strangers, it is difficult to separate the character from the player. Therefore all the feelings should be and stay inside the game, as Koljonen remarks. To emphasise borders between the game and real life Koljonen (2012) proposes to focus on the three phases of a game – before, during and after the game. With similar approach works also formerly mentioned Project system. Before the game there are some workshops which can be partly focused on dramatic activities which should help participants to put themselves into the roles and into acting. Game itself can be opened with a kind of ritual in which players step into the game, in a similar way it can be closed. To different techniques of debriefing and review I will talk in the following chapter.

4.2. Reviewing (debriefing) techniques

Active and creative approaches to reviewing create good opportunities for reflection, communication, learning and development because they can readily (Greenaway,2013) : * “engage and develop a wide range of learning style preferences * connect the worlds of thinking, talking and doing * produce holistic, dynamic and focused learning * access intuitive and tacit knowledge * enrich the experience of learning from experience * enable some testing of ideas within the learning process * increase the range of strategies for the effective transfer of learning.”

Reitmayerová and Broumová (2012) in their book describe several types of reviewing techniques. Techniques of group discussions focus on reviewing discussions

43 and different means how to facilitate it. In this type of activities it is necessary to provide each member of the group a space to express his/her opinion, so it is vital to have a discussion leader who is able to guarantee that there will not be some people who would do all the talking themselves and there would not rest any time for others. Quick summarizing techniques are good to initiate the reviewing process. They are based on expressing wanted kind of experience or feeling in only one word, gesture or for example by choosing position on a scale. Symbolizing techniques are kinds of indirect review - they are valuable to display structure of relationships in the group. They also enable to work both with the group and with an individual. They are usually followed by discussion to enable participants to clarify their attitudes. These types of activities often use different tokens through which, when put on a surface, can be shown a lot of information. If it is desirable to have the review which can illustrate feelings, creative reviewing techniques are very useful. These types of techniques can help more introvert individuals to express themselves. Usually the creativity part is concluded by a spoken description of the created artefacts. It is again possible to work with a general game experience as well as to focus on details. Dramatic reviewing techniques are also a possibility, though I believe that after the larp, which is also a dramatic activity it is better to choose a different type of review. Dramatic techniques are based on creating short sketches describing desired information or feeling. Even though there are several more types of techniques I do not mention them here, because there are more functional in activities of experiential education. For classroom use I believe it is good to start with techniques that are not really direct, for learners which are not used to reviewing it might be difficult to present their opinions directly in front of the class. However, even when the class is used to reviewing process it is also good to try to use different types of it in order not to make the process too stereotypical. When the activity is appealing to learners they will cooperated more eagerly. I would like to mention one more aspect of reviewing and that is how to formulate the questions. In previous chapter it was said that when creating larp for educational purposes it is necessary to formulate the goals teacher wants to achieve through the activity. Therefore, if there do not occur some more important issues during the game, the questions asked during the reviewing process should reflect these goals.

44 For example, if the larp is focused on decision making, the questions can be focused on how the decisions were influenced by the character‟s attitude, compare if the person would make such a decision in a real life etc. I believe it is good to use predominantly open-ended questions, because they often demand more thinking about the answer. However, the most important is that the discussion leader should not project his/her own opinions into the reviewing process, because the review is primarily aimed at the participants. Review can be focused, according to the type of activity either on an individual and his feelings or on a group. To focus on a group can be useful when the activity is more focused on group participation, for example in some simulations as formerly mentioned The beergame, where there are more people working on one task. However, mostly both of these aspects are mentioned in the review. Another type of focus Reitmayerová and Broumová (2012) mention is focus on sharing the information. Very often to this focus is devoted first step of reviewing process when the second step is focused on learning. Again the principles of these processes were formerly described when talking about Kolb‟s learning cycle.

In theoretical part of my thesis I described different types of role-playing activities and their possible use as a teaching tool. Main focus of the work is on larps and what advantages they have for a teacher. I tried to offer an insight into how to write a larp with regard to the goals teacher wants to achieve. Finally I focused on some aspects of larping which are necessary to take into account to provide a game which is safe for the player and to achieve the goals previously set.

45 II Practical part

Practical part of my thesis is focused on how much are different types of role- playing activities used in lessons. The aim of the practical part of the thesis is to explore subjects in which role-playing activities are naturally used and for which age of learners they are usually prepared. I also tried to investigate reasons teachers have for using or not using these kinds of activities in their lessons. In the last part of the research I focused on how broad is a knowledge of larps amongst the teachers and how many of them, if anyone, have presented some kind of larp activity in their classes. I also tried to find out if teachers would be interested in using larp as a teaching tool if there was an easy access to these types of activities. In the research participated teachers of all types of schools all over the Czech Republic, I also tried to obtain a sample of teachers of different subjects.

46 1. Methodology of research

A questionnaire was used as a basic method of research. I chose this method because my primary aim was to do a predominantly quantitative analysis. However, along with this type of analysis I wanted to identify also the reasons teachers have for their attitude. Therefore the questionnaire consisted of eight closed-ended questions, predominantly with only one answer possible, and two open-ended questions. Even though the two open-ended questions were primarily intended only for teachers who responded to previous questions with a certain answer, I decided to let the respondents answer both of the questions. Because the questionnaire was intended not only for English teachers the research was carried in Czech language. Questionnaire was prefaced by a short introduction to terminology, because as I stated in the theoretical part, for purposes of the thesis I created the definitions of the three types of role-playing activities on my own. Answered questionnaires were later analysed. Primary focus was on overall use of role-playing activities in classroom, therefore answers of all the respondents were evaluated together and results were expressed as a percentage and visualized in a graph. In the second step data obtained from closed-ended questions were interpreted in correlation to age, subject taught and type of school where the teachers work. Open questions, which were primarily aimed to identify and name reasons for using and not using role-playing activities in classes, were analyzed and divided according to the nature of answer into topically similar groups. Summary of the respondents‟ attitudes is then provided in the thesis.

