RPGs in Therapy - Resources Masterpost

Last updated: March 21, 2025 - added TAGGS, GeekEd Con, and the Serious Play Conference

 

About this Page

I am currently a graduate-level mental health counseling student working on a thesis that will involve running an RPG therapy group and a related literature review. Given this is a burgeoning specialization, I think it is useful to keep all the resources I have in one place that's available to others. 

To mental health practitioners or others reading this but not otherwise familiar with this blog (which is otherwise focused on my RPG design work in a non-therapeutic, hobby context), feel free to contact me if you have questions, ideas, or any other reason to reach out at gjd006@protonmail.com.

Also note that I will always mean tabletop/"pencil and paper" role-playing games when I use the term "RPG" unless I specify otherwise (not video games).

 

Labels

As I accumulate more resources and experience using them, it's becoming important to note which of them I have used in practice with clients, which I have fully read or otherwise been informed by, and which I am aware of but have yet to personally engage with. To that end, I'm going to label each resource as follows.

U = have used in practice/central to my approach

F = fully read/informed by

P = partially read/familiar with

H = heard about but not read/engaged with 

For RPG systems, I mark them "F" if I've run or played in them, but not in a therapeutic context, and "P" if I've read them but not run/played them.

 

Books, Academic Sources, and other Resources for RPGs in Therapy

Therapeutically-Applied Roleplaying Games - Elizabeth Kilmer - F - book by Game to Grow clinicians (see below). Focuses almost exclusively on modern D&D-alikes/trad RPGs using a group model where the therapist is the GM and the clients are players.

Tabletop Role-Playing Therapy - Megan Connell - H- book by a clinician

Role-Playing Games in Psychotherapy: A Practitioner's Guide - Daniel Hand - H - book by a clinician

Wizards, Warriors, & Wellness - H - book by clinicians from the Bohdana Group (see below)

Joint Conference on Serious Games - H

Game to Grow - P - nonprofit that offers trainings on using games in mental health care. YTU

Scientific Research on RPGs - H - collected by Game to Grow. YTU

Take This - P -advocacy organization for games in mental health. YTU

The Mythic Imagination - Stephen Larsen - H - my understanding is that this book is not primarily about RPGs in therapy, but that it does touch on the subject.

Geek therapy Facebook group - P - RPGs in therapy is a recurrent topic

Roll For Kindness - H - a practitioner's website featuring many articles related to RPGs in therapy (which I have yet to read)

Video Games in Psychotherapy - H - book by a clinician. Obviously not directly RPG-related, but a lot of conceptual overlap.

Transformative Role-Playing Game Design - H - book not related directly to therapy, but likely to have some conceptual overlap

The Bohdana Group - P - RPG therapists in York, Pennsylvania who offer trainings and workshops. 

TAGGS - H - Therapeutic + Applied Geek + Gaming Summit. Online conference with recordings of past talks

GeekEd Con - H - in-person conference, Rochester NY, July 18-19

Serious Play Conference - H - in-person conference, Rochester NY, August 13-15

RPG Systems with Possible Therapeutic Applications

Obviously far from a complete list, but these all come to mind as more meritorious for use in therapy than 5e D&D.

The Quiet Year - F - Nontraditional community-building/mapping game

The Black Hack - F - Free, very simple OSR/"D&D-esque" game

Old School Essentials - F - The same rules as B/X D&D (the best designed edition of D&D ever, in my opinion), but packaged and reformatted for a modern audience

One Shot World - F - Basically a cleaned up (and free) version of Dungeon World. Aesthetically similar to D&D like The Black Hack and OSE, but more mechanically focused on narrative as opposed to procedural play

Unknown Armies - F - Uniquely models trauma in its game mechanics. Contemporary setting, occult-themed with heavy horror elements

Kids on Bikes - H - A popular choice for RPG therapy. Narrative-focused and in a contemporary(-ish setting) where the PCs are children

Tales from the Loop - P - Very similar setting/aesthetic to Kids on Bikes, though with some weird technology stuff thrown in. Uses the Year Zero Engine, of which I am a big fan

Monsters and Other Childish Things - P - Another present-day game where you play as children. In this one, characters have pet eldritch monstrosities

Critical Core - H - Designed by Game to Grow for therapeutic use, specifically for building social skills. Aesthetically similar to D&D, from what I have heard

 

Related Musings 

Things listed here are written by me or otherwise my work unless labeled using the system above.

Modeling Stress, Trauma, and Mental Illness in RPGs older post on this blog - my thoughts have evolved since I wrote it but it's still relevant

Psychosis is Badly Written in Tabletop Games. - F - I didn't write this and don't fully align with the author's views, but I think it addresses some important concerns from the perspective of someone with lived experience. Relates to the above post.

Class Assignment on RPGs in Therapy - made on an assignment for graduate-level mental health counseling class on group work in Fall of 2023. Contains some overlapping resources to this post.

News Story on the D&D day camp I started at RIT - I'm in the background a few times! (They wisely interviewed my more concise coworker, who co-developed and co-instructed the camp the first year we ran it.) Not a therapeutic application of RPGs, but somewhat adjacent.