Designing Role-Play

Abstract

Role-play design follows common conventions of composition and editing that lead the designer into creative space while safeguarding workplace accuracy. The designer needs personally to touch into new discovery and the excitement of that discovery, as it is not only insight but also the excitement of insight which motivates learning in the workshop. Designers commonly discover how to consciously use spatial and temporal frames in order to step into creative space and to employ reason and imagination at their appropriate stages of the process. Dramatic practice provides numerous insights and techniques to liberate the imagination, work with the mind’s natural compulsion to create order out of chaos, and bring alive the decisions, words, and actions that will be recreated on the day of the workshop.

Role-play works best when members of the group find themselves transported into the virtual role-play world. The art of role-play design, therefore, is a creative exercise and follows conventions of composition and editing common to all art forms. This chapter discusses how we can enhance the quality of our role-plays through creative design while ensuring workplace accuracy. The first part considers notions of creativity, leading in the second part to practical suggestions for creative role-play design.