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First off I want to say thank you and bless you to each and every person who's changing things and making more accessible spaces but can we please talk about how frustrating, intimidating and inaccessible TTRPG is in general?
Newcomers and lapsed players like myself with or those with cognitive impairments who hasn't played in decades (also me) are very overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff, we're on the verge of giving up playing or returning, if we haven't done so already.
There's just so much stuff and much of it is written in a way that assumes everyone reading the sourcebooks or character sheets is a seasoned veteran of TTRPG.
A good friend of mine recently approached me about joining her campaign and initially I was super excited about the idea of playing my first campaign in a very long time
"Finally, I get to use some of the lovely dice in my collection again!"
That excitement soon faded as I began to read over the character sheet, character, class, skills sections.
I started to feel anxiety looking over all of the stats, then I remembered part of the reason why I stopped playing:
The ridiculous gatekeeping nature of TTRPG which by design is meant to keep out the uninitiated, games be they pen and paper or digital are supposed to be fun no? Enjoyed by all right?
As a new or returning player I shouldn't have to use a Rosetta Stone, decryption software and have written a post doctoral thesis just to get started on filling out a character sheet.
Like, for why?
Like, for why?
Contrary to popular belief:
making things convoluted and overly complex
A) doesn't make you smarter than everyone else, it just makes you an asshole.
B) doesn't equal fun.
C) You can have depth and intricacies in your game/storytelling without it being a mess
making things convoluted and overly complex
A) doesn't make you smarter than everyone else, it just makes you an asshole.
B) doesn't equal fun.
C) You can have depth and intricacies in your game/storytelling without it being a mess
My advice to content creators making or thinking of making TTRPG: Keep It Simple, Silly
If you can't create complexity and depth in your product that's readily accessible to all players regardless of ability, (physical, cognitive etc) skill level or experience then you need to stop creating and reconsider your life choices