1.2 Respondents

For my research it was important to obtain quite a high number of respondents of different teaching qualifications and variety of subjects they teach. Because my questionnaire was rather general in its focus and created as an electronic version I sent it to different schools not only in Brno via electronic mail. The questionnaire was fully anonymous. Because the questionnaire was distributed electronically it is difficult to get even an approximate rate of return. The sample of respondents consists of ninety-one people, the biggest number of respondents are teachers of primary schools. The number of

47 respondents is not really high, but I believe this sample is significant enough to offer an insight into the issue. Concerning the respondents there were three important characteristics of teachers taken into account – age (as larping is phenomenon of primarily younger generation I wanted to explore if the distribution of knowledge and use of these activities anyhow correlates with age of a teacher), type of school where s/he works and subjects taught. Concerning the age, of the respondents 40,7% were between 22 and 29, 27,5% were between 30 and 39, 20.9% were between 40 and 49 and 10,9% between 50 and 57 years of age. More than one third of teachers were therefore of 5-7 years of practice. Second characteristic was the type of school where the respondents teach. In the research there were all the types of schools represented as it can be seen in Graph 2. The largest group of respondents were teachers of primary schools, which made 47,3% of all the respondents (only one of respondents taught first to fifth class). Because in comparison to primary schools all other types of education were in minority I decided to integrate the teachers into the groups according to age of learners they teach. With regard to this distribution there were 3,3% of teachers of pre-school learners, 47,5% of teachers of primary school learners, 17,6% teachers in secondary education (grammar, secondary and vocational schools) and 31,8% teachers of adult learners (language schools, tertiary non-university education, university).

Graph 1. Age distribution in the respondent group

8

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2 number of respondents 1

0 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 37 39 41 44 46 48 50 53 55 age

48

Subjects taught represented the only question with more than one possible answer. I decided to integrate all foreign language teachers into one group, because I believe that approaches to teaching languages are not significantly different, at least in context of most of the languages standardly taught in Czech schools. I do not offer the graph of subjects taught because it would be difficult to cover all the differences in subject combinations. However, later this information is used when talking about the use of role-playing activities in different subjects.

Graph 2. Types of schools where respondents teach

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 Number Number of respondents 0

College University Kindergarten Primary school Grammar school Language school Secondary schoolVocational school Type of school

49 2. Evaluation of research

My research was topically divided into three parts. First part was devoted to use of role-playing activities and simulations in lessons according to the subject and also age of learners. Second part was devoted to analysis of reasons for using and not using the role-playing activities and in the third part I explored the topic of larp, how familiar are teachers with this term and if they are interested in using it in the classes.

2.1 Use of role-playing in various subjects

There were two aims this part of research had. First one was to show how much are role-playing activities and simulations used and at which types of schools they are used more often, second was then to show which subjects are more prone to employ this type of activities. As there were quite big differences in the numbers of teachers from different levels of schools what I used to evaluate the results is the ratio of the answers.

Graph 3. Use of role-playing activities and simulations in classes

Do you use role-playing activities or simulations in the classes? 50

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35

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0 Yes, often Yes, sometimes Rarely No, never. No, I do not think it is possible to use them in subjects I teach. Use of role-playing activities and simulations Research indicated that role-playing activities and simulations are up to some extent used by 79.12% of teachers, which I think is quite a high number. 62.64% of teachers use these activities quite often. From all the respondents there were only

50 14.26% of teachers who have never used role-playing activities, most of them were teachers of subjects like Chemistry, Mathematics or Informatics. Surprisingly, there was even one answer of a teacher of a foreign language who responded that s/he never uses these types of activities. Six of the respondents (6.59%) answered that in subjects they teach it is not possible to use such activities, which, when teaching highly specialized subjects such as Mechanics of materials or Medical Physiology, is quite a logical answer. Results of this question are displayed in the Graph 3. When regarding results from different types of schools, the answers are strongly influenced by the subject taught. Concerning kindergarten teachers I had only three respondents. However even at this type of schools two of the teachers claimed they use role-playing activities with children. Primary school teachers represent the largest group of respondents, 55.81% of them sometimes use these types of activities in lessons, another 20.9% have already used this type of activities. From the remaining 23.25% most of the teachers are those of different scientific subjects.

Graph 4. Use of role-playing activities at different types of schools

Use of role playing activities at different types of schools 50

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How often 30 No, Never Can't use in my subjects 25 Rarely Yes, sometimes 20 Yes, often

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0 Kindergarten Primary Grammar Secondary Vocational College University Language school school school school school

