The LeaderPlay Institute The LeaderPlay Institute

Hawaiʻi nonprofit · Honolulu, Oʻahu

We teach leadership and teamwork through games.

The LeaderPlay Institute is a new nonprofit on Oʻahu. We run two kinds of programs: an introduction to board gaming for adults and families, and game design courses for students ages 10 to 16. Both teach personal and social skills, including leadership, as part of every session. Each session has a clear goal, a trained facilitator, and a short discussion at the end about what happened at the table. We work through schools, libraries, churches and community centers, and we're looking for our first host sites now.

Host a program See the programs
Students playing a game around a classroom table
A game design class Scott taught in summer 2026

Mission

To build leaders and community through experiential learning and play.

Vision

We aim for kids and adults to value growth through play and to develop a love for creating experiences together at the table.

What we teach

The material draws on developmental psychology, education and game design. In practice it comes down to five topics, and every program uses them.

  • Why play matters for development
  • Cooperation and working through conflict
  • Managing emotions
  • Designing games and experiences for people
  • Teaching and leading others

How a session works

Every session has a goal, a game and a debrief.

Before a session, the facilitator picks a goal and a game that fits it. Say the goal is making decisions as a group. We might pick a cooperative game where the whole table has to agree on every move. The debrief at the end is where people connect what happened in the game to the goal.

1

Frame

The facilitator explains what the session is for and what to watch for. For example: how does the group make decisions, who ends up explaining the rules, and what happens when someone falls behind?

2

Play

Participants play a game, or build one. The facilitator watches, moves people between tables if needed, and mostly stays out of the way.

3

Debrief

We talk through what happened. What worked? What would you change? Where else in your life have you seen the same thing happen?

“In play it is as though he were a head taller than himself.”Lev Vygotsky

Three roles people practice

The Teacher

Explaining a game to people who have never seen it, and checking that they actually understood.

The Facilitator

Keeping a table going when someone is frustrated, losing or feeling left out.

The Player

Planning with limited options, committing to a decision, and recovering from a bad turn.

Programs

Two kinds of programs

Both use the same method. The difference is who attends and what they learn. Neither is running yet. We're looking for partner sites to host the first sessions.

Adults around a table learning a card game

Community programs

An introduction to board gaming

Board games have grown into a large hobby, and a lot of people don't know where to start. These sessions are for adults and families who are new to it. We teach a few good games, show people how to learn a new one on their own, and point them to game nights and groups on Oʻahu where they can keep playing. The same sessions work on cooperation, teaching others and handling a loss well.

Who
Adults and families, especially people new to the hobby. No experience needed.
Format
A single workshop, or a short series of three to five sessions
Where
Libraries, churches, community centers and county parks facilities
Cost
Free or low cost. Any fee just covers our costs.
Looking for host sites
Children working together on a map puzzle

Youth programs

Game design for ages 10 to 16

After-school and out-of-school courses for middle and high school students. Students play games, take them apart to see how they work, and design their own. Playtesting and the debrief after each session also teach leadership, cooperation, and giving and taking feedback. The course below is the main one we offer.

Who
Middle and high school students, ages 10 to 16
Where
Schools, libraries, community centers, parks facilities and youth programs
Cost
Free or low cost. Any fee just covers our costs.
Looking for host sites

Youth course

Out of the Box Design

This is the game design course Scott has been teaching. Students play real games, take them apart to see how they work, and then design their own.

Group
8 to 12 students, ages 10 to 16
Length
Six 90-minute sessions, or a shorter three-session version
Materials
We bring the games and prototyping supplies. Your staff don't need to prepare anything.
  1. 01

    Play a game, then break it down

    We start by playing. Then we name the parts every game has: actions, goals, rules, objects, the play space and the players.

    Circle games · card games

  2. 02

    Change one rule

    Students go back to a game they know, change one rule, and predict what will happen. Then they play it again and write one sentence: what did that change do to how the game felt? It's a small experiment, and it teaches students to notice how rules shape an experience.

