A Scoping Review of Tabletop Role-Playing Game (TTRPG) as Psychological Intervention: Potential Benefits and Future Directions

Abstract

Purpose: The present study aimed to investigate how prior research of TTRPG revealed the benefits of TTRPG as a psychological intervention and how further studies can overcome the challenges and limitations of TTRPG in those previous studies. Methods: The study used Scoping Review to explore the potential benefits of TTRPG. Three research questions were identified (1) the extent to which empirical research has been conducted regarding TTRPG as intervention, (2) the potential of TTRPG mentioned, and (3) the suggestions for future research. The study investigated the last 10 years (ie, 2013 to 2023) of research publications with all research methods included. The search focused on key terms of "Tabletop Role-playing Game", "TTRPG", "Dungeons and Dragons", and terms related to intervention. The databases used were in English and Indonesian and resulted in 109 papers but later eliminated due to various reasons until it became 51 papers to be reviewed. Results: Of the 51 papers included for final analysis, majority are of exploratory approach (n = 35; eg, literature review and qualitative design studies), indicating that research in TTRPG is still at the emerging stage. Quantitative design studies (n = 12) and mixed-method design studies (n = 4) on TTRPG are the minority. Majority papers (n = 30) are published in the United States, only three papers published in the Asian context, indicating that TTRPG research in the Asian context is scarce. Conclusion: From existing literature, TTRPG provides benefits to promote cognitive and psychosocial skills, to prevent negative effects and stress, as well as to intervene in psychological problems such as social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and autism spectrum disorders. Further studies can explore the use of TTRPG in Asia-representing collectivistic culture, to employ different systems of TTRPG and to examine the effects of TTRPG using experimental design to overcome the limitations of prior studies.

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