Type of school

51 From teachers of secondary level (I put together results from all the types of secondary schools) 68.75% use some kinds of role-playing activities, from grammar schools there were 100% of respondents who confirmed using role-playing activities up to some extent in their classes. However, practically all of the teachers were teachers of languages with different combinations. More interesting output I see in the fact that teachers at secondary level, no matter what subjects they teach, all consider using role- playing activities possible to use in their subjects and only two respondents (12.5%) admitted that they do not use these activities at all. At post-secondary level there was again a high percentage of teachers who at least rarely use role-playing activities and simulations. Of twenty-nine teachers 68.96% use role-playing activities quite often, 20.68% (six teachers) do not use such activities at all, for four of them the reason is a nature of the subject which does not allow to use them. Rest of the post-secondary teachers (10.34%) has already used role-playing or simulations but they employ them rarely. All the results and ratios at different types of schools can be seen in Graph 4. When analyzing use of role-playing activities in different subjects I decided to focus only on main subjects – Czech, foreign language, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Informatics, History, Civics and specialty subjects. Some of the subjects were not taken into account, such as Music, Arts and Physical education and also those which were of a very small representation in the respondent sample. Of the highest representation in my research were language subjects – Czech and foreign languages - and Mathematics. From the results of the research it is evident that in language classes use of role- playing activities and simulations is significantly higher than in other subjects. In Czech 78.94% of teachers use sometimes these activities in their lessons, 21.06% has already used this type of activity. In foreign languages 18.6% of teachers often employ these activities in their classes, another 67.44% use them at least sometimes (that is 86.04% overall). One teacher (1.2%) claims that he does not use role-playing activities in language classes at all, 11.63% then use these activities rarely. In comparison to language subjects the ratio of answers in mathematics is much more balanced, however only 41.17% of teachers use role-playing games or simulations in mathematics at least sometimes. 17.65% of teachers believe that these types of activities are not utilizable in mathematics, another 23.53% never use these activities. Similar results have not only other sciences, but also History. In Civics more teachers

52 (87.5%) use these activities at least sometimes (seven people) with only one teacher who does not use them at all.

Graph 5. Use of role-playing activities and simulations in different subjects

35

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25 Yes, often 20 Yes, sometimes Hardly ever 15 Not suitable for my subject Never 10

5

0

Czech Civics Physics Biology History ChemistryInformatics Mathematics Foreing language Specialty subjects

These results from my point of view confirm my supposition that role-playing activities are nowadays predominantly used in language subjects, where they are part of practical usage of language. In other subjects low level of using role-playing activities and simulations might be caused by the fact that these activities are demanding on preparation for a suitable level and that there is often not enough time to spend on other activities than which the subject covers. Another reasons for using or not using role- playing and simulations are discussed in the following chapter, where teachers were asked to write their opinion on using such activities in the classes.

2.2 Why to use role-playing

Second part of my questionnaire formed two open-ended questions in which I asked teachers to sum up their reasons for using or not using role-playing activities and simulations in education. No matter what were their answers about the level of use of these activities in their classes in previous questions I wanted to get the reasons which

53 teachers find important to support their attitude to these types of activities. As the first question was aimed at the reasons for using the role-playing games and simulations, I decided to keep the same order in the thesis. Regarding the answers in the open question, most of the respondents took into account predominantly use of role-playing activities and simulations in language classes (including Czech language), however there appeared also several interesting ideas for using them in classes of Civics and mathematical subjects such as Economy. Some of the answers also reflected use of these activities in practicing communication skills important for professional career, for example in medical professions. One of the most frequently mentioned reasons for using these activities was the practice of vocabulary and conversational topics on real situations. As one of the respondents claims: “I often employ ordinary communicative situations which learners can face, for example when staying abroad. They enrich the classes because they connect the classwork with real life and specific demands of a language teacher.” Several teachers emphasise that during these activities learners are forced to improvise and react on the situation, which is usually much lower when just modifying a given dialogue. Another teacher reacted to my question in a following way: “Students, when choosing the topics carefully, can see its implication and they cooperate much more willingly, they also use different vocabulary and register from the one they would use when again and again describing what they did at the weekend.” Most of the activities respondents described in this context were situations often described in language textbooks, some of them were even satisfied with the variety of exercises provided by textbook publishers. Therefore teachers described role-plays such as a telephone conversation between a hotel and traveller wanting to book it, describing problem to a doctor, shopping, ordering a meal etc. One of the teachers, who claimed s/he is teaching English on principles of experiential education also answered that s/he uses these activities not only to practice the vocabulary, but also grammar. On the other hand, several others on these activities found important that learners are “forced to speak, create and think, they leave the textbook definitions behind and they speak, even though making some mistakes, but these can be fixed later on.” Some of the teachers believe it is much easier for pupils to act in a different character, because it can suppress the nervousness and it might offer safer environment for shier learners. Most of the responses imply that teachers try to offer their students

54 opportunity to experience the situations they might encounter in the real life and therefore it should make them more confident when facing such a situation. Interesting suggestions were also from teachers of other subjects. Concerning Czech language, one of the teachers of lower-primary level uses role-playing activities to make pupils interested in the stories and reading. With the pupils s/he plays different situations in which the book characters appear. That enables him/her to see if pupils understand the story well, and for pupils it represents closer encounter with the imaginary world of the book, which should motivate them to discover other stories in books on their own. Another teacher uses such activities to introduce different composition styles they might use in real life (such as a curriculum vitae) as well as topics from literature. “There proved as very useful texts where students had to imagine they live in a different period and they had to empathise into some character (for example to write a letter of a person unjustly sentenced to death in a political trial of 1950s) and their letters were compared to a letter Jan Hus wrote when sentenced by the Council of Constance.” From these examples there can be seen that role-playing activities do not necessarily be only of a spoken nature and that they might offer really interesting experience to the participants even in the subjects which are not primarily focused on production skills. Several examples of use of role-playing activities and simulations were also provided by teachers of Civics. They often use these activities to introduce different situations where learners have to face problem-solving, simulations of situations such as bullying and to introduce topics such as social perception and interactions or talking about values. One of the teachers believes that these activities are one of the means how to activate the students (similar reason introduced Sanne Harder13 in her talk about using larp in education). In other topics in Civics role-playing is used to simulate situations like calling the emergency numbers (lower-primary level), job interviews, public speeches or to examine how changing decisions can influence a result of a situation. They are also used to teach critical thinking. In mathematical subjects simulations are often used to connect the subject with real life, in Economy classes teachers use economic simulations to make the topic easier to remember and understand as well as to illustrate the topic with examples similar to the real life. In subjects connected to marketing role-plays are used to simulate how a

13 Role-Playing as a teaching method (2011)

55 company works and as one of the teachers claims, s/he uses role-plays in which students have to introduce their products to possible investors. Another one, college teacher, implements these activities in lessons to show his/her students what can be the differences and similarities in thinking between a customer and a vendor. Other subjects using role-playing activities and simulations were of various nature, from psychology and sociology to other specialty subjects. This question introduced a great number of different ideas about using role- playing activities and simulations in lessons, some of the ideas were interesting and they would deserve to be shared with other teachers because they can enrich the classes and make them more practical and topics closer to learners. Only few respondents, those which in previous question declined using of role-playing activities and simulations in their lessons, did not answer this question. However, from the answers it seems that these activities are used quite often and teachers see benefits they bring to the learners.

