Role‑play Games (RPGs) for Mental Health (Why Not?) - Roll for Initiative

Oct 6, 2026

COVID-19 negatively affected public mental health through preventative measures and restrictions on daily life, such as stay-at-home strategies. These changes contributed to greater stress, depression, loneliness, substance abuse, and domestic violence, disrupting both occupational and personal lives. Demand for role-play games (RPGs) increased during the pandemic, supported by sales growth such as Dungeons & Dragons. Yet research on RPG mental health benefits remains underdeveloped, prompting a literature review and recommendations for application and further study across psychotherapy, career guidance, education, and disability support.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

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Mental Health Difficulties During COVID‑19

Increasing Demand for Role‑playing Games (RPGs) During the Pandemic

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction [https://doi.org/10.1007/s1](https://doi.org/10.1007/s1)1469-022-00832-y COMMENTARY Role‑play Games (RPGs) for Mental Health (Why Not?): Roll for Initiative Ian S. Baker1 · Ian J. Turner2 · Yasuhiro Kotera3 Accepted: 25 April 2022 © The Author(s) 2022 Abstract COVID-19 has impacted the mental health of the general public negatively, associated with preventative measures, restricting life activities. These restrictions, such as the stayat-home strategy, resulted in heightened stress, depression, loneliness, substance abuse, and domestic violence, violating people’s occupational and personal lives. During the pandemic, the demands for role-play games (RPGs) have increased: for example, the sales of“Dungeons & Dragons” tripled, underscoring the potential mental health benefits of such games. However, research into the mental health benefits of such games remains underdeveloped, needing more scientific attention. Accordingly, this commentary paper reviews the existing literature, and suggests areas for application and research about RPGs and mental health including psychotherapy, career guidance, education, and people with disabilities. Insights offered can help practitioners and researchers in RPGs and mental health conduct empirical research and develop alternative approaches for mental health in stressful times. Keywords Dungeons & Dragons · D&D · Mental health · Applications · COVID-19 Mental Health Difficulties During COVID‑19 The COVID-19 pandemic has brought negative impacts on our mental health due to drastic lifestyle changes ([e.g. social](e.g. social) distancing, quarantine, lockdown). Derivative impacts such as unstable employment and access to health services as well as the fear of being infected with the virus have raised stress levels (Bhandari et al. , 2021) . The rates of anxiety and depression are increasing more rapidly than ever before, with a rise of 20% in stress levels since the beginning of the pandemic (Rajkumar, 2020; Vindegaard & Benros, 2020). Levels of domestic abuse and substance use have also increased (Abramson, 2021 ; Evans et al. , 2020) . Research has identified many risk factors for mental health * Ian S. Baker [i.s.baker@derby.ac.uk](i.s.baker@derby.ac.uk) 1 School of Psychology, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby DE21 1GB, UK 2 Provost, Learning & Teaching: Student Performance, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby DE21 1GB, UK 3 University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK 1 3 difficulties in COVID-19, including poor sleep quality (Liu et al., 2020), being female (Liu et al., 2020), working in healthcare (Kotera et al., 2021), those with a pre-COVID medical diagnosis (Barber et al., 2020), and being a migrant (Bhandari et al., 2021) . The diversity of these factors implies that COVID-19 has impacted our mental health on abroad level: many of us have been mentally impacted by COVID-19 . Despite the large and broad impact of mental health difficulties, appraisal for effective treatment remains to be refined. Indeed, reduced rates of mental health difficulties have been found in some countries; however, these changes can be explained by external events. For instance, in the UK, the level of anxiety has dropped from 62% in March 2020 to 42% in February 2021 among the general population, and from 67% in June 2020 to 58% in February 2021 among people with a pre-existing mental health diagnosis (Mental Health Foundation, 2021) . These improvements can be understood as being a result of the administration of the vaccine, initiated in December 2020 (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2020) earlier than most countries, but this left the root cause of the COVID-19 mental health difficulties untreated. Unsurprisingly, the rate of people who feel that they are coping with stress associated with the pandemic has reduced from 73% in April 2020 to 64% in February 2021 (Mental Health Foundation, 2021) . Signif

FAQs

How did COVID-19 restrictions affect mental health outcomes?

COVID-19 restrictions disrupted daily routines and increased stress, depression, loneliness, substance abuse, and domestic violence, violating many people’s occupational and personal lives.

Why did interest in role-play games (RPGs) rise during the pandemic?

The paper notes increased demand for RPGs during the pandemic, illustrated by the tripling of Dungeons & Dragons sales, suggesting possible mental health benefits.

What gaps does the commentary identify in existing RPG mental health research?

Research on RPG mental health benefits is described as underdeveloped, requiring more scientific attention and empirical investigation.

Oct 6, 2026

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