How to Make a Public Administration Role-Playing Game: A Guide to Adventure-Based Learning
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Bill Brantley
June 21, 2024
Role-playing games (RPGs) are a popular and effective way of entertaining and educating players. By creating immersive stories that involve players, RPGs can convey complex ideas in a relevant and captivating way. We’ll examine the design principles, game mechanics and storytelling to create a teaching RPG.
Understanding the Basics: What is Public Administration?
It’s important to grasp the basic ideas of public administration before exploring game design. Public administration is about putting government policy into practice and running public programs.
Core Concepts to Include:
1. Policy Development and Implementation.
2. Budgeting and Finance.
3. Human Resources Management.
4. Organizational Theory.
5. Ethics and Accountability.
Designing the Game: Setting and Storyline
Creating the Setting
A good setting is vital for any RPG. For a game based on public administration, think of a fictional city or kingdom that reflects real-life governmental systems. This setting offers a realistic yet creative context for players to learn about public administration ideas.
Example: Eldoria is a rich kingdom with a complicated government. The kingdom has different regions, each with its own local government, and a central government in the capital city. The players are new officials who must deal with the kingdom’s problems.
Crafting the Storyline
The story should include public administration issues and players need their public administration skills to advance.
Example: The kingdom is dealing with several problems: a lack of funds, a health crisis and a controversy involving top-level authorities. Players must make choices that impact the kingdom’s security and well-being.
Game Mechanics: Rules and Systems
Character Creation
In classic D&D, players design characters with classes and abilities. In a public administration RPG, characters could take on roles such as Policy Advisor, Financial Officer, Human Resources Manager and Ethics Officer. Each role has distinct skills related to public administration.
Example: Arin, the Policy Advisor
Skills: Policy Evaluation, Bargaining, Oral Communication
Abilities: Write Policy (make policy suggestions), Advocate (persuade stakeholders), Emergency Response (handle crises)
Use a system that involves dice-rolling, like D&D, where players roll to see how well their actions work based on their skills and capabilities.
Example: Budget Negotiation
The players must discuss the kingdom’s budget. The financial officer uses their budgeting skill for a skill check. A good roll gives a good budget that covers most of the kingdom’s needs, while a bad roll may need hard trade-offs.
Quests and Missions
Create scenarios that simulate public administration duties. Each scenario should pose a challenge that players must overcome using their knowledge and skills.
Example: The Epidemic Outbreak—An unknown disease infects the people of Eldoria, putting pressure on the health services. Players must create and execute a public health plan, distribute funds and inform the public to handle the outbreak.
Engaging Players: Balancing Education and Entertainment
Educational Objectives
Identify the learning goals for each game session. Make sure that each quest or mission instructs specific public administration concepts while maintaining the gameplay interest.
Example: Learning Budget Allocation
In the budget negotiation quest, the objective is to help players learn how to distribute scarce resources efficiently, comprehend the consequences of their choices and balance stakeholder needs.
Create engaging stories for players that let them interact with the game world. Let them choose how to affect the game. Use NPCs to give information, pose problems and respond to the players’ choices.
Example: Town Hall Meetings
Players engage in town hall meetings where they communicate with NPCs that embody different stakeholder groups. These communications affect the players’ choices and the kingdom’s results.
Make the game challenging and rewarding. Challenges should be engaging but not frustrating. Rewards can include money, abilities or power in the kingdom.
Example: A possible reward for handling the public health crisis well is more influence for the players, which could help them enact their policies better in later quests.
Testing and Iteration: Refining the Game
Get feedback from players by doing playtesting sessions. Watch how they play the game, what they like and what they find difficult. Use this feedback to improve the game mechanics, story and educational content. Play-test feedback may show some public administration parts are too complicated for the game. Make these parts easier but keep their learning value.
Iteration
Keep improving the game based on feedback and testing outcomes. Modify quests, fine-tune mechanics and polish the educational content to create a captivating and well-rounded RPG.
Example: To make budget calculations easier for players, offer pre-computed choices or use a simpler resource management system.
Final Thoughts: How Playing Can Enhance Learning
A game that is like Dungeons-and-Dragons and teaches public administration concepts can bring together the best aspects of both worlds: the captivating, immersive experience of RPGs and the educational benefit of real-world knowledge.
By designing the setting, storyline, mechanics and educational objectives with care, you can create a game that is both enjoyable and informative. Use the power of playing to learn and see how players become more knowledgeable and excited about public administration.