2.3 Disadvantages of using role-playing and simulations in classes

This question brought answers of different natures, some of the teachers more focused on their subjects that do not enable to use these activities efficiently; others took into account also the learners, size of classes and motivation. In some aspects this question showed that in Czech schools the basic problem of education is focus on knowledge and therefore there does not rest much time to use this knowledge in a practical way. Another thing responses on this question implied was the fact that most of the learners are not willing to participate in lessons actively, they prefer more “the traditional, frontal” teaching which let them stay passive. I decided to divide reasons the respondents provided into several categories because some of the responses correspond with each other. Low number of teachers stated, that subjects they teach are inconvenient for using these methods. Mostly they were teachers of subjects like Mathematics and several technical subjects. Some of the teachers simply responded that for subject they teach they do not see any implication for these activities. A few of the teachers also indicated that they have never thought about using these activities in their subjects. First of the reasons most of the teachers supported was the fact that these types of activities are too demanding on preparation if they are to be meaningful and fulfilling

56 teacher‟s aims. Partly this is caused by the fact that teachers have a lot of other work to do apart from teaching the classes, partly the reason might the total lack or insufficiency of either methodology sources or free-to-use materials of this kind for teachers. Some of the teachers also see the problem in fact, that when working with this type of activities without previous practical knowledge of them, it is more probable that the teacher would not use the activity efficiently or in an appropriate way. As one of the respondents claims: “Although role-playing itself is not problematic in teaching, larp activities are, because the energy invested in the preparation is not adequate to the outcome of the activity and also it is difficult to specify methodical aim. I see their use more possible at school courses and informal education, where the interest in the issue should be developed through methods different from the school ones.” Second reason which was mentioned by most of the teachers was the learners‟ behaviour. Several teachers claim that it is difficult to make learners work on any activity if the activity lacks motivation through a mark. “They also do not offer an immediate effect (mark, explicit results). Learners tend to evaluate these activities in a way “We did not do anything”.” This type of answers implies that learners are not really used to employ the knowledge they gain in the lessons practically and therefore they are rather reluctant to participate when teacher involves in classes activities which are not of direct connection to the topic learnt even though they offer a practical application of knowledge and skills gained in the classes. One of the more practical aspects of problems with using activities of these types were sizes of classes. At most of the schools an average number of learners in the class is about thirty people. I understand that with this number of people it is difficult to organize any activity in which everyone should participate, also when having only 45 minutes for it (as one of the respondents remarks – at primary and secondary level two following lessons devoted to the same subject are of a rare occurrence). Language teachers, who have in their lessons classes usually divided into halves were more prone to use role-playing activities. Also, as several teachers mentioned, because these activities are usually based on conversation, the lessons are much louder, which might disturb other teachers and classes. One of the most mentioned reasons were the learners themselves. It was not only because of their behaviour (most of the classes, where teacher decides to employ more playful methods are difficult to calm down after the activity), more often teachers drew attention to the fact that learners are not willing to participate in these activities. One of

57 the respondents remarks: “I would like to employ simulations in classes, I even wrote a diploma thesis on this topic. I have not changed my attitude since that time. Without enthusiasm (at least basic one) it is not possible to perform a simulation functionally. They are more suitable in seminars when there appears a group of students which are interested in the subject. Under this condition I consider predominantly argumentative games (political geography, Civics) to be a great opportunity. At school where I teach is unfortunately higher level of using simulations impossible.” One of the teachers (language school) well summarizes what aspects to consider when deciding to use role-playing activities or simulations in classes. “1. Most of the students feel disincentives. Sometimes it is easy to get rid of them, however, there are people for which role-playing is uncomfortable and they are not open to it, therefore the activity does not bring desired results. Therefore it must be a good group where teacher feels this type of activity would be meaningful. 2. The more the people are, the more it is demanding on performance. In smaller groups it is definitely much better, but I can imagine how difficult it would be to employ these activities at state schools, where there are more then twelve learners in a group, sometimes even more than twenty. 3. Type of role-playing must be chosen so that students would feel it is meaningful and that they can learn something new, something they could use in the real life. It is also important that roles are clearly given and easy. When the explanation of an activity is too long, students lose their interest. I personally think that larps would be great for teaching, but it is ineffective to force students participate if they are not interested. In regular lessons it is better to use short, easy activities with clear practical usage. In larger scale, larps could be definitely used, but only when the students would be interested. Few of the teachers mentioned as problematic the level of language of the learners, as role-playing activities and simulations might be in this way rather demanding. Therefore some of the respondents propose that these activities would be of better use at secondary level and higher. One of the teachers who teaches medical subjects also admitted that to make these activities efficient in his/her lessons it would be demanding on the number of instructed volunteers. From the answers of this question it was shown that probably the most problematic aspect are learners themselves and then the school environment and demands on topics covered, which prevent teachers from using these activities. For most of the teachers the time they would need to spend on preparation of such an activity does not correspond to the effect the activity has in the lesson. Several teachers are

58 afraid of letting learners out of control which could cause a lot of noise and difficulties with calming down the class. Language teachers are mostly positive about these activities. However, they would appreciate more materials where they could find the resources. From my experience, in comparison to English other languages really do not have teacher support of such a variety; therefore for teachers of these languages it is much more demanding on time to prepare these activities. It is true that even in Czech language most of the books on language activities are focused on teaching English (for example Angličtina plná her, 100 aktivit pro výuku angličtiny or Angličtina v říkadlech by Portál publishing), when other languages lack this support. I believe that reasons describing how problematic role-playing activities and simulations are which are stated in this research should not represent an unbeatable obstacle for a teacher, more the teacher should be aware of them and when designing such an activity, take these problems into account and try to avoid them through the design and rules.

