Pursuing the Dream

The Game

Pursuing the Dream is a strategy roleplaying game about higher education and is set in the fictional state of Deseret. While names of very real towns, cities, and villages have been used, they have been used quite liberally, meaning they may not correspond to their real-world geographies, among other things. It is best to remember this is a game, and, as such, to avoid being overly technical with the geographies present on the game board.  

Every dream must start somewhere: Every year, millions of college-age Americans pursue the dream of higher education, which comes with a promise of finding living wages, stability, and upward mobility. While many problematic narratives concerning higher education are fraught with their usual clichés of incompetent administrators and administrative bloat, absentee staff, and aloof instructors, adjuncts, and professors, these same narratives often miss the higher callings and idealism that are associated with higher education in America.  

Pursuing the Dream is about understanding what it takes to tackle these higher callings and idealism that often come with higher education in America. The narratives you’ll find in this game are tales of hard-fought battles between higher education administrators and state legislators to make education more equitable and responsive to student needs. The narratives shown here will show higher education is a worthwhile (and often frustrating) collective effort, one made possible by administrators, staff, faculty, students, and even members of the community. Higher education, while imperfect and still in need of tender loving care (TLC), from time to time, is rarely stuck in stasis. Innovation, leadership, and community building for future problems, for those wicked problems, are at the heart of any institution of higher learning. That means change is an inevitable part of life and work in higher education in America.  

As the student loan and enrollment crises loom and existential threats crop up, higher education is at a crossroads in the early twenty-first century. While higher education can be innovative, it can also stifle innovation among its ranks. Leadership sometimes falls flat, and the communities higher education institutions serve are left scrambling for much-needed guidance and leadership. The horror stories don’t stop there, however. Institutions of higher learning have a lot to contend with—good, bad, and ugly.  

In Pursuing the Dream, players must find a way forward for their respective institutions of higher learning. They must work together. They must be innovative. They must think outside of the box, as cliché as it sounds. Players will need to find a future place for their institutions of higher learning, all the while ensuring students, for decades to come, can pursue their dreams of living wage jobs, stability, and upward mobility. In essence, colleges and universities are attempting to fulfill a promise made long ago, concerning life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  

Higher callings and idealism are often ignored when organizations become part of industries or sectors. They lose their why. They simply produce, without a care, and the products produced, and the consumers and the communities they serve, tend to suffer as a result. Here you all are coming together for the future of higher education, and, more importantly, to discover the why of higher education.  

You all are here to make the dream come true.

What Is This?

This is a strategy roleplaying game, a blending of traditional strategy- and competition-based games, such as Risk or even Diplomacy, with tabletop roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons. The idea here is that players take on roles of institutions of higher learning (IHLs) based in the fictional state of Deseret. As players take on these roles, they are strategizing how they will win the one hundred (100) coveted victory points and beat their competitors—that is, the other IHLs found within the game and taken on by fellow players.

Strategy RPGs?

If strategy roleplaying games are new to you, they can feel daunting when attempting to tackle them as a concept. Don’t worry, though. Strategy roleplaying games are about friendly competition and constructive collaboration between players, even for the game’s referee. While competition does exist, it is best to remember the word collaboration here. Collaboration is a form of entertainment and a way to produce exciting outcomes and not boring, uneventful gaming experiences. Quite the opposite. Collaboration between institutions of higher learning (IHLs) (and even between individual players) is the best way to develop each IHL, explore the future of higher education, and craft wonderful, enriching experiences that will stick with each player.

Two important aspects of strategy roleplaying games, aside from competition and collaboration, are strategy and roleplaying.

 In terms of strategy, players acting as (say) Archuleta Community College (ACC) are going to determine the direction of the college, the policies enacted, and even the aggressiveness of (say) its dual enrollment and recruiting programs. Strategy means thinking ahead, thinking of hiccups, or stumbling points, that might lie ahead, and determining the best use of resources and an IHL’s characteristics. In other words, strategy is more than mere competition with other players, hoping to defeat them in the game; it is about thinking forward and thinking in the long term.  

In essence, roleplaying games require most individual players to take on an (often) fictional persona, which has been tailored for the game. In Pursuing the Dream, players, as a group, take on the persona of an established institution of higher learning (IHL) within the fictional state of Deseret. For example, ACC, a small, rural community college nestled in the San Juan Mountains, might be a group’s persona. As ACC, we’ll use its abbreviated name, players will interact with their fellow competitors and their in-game personas, along with the referee(s) and their non-player characters (NPCs) and other encounters. ACC might also interact with the referee in how a situation might be roleplayed, how something might progress forward, and how challenging a given task might be. In all, players playing as ACC are indistinguishable from ACC as an institution. Everything ACC wants, the players want. Everything ACC does, the players have a hand in from the get-go. When the referee interacts with ACC, it is on the basis that the players playing ACC are acting in the best interests of their institution of higher learning, Archuleta Community College.