We started the Nesciamus project because we wanted to internationalize the best practice approach of a tabletop RPG (Role-playing Game) that helps teach and foster values among youths and represents a good example of best practices in youth work. About 7 years ago Dragon Legion developed the Necsciamus approach as a game you can play straight out of the box without having to learn a lot of rules, unlike typical role-playing games, and without a game master who needs to prepare the game. The game has become a success used in youth work to teach ethics and values, and place young people in theoretical situations where they can think and react. The strength of the approach is that youths can experience situations within the scenes of the game, simulating living and breathing them, as opposed to just talking about them. We were also interested in getting youths involved in the creation process. This allowed us to train them not only in using the approach to transmit values, but it also strengthened their creativity, and let them take ownership and impact youth work, all while being involved in an activity they enjoy. In the project we organized three workshop meetings, one in each country, in which we brought our youths together.
The project was conceived after a youth group in Germany that we are working with on a regular basis expressed a desire to see more of the Nesciamus game. This made us become active and find out if Nesciamus could play a greater role in youth work and we started asking youths and youth workers in our network. Our needs analysis was the result of a structured approach that involved interviewing youths, youth workers, teachers, interested parents and representatives of the partner organizations. Needs of organizations: A game like Nesciamus is a great lets us have more impact on local youths. In addition, it has the advantage of not needing any preparation (like most other role-playing games) but can be played right out of the box. This will make it possible to run spontaneous sessions and to engage groups that don’t have anyone who is trained. Needs of youths involved in workshops: International experience is essential for many modern jobs, therefore this experience gave our youths an advantage. In general, there are very few games that are able to engage youth in a way that make them discuss values and ethics. What youths need is a way to make ethics discussions attractive and with these games we delivered just that.