A comment about a recent article started the ball rolling.
I’m a firm believer in welcoming as many players as possible to my TableTop RolePlaying Game sessions. That means I happily accept a wide range of different players in public games (if I ever get to do those again.) I also make as many accommodations as possible for my own neurodivergent family members.
On top of that, my loving wife is a special education teacher. We know our players pretty well around here and what to do for them. I know other Game Masters probably aren’t as fortunate to have players they know super well and tons of resources to help them out.
The article that sparked this discussion is here.
Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.
My mental health journey has been colorful to say the least.
I low key panicked when I first saw that comment because I saw the word “ableist” and that is the absolutely last thing I ever want to be called. It triggers my Social Anxiety Disorder. Not even joking. That’s why I try to limit my Comments section to a large extent.
My other various diagnoses are complicated. Depression, anxiety, and ADHD are my top 3 in all likelihood. I also have chronic pain and arthritis which come with the side effects of fatigue and brain fog. I’ll just say I take a lot of notes sometimes to help with some of that. My thesaurus gets a workout sometimes, too.
There’s also a slight chance that I have undiagnosed Autism as one of my children was diagnosed. I’m not going to pay for all the tests, but it wouldn’t surprise me. That’s how we discovered my ADHD.
Helping lift other players up is just what we do as Game Masters.
I believe strongly in not forcing any one style, method, or technique of roleplaying. New players are especially going to say a lot of things such as, “My character, Bob the Fighter, opens the door. Do I need to roll something?”
Most often, I don’t call for rolls on the common, easy, everyday stuff. Pushing a button on a Walkie Talkie? Maybe if the character was stretching through the bars of a prison cell, having just recovered from being stunned with neurolytic poison. Otherwise, why roll anything if it’s not going to directly affect the characters or the story?
A lot of new players, (we’ll talk more about this in coming months,) might not know that dice to roll or when to maybe ask for a roll. They might not know what their characters are capable of. Sometimes, if I know a character is capable of doing a certain task, I will drop some pretty heavy hints. “Ya know, if someone had, say Bushcraft, it might come in awfully handy right now. You might want to check your character sheets.” (Hint. Hint.)
I also love it when players ask me, “Would my character know this?”
Usually the answer is “Yes,” but on rare occasions I have to ask questions of my own such as, “Does your character or would your character know anything about sailing? Is there a family member or maybe a mentor?” Maybe we can retcon something or add to a character’s backstory just a little bit in places.
The post mentioned dyscalculia specifically.
Fun fact: I struggle when rolling large quantities of d6s in games with big dice pools. I have to stop and think for a couple of minutes with dice pool games such as Vampire, Shadowrun, etc. Sometimes another player is nice enough to look over at my dice and say, “You’ve got three successes over two failures.” I even stop and group my dice together when making Dragonbane characters just to make the math easier. (Did I mention my character attribute rolls have been awful as of late?)
If a player comes to me with concerns about die rolling or adding modifiers, I’ll go out of my way to make it work. Maybe they need to use a digital die roller. I have one on my phone and my computer. Push button for instant roll. You can even program bonuses and penalties into any die roll. Oftentimes, I don’t even have to sweat it these days because my wife or my older kids will look over at the other kid’s sheet and help them out.
Speaking of which- A friend of mine invented an ADHD friendly character sheet for Dungeons & Dragons. He also made it friendly for people with dysgraphia before he even know two of my children struggle with it. They’re incredibly printer friendly, too. It’s a good resource if you can find them. I’ll be working on one for Dragonbane and possibly another variation on my Shadowdark sheet with that in mind.
I’m not above allowing calculators or even laptops on the table if it helps the player. Fidget toys and dice stacking are also popular around our table. As long as players are ready to go on their turn or can kinda tell me what their character is doing, I totally don’t mind. I sure as heck don’t want to punish anyone for being neurodiverse or force conformity. (Maybe I should have made that clearer in the original article.)
Proper adjudication of the dice and the rules is really key.
Obviously we don’t want to force people into a mold whether it be neurotypical or anything else. We in the TTRPG community have our roots deep in nerd culture. Back in the 1980s, when neon dinosaurs roamed the Earth, we would let anyone into our gaming group because gamers were few and far between. We welcomed just about everyone. (*Unless the person was a complete ass, and then it was just a human being problem, not a gaming one.)
As GMs, we should be seeking opportunities and techniques to help all of our players at the table. If a player is shy or just embraces a different play style, that’s great. One of my mantras is: I’ll make it work. Meaning as long as you’re still enjoying the game, I’ll do whatever I can for you (within reason.)
GMs have a lot on our plate. We accept it. We love it. Making the table a warm and inviting safe space is just another part of what we do. We’re all here to walk each other home.
Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.
Jeff's Game Box 