Disability & TTRPG's @ EF Funeral Camp

looking back at the Exalted Funeral convention a week or so ago, one of the highlights was the open discussion about disability in TTRPGs. A couple folks stopped by and the conversation was wide-ranging and dug deep.

One question was: what does disability even mean in a fantasy or fantastic setting? Many people would describe a lack of accessibility as a hallmark of a disability, whether the accessibility is to social status, physical space, wealth etc. So, we know that the definition of a disability can shift from culture to culture and from period of history to period of history. I also know that I identify my disability as such generally in the context of not being able to access something other folks are able to access. What constitutes a disability in a particular setting? What constitutes accessibility in that setting?

We also dug into the large amount of creative work done around disability and TTRPGs in the last few years, from super wheelchairs to entire kickstarted volumes of tables and conditions of disability. My main impression is that many of these are taking contemporary, North America and/or Western European ideas about disability and transposing them on fantasy worlds. The consensus deemed to be that, while these are good steps,we can be more creative.

Finally, we talked a lot about our own experiences entering into non-disabled gaming spaces, and then dug into the accessibility, or lack thereof, for us as gamers in particular settings. Related to this were particular problems and particular solutions that we, or others, could bring to bear to make various gaming spaces more welcoming and accessible. The explosion of virtual play over the last few years has, in many ways, really expanded accessibility, and we wondered how these varied interfaces with gaming might evolve going forward, and what that might mean for folks with disabilities.

Crafting Agency

Now that both CraftWork and FaeCraft are out, I want to outline or explore what they mean to me as a set, as a pair. A critical analysis of role-playing in general allows for the premise of 'radical agency' to be part of a role-playing, or the role-playing, experience. That is, role-playing allows an individual to conceive of and take actions that would otherwise be inaccessible or impossible for them to take in their reality. This is one thing that makes role-playing games, at their best, so good at creating community and supporting personal and emotional growth.

Exploding the possibilities for character creation and growth was the main impetus behind developing the two volumes. A second motivation was to make this procedural, so that unexpected, rather than preconceived, character development can be possible. Between the two, a player is not locked in to any particular path.

At the same time, the mechanical advantage of having a skill is not so great that it precludes a player from trying anything (using 10 levels, it tops out at +4 or 20%). The character sheet contains flavors, not solutions or answers.

I don't know how many permutations there are in the two books combined, but there are a lot! Character development is a meandering path, and using the tables as a way to prompt, but not dictate, imagination is perhaps the most fun way to use the two. If you have use them, let me know what you came up with!

Wherein I Bow to Commerce

FaeCraft is available!

Right here...

FaeCraft Incoming!

FaeCraft is off to the printer and we anticipate it's appearance in July! Matt and I are very excited. The book feels tighter and the production seemed smoother, which hopefully reflects our process and better communication. 

Together the two volumes provide a really nice tool, a neat subsystem, an evocative medium, and a really fun time! I am proud of them!

Folding Tables

And in that Dungeon

There was a monster 

Wait, what Dungeon?

So, I had to come up with a good name for the table style I have been writing about lately. I started with Kitchen Table ... Dropleaf was a possibility , but I have settled on Folding Tables for now.

There are several parts to a Folding Table.

1.

The number of items is larger than the dice or die used on the table.

2.

Items on the table are eliminated or scratched off as they are encountered or used.

3.

Modifiers are applied to the roll to reflect the game state, the narrative position, where the characters are etc. 

Examples are in previous posts. The table is not a static thing, the table is not an artifact, the table is not sacrosanct. The table is mutable, the table is not the answer, the table is part of the process.

Monsters, Wandering

So, how do the monsters wander and what are their habits in their habitats? Let's take Level One of Salt Palace, which my open table group has just cleared out; I don't think they will mind some sharing of secrets...

14 caves, caverns, and spaces, Jaquaysing around, containing an ecology of spiders, giant shrews, zombies, and skeletons. The D6 monster table looks something like this:

1 Spider

2 Giant Shrew

3 Skeleton

4 Spider Nest

5 Zombie

6 Zombie Spider

7 Skeleton Crew

8 Giant Lizard

An astute observer would see that there are 8 possibilities on a D6 table. They would be correct. This is a variation of the flexible table several posts ago. On the diagram of the level are a series of modifiers ranging from -2 to +2. These are applied to the monster roll. The initial set of spaces is at a -2, transitioning to a -1, then 0, then +1 and +2 on the periphery, at interstitial areas, and at connection points with other levels or zones of the dungeon ecosystem. They are NOT assigned to rooms, but to areas, often overlapping. 

Upon the initial descent it is highly likely the brave adventurers will encounter spiders of varying description (after the -2, a roll of 1 to 3 yields spiders), giant shrews, and the occasional skeleton. As the various parties push further into the dark, modifiers shift and the mix of monsters follows suit. The adventurers can feel things changing, meet more undead in one direction, find a nest of spiders in another, and surprise a giant lizard as they go deeper into a tunnel.

That procedural dynamism is one thing that brings the place to life, and the overlapping zones allow flexibility, especially in an Open Table. Does the group tonight have more lower level characters? Push the negative modifier further ahead. Big party? Pull it back.

Further, I can carry that modifier onto the monster, thereby ratcheting the challenge up or down. If they are in a +1 zone that Spider card gets fierce, adding +1 to everything: 3 or 4 HD, +1 damage, and more chances of dangerous additional abilities. 

And, of course, there is a higher chance of treasure... +1.

How I Make Monsters Now

They have to be simple, clear, visually accessible, and fast to run without a lot of details, or just the right amount of details.

NPCs can be different from monsters, or not, so they may be more complex, nuanced. We can return to them another day!

 For my stripped down running of the game, they have to be on note cards. It helps to have some procedural surprise built in for me as a player in the game. It really helps to have just a couple of numbers to keep track of during an encounter. For example, spiders in my current dungeon crawl...

First roll determines hit dice: two, three, or four

The next roll is the number of spiders, which riffs off of the hit dice. There are probably fewer bigger spiders or more smaller spiders, and the number is probably a d6 or maybe two.

The attack damage is directly related to the hit dice, with bigger spiders doing the bigger damage. 

Armor class is 10 plus their hit dice, and that number is the same DC the characters need to beat to avoid paralysis.

Finally there are a series of quick yes or no questions. Rolling a D6 5 times quickly with a 1 to 3 being NO and a 4 to 6 being YES, we quickly determine what kind of spiders these are, how they behave. They could end up being camouflaged zombie spiders in a web network or ambush spiders who can shoot entangling webs. I can be as surprised with the encounter as the other players!

These are all dials of course, so if the party is in hot pursuit of another creature, the wandering spider may be just a distraction. If the dice indicate that the room is inhabited, then it may be a bigger group of spiders that the party has to contend with. If the party decides to leave, I note it down on my map as a discovery in the world that has been made, so that future explorers may encounter the same thing.

Monsters can also be easily dialed up. For example, the other night the party encountered a spider web covering a entrance to a great canyon. These are proper giant spiders, none of that 4 HD nonsense. So a quick doubling to 6 HD makes them a real menace that needs careful planning: AC 16 2D6 damage...

Yikes 😳

The party returned to the canyon with the fireball scroll, and, that worked well. What they have realized since is that without the spiders, the giant moth population has really escalated!