Giuseppe Femia (University of Waterloo)
Introduction
Disability scholarship has long been in contention with pejorative depictions of disability culture brought about by early academia’s employment of the medical model. The medical model portrays disability undesirably, as a shortcoming or tragedy, seeking to cure or eradicate disability, making everyone able-bodied and minded (Ellis 22; Price 164). This ableist propagation leads to people fearing disability, perceiving it as an innate shortcoming (Ware 190-191). The medical model’s perseverance necessitates academic multimedia interventions to combat these pejorative ideas.
Intersections of disability and media have been crucial in cultivating communities of understanding around disability culture and its representation (Ellis 3), and progressive disability narratives in modern television demystify the stigma around ableist preconceptions (68). By creating new conversations around cultural media, we afford disability studies an abundance of interdisciplinary approaches (Ware xiv).
As a younger discipline, game studies (GS) provides disability studies with an abundance of approaches to gaming media (Anderson and Schrier 181; Gibbons 35). This includes work on game design and narrative but also interdisciplinary research observing academic gaps that intersect with areas like queer and performance studies (PS). In this manner, the disability game studies (DGS) intersection affords scholars the means to critique and deconstruct harmful approaches being applied in gaming media while informing game developers of more constructive game design practices (Gibbons 31).
My goal for this article is to convey how tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) are abundant with unexplored approaches to the media site that can benefit the disability communities, with greater input from disability scholarship. TTRPGs are a subgenre of roleplaying games (RPGs), games where players take on the role of a character in a fictional setting. More specifically, TTRPGs are analog RPGs set in a physical space like traditional board games, at a table with friends.
Throughout this article, I analyze two TTRPGs, Inspirisles and Survival of the Able (SOTA), designed with disability themes in mind. First, I set the foundation in relevant work done by DGS scholars. Diane Carr, Adan Jerreat-Poole, and Sarah Gibbons’ work employs interdisciplinary approaches to criticize, re-examine, and deconstruct pejorative practices in gaming media featuring disability. Moving to my TTRPG object texts, I examine them alongside disability, performance, and game studies theorists to provide further scholarly context for the performance the players take part in. This will convey how both games are designed with affordances provided by the TTRPG medium for their intended play experience. Finally, I conclude with recommendations for disability themed game design.
Disability in Game Studies
“…the majority of the work on gaming and disability comes in the form of research on games’ utility as medical or therapeutic interventions” (Anderson and Schrier 191). Meaning, little work has been done in GS regarding disability representation or awareness and scholarship approaching DGS critically, Carr, Jerreat-Poole, and Gibbons, can be considered outliers. A concern for DGS scholars is that narrative designs for many popular video games do not help portray disability favourably (Carr, “Ability, Disability and Dead Space” par. 3). While “cripping strategies” can be employed to derive progressive readings from these narratives (Jerreat-Poole par. 3), greater and more purposeful inclusion of disability is ideal (Gibbons 30). As such, I observe these scholars to better inform my observations for the object texts.
Concerning the videogame Dead Space, Carr posits how able bodies are depicted as desirable and necessary for survival while disabled bodies are presented as a contaminant, a threat, and something to be avoided at all costs (“Ability, Disability and Dead Space” par. 29). Through these narratives, disability communities are associated with ableist perceptions put forward by the medical model (Connor 211). Applying disability theory to the practice of play, as a frame of criticism (“Bodies That Count” 423), the DGS intersection can “problematize clinical perspectives within game studies, and to help make visible the extent to which [ableist ideologies] … depend on the abjectification of disability” (“Bodies That Count” 425).
Regarding this criticism, Jerreat-Poole employs strategies, like “crip negotiation,” to decenter the focus gaming media has on able-bodied characters, deriving alternative readings from them. “Crip negotiation” focuses on navigating the gaming media from a perspective opposing ableist readings while “…uncovering productive moments of tension and discomfort that disrupt the smooth story of hyper-able bodies performing extraordinary feats…” (par. 3).