Dr. Bill Brantley is the President and Chief Learning Officer for BAS2A, an instructional design consultancy for state and local governments. He also teaches at the University of Louisville and the University of Maryland. His opinions are his own and do not reflect those of his employers. You can reach him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbrantley/
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How to Make a Public Administration Role-Playing Game: A Guide to Adventure-Based Learning
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Bill Brantley
June 21, 2024
Role-playing games (RPGs) are a popular and effective way of entertaining and educating players. By creating immersive stories that involve players, RPGs can convey complex ideas in a relevant and captivating way. We’ll examine the design principles, game mechanics and storytelling to create a teaching RPG.
Understanding the Basics: What is Public Administration?
It’s important to grasp the basic ideas of public administration before exploring game design. Public administration is about putting government policy into practice and running public programs.
Core Concepts to Include:
1. Policy Development and Implementation.
2. Budgeting and Finance.
3. Human Resources Management.
4. Organizational Theory.
5. Ethics and Accountability.
Designing the Game: Setting and Storyline
Creating the Setting
A good setting is vital for any RPG. For a game based on public administration, think of a fictional city or kingdom that reflects real-life governmental systems. This setting offers a realistic yet creative context for players to learn about public administration ideas.
Example: Eldoria is a rich kingdom with a complicated government. The kingdom has different regions, each with its own local government, and a central government in the capital city. The players are new officials who must deal with the kingdom’s problems.
Crafting the Storyline
The story should include public administration issues and players need their public administration skills to advance.
Example: The kingdom is dealing with several problems: a lack of funds, a health crisis and a controversy involving top-level authorities. Players must make choices that impact the kingdom’s security and well-being.
Game Mechanics: Rules and Systems
Character Creation
In classic D&D, players design characters with classes and abilities. In a public administration RPG, characters could take on roles such as Policy Advisor, Financial Officer, Human Resources Manager and Ethics Officer. Each role has distinct skills related to public administration.
Example: Arin, the Policy Advisor
Skills: Policy Evaluation, Bargaining, Oral Communication
Abilities: Write Policy (make policy suggestions), Advocate (persuade stakeholders), Emergency Response (handle crises)
Use a system that involves dice-rolling, like D&D, where players roll to see how well their actions work based on their skills and capabilities.
Example: Budget Negotiation
The players must discuss the kingdom’s budget. The financial officer uses their budgeting skill for a skill check. A good roll gives a good budget that covers most of the kingdom’s needs, while a bad roll may need hard trade-offs.
Quests and Missions
Create scenarios that simulate public administration duties. Each scenario should pose a challenge that players must overcome using their knowledge and skills.
Example: The Epidemic Outbreak—An unknown disease infects the people of Eldoria, putting pressure on the health services. Players must create and execute a public health plan, distribute funds and inform the public to handle the outbreak.
Engaging Players: Balancing Education and Entertainment
Educational Objectives
Identify the learning goals for each game session. Make sure that each quest or mission instructs specific public administration concepts while maintaining the gameplay interest.
Example: Learning Budget Allocation
In the budget negotiation quest, the objective is to help players learn how to distribute scarce resources efficiently, comprehend the consequences of their choices and balance stakeholder needs.
Create engaging stories for players that let them interact with the game world. Let them choose how to affect the game. Use NPCs to give information, pose problems and respond to the players’ choices.
Example: Town Hall Meetings
Players engage in town hall meetings where they communicate with NPCs that embody different stakeholder groups. These communications affect the players’ choices and the kingdom’s results.
Make the game challenging and rewarding. Challenges should be engaging but not frustrating. Rewards can include money, abilities or power in the kingdom.
Example: A possible reward for handling the public health crisis well is more influence for the players, which could help them enact their policies better in later quests.
Testing and Iteration: Refining the Game
Get feedback from players by doing playtesting sessions. Watch how they play the game, what they like and what they find difficult. Use this feedback to improve the game mechanics, story and educational content. Play-test feedback may show some public administration parts are too complicated for the game. Make these parts easier but keep their learning value.
Iteration
Keep improving the game based on feedback and testing outcomes. Modify quests, fine-tune mechanics and polish the educational content to create a captivating and well-rounded RPG.
Example: To make budget calculations easier for players, offer pre-computed choices or use a simpler resource management system.
Final Thoughts: How Playing Can Enhance Learning
A game that is like Dungeons-and-Dragons and teaches public administration concepts can bring together the best aspects of both worlds: the captivating, immersive experience of RPGs and the educational benefit of real-world knowledge.
By designing the setting, storyline, mechanics and educational objectives with care, you can create a game that is both enjoyable and informative. Use the power of playing to learn and see how players become more knowledgeable and excited about public administration.
Dr. Bill Brantley is the President and Chief Learning Officer for BAS2A, an instructional design consultancy for state and local governments. He also teaches at the University of Louisville and the University of Maryland. His opinions are his own and do not reflect those of his employers. You can reach him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbrantley/
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