    Prediction · replay · written reflection

  3. 03

    Build an escape room puzzle

    Groups build a puzzle from a lock and a handful of random objects. Then they watch another group try to solve it. We analyze why some of these puzzles get solved and some don't.

    Locks · puzzle build · timed cold solve

  4. 04

    Study randomness with dice

    Students play three push-your-luck dice games. They compare and contrast the experiences. After that, they build a dice game of their own intended to create a particular experience.

    Ship, Captain, Crew · Going to Boston · Pig

  5. 05

    Design a game: early stages

    Teams pick a theme and describe the experience they want a player to have. Then they build toward it with paper, index cards, dice and cubes. The first playtest happens the same day.

    Prototype · first playtest

  6. 06

    Playtest, revise and present

    Each group writes rules that another group can follow without help, then fixes the spots where players got stuck. At the end, each group presents what they wanted players to feel, what actually happened, and what they changed.

    Rules writing · playtest rotation · post-mortem

By the end, every student has designed a game, watched someone else play it, and revised it twice.

What people practice

What people practice at the table

People usually sit down to a game because they want to play it. The skills below get practiced along the way, and the debrief helps people notice them.

Paying attention

A good game keeps a player right at the edge of what they can handle, often for an hour or more.

Face-to-face time

Everyone is at the same table, off their phones, and paying attention to each other.

Seeing progress

Building something over the course of a game, like an engine, a route or a set, shows players that they're getting better.

Agreeing on the rules

Every table has to settle what a rule means and who decides when it's unclear. It's a small version of how any group governs itself.

Leading without a title

Teaching a game, running a table and keeping a frustrated player involved are everyday leadership. Players do them over and over.

Failing safely

A game is a cheap place to be wrong. You can try an idea, watch it fail, and try something else the same afternoon.

Two students playing a card game outdoors
Prototyping materials laid out for a game design contest
Adults solving an escape room puzzle in a tent
Dice on a hex board during a dice game session
A community room full of tables of people playing board games at Monday game night
University students in a game design class
Students testing a game prototype with one player blindfolded

Founder

Scott Kabel, PhD

Scott has a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University at Buffalo. He has worked with young people for more than twenty years, in summer camps, schools and classrooms. He also designs board games, has printed and sold two of them, and has run a weekly game night on Oʻahu since 2022.

  • 2002–2021Worked eighteen summer camp assignments at eight locations in the United States and Asia. Directed camps in Michigan and Beijing, and coordinated an American Camp Association reaccreditation.
  • 2016–2018Taught and tutored at a boarding high school in Pennsylvania, including English-language learners.
  • 2019–2022Designed and ran four escape rooms, three of them at Camp Waiʻanae.
  • 2022–presentSubstitute teacher for the Hawaiʻi Department of Education at Moanalua High School and other campuses on Oʻahu.
  • 2022–presentRuns a weekly Monday game night and hosts game nights at churches and community centers.
  • Summer 2026Taught a university course in Game Design and Psychology at the Gengdan Institute, Beijing University of Technology.

Board of Directors

Scott KabelFounder Ming ChiDirector Justin GoodwinDirector

Partner with us

Interested in hosting?

If you run a school, library, church or community center, here's how it would work. You provide a room, tables and a time slot. We bring the facilitator, the games and the materials.

  1. 1

    Tell us about your group

    How many people, what ages, which days and times work, and what you'd like them to get out of it.

  2. 2

    See a session

    If it helps, we can run one session first so your staff can see how it works before you commit to anything.

  3. 3

    Plan a series

    If it's a good fit, we'll schedule the rest of the sessions and agree on any fee. Our fees only cover our costs.

Contact

Scott Kabel, Founder · Honolulu, Hawaiʻi

sdkabel@gmail.com
607-426-4538

Who we'd like to work with

SchoolsPublic librariesChurchesCommunity centersCounty parks facilitiesYouth organizations

Working with different ages, a different group size or an odd schedule? Let me know what you have in mind, and I'll tell you straight whether we can do it.