By Aaron Delgaty
In “D&D for Learning: Take Training from Forgettable to Formative,” we looked at why immersive training matters and why your team needs more than just information to make good calls under pressure. In this follow-up, we dive into the how: the tools, tactics, and trade-offs involved in designing immersive training that’s practical, affordable, and effective.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to level up your current approach, this guide will help you evaluate your options and make smart, human-centered choices.
Dungeon master optional: Training in the age of AI
One of the most powerful—and newly feasible—approaches to immersive training is roleplay. When done well, it creates the conditions for people to practice difficult conversations, test judgment under pressure, and build confidence in gray areas where there’s no script to follow.
Until recently, this kind of training was expensive, inconsistent, and hard to scale. But that’s changing. Modern AI-driven roleplay platforms, such as Attensi, blend adaptive scenarios, emotional realism, and performance feedback to help people practice high-stakes conversations before they happen.
Whether delivered through mobile apps, avatars, or natural language AI, these tools simulate real-world dynamics—giving learners the chance to build confidence, empathy, and fluency through experience, not just instruction.
Reemerging every decade or so with better fidelity and new bells and whistles, virtual reality (VR) has increasingly practical applications for training and intervention. Modern VR training platforms create fully immersive environments where learners don’t just see the scenario, they inhabit it. By replicating physical presence and social cues, VR enables deeper emotional engagement, muscle memory, and context-sensitive learning. From managing a conflict to repairing equipment, trainees practice in high-fidelity simulations where failure is safe but the stakes feel real.
COVID provided an opportunity for many organizations to experiment with virtual workplaces, leveraging Metaverse and other platforms for formerly in-person functions including training. These experiments yielded promising results. According to PwC’s 2022 U.S. Metaverse Survey, employees who trained in immersive simulations were:
- 275% more confident applying what they learned
- 4x faster completing training than in a classroom
- 3.75x more emotionally connected to the material
Simulations, the cornerstone of immersive training, are also becoming more economically and logistically feasible for learners across scale and role. Next generation platforms are expanding what simulation-based learning can do, and who can do it.
Forge, for example, leverages AI to streamline the design process, reducing the time, complexity, and resources typically required to build immersive learning experiences. That efficiency makes it possible to design high-quality simulations for a much wider range of roles, industries, and organizational sizes, without compromising on depth or realism.
Advances in intuitive UI make it easier for learners to engage and for people leaders to facilitate. No-code editing tools allow L&D teams to adjust and evolve their simulations over time.
These advances evolve the simulation value proposition in two important ways:
- Easier facilitating and editing mean L&D leaders get to run the show instead of outsourcing expertise
- Simulations become living tools instead of one-off experiences
The idea of meeting people where they are at is integral to immersive training. Simulation experiences or role-play platforms that tailor to the needs and strengths of teams, that understand, rather than ignore, their unique context and capabilities, and that adapt as circumstances change is the kind of dynamic learning and development critical in a world where business as usual is increasingly unusual.
Evaluating immersive learning
As cost and access barriers fall, the next challenge is making sure what we build actually works.
Immersion is the foundation. But intelligence is what makes the training believable and, ultimately, transformational.
In Dungeons & Dragons, the world isn’t rigidly programmed. It’s co-created in real time through player choices and the asymmetric intelligence of the Dungeon Master. The DM isn’t just enforcing rules. They’re responding, adapting, and reshaping the game based on the party’s decisions.
That’s what makes D&D so powerful as a learning model: Players can prepare, but they can’t prepare for everything. They have to stay sharp. Stay flexible. Think on their feet. They aren’t just playing through the story; they’re shaping it.
Most corporate training doesn’t come close to this level of realism. They’re linear. Predictable. Often reduced to branching paths and canned responses. Learners quickly see the seams. They game the system. The immersion breaks.
In this way, D&D also serves to underscore what we should look for in an effective immersive learning experience. Whether a simulation, a virtual platform, or even an AI roleplay partner, consider whether the solution mimic real-world complexity. In other words, does the experience behave like the real world?
If you’re unsure, here are some things to look for:
Does the experience include unpredictable variability?
Test whether the experience behaves like real life, i.e., with enough complexity and fluidity that a learner can’t just memorize an obvious “right path.” If your participant can memorize the script (or worse, if they’ve already heard it all before), they’re going to disengage.
Twists and turns make a good mystery (and a good campaign). Consider:
- Can someone game the experience just by choosing the most positive or corporate-friendly responses?
- Do different choices lead to different outcomes?
- Are there moments that surprise you?
If none of the above, your experience will struggle to be immersive.
Does the experience display asymmetric intelligence?
For learning experiences that involve interacting with a fictitious customer or colleague, consider whether this non-human collaborator is adaptive.
- Can the non-player characters (NPCs) deviate from the script?
- Do NPCs react in real time based on emotional tone, body language, and phrasing nuance?
- Are there scenarios in which the NPC can shut down, be uncooperative, or be antagonist (like a human)?
If the experience doesn’t feel like a real conversation, why would a learner put their heart into it?
Does the experience incorporate responsive feedback?
Decisions should have consequences, and those consequences should be logical. Test:
- Do learner decisions have realistic outcomes in the scenario, and are these outcomes carried forward in a way that shapes the scenario?
- Do learner decisions lead to feedback that explores the impact of that decision, not just whether the decision was right or wrong?
- Can the learner fail?
This last question is critical. The potential for failure gives an experience emotional stake, depth, and resonance. And teaching your employees how to fail can as important, if not more, than teaching them how to succeed.
The best way to answer all these questions: Take the product for a real test drive, not a canned demo. Get hands-on. Try to break it. Any product worth the money should jump at the opportunity to show off its capabilities. Any product that doesn’t should be an immediate red flag.
Immersion matters because training matters
The fact is that most people don’t remember the policy manual. We remember moments that felt real, because we were in them, not just learning about them.
That’s what immersion does. It doesn’t just build knowledge. It builds stories. And when the stakes are real, or real enough, those stories shape how we think, how we feel, and how we act when the pressure is on.
If we want training to matter, it has to mean something in the moment. If we want people to grow, we have to give them the space, and the stakes, to practice.
That means investing in immersive learning not as a novelty, but as a necessity. Not because it’s flashy (even if it is!), but because it’s closer to the real work, and therefore closer to the heart.
Image credit: Gearstd
