070095 PS BA-Proseminar - Game-based Storytelling - Reacting to a Jewish Past (2024W)

“To understand a person - first walk a mile in their shoes”

This class is a seminar in making history accessible and understandable to others. To give people a chance to walk in the shoes of another, and understand their historical path. Rather than producing a seminar paper - the goal of this course will be for students to work in groups to create a series of highly-researched roleplaying games, which will allow other students to experience these historical moments for themselves.

The class will use the “Reacting to the Past” format for these games. Students familiar with that format are especially encouraged to join, although those who are familiar with other styles of roleplaying - both inside and outside the classroom - and those interested in game-based learning, are also very welcome too. For those unfamiliar, this video is a good short introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U6L9ERzw0U&t=3s

This course will be co-taught with Dr. Ahuva Liberles of Tel Aviv University, and will have students at both Tel Aviv University and the University of Vienna work together in groups to design these games. Because of the partnership with Tel Aviv - the theme of “Reacting to a Jewish Past” was chosen as a linking factor between the games under creation.

Ties that link that Jewish past to European and Austrian history are likewise encouraged, although because of the historical difficulties of the period for both Israel and Austria - and the fact that neither of the instructors are specialists in that time-period - the class seeks to focus on events outside the period of National Socialism and the Holocaust.

In the first half of the class, students will play different gaming formats, including Reacting to the Past games, as well as traditional board games and video games, to learn what they can teach about game design. Then students will choose topics for games of their own, extensively researching the topics to create the rulesheets, historical essays, primary source readers, and character sheets needed to play their games. Students will then playtest, revise, and retest the games to create a finished product by the end of the semester.