Concerning the videogame Mass Effect, Jerreat-Poole uses crip negotiation to access an alternative reading of a physically disabled character by the name of Joker. While disability has not been made the sole aspect of his personality, Joker has been heavily impacted by an ableist society’s criticism of his body (par. 17). Pity or observing the creators as positioning disability as inferior, might be an initial response to this character. However, with “crip negotiation,” Jerreat-Poole affords nuance where, despite his body being slower than other characters, the game does not position Joker as inferior regarding his character value. His mechanically positioned shortcomings bring in real-world experiences, like the want to not use crutches all the time or the defensiveness he initially meets the player character with when he thinks he is being evaluated. So, even though he is being marginalized within the world of the game and the game’s mechanics show his movements being comparatively slower, there is a degree of realism being portrayed with how disabled bodies are devalued and critiqued within our society by ableist standards.
Moving to design intentions, Gibbons proposes we address the abundance of problematic depictions of disability by creating games with the intention to benefit the disability communities. Concerning disability representation, these alternatives would ideally hold “a nuanced exploration of the expressive power of autobiographical games” (30), to humanize disabled individuals rather than positioning them as needing rehabilitation. Ideally, the game space would accommodate and normalize disability practices and values, opposing ableist ideologies, and allow for self-exploration.
Despite these practices not being as prevalent as some more mainstream GS methodologies, Gibbons notes how “…critical efforts to make disability a part of gaming can also echo the existing work scholars, players and developers have begun with respect to fostering greater inclusion and representation of diversity” (30). As a discipline often seeking to foster greater inclusion and representation of diversity, I employ PS scholarship to supplement my analysis.
TTRPG media allows participants to engage with its content similarly to how other performative media does, either by passively spectating or actively performing themselves. However, where many instances of performative media, like traditional theatre, need to occur at a set location within a pre-determined timeslot, TTRPGs can be accessed virtually anywhere for as much time as the participants require. TTRPGs can also accommodate as many interruptions as needed and can provide the participants with opportunities for learning and critical reflection (Daniau 426-427). In this manner, the TTRPG medium is more accessible to players with disabilities compared to other similarly beneficial performances (435). Applying PS scholarship to my object texts, Inspirisles and SOTA, I convey how they are designed with opportunities for learning and critical reflection concerning disability communities and their social issues respectively.
Analyzing Disability in TTRPGs
To summarize, Inspirisles is an open-ended TTRPG design, set in an original fantasy world, where the mechanics are the dominant deviation from traditional TTRPGs. In this game, the players are assigned an element chosen from water, fire, earth, or air, and they overcome obstacles, throughout their adventure, by magically and creatively controlling their element using American Sign Language (ASL) or British Sign Language (BSL).
Comparatively, SOTA provides more focus on disability themes through the setting itself attempting to simulate the reality of disabled characters trying to survive the simultaneous occurrences of the bubonic plague and zombie apocalypse in medieval Europe. Player characters are varying degrees of deaf, blind, or physically impaired which is reflected through game mechanics with certain actions or perceptions being more difficult or impossible.
Concerning the scholarly conversation, Inspirisles emulates Gibbons’ suggested practices of navigating and building community. Additionally, Inspirisles, being an Education Role-Playing Game (Edu-RPG) as defined by Daniau, also demonstrates Jill Dolan’s utopian performative with an inclusive involvement of Deaf culture, understood by Jackie Leach Scully.
SOTA demonstrates creative affordances and attempting to emulate realism by employing simulation similar to Scott Magelssen’s simming, which I apply to Bree Hadley’s considerations for disability performance. However, it brings forward shortcomings in its design worthy of Carr’s critique regarding undesirable depictions of disabled bodies, making room for crip negotiation.
My analysis focuses on specific components of each TTRPG and contrast them with one another. I observe these games concerning 1) design intentions, 2) contextualization of disability for intended play experiences, 3) how they invite player to engage with disability topics, 4) combat mechanics challenging TTRPG design norms, and 5) their inclusion of disabled voices.
Design Intentions
As I alluded to, Inspirisles is intended to promote Deaf awareness and inclusive storytelling opportunities for the deaf community (Waldman par. 2). It achieves this by incorporating ASL and BSL into the game mechanics governing how magic is used as well as providing background information about the Deaf community. This emulates Gibbons’ conception of accepting game spaces, creating awareness for disability culture and social issues (35), as the players are actively encouraged to learn ASL and/or BSL to cast spells and advance to stronger spells, through character progression.
