Imagined Worlds, Real Learning: Worldbuilding as Pedagogical Design

This paper proposes collaborative worldbuilding as a pedagogical design approach within game-based learning (GBL), arguing that the fictional systems surrounding gameplay, such as cultures, institutions, and environments, are underexplored sites of learning. It introduces "fictional systems pedagogy," a conceptual framework in which learners co-construct imagined worlds as environments for inquiry, experimentation, and collective sensemaking. The framework identifies five learning affordances (systems thinking, critical reflection, creative problem-solving, productive fictional distance, and collective sensemaking) and translates them into five design principles, including prioritising system coherence, scaffolding without predetermining outcomes, designing for iteration, integrating reflection with construction, and embracing productive ambiguity.

The argument is developed through an integrative, non-systematic synthesis of literature drawn from game studies, speculative design, narrative theory, and constructionism. The author positions worldbuilding as a participatory practice that can precede, accompany, or stand apart from gameplay, distinguishing fictional systems from both narrative and simulation by their openness to learner reconfiguration.

The paper's application examples are three author-constructed, composite scenarios spanning tabletop role-playing, classroom environmental learning, and speculative design workshops. These are explicitly illustrative rather than empirical, and the paper does not report primary data, sample sizes, or observed learner outcomes. The author frames the framework as a proposition for empirical investigation, noting that the affordances describe potential processes rather than guaranteed effects, and that factors such as facilitation, group dynamics, and assessment design remain consequential.