2.4 Use of larps

In the last part of the research I focused on how broad is the knowledge of larp amongst the teachers, I tried to found out if younger teachers are more familiar with this type of activity and if there are at least some teachers who try to employ larps in their lessons. I also explored if the teachers believe that larp activities are of educational potential. Through the last question I wanted to identify the percentage of teachers who would be willing to use larps in education if the games were accessible for them, for example in a form of a lesson plan or provided by the third person. Regarding knowledge of larp in the overall respondent sample, only 40.66% of teachers were not familiar with the term. 28.57% of teachers have already participated in some larp, the rest of the teachers know this type of activity; however, they have not experienced it yet. (See Graph 6)

59 Graph 6. How are teachers familiar with the term larp

Have you encountered the term larp (live action role-playing) before? 40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0 No Yes I have already played larp Are you familiar with the term larp?

When correlating these results with the age of respondents, there is much higher percentage of teachers between twenty-two and twenty-nine years of age familiar with larp activities and more than a half of the teachers of this age group have already played larp (59.46%). Only 16.22% of teachers of this age group were not familiar with the term. Results in two of other age groups (thirty to thirty-nine and forty to forty-nine) were rather similar in percentage. In the first group 48% of respondents were not familiar with the term larp, 32% of them knew the term, but have never tried it and 12% of respondents from this group already participated in larp. In the second group numbers were rather similar with 52.63% of respondents not familiar with the term larp, 42.1% knew the term and 5.27% already played it. In the very last age group (fifty to fifty-seven) 60% of respondents did not encounter term larp in comparison to 40% of those who were familiar with the term. This was the only age group where there was no respondent who would have participated in a larp activity. From my point of view the results are rather optimistic showing that in all the age groups of respondents there is almost half of the number of those who have some notion about larp. It also shows that younger teachers are more prone to seek new types

60 of entertainment and when familiar with new types of activities they could be more willing to use them in their classes, if such activities fulfil the aims they have for the lesson.

Graph 7. Familiarity with larp according to age

25

20

15 No Yes 10 I have already played larp

5

0 22-29 30-39 40-49 50-57

Numbers of respondents who claim that they have already used larp in their class was rather low, only 12.08%. Still the number was surprising, because it proved that larps are up to some extent used in education and that there are at least some teachers who do not mind investing their time into preparation of these activities. When asked about their opinion on larp as a teaching tool, from the respondent group there were 2.2% of respondents who believe that larp is inefficient to be used in education, another 7.69% of respondents think larp should not cross the border of informal education. 36.26% of respondents do not find larp useful for teaching their subjects. Altogether that is 46.15% of respondents who are not much interested in larp activities and their implementation into the lessons. On the other hand there are 39.56% of teachers who find larps useful but too demanding on preparation and only 14.29% of teachers who believe that larping has a high educational potential. Last question of my questionnaire was: “Would you be interested in using larp activities in your classes if there were accessible resources of materials for teachers (either in a form of prepared games with methodological instructions, or presented to a class by third party)?”

61

Graph. 8. Do you think larp has educational potential?

Do you think that larp has an educational potential? 40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0 Yes, but they are too Yes, but I cannot imagine Yes, I think it is high No, I think they should stay No, I think this method is demanting on preparation their use in the subjects I as a part of informal inefficient teach education Educational potential of larp

This time the responses were more in favour of larps. Only 29.67% of respondents answered, that not even under such a condition they would be interested in using larp in their classes. On the other hand 70.33% would appreciate if larps were accessible for them in order to employ them as a different type of activities from those they use regularly and to let students show their skills in an nontraditional way. From the research it can be viewed that most of the teachers are willing to search for different new types of activities that would help their students develop their skills. However, the biggest problem is that activities such as larps and simulations are not accessible to them because the idea to use them in educational process is rather new for them. If the teacher wanted to use such an activity it would mean for him/her a lot of time invested into designing it. Some of the respondents do not believe that their effort would be meaningful, because most of them describe their students as rather passive and not willing to participate, predominantly due to the lack of motivation. Other teachers are more dissatisfied with the time demands these activities have and they remark that they do not have even enough time to go through all the topics required by the Framework Educational Programme in their subjects. This is even more important due to the fact that simulations and larps often require more time than is

62 available in the traditional school lesson. Several teachers are also afraid of not being able to keep the class under control, they are not sure if they would be able to calm down the students after the end of an activity. The questionnaire proved that role-playing activities are used in several other subjects apart from the language ones and that teachers see several benefits from using them. Most of the teachers who anyhow disapproved in using role-playing activities were teachers of different scientific subjects such a biology or chemistry and they could not imagine using these activities in their lessons. Overall, role-playing activities are used in classes to develop communicative competences, practice speaking skills and to simulate situations learners might encounter in their lives in order to make them more self-confident when facing them. Most of the teachers would appreciate much wider access to different types of these activities for their subjects.

Graph 9. Interest in using larps in classes, if they were easy to access.

