"The original idea was to run an actual D&D campaign over the course of the semester, with students encountering structured philosophical problems along the way-an in-game trolley problem, a famous sorcerer fatally entwined with the body of an innocent townsperson, and so on. I loved the immersive potential of that approach because it seemed like a way to give students a sense of having a personal stake in the matter, even while considering the rather fanciful conditions that arise in philosophical thought experiments."
"But the logistics were strugglesome: D&D groups work best at about 4-6 people, and groups would need to be consistent throughout the semester. More importantly, it would place a lopsided burden on students who chose to be Dungeon Masters (DMs). The DM is the player responsible for telling the story and adjudicating the game, but they also need to do a lot of preparatory work. Too much, I thought, to reasonably expect of any student."
An instructor obtained a teaching innovation grant and support from an honors program to build a philosophy course around role-playing games. The initial plan aimed to run a semester-long Dungeons & Dragons campaign that staged structured philosophical problems to create immersive, high-stakes engagement. Practical constraints emerged: ideal D&D group sizes, the need for consistent teams, and an excessive preparatory burden on student Dungeon Masters. The course was redesigned around game-linked modules. Each module centers on one or two gameplay sessions followed by several class meetings devoted to the philosophical issues evoked by those experiences.
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