The physical actions taken, like facial expressions, gestures, sign language, and other forms of communication built into the game, are not intended to simulate deafness. This is relevant as Gibbons observes the simulation of disability as problematic, increasing stigma around said disability (29). Rather, the game promotes players’ engagement with the language used in Deaf culture, like instructors employing the learning of cultural practices when teaching students a new language. In turn, game designers approaching their media with open-ended educational intentions like this help to deconstruct disabling architecture and ableist viewpoints while enabling a more constructive approach to disability issues (Gibbons 30).
In contrast, SOTA inspires reflection by directly drawing attention to accessibility barriers to challenge ableist assumptions. With realism and difficulties imposed on the players in SOTA, the game functions similarly to the immersive PS format known as simming. Simming uses practices from performance and theater to design spaces where narratives are played out to give an understanding of a specific contextualized experience to the actors and audience (Magelssen 3). Likewise, SOTA sets up a context in the theatre of the mind to play out a narrative for the lived experience of disabled individuals in the 1300s. According to Magelssen, this instance would be a “simming of witness,” where the design goal is to bring attention to the individuals who suffered a past or present injustice or trauma through a compelling use of the narrative (14).
However, the most immediate intention for SOTA is to induce discomfort, often the primary aspect of certain art pieces. Magelssen makes note of how discomfort or anxiety felt by the actors can be used productively to create conflict and controversy (43-44). Social and political insight evoked in the players would be an understanding of how civil rights laws and technologies have developed, since the 1300s, by subjecting them to the struggles of a world devoid of them. Ideally, just as other games foster retrospection (Bertolo et al. 290), considerations for how we can better accommodate accessibility needs and demonstrate necessity for accessibility affordances to continue being developed is imposed on the players for further real-world activism.
Contextualizing the Game for Disability Themes
Sign language is at the core of Inspirisles, as it is the key mechanic used to facilitate the magic system of the game. As such, the rulebook provides a guide to learning sign language alongside additional information regarding how members of the Deaf community identify themselves and communicate. This supplementary and contextual information helps to educate the players on, and expose them to, Deaf culture. Such information includes but is not limited to: distinguishing the identity of being Deaf from the medical diagnoses of deafness; discussing how Deaf identity can range from hard of hearing (HOH) to a dual sensory loss of someone who is Deafblind; tips on how to sign with the dominant hand; and best practices for fingerspelling.
Due to how it employs the use of sign language, Daniau would characterize this TTRPG as an Edu-RPG because of how it: 1) positions itself for non-Deaf individuals to learn the basic sign language mechanics while engaging with the deaf culture; and 2) “bring[s] in predefined educational goals…and invite[s] players to learn and develop themselves through playing” (425). To exemplify how Inspirisles aligns with the idea of a Deaf awareness-focused Edu-RPG, Maryanne Cullinan and Laura Wood implemented the game in a class of middle school students. Not only did the students report an increased aptitude for sign language and a greater sense of connection to the affinity groups they formed while learning this method of communication, but the researchers also noted that the “…students walked away with a better appreciation of not only ASL and the Deaf community, but also for the value of learning any second language” (277).
In this sense, the ASL they engaged with allowed the students to approach the game as though they were learning another language. So, while the students did not engage with the Deaf community directly, they received a participatory introduction to the culture in terms of the intersectional identities within it as well as the predominant means of communication. This is not a solution to the need for deaf awareness in and of itself. However, as the players now have a rudimentary means of communication with Deaf culture, it could very well be an invitation to these students for future engagement with the Deaf community producing greater dialogue and awareness in the future. Speculatively, if this were applied more purposefully, it could aid in eventually bringing about societal change in favour of the Deaf community.