Would you be interested in using larp if there were accessible materials? 70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 no yes Interest in using larps

63 Conclusion

Aim of this thesis was to explore different types of role-playing activities and their use in education. Theoretical part of the thesis is devoted to description of different role-playing activities and their introduction. Main focus is, however, on larp as a type of a role-playing activity and different aspects teacher has to consider if s/he wants to use it in the classes. Practical part is then devoted to a research in employment of role- playing activities at different types of schools and in different subjects as well as in exploration of to which level are teachers familiar with larp. The first part of my work introduces three basic types of role-playing activities – small format role-playing exercises, which are often used in language classes, simulations which are often based on different processes and how they can be influenced by different factors and finally larps as a format of a dramatic game which can be not only used to introduce different epochs and situations, but also relationships and characters distant from one‟s real life which may lead to better empathising in other people‟s feelings. In the thesis are introduced different types of larp teacher might find useful if wanting to use such an activity and there are given reasons supporting its employment. On examples of several larps there is shown a variety of topics and formats which can be used in education and approaches how to do it. The core of the theoretical part is a chapter on larp design which should provide a teacher with a comprehensive guide to larp writing and approaches used in it. Focus is not only on designing the dramatic content of the game, but also on characters and how they can be employed in the game. In all the topic of larp-design there is taken into account that larp is designed with educational purpose and that the intended participants probably have never encountered such an activity. Finally there is a space devoted to more practical aspects of larping, such as safety and review. Topic of safety in the larp explores not only the physical aspects of the game, but also psychological aspects, as larps usually display emotions. Topic of review is included to offer a teacher an insight into the techniques s/he can use to draw attention to the topics which were aimed to be introduced in the larp. Practical part introduces a research which in three parts explores use of role- playing activities in different subjects and at different types of schools, as well as reasons teachers have for using them. In the first part of the research there are shown

64 numbers of teachers who use role-playing activities and simulations in their subjects and for which subjects role-playing activities are more approachable. Research showed that majority of subjects in which are these activities used are language classes, however several teacher also reported their use in classes of Civics and other subjects. Special role have these activities in training communicative skills such as communication between the doctor and patient or in dealings with authorities. In the second part of the research respondents offered their opinion on advantages and disadvantages of using role-playing activities and simulations in classes. Most of the advantages were of practical nature, teachers use them to practise communicative language skills in situations learners might encounter in their real life as well as to let them react and improvise in different situations. Several teachers use these activities to motivate students through showing them practical applications of the practised skills. Concerning the disadvantages several different problems appeared that make using these activities in classis difficult. Partly this is caused by the size of the classes and lack of time teacher has due to the fact that he has to go through all the necessary topics to be covered during the year as well as because these activities are often time- demanding. Another reason teachers often mentioned was the passivity of learners and their unwillingness to participate in untraditional exercises, noise and misbehaviour during these activities and difficulties when teacher needs to calm them down. Concerning the preparation of such an activity a lot of the teachers feel that the time spent on the design is not appropriate to the effect the activity has in the class. Last part was meant to explore how many teachers are familiar with the term larp, if they have ever experienced it and if they were interested in using such activities when having accessible materials for them. Last part indicated, that more than a half of the teachers is familiar with the term larp, and that a high percentage, predominantly of younger teachers have already experienced some larp activity. Most of the teachers would be interested in using larps in education, but their time demands concerning design as well as game itself are for most of them rather discouraging reasons. Larp, if used on purpose and with appropriate attitude of a teacher might be an interesting activity which can offer a lot of practical experience and opinions its participants may use later in their lives. It enables to watch consequences of decision- making processes in quite a short-time scale and also to practise situations in which learner might appear in the real life.

65 Resumé

Diplomová práce „Larp (Live Action Role-Playing) as a teaching tool“ se zaměřuje na problematiku rolových her, především larpů, a jejich využití ve výuce. Teoretická část je věnována zařazení larpu mezi rolové hry, aspektům, které z něj činí potencionální vzdělávací prostředek a představení her, které by do kategorie edu-larpu mohly zapadat. Druhá část se zabývá teorií herního designu a způsobům jak úspěšně dosáhnout zamýšlených výchovných cílů. Praktická část se věnuje výzkumu míry využití rolových her ve výuce na různých typech škol a v různých předmětech. Obsahuje přehled učiteli uvedených důvodů pro využívání čí nevyužíváni rolových her ve výuce a také přehled toho, jak jsou učitelé obeznámeni s larpem samotným a zda by jim využití tohoto prostředku přišlo zajímavé.

Summary

Diploma thesis “Larp (Live Action Role-Playing) as a teaching tool” is focused on the issue of role-playing activities, particularly larps, end their use as a teaching tool. Theoretical part is devoted to classifying larp as a form of role-playing activity, aspects that enable to use it for educational purposes and introduction of games which could fit the edu-larp category. Second part deals with theory of game design and means how to fulfil successfully educative aims of a larp. Practical part focuses on research in the level of use of role-playing activities in classes at different types of schools and in different subjects. It contains a summary of reasons offered by teachers on why to use or not to use role-playing activities in classes. In the research there is also explored level of how are teacher familiar with the term larp and if they would be interested in using it as a teaching tool.

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Wieslander, E. “Letting the Stories Go”. States of Play: Nordic Larp Around the World. Ed. Juhana Pettersson. Denmark: Toptryk Grafisk, 2012. Print.

