KVAD as a Teaching Method in School

In 2021 I ran KVAD for Kvinnherad Brettspelklubb. Several of the players were teachers, planning to use KVAD as a platform for teaching Norse culture. Now Jarle Haktorson at Kvinnherad upper secondary school has written a piece sharing his experiences with using roleplaying games in school.

Report after using the roleplaying game «Kvad» in teaching

I teach Norwegian, history, and religion at upper secondary school. This combination is often valuable for cross-disciplinary perspectives in teaching. Combined with my lifelong

interest in games and popular culture in general, this often provides fertile ground for alternative learning projects. This is where the roleplaying game «Kvad» comes in.

I have followed «Kvad» since it launched on Kickstarter, and got in touch early with creator Karl Otto Kristoffersen, who eventually secured me an early copy of the game. I had by then planned how I could use it as part of my teaching, mainly in Norwegian and history in the second year of the general studies program.

With the help of «Kvad», the students get to «live» as saga heroes in Norse times. They meet challenges completely unknown from their own everyday lives, and must take a stance on values and social conditions different from those we have today. Together they then create and become part of a saga, where everyone writes a kvad about what has happened.

The roleplaying game «Kvad» was part of a «Norse package» that also included related video games, comics, podcasts, films, and series, with a focus on Norse literature, culture, religion, and language.

«Kvad» was run in two classes. Neither student group had experience with «paper-based» roleplaying from before, though several knew the concept of roleplaying from video games. Even so, it took little time before the system of rules and dice was in place, and it was a pleasure to see how quickly they stepped into their roles.

One strength of «Kvad» is how quickly it involves and engages the players. As in the pre-made adventure «Hevnvisa», the players must create their own story around their character right from the start. I rewrote «Hevnvisa» a little to fit local conditions. That let me bring in some local history, and instead of the events taking place in a fictional world, the events of «Hevnvisa» took place in an «alternate universe», located closer to the inner parts of today's Kvinnherad municipality (Hatteberg), plus the Odda and Kinsarvik areas.

The shared story that «Kvad» framed made it possible to introduce the players to the previously mentioned areas of literature, culture, religion, and language. As in «Hevnvisa», the players are Norse believers who quickly come across a priest burning a statue of Odin outside a small temple, on orders from the Christian chieftain Sigurd. After much travel and many experiences, they end up in Kinsarvik, where Sigurd has his seat of power. There they kill him and free their sons, who had all been taken captive.

Afterwards, everyone was to write a «kvad» about the story that had been created. Here they could choose their approach; writing a prose text («story»), paired rhyme or cross rhyme (with a required rhyme structure), or the Norse fornyrdislag. The last one was clearly the most challenging, as I emphasized following Norse tradition. They had to keep to eight verse lines, two stressed syllables per line, with the lines linked in pairs through alliteration (letter rhyme based on the same consonant sound or different vowel sounds).

Even so, several went for fornyrdislag; some of the texts can be found below. I also ran an evaluation of the whole teaching program. What emerged was that the players liked it very much. Several of them became so engaged that it inspired them to continue roleplaying in their spare time, and there is now an active gaming community in this age group.

What surprised me was that many actively chose to sit and listen to the play, and could afterwards report that they had been just as engaged as the players themselves. As with a film, they sat there following the unfolding story with excitement.

The framework «Kvad» provided gave the participants a unique, immersive learning experience in Norse culture, literature, religion, and language. I will use «Kvad» again when I teach Old Norse, and perhaps I will use the system as a starting point for other historical periods. Maybe the Nordic Seven Years' War of 1563-1570 gets a different outcome..?

The kvad the students wrote based on the story

The Creator's squire set Odin aglow In the temple he roared before the brotherhood broke Over fjord and fell the journey bore to the bay Slain was Sigurd before the son returned Thor strikes his hammer Hair standing on end Five fair ones Fare from their home Sigurd the chieftain Struck down to Valhalla The son unfit for battle Ends up at home Raven the bold The herd came to the mountain Blood there was Boldly climbed the fell Wolf cut down The discontent were satisfied Wolf was in vain The son taken home again

Jarle Haktorson,

Kvinnherad vidaregåande skule

I am incredibly grateful that Jarle chose to use KVAD as a method for teaching Norse culture. My own entry into the sagas also began in Norwegian class at upper secondary school, so it feels absolutely FANTASTIC to be able to give back to the school!

If you know someone who might be interested in a similar program, just get in touch.

-KO

🎲 It is worth mentioning that Jarle is himself a capable roleplaying game author, with several successful international releases under his belt. Check out Two Starving Gnolls for more information.

📸 Photo by May-Helen Mogstad