Challenges and Changelings

A guide and resources on how to implement a Dungeons and Dragon’s style Imaginal Serious Game in your university class.

Who is this relevant for?

This page outlines a case study which implemented the game in a multi-disicplinary social behavioural change unit, and provides blank templates you can use to implement this into any unit where the aim is to change or influence behaviour.

You may find it relevant for:

  • Social behaviour change (i.e. health, sustainability, non-profits, social justice, etc.)

  • Consumer behaviour

  • Marketing communications

  • Innovation and design thinking

  • UX or product design and strategy

  • Education psychology or pedagogical design

  • Pitch competitions

  • Public policy

Developed by Brittany Currenti and Dr. Kate Letheren. Designs by Natalie Sketcher

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Challenges and Changelings © 2025 by Brittany Currenti and Kate Letheren is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. This license requires that users give credit to the creators. Credit should also be given to Natalie Sketcher if using the designs. See terms and conditions of use.

[Citation]

Science Driven Design

proven to improve student engagement and motivation

Based on Imaginal Elements by Wu and Holsapple (2014)

  • Students embody the role of characters representing one of five behaviour change disciplines - social marketing, communications, behavioural economics, economics, and law. Changing their mindset to align with their character improves immersion, memory retention, and creative thinking.

  • To fully immerse students, the game is designed to be tactile so as to engage all the senses e.g. physical table top game play, printed character cards and strategy sheets. This enables them to put aside their worries of reality to focus on the moment.

  • High levels of fantasy through our changelings, characters and illustrations allows students to stretch their ideas beyond reality, allowing them levels of imagination and creative thinking beyond the normal.

A cartoon wizard with glasses and brown hair, wearing a large pointed black wizard's hat and black robes, reads a blue book with a gold cross design, with blue magical smoke rising from it.

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Experiential learning Hierarchy

Based on the experiential learning hierarchy, the game requires the students to apply the frameworks they learn about as they play (do the behaviour), have fun and engage with the game through teamwork as they create strategies for behaviour change (feel), and finally learn (cognition) and retain the knowledge they’ve now actively used. Then from mid-semester onwards, students work in teams to tackle the biggest Changeling of all – a real world behavioural challenge from an industry or government client.

Chibi-style girl with green hair and eyes, wearing a green outfit, and glowing green hands, making a peace sign.

The Characters

(Disciplines)

The use of fantasy classes to represent each discipline allows us to create clear metaphors to allow students to quickly grasp the differences between the disciplines, which in real life is often complex and nuanced. For example, the Wizard was chosen to represent behavioural economics as the discipline includes techniques such as leveraging unconscious biases and using nudges to encourage behaviour change in a way that could be seen as almost ‘magical’ because it often happens without conscious awareness. Students role play as a chosen character/s, embodying the skills and strengths and changing their mindset to think like that character, immersing them in the experience.

  • A cartoon bard with a bald head and a beard, wearing a purple and green outfit, playing a lute on stage with an audience's hands reaching up.

    The Bard | Communications

    A highly creative minstrel, the Bard excels in crafting memorable, eye-catching campaigns with a flexible and agile approach.

  • An illustrated woman dressed as a musketeer in a red cape, large wide-brimmed hat with a feather, standing in a garden with rose bushes, smiling and pointing.

    The Musketeer | Social Marketing

    A cunning swordsman, the Musketeer outmaneuvers barriers, using marketing techniques to reframe desired actions as more valuable than undesired ones.

  • A woman illustrated as a Paladin in armor, holding a large golden shield in a fantasy style artwork.

    The Paladin | Law

    A firm hand of justice, the Paladin develops and then enforces rules to ensure compliance with desired behaviours, often providing the resources and funding required for an intervention to be feasible.

  • Digital illustration of a female warlock with black hair, wielding a glowing green magic staff and holding a book, casting a spell with a chart in the background, against a dark background.

    The Warlock | Economics

    Connected with unseen forces, the Warlock controls interest rates, prices and inflation, seeking to minimize the costs and increase the benefits of desired actions and vice versa for undesired behaviours.

  • Illustration of a wizard with glasses, holding a glowing book, casting a spell with magical blue energy, wearing a robe and hat, with a dark blue background.

    The Wizard | Behavioural Economics

    A mystical spellcaster, the Wizard uses behavioural biases as ‘short cuts’ to unconsciously nudge people towards desired behaviours.

A colorful infographic titled 'The Musketeer Social Marketing' featuring a cartoon character of a musketeer with a feathered hat, sword, and roses. The infographic is divided into sections: Health with five heart icons for Game 1 to Game 5, Traits with various strengths rated by dots, and Skills with three boxed skill descriptions in red, pink, and blue.

Character cards

  • A character skill refers to a key theory or framework the discipline uses for behavioural change. Students apply these skills to their strategies in the same way one would use a magic spell in D&D to defeat a monster.

  • These describe the key strengths and weaknesses of each discipline and works int he same way as character stats in D&D (e.g. wisdom, charisma, dexterity). The more points in a trait, the stronger the corresponding skill will perform.

  • Each character gets 2 health hearts per game. As they attack the changeling, they can lose health if they do not roll well. Lose all health and they fail to successfully implement their strategy. Students must defeat the changeling before it defeats them!

The Changelings

A “changeling” in folklore is a human-imitating creature that often manipulates, curses or tricks humans into performing behaviours they do not wish or intend to do. Our game presents social problems as ‘changelings’ which the students must fight and defeat to create positive behavioural change.

Book cover titled 'The Social Media Changeling' with a dark green and black illustration of a creature with glowing eyes and claws at the top. The cover includes sections labeled 'Problem,' 'Desired behaviour,' 'Main Barrier,' and 'Main Motivation,' discussing issues related to social media use and self-image.

The changeling cards includes:

  • A description of the problem and target audience

  • The desired behaviour

  • Main barrier preventing behaviour

  • Main motivator that can be leveraged to promote the behaviour

  • To help students understand which discipline is best suited to a behaviour, we used a modified version of the MOA (motivation, opportunity, ability) model (Sheth & Frazier, 1982) and assigned this to each changeling.

A social media guide infographic with a green header titled 'The Social Media Changelings', discussing the problem of self-image deterioration from social media, featuring sections on 'Health', 'Reward', and a 'MOA model' with a table on motivation, opportunity, ability, and best disciplines.

Strategy Sheet + Battle!

Two printed strategy planning worksheets, one titled 'Strategy for Intervention' and the other 'Strategy Plan,' featuring various sections for skills, barriers, motives, dice roll, and disciplinary focus, with diagrams, text, and images of diverse leaders.

A template is used to assist students in formulating a strategy to defeat the changeling.

  • Students apply skills (theories and frameworks) from their chosen character/s.

  • They consider how their strategy will address the target audience’s barriers and motivations to behaviour change.

  • Once the students have determined their strategy and pitched it, the educator will calculate how many dice they can roll. Advantages/ disadvantages are given depending on the appropriateness of the strategies chosen; just like in the real world, certain problems are better tackled by certain disciplines or approaches.