71 Index of Figures

Figure 1. The Experiential learning cycle ...... 25

72 Index of Graphs

Graph 1. Age distribution in the respondent group ...... 48 Graph 2. Types of schools where respondents teach ...... 49 Graph 3. Use of role-playing activities and simulations in classes ...... 50 Graph 4. Use of role-playing exercises at different types of schools ...... 51 Graph 5. Use of role-playing activities and simulations in different subjects ...... 53 Graph 6. How are teachers familiar with the term larp ...... 60 Graph 7. Familiarity with larp according to age ...... 61 Graph 8. Do you think larp has educational potential? ...... 62 Graph 9. Interest in using larps in classes, if they were easy to access ...... 63

73 Index of appendices

Appendix 1. Once upon a time in Marrish ...... 75

74 Once upon a time in Marrish – larp

1. Aims of the game When designing this game there were two main topics I wanted to cover. First one is used there as a setting, because I wanted to introduce a topic from British history. Second topic is more focused on language skills, where my aim was to let learners practice argumentative language. Game is designed for a language school class, therefore there are only six roles in it, however another two or three characters can be added. There is one character which can be played by a man or woman, even though for a woman it is necessary to change the character card so that it corresponds to her gender. The usual length of a class at language school is 90 minutes, the game itself is supposed to take about 45-60 minutes. The rest of the time should be devoted to some brief introduction before the game and to the review after the end of it.

2. Setting “Robert the Bruce is Scotland‟s greatest national hero. His mother was Scottish and his father‟s family was descended from Normans who came to Britain with William the Conqueror. In a feudal age, the Bruces owed allegiance to the kings of England and Scotland for land in those countries, but his family also had a claim to the Scottish throne. Only when pursuit of his family‟s ambitions became one with Scotland‟s struggle for independence from English domination did Bruce join the fray. Then his leadership and considerable fighting skills gained Bruce the Scottish crown and drove the English out of Scotland. He was loved by his supporters, not just for his military genius, but for his unfailing courage and humanity.” (Royston, 2001) The game takes place in 1307, in a year when Robert Bruce returned to Scotland with a small army willing to defeat the English who occupied Scotland in those times. The setting of the game is a small village of Marrish where not many people live. (For a teacher who would want to play this game with his/her students I recommend to go through this historic topic with the class at least briefly to provide learners with basic information about the period. Second thing I recommend is to watch at least part of the film Braveheart which could also illustrate this period of Scottish history.)

75 3. Characters (When playing the game print each character on a separate piece of paper. This is the information player get about his/her character. They should not show it to anyone. They can keep the character card during the game in case they would need to consult it. It is good to prepare for each player a name tag with a character‟s name, it is sufficient if it is a sticker with a name written on it.)

Cedric You are a head of this village. You hate war because when you were young it took you your father and the last thing you would like to see is your daughter killed by some soldier. You support the English because you have never had any problems with them even though your village lies on a land belonging to an English lord. You believe that if the Scottish have surrendered the life would have been much easier. You have a wife who you love deeply. Twenty years ago she chose you when you and Andrew competed for her love. Your daughter, Alison, is the most precious thing in your life, you would die to protect her and your wife. Yesterday evening, it was quite late, you heard a noise in the stable. You found Alison there and some stranger. You were afraid he wants to harm her, so you killed him. It was an Englishman. Your daughter tried to tell you she was in love with him, but you got really angry and send her to bed. Now your task is to solve the situation. Alison told you that they had accomplice who helped them and the stranger when they wanted to be together, however, she refused to tell you who it is. The dead man is English and that could mean a lot of problems for the village. You are afraid to report this to your lord, but you believe, that if you tell him that you killed him to protect your daughter, he will understand. Your task: when the game starts explain the situation. Try no to reveal what really happened and that the guy was innocent. You need to persuade others he was a thief. Try to find a solution to what to do. If you decide to report this, you will need support of the whole village. Try to persuade them that this is the best thing to do and that it could keep everything ok.

76 Alison You are a daughter of the head of the village. Yesterday your father killed a man you loved (John) because you tried to hide your rendezvous from him. You are desperate. Partly everything is your fault because if you have told this to your father earlier, nothing would happen. You are angry at your father because yesterday he was really angry with you when you tried to explain him what was between you and John. Your friend, Kyle, an old and wise man from the village, knew about your love and he helped you to get him through the village. But you cannot tell this to your father, you are not sure what he would do. Your mother also knew about your love, but she did not know he was with you yesterday. You knew John‟s mother and you want to let her know what happened. John deserves a traditional funeral. On the other hand you know that it is necessary to solve the problem because if your father was convicted of a murder your family would struggle to get some food. Your mother is old and just the two of you are not able to take care of the whole farm. Your task: Try to persuade your father to let you inform John‟s mother about his death. You mustn‟t say anything about Kyle. Tell your mother that you are afraid of what might happen. She is a wise woman and she might help you solve the situation. Consider telling her truth about what happened yesterday.

Ena You are wife of Cedric and mother of Alison. You have already heard about what happened in the stable. Your husband found there some man, and afraid that it might be an enemy, he killed him. It showed up the man was a boy from the town who served in your landlord‟s house. You believe that it is possible to keep everything under control. You are prepared to ask Andrew if he could help you. He used to love you very much. Your husband always speaks in favour of English, but in this situation it might be much better if you would start supporting Scottish rebels lead by Robert Bruce. You have heard that Scots as well as English are getting closer to your village and that there might come to some conflict. You have always loved you husband. Therefore, if it comes to investigation, you are prepared to take all the blame on you, but you still believe there are better ways how to overcome this.

77 Your task: Ask Andrew, he could know what to do with the body. You believe that he is the one who would keep it secret. Also, try to persuade your husband to join the Scots. You have heard Bruce have gathered a lot of men as well as that he is, town by town, village by village, getting back all the Scottish land. If you could find some solution which would keep everything as it was, it would be great. What if you blamed that stranger Andrew brought with him?

