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Editor Note: This week, we are delighted to feature a Topic of the Week by Thorny Games in which they explore examples of how tabletop games can be used for exploring language and ways language is fundamental to gameplay. Our Activity of the Week focuses on an adaptation from one piece of their game Dialect to be used in the language classrooms. For more on the role of games in the world language classroom see these past Topic of the Week articles: Using Analog Games, Digital Games and Language Learning, and Digital Games and L2 Pragmatics.

Let’s start by taking a look at Magicians: A Language Learning RPG by Samjoko Publishing. As a tabletop Role Playing Game (RPG), players embody characters who improve their skills from session to session as they overcome difficult challenges. But in Magicians, there’s a twist. In order to successfully cast spells, players must construct more and more complex Korean grammatical structures (which serve as incantations in the fiction). Progression systems are fundamental to many RPGs and Magicians incorporates language in the core of its progression. This makes the system more natural than traditional progression systems which simply mark experience points on a sheet, and serves to fundamentally enhance the underlying system.

As another example, take the sci-fi puzzle game Sethian by Duang! Games. Throughout Sethian, players progress as they’re able to compose grammatically correct sentences that the alien technology they’re interacting with can parse in its native language. The puzzles in this puzzle game become grammatical construction and the player’s natural acuity to language make those puzzles fun and engaging. As the players solve puzzles, they naturally develop fluency in this language.

In fact, language can be used as an emotionally engaging mechanic for play far beyond pedagogy. Whether it be the story of an isolated community as told through the lens of their language (as in Dialect, A Game about Language and How it Dies) or a story of hope born from the hands of children in 1970s Nicaragua (as in Sign, A Game about Being Understood), Thorny Games has been exploring the myriad ways our brain’s predisposition to language can be used for emotionally resonant gameplay. Language is one of the fundamental things that make us human, and a special tool for deeply engaging interactive experiences. We hope these examples help you in your experimentation, and we look forward to playing your creations!