New Dungeons & Dragons ethics seminar takes flight
UC students take initiative on a unique service-learning opportunity
On a blisteringly hot summer day, laughter echoed through the cool, damp basement of the Avondale branch of the Cincinnati Public Library. Young teenagers huddled around a table littered with pencils and paper, rolling dice and bonding over a game of Dungeons & Dragons.
University of Cincinnati undergraduate student Charitha Anamala sat behind a trifold card with a blazing red dragon on it, serving as the group’s Dungeon Master (DM) or campaign organizer. Within the fantasy world she described, it was hard to tell the adventure was a lesson in ethics.
Charitha Anamala takes a break from the engineering grind and gives back to her community in Ethics & Dragons. Photo/UC Marketing + Brand/Andrew Higley.
Anamala, a biomedical engineering student in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, is part of the university’s first Ethics & Dragons class. The summer seminar, part of the University Honors Program, is a multifaceted course that teaches moral reasoning skills through fantasy role-play.
“I’ve always loved literature and the humanities, but as a science and math person, I don’t get a lot of opportunities day-to-day to engage my more creative side,” Anamala said. “But it’s so important for people in science to engage in philosophy. A lot of what we do directly connects with humanity. Moral reasoning directly impacts our work.”
“It’s also a respite from staring at graphs and molecules all day,” she joked.
The Ethics & Dragons seminar includes three types of classes: ethics lectures, in-class play and service-learning at local libraries. The course was created by Andrew Cullison, PhD, executive director of the Cincinnati Ethics Center, a university-based institution that works to foster reasoning, dialogue and decision-making skills essential for resolving ethical, political and social challenges in the community.
“It does something that’s actually better than a traditional ethics class. Instead of just practicing deliberating what the right thing to do is, you role-play moral decision-making,” Cullison said. “That’s a very different cognitive process that is hard to engage in a traditional classroom.”
Andrew Cullison was inspired to create the program by a campaign he played with fellow professors. Photo/UC Marketing + Brand/Andrew Higley.
Cullison specializes in K-12 ethics education and co-curricular collegiate programs at the center. “When people, particularly young children, play Dungeons & Dragons, there’s data to show that you get better at moral reasoning,” he said. “Ethics discussion is already naturally 90% of what happens in the game.”
Cullison explained that the course takes this idea even further by intentionally incorporating complex moral puzzles. UC students craft adventures that include ethical issues like whether someone accused of a crime is innocent or the classic trolley problem. These dilemmas are wrapped up in the fantastical adventures and battles that epitomize Dungeons & Dragons.
“I like whenever we’re doing a battle, because the kids get really excited,” Anamala said. “The kids have a lot of funny debates and get sidetracked by things you wouldn’t expect,” she said, adding that she loves seeing the players get so engaged in the gameplay. “The kids are more receptive when there’s more dynamic storytelling.”
Ethics & Dragons program coordinator Erin Barta said that the adventures can get tangled in complications, but she encourages DMs to let their players take the lead. “The main thing we try to do with these middle and high school students is not tell them what to think, but rather push them to give them reasons why they think one thing is the right thing to do over another option,” she said.
I’ve seen so many kids make new friends in this program.
Erin Barta, program coordinator
Setting off for adventure
Cullison said the idea for the program came from a game of Dungeons & Dragons he played with fellow professors years ago. “I got into an argument with the DM about whether or not something I wanted to do was an ‘evil act’ or not,” he explained. In the game, player characters are typically restricted to perform acts that are in line with their moral alignment: good, neutral or evil.
“That’s when I had this ‘a-ha’ moment,” Cullison said. “That’s a classic moral debate: where do you draw the line between right and wrong? You’re working the same moral reasoning muscles, even though they’re in a fantasy world,” he said.
That thought inspired him to start Ethics & Dragons as an internship opportunity, where UC students could lead campaigns for teenagers throughout the city. Since its inception three years ago, the program has expanded to include five branches across the Cincinnati Public Library system.
“It’s a highly academic endeavor and students do enough work to earn academic credits,” Cullison said. “So it naturally fit and checked off a lot of boxes to create a course out of it.”
Ethics & Dragons serves five branches of the Cincinnati Public Library, with interest in expanding to more locations. Photo/UC Marketing + Brand/Andrew Higley.
Cullison explained that running the program as an internship, there was less opportunity to tie ethical dilemmas into the library campaigns as UC students did not get as much background in ethics. Today, with its three types of classes, the Ethics & Dragons course gives UC students more opportunities to learn and apply moral reasoning. “As students spend more time in a traditional classroom setting, engaging in conversations about ethical issues, those ideas come up more in their adventures at the libraries,” Cullison said.
But the work of the interns set the foundation for the summer seminar, as Barta noted the learning curve that comes with Dungeons & Dragons. “The interns that we have are really excellent because they have this huge background knowledge on how to run the game,” Barta said. Now, the class bridges the gap between learning to play, learning about ethics and building those skills in the actual gameplay.
From make-believe dungeon crawls to real-world applications
Student Anamala said she values the course not just for the fun, but for its applications beyond the fantasy realm. “Classes like this and having more open discussions about morals makes you think about the ethics of what you’re doing in your work,” she said. As an engineering student, she described herself as a very empirical person who does not find a lot of opportunities to practice her moral reasoning in her usual lineup of math and science classes.
“The sciences and the humanities are so compartmentalized,” Anamala said. “But it’s really important to have both in your education. I could be making a medicine in the lab, but I have to be mindful of the ethics of what that medicine can do and who can access it,” she explained. “You have to consider the implications of your choices in the lab. Can this compound be a weapon? Can it be used against people?”
Compelling storytelling gets kids engaged in the game. Photo/UC Marketing + Brand/Andrew Higley.
Program coordinator Barta said that the benefits for UC students go beyond developing their reasoning skills. “They gain transferable skills related to teaching, facilitation and discussion. In a lot of ways what the class offers is very powerful at all levels.”
Barta also emphasized the importance of the program’s community engagement, especially for kids who grew up during the COVID-19 quarantine. “There was a lot of concern for young people and their ability to socialize. But I’ve seen so many kids make new friends in this program,” she said.
Another Ethics & Dragons adventure sets off this fall semester. Learn more about Honors Seminar opportunities.
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Featured image at top of honors students playing Dungeons & Dragons. Photos/UC Marketing + Brand/Andrew Higley.
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