In contrast, SOTA contextualizes itself for disability themes through the depiction of struggle and hardships for disability identity. The game is situated “in Western Europe circa 1347 A.D. because [the game designers] wanted to put [players] into a world where people with disabilities (PWDs) have few protections. There are no civil rights laws to ensure equal rights and fair treatment for PWDs, and most people perceived PWDs to be weak, if not helpless” (Wood 10). The era of the game also has no modern-day technology, to provide relief to the characters, for a sense of historical realism. While there are mechanical difficulties associated with the actions taken by deaf, blind, or physically impaired characters, shown as a spectrum of ability and disability (Meehan par. 5), they also have anxiety triggers related to their disability adding to their stress, making roleplay a vital aspect of the game. As such, disability performance is an area of consideration for discussing this game’s design.
Hadley considers every instance of a person with disabilities entering a performance space to be an intervention of societal assumptions about disability (182). However, she is also rightfully concerned with non-disabled artists appropriating disability art and culture for the purposes of creating self-determined positive symbolism which presents disability more digestibly to audiences, neglecting “the realities of (pain and impairment that are part of) being disabled” (Hadley 152). In line with these realities of impairment, Wood’s design illustrates how disability is a spectrum by making it so the “Player characters do not have specific physical attributes, instead, they have scales on each of the five senses” (Meehan par. 5), ranging from degrees of abled to disabled. So, regarding positioning for disability depictions, I consider how both games invite the players to create and portray their in-game characters.
Inviting the Players to Perform
Playing off this contextualization, Inspirisles is very open-ended in how it invites the player to take on the role of their character. The main guidelines are, “Pick a Name & Pronouns; Pick a Friend & Home; Pick a Patron & Element; [and] Pick a Hobby” (Oxenham 42). With very few guidelines on how to depict their character, the players are free to do whatever they feel most comfortable with. As disability representation is not the main focus of this TTRPG, the guidelines are free to be as loose as they desire, provided everyone is respectful.
The social context set for the players allows for a type of utopian experience which challenges our preconceived notions of utopia. Dolan discusses utopia, not as a construction of reality, but as a cultural production evoking feelings and sensibilities of idealism through performance, what she calls the “utopian performative” (460). Relating it back to GS, it has been noted how the enactment of particular values and behaviors can be experienced by players through their characters, when they are given the freedom to explore how they fail or succeed in the actions they take (Flanagan and Nissenbaum 31), an opportunity not often afforded to disabled individuals. Miguel Sicart discusses play as a part of our moral being. In this manner, roleplay can afford us crucial insight in how we experience and navigate the world with the use of roleplay characters to assist us as a lens (9; 24). He identifies the benefit of this practice of play as providing freedom from moral conventions in the real world that would otherwise constrict or restrain one’s presentation of identity (5; 30). Inspirisles affords utopian performativity as its design makes sign language out to be a central aspect of the game just as it is a central aspect of Deaf culture. Within this game system’s design, sign language, a practice often taken for granted (Scully 147), is how the player employs the game’s magic mechanics, giving it a sense of importance in the game world. This reflects reality for the Deaf community as sign language plays a central role in their communication, echoing an identical sense of importance within Deaf culture. By emphasizing the necessity of sign language, the game depicts a setting more ideal than our own reality for members of the Deaf community to inhabit alongside players who are willing to learn sign language for the purposes of play. In a game setting where all the players know, or are learning, sign language, the barriers to accessing communication are significantly reduced and tolerance and inclusion of deaf or HOH individuals is encouraged (Cullinan and Wood 268), invoking a more accepting reality where they are free to communicate in the manner they are most comfortable with. This allows for navigating the game to be made more hospitable and less stressful for members of the Deaf community.
In opposition to utopian performativity, SOTA invites the player to consider their character in a more nuanced manner alongside their struggles and hardships, saying,
Every character is comprised of a set of quantifiable Traits, but they’re so much more than just a collection of numbers…consider your character’s overall concept and how their history made them who they are today…What kind of Senses would you have if you lost your vision during an attack by brigands? What Skills would you have as a merchant’s son? What Qualities would you have, both as the son of a merchant and someone who has been through the ordeals you have experienced? What would help you find reassurance in the world, and what would cause you undue stress?
