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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rothe" data-source="post: 3402763" data-attributes="member: 39813">Just as information reference, I started in 1975-76 with war games and was full swing  into RPGs by 1977-78.reading comprehension & vocabularyI'd have to say that the detailed and highly structured rules of Squad Leader did more for my reading skills than RPGs.  I've always been an extensive reader since a very, very young age, so most of the vocabulary in the 1e AD&D books was known to me.  But I've always enjoyed learning new and archaic words; so even those few times I needed to look up a word I learned many more as I have a hard time putting down a dictionary.It also inspired me to read many non-fiction, science, history, geography, archeology and other books.  When I had a question about something, say how fast can you dig a ditch, build a wall, range of a catapult, how big was Rome, how many people can an acre feed, etc.  I had to go to the library, search the card index to find the books and then read the books.  Or you just thought something was wonky with the game stat and wanted to check it yourself.  No quick internet search or wikipedia back then.  You had to go to the secondary and eventually I went to the primary sources (or at least translations of same). In addition to reading, it also taught library research skills, skills I still use to this day even if the search is now conducted electronically.math & physicsI may not have learned much from the games themselves, which frankly are vry bad sources of factual information in these areas, but they served as extra problems to apply the math and science I was learning.  In a sense, I'd do my homework then apply the math or physics knowledge to solving a game problem in the RPG.  For example, how high does a cliff have to be for you to have enough time to cast a Feather Fall spell before you hit the ground?    How much pressure/weight is against a door to a 10'x10' room filled with water?  How far is the horizon?  (a very fun geometry/trigonometry problem). The RPGs that probably did the most in this regard were sci-fi ones where calculation of the gravity of a planet knowing radius and density, or back calculation of density (and hence metal content) knowing radius and gravity.  Base temperature of a planetary surface knowing stellar luminosity, distance from the stellar primary, atmospheric composition and albedo.Somehow a problem that might seem exceedingly dull if presented in a homework assignment becomes something you'll gladly spend all day doing for a game.creative thinking & problem solvingI think this is almost the very nature of the RPG gaming experience and certainly if you GM.   Again being an old fogey, commercial game settings were virtually non-existent when I started and modules few.  Even then, they were often out of reach of a teenager back then.  SO you created your own, worlds, dungeons, adventures and puzzles, and swapped them back and forth with your friends.In addition, the nature of non-scripted adventures with a random element (dice-roll) lend themselves creating situations where you need to think on your feet as suddenly the plan has changed or the GM or players have done something totally unexpected. social skills developmentIt is certainly a social game but I have to say as a way to develop social skills it lags behind many other ways.  I would say this about any gathering where you are coming together to focus on doing or watching a thing for entertainment.  The conversation and interaction, although it can wander, is focused on the thing, be it a sporting event, a movie, or a game.  Other situations where the gathering is focused on the people or real-world problems of people, basically parties and politics <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />, are for the time spent often better ways to develop social skills.  But RPGs are a good way for people to feel comfortable socializing and even acting (role-playing) and exposing a side of themselves in a non-threatening environment that they may otherwise not feel comfortable exposing.Good luck with your thesis, liked to see it when its done if you can post a link.</blockquote>

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