Role-Playing Games and Well-Being

Role-playing games (RPGs) are a young, interdisciplinary field whose relationship to well-being remains under-theorized, though existing evidence indicates that RPGs do affect well-being. Research to date has concentrated largely on live action role-play (larp) and online RPGs, with comparatively little attention to tabletop games. Studies have examined populations such as Parkinson's patients in virtual worlds and autistic participants in larp, reporting gains in social capital, life satisfaction, and general well-being. Psychological research has found no RPG-specific dangers, and interest in using RPGs in therapy and health education has grown, yet the mechanisms through which these effects occur are still poorly understood.

The central argument is that the study of RPGs and the study of arts and well-being have developed largely in isolation, each examining only one side of the relationship. Arts and well-being research is fragmented across psychology, medicine, and economics, relying on quantitative measures such as quality-of-life and self-rated health indices alongside qualitative and case-based approaches that capture experiential depth. RPGs share substantial common ground with this field, including historical roots in sociodrama and replication therapy, the cultural and digital capital they generate, their status as leisure-based cultural practices, and overlaps with performance studies. The author contends that bringing these literatures together through interdisciplinary collaboration would clarify how and why RPGs influence well-being and could eventually allow RPGs to be integrated into health, therapeutic, and well-being practice in the manner the arts already are.

The analysis also acknowledges critiques within the field, including concerns about racial representation and the moral structures embedded in RPG design. The supporting material is primarily a bibliography of academic work on RPGs, arts participation, quality of life, and health policy, with a notable example being a dissertation on tabletop RPGs and emotional resilience. The author, whose doctoral research addresses role-playing games and well-being, positions the work as a call for more integrated scholarship rather than as a presentation of new empirical findings.