Your character concept has no tangible in-game effect, but thinking about it will help you choose your Traits going forward….you have a disability of some kind. Don’t use that fact to limit your choices, but rather to offer you some constrained creativity with which to build your new persona. (Wood 39)
To this end, Wood is directly inviting the players to explore and create well-rounded characters while considering their disability as a key component of their life without making it the only aspect of their identity. While the disabled characters is a focus for SOTA, further guidelines are provided to avoid narratives of pity and two-dimensional disabled characters. Wood prompts players to think of characters beyond just their disability however, able-bodied and minded players would still be limited in how they see disability playing a role in the life of a disabled character.
In these instances, we can observe how Carr’s critique is applicable to this game, as Wood is positioning disabled character’s as being less capable of surviving through the game’s mechanics. Here, the players might conclude that disability is something to pity and avoid at all costs (Adams 211-212). If players decided to use SOTA to try experiencing disabled life through their imagination, then they might just reinforce common stereotypes associated with disability in popular media (Gibbons 29). To compensate for this, the TTRPG inspires diversity and originality in its character creation affordances which may help to avoid stereotyping. It puts forward a variety of prompts; like character senses, qualities, anxieties, assurances, skills, and relationships; for the player to design an interesting and engaging multidimensional character worthy of player investment (Wood 39-40).
Approaching Combat as a Challenge to TTRPG Norms
As we can observe from their design, my object texts set themselves up well for their intended play experience. They also avoid falling into the same habit as many other TTRPGs. Sarah Lynn Bowman and Menachem Cohen agree how in traditional Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) the terminology used, like referring to a long-term game as a campaign, or the mechanics of killing monsters to gain experience to level up as the main method of advancement, positions it as a war game. Mind you, that is what D&D was initially intended to be, but this aspect of the game’s design fundamentally focuses the player’s attention on combat mechanics with less regard for the roleplay performance (Bowman 108; Cohen 69). In reality, many TTRPGs retain this same positioning without fully realizing how it impacts the player’s approach to the game. However, we can see how the game systems of my object texts are designed to deter a combat focus while focusing the players’ attention on their intended play experiences.
Inspirisles simplifies the combat mechanics for its learning focus. This is reflected in how it sets up the characters. The game notes, “Many roleplaying games give you a sense of character through statistics and numbers. We’ve left the math for our dice rolls and opted for a storytelling approach” (Oxenham 42). Meaning, while they are present, the combat mechanics boil down to three six-sided dice rolls with any additional considerations coming from character progression and creative roleplaying choices made using sign language. Creative uses of sign language can happen at any point in the game and are not limited to combat. This creativity is rewarded with the acquisition of belief, a unit used to track character progression throughout the game. As such, this design firmly positions the players’ navigation of the game within the sign language magic system they have learned during their play, leaving combat as an option governed by said magic system and not the sole focus.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, SOTA deters a combat focus because of the limited capacity the characters have for their survival. In the game, “Zombies carry the plague wherever they go and spread it rapidly. Whenever they bite someone, cough blood on them, or scratch them with their rotting fingernails they give their victim the terrible bacteria that causes the Black Death” (63). While combat with zombies might not be difficult to win, the chances for infection make any form of combat unappealing and condition players to avoid it at all costs. If the challenge of the game is to simulate difficulties disabled individuals would face, it is reasonable for the designer to keep players’ focus on issues of inaccessible navigation. When the game encourages an avoidant approach to combat encounters like this, the players are kept mindful of their embodied experience through their roleplay. This in turn allows them to feel the injustice of the situation through the constraints of unlikely survivability in an inaccessible environment, something many disabled individuals experienced firsthand during the Covid-19 pandemic. In both object texts, the importance of roleplay is emphasized by the systems to encourage the players to produce their own meaning within the game, separate from combat, challenging traditional TTRPGs in how they position their system regarding their design intentions.
Disability Inclusion
Inspirisles exemplifies collaboration with Deaf culture through the creative decisions made between Richard Oxenham, the game designer, and Rajnie Kaur and Moonlight Joy, the Deaf culture and language consultants. In terms of representation, Inspirisles is thorough with the information it provides regarding the diversity of identity within the Deaf community and the importance ascribed to how some of its members might choose to identify themselves in relation to it. For example, it is common for many members of the Deaf community to not consider themselves disabled but consider the Deaf culture to be a minority culture (Scully 145-146). As such, while Inspirisles explicitly deals with disability themes and allows for depictions of disability identity, at no point in the rule book does it administer the classification of disability to the Deaf community. This illustrates the consultation for this game as inclusive of the diverse identities of the Deaf community (Scully 153), allowing its members to approach the game as a friendly space regardless of how they choose to identify themselves.
