Delivered at the 5th Dungeons and Dragons Research Tavern event on 10/6/2025
By Richard Stubbs and Nickolas Sorensen- Roll Play and Grow
This presentation highlights Roll Play and Grow’s current research using ‘Legends of Lorem’ as a Tier 1 and Tier 2 Social and Emotional Learning intervention in public schools for the past 2 years. They will share early insights from facilitator interviews and discuss how TRPGs support key social-emotional skills
Website: Roll Play and Grow
Publication: Tabletop role-playing games and social and emotional learning in school settings - ScienceDirect
Dr Rosie Fox – University of Leeds
Amongst the various devices and techniques for game masters in tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), safety tools feature heavily in grimdark and gothic campaigns (think Curse of Strahd in D&D, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Blades in the Dark). Developed both by official materials and by third parties, safety tools offer a means to engage in gameplay that features themes of horror, violence, and mature themes in a way that keeps the game fun and safe for everyone. I’ve been a game master for just over three years of my own Castlevania-themed campaign, and have used a suite of safety tools that I have also brought into my teaching in seminars and lectures at the University of Leeds Law School. In this session I’ll take you through a brief introduction of these safety tools and the justifications for them and offer space for you to reflect on your own practice and where these tools might apply in your own work.
DMing an Escape Room – researching, constructing and templating an educational escape room.
Dr Sam Chadwick - University of Chester
This talk explores the use of escape rooms as a form of active engaging learning. With three distinct storylines [case studies!] – first-year history students “getting to grips” with the course, medical students prepping for interviews and Open days to attract new students – the presentation outlines the process of designing, testing, and refining escape rooms tailored to specific learning objectives and how to make the material transferable between subjects and subject matter.
Maxime Gaveele - Bright Match
This talk explores the possibility to identify how personalities within work context differ from individual personalities. We all know the feeling of having different ‘fronts’ based on our context; at home we take up the nurturing role, at work we take on the operational role and with friends we can all be the jester. Personality is a fluid concept that shapes itself into existence based on the context we're in, and in a professional setting this is no different. We're social creatures and we adapt to the needs of the group.
By providing a playful, relaxed yet challenging setting, TTRPG's are a great way of seeing how people socially collaborate and communicate. In this early-stage research, we compared individual behavioural profiles with contextual profiles and see how TTRPG's help unveil the mysteries of team dynamics and behavioural fluidity. The goal of this research is to provide forming teams the means to explore their dynamics and shape long-lasting collaborations based on understanding.
Website: https://www.monolithic.be/