Andrew You have always loved Ena. She is the most beautiful woman you have ever met, no matter you both are quite old now. If she comes to ask you a favour, you will do everything you are able to. You often listen to the news about Bruce because your son has left few years ago to join him and you are afraid, after hearing about some of the skirmishes and battles, he might be dead. You also support Bruce and his claim to Scottish throne. You believe that under his rule Scotland could flourish again. And you remember king Edward and his promises, none of which he kept. As much as you love Ena you hate Cedric. He stole Ena from you and you cannot forgive him. You would never agree with him even when you would be sure he is true. However, you would like to persuade him to join the Scottish. If the village shared the same opinion, you would be much stronger. And you are sure that Bruce will arrive soon. Yesterday a stranger came to your house and asked you for lodging. You let him stay. Strange is that he strongly reminds you of someone you know, but you cannot find out who it might be. You brought the stranger with you today when Cedric invited you to come and discuss something. Your task: try to help Ena. You should persuade the rest of the village to join the Scottish. Try to get some information about the stranger.

Kyle You are too old for all that insecurity. You remember when the king Alexander died, you have lived through that whole period of war. You have never married - the girl you loved was killed during one Scottish raid on the village where she lived. You hate war, and you hate Bruce because it is because of him that the war lasts so long. You think that if Scots accepted Edward as their king, the country would be in better condition than it is now.

78 You like Alison, she is like a daughter you never had. When you find out she is going out with that Englishman, you promised them to keep it secret. Yesterday evening you helped him through the village. When Alison came this morning you knew that something terrible happened. She told you how Cedric killed the man. You do not blame him, even though it was rather unnecessary, you need to help them and keep the village out of sight of the aristocracy. You know Cedric is a bit hot-tempered, so you do not want to tell him it was you who brought the man to his stable. That stranger who came yesterday... you know him. It‟s Andrew‟s son, but he asked you not to tell anyone too early. You do not know what he is doing here, but that is not important. Just to find a way from this situation... Your task: Try to persuade the villagers to solve it quietly. It is a boy no one will seek. His death was really futile, but it happened. Support the English, they were always kind to you. And you remember well how the Scots raided that village. They killed everyone. Men, women, children... You are the oldest in the village. If necessary accept a role of mediator.

Roan (Donnan) You have just arrived to your home village. Bruce‟s army you travelled with is staying not far from here and they plan to attack the English. You believe they will win, Bruce knows this country much better than king‟s army. You came to see what is new in the village. You presents yourself as Donnan. Your father got old. He did not recognize you so you decided to stay anonymous for some time. But you would like to hear what is new from him. Do not get revealed until it is really necessary. You want to go back to Bruce‟s army and fight for your land and country. Maybe if you are brave enough, he will give you the land of the English. But you know that when your father realizes it is you, he will not let you go away again. Alison is now a very pretty girl. You used to love her. Today she is very sad. What has happened? Why this meeting at Cedric‟s house? Your task: Talk to Alison. She might like you. She is the prettiest girl in the village and it would not be bad to marry her. If the talk comes to Bruce, tell them truly that the battle is close and that the Scots will definitely win. Try to persuade the villagers that joining the Scots is the best way to prosperity.

79 4. Story In the village a murder was committed. Cedric, head of the village, killed some Englishman in his stable. For the village it is really difficult time because when they lose patronage of the landlord the English will come and raid them. Or maybe the Scottish. It is the time when Bruce‟s army is fighting Englishmen and they arrived closed to the village where the story takes place. During the game there will come several messages that will affect it.

4. Instructions for the presenter At the beginning of the game, introduce the characters. There are 4 men and 2 women characters, however, if necessary Kyle can be transformed to woman (it is necessary to rewrite information for him a bit so that it would fit for a woman) During the game you should watch it, even though not directly. It is possible to divide the class with some curtain so that you can hear what is going on. Try to make notes if you find any interesting situation which you would like to go through with the players after the game. When there are characters distributed let players some time to go through them. If they need to discuss anything, try to help them. Tell the players that information which is not covered in the text can be made up and if it appears in the game it is automatically accepted as true. Also, remind the players that all the information they have should get into the game, however it is up to them when. When the game starts in the room there is only Cedric and Ena. The rest of the characters arrive one by one. At the beginning they can greet each other, do some small talk, however when there is everyone in the room, they should start solving the problem. The first turning point comes after about 15 minutes of game. Kyle should get a letter (you need to write it on your own) in which it is said that anyone who reports any Scot to the English aristocracy will get King‟s pardon for him and his whole family. (If you feel that the pace of the game is getting lower, use this to add some more topics to speak. If the game goes well, you can wait a bit.) The second turning point should come after about 30 minutes of game. This time arrives to the village a person asking for shelter. (You should bring some news – Scots started the battle, they are very close. English burnt a village on the second bank of the river. It is really important now who arrives first, because English will burn it anyway.

80 Scots, if they see the support, will let the village be and they might even protect it.) Do not be afraid to be creative. Third and closing point should come after another 15-20 minutes. Again, if you see the game goes well and you have time, let the players continue. Last turning point is again a person arriving. This time he does not enter the room, but just knocks and asks: “Are you English or Scottish?” The players should answer. If they choose Scottish, they are saved. Bruce‟s army arrived and defeated the English and they came to liberate the village. You can ask if there is anyone who could confirm it – it might be Roan who is recognized by his old brothers-in-arms. If they choose English, they will be probably all killed, because the Scots don‟t want to let any place English could defend themselves. In this case just announce this and end the game. After the game give the players few minutes on their own. Then do the review. In the first part of the review let the players share their stories, how they felt etc. In the second part try to focus on the notes you made and raise the question about the storyline – you might talk about how people might have felt in such times, how e.g. Roan felt when the rest were discussing the possibility to sacrifice him for the sake of the village etc. Third part of the review you can devote to grammar and vocabulary. The game was mostly based on argumentation, so you can with the learners discuss possibilities how to express themselves and how to defend their opinion. It would be good to provide them with some handout, this should be prepared according to the level of their language.

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