In SOTA, the realities of being disabled are definitively a highlight of the game as they are what the game designer, Jacob Wood, is attempting to emulate. While Wood is a blind creator, there is little evidence to suggest other disabled creators provided input into the game design to come up with mechanics for the disabilities Wood did not have embodied knowledge of. Which is concerning because Wood’s priority with SOTA was to develop,
…a game about empathy. You’ll play as someone with a disability tasked with surviving a zombie plague, but the real villains of the game are injustice, inaccessibility, and ableism. You won’t have modern protections like the Americans with Disabilities Act to offer you protection against discrimination, and you won’t have modern technology to make your life easier. You will have your wits, your guts, and your determination.
Our hope is that by putting yourself in your character’s shoes, you’ll start to feel angered and incensed at the way they are treated. You’ll see the injustices that still impact people with disabilities to this day. You’ll also feel a great sense of accomplishment when you overcome the odds and survive grueling challenges despite the setbacks you face. Finally, you’ll recognize how to translate this experience to the real world. (Embry par. 2-3)
Empathy, being a main aspect of SOTA’s design, would make it easy for players to take away piteous or overcoming narratives from the experience. SOTA intends for you to be more likely to fail and, in that depiction of unfairness, Wood is incentivizing the players to be more mindful of the injustices felt in reality. However, empathy has been widely regarded, by disability media, performative activism, and RPG studies scholars alike, as an inaccurate, problematic, and oversimplified view of how we feel viewing or playing another character that inspires passivity instead of activism (Adams 211-212; Boal 34-41; Ruberg 60).
However, I don’t see SOTA as inherently problematic but any merit it has is largely dependent on how the players approach the game. If they choose to employ it discursively then they might seek to bring about societal change as we observed Inspirisles being capable of in the case study provided (Cullinan and Wood 277). Simultaneously, this game design affords the player with room to employ crip negotiation where problems arise from inaccessible environments the players find themselves in and not the characters themselves, as demonstrated by Jerreat-Poole (par. 3; par. 17).
Rather than fostering empathy, I see this game making a more crucial intervention in disability representation by cultivating a game space for better-designed characters with disabilities (Meehan par. 5-6). Hadley considers any depiction of disability as having a potentially positive impact giving both the performer and the audience a call to consider their own position as part of an ethical process (31). Though, she stipulates it be made apparent non-disabled performers do not represent the disability community (31). In this sense, the game helps to combat disability erasure in modern media, which was a major concern brought up by Wood in the creation of this game to begin with (Wood, “[Q&A] Jacob Wood (Accessible Games)” par. 1), while allowing the players to take a humanizing approach to considering disabled individuals as multidimensional.
Conclusion
Throughout this article, I have demonstrated how the medical model remains a prevalent foundation for how many gaming media developers approach their work. I discussed the general benefits of interdisciplinary approaches for disability studies alongside the specific benefits found in DGS. While there are still academic gaps to be expanded on at this intersection, scholarship must continue to observe how the work being done, both in academia and gaming media, might have a beneficial or detrimental impact on the underrepresented disability communities.
To this end, more ethnographic work within the realm of DGS is warranted, ensuring we are getting input from the communities we are trying to help. After showing how these games are designed to achieve their affordances for progressive disability themes, I would like to bring two recommendations forward.
The first observes Inspirisles positioning itself to teach a new language, making it fundamental to the playing of the game. By acquiring input from consultants from the Deaf community, Oxenham created an EDU-RPG teaching players about sign language and Deaf culture while engaging with an immersive storytelling practice. As such, at their foundation, games require input from the communities they are meant to benefit.
The second recommendation I make observes SOTA’s choice to make the players reflect on disabled individuals and society. While the game is intended to afford the player to break away from preconceptions of disability in their character creation it also explicitly calls them to reconsider how society regards accessibility needs. As such, to assist players in navigating the topic of disability, games could use a set up designed to destabilize preconceptions of social issues
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