^{<strong>LEARNING THROUGH IMAGINATION: </strong>}^{<strong>A SAGA OF TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAMES IN EDUCATION</strong>}

<p dir="ltr">This dissertation explored the pedagogical potential of tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs) in higher education, focusing on their motivational impact, faculty adoption, and instructional parallels with traditional classroom teaching. The aim was to advance understanding of TRPGs as transformative, interactive, and student-centered learning tools, while addressing the barriers faculty may face in integrating them into curricular contexts. The findings strongly suggest that TRPGs are not only effective motivational tools but may also be readily adaptable to higher education curriculum given the similarities that exist between the processes of teaching/facilitating a classroom and running a TRPG game. However, faculty who are unfamiliar with TRPG game playing will need training and scaffolding to ascertain the bridge between game running and teaching to effectively adopt TRPGs as educational tools. Based on these insights, I developed the MASTER (Maneuvering Adventure Systems to Teach, Engage, and Reflect) theory of faculty adoption of TRPGs in their curriculum through leveraging critical motivational and pedagogical elements of such games as well as harnessing their preexisting skills as classroom facilitators. This dissertation contributes to a growing field of TRPG scholarship by building empirical and theoretical foundations for their use in higher education.</p>