Looking for a DM to run a game for disabled players - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Harakhet Aug 30, 2014 18:02:32	I’m in a group of players who are disabled and we are looking for an experienced DM to run a game for us. Because we all have physical limitations and/or energy issues, none of us are feeling able to learn the new rules well enough and run the game.
#2 Thank_Dog Aug 31, 2014 0:24:47	45m to an hour is a huge limitation. Not saying it can't be done but I've found that regardless of whether doing it online or in person, a good half hour of every session is wasted just getting everyone organised and ready to start play. Add in a bit of roleplaying here and there and you're looking at doing very, very little each session. Would it be possible to do a two hour session but with a short break in-between each hour? You might have more luck that way and a better experience for everyone. I'm not sure how to use G+ for games but I've heard it works OK. I would recommend looking into Roll20 as well though as it's specifically geared towards playing online and is quite popular so you'll possibly find more DM's willing to run it. I know you mentioned Theatre of the Mind however I'd recommend against that for your scenario simply because it can actually take longer than using a grid as the DM will constantly have to remind everyone of positioning and constantly answer questions about range, available targets, attacks of opportunity, cover, etc.
#3 Arawn76 Aug 31, 2014 5:53:06	If I wasn't so rusty and probably in the wrong time zone I'd love to. I agree with Thankdog though about the time issue, its inevitable you'll lose a chunk to fooling around. Also if you have players with memory issues you might want to use one of the online tabletops instead to help keep things focused.
#4 Ansbach Aug 31, 2014 7:28:57	Roll20 is definitely your best bet. It's a great tool for playing online, it's free and it has a huge community - their website says half-a-million players have signed up since they started. If you post your requirement in their "Looking For Groups" section, you will most likely get several responses.
#5 Harakhet Sep 01, 2014 1:18:36	Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We have thought of the problem of the short time frame and chit-chat, and one idea is to have everyone who is able to manage more time come early to get that out of the way, and then the one or two who have to be more strict can come in right as things are getting rolling. The break in the middle might be an option, too. As for time zone, we already have people on both the west and east coast, but if you're on the other side of the world then it would probably end up being too late at night/early morning for you. I'm in a group right now that uses G+ for a online Bible study. It lets up to 9 people in the hangout at the same time, with options for text chat and just voice chat with the video off. It's quite versatile and easy to use. It has some gaming apps too, but I haven't played with them much. I haven't played D&D yet, so I can't weigh in about the board vs theater of the mind, but my boyfriend Harakhet (he asked me to post on his account for him) thought that would actually be faster than using a map/board. I'll run your thoughts by him. It makes sense to me that seeing where everything is would especially help with the memory issues. I'll check out the Roll20 site, thanks! I keep getting the infinate loop error, too. Odd.
#6 bawylie Sep 01, 2014 7:37:00	I am running a group for people with disabilities. It meets once a month for 3 - 4 hrs, in person. We have 4 players. Some have physical limitations, most have mental/cognitive issues. Ages between 11 and 55. It takes a certain patience, skill, and a lot of advice from special ed teachers to pull this off. It also takes knowing how to manage what the group wants and what the group needs. Because of the scope and calendar commitment, I doubt you will find a DM that fits. 3 times a week in prime time is pretty big, even only for an hour. You also need someone who can keep your specific needs in mind and find ways to address them. Ex - Gridless, mapless play will be a hindrance to those of you who have short term memory problems unless you find a DM that really knows what they're doing. (Even the BEST grid less guys don't know how to run for disabled groups). And 6-7 players is too much to wrangle, without special considerations and accommodations. You'd have to be very serious or very dedicated to the game play. (This is easier face to face, for me). So, all that in mind, I humbly suggest that you take one of your number and appoint them as DM. They can come here and we will talk, train, advise, help etc. Presumably, the appointed DM already knows you all, is alright with the schedule, and is very sensitive to the group's needs. That's the most important thing anyway - the DM-ing we can train. I sincerely wish you the best of luck.
#7 SpedGuy Sep 01, 2014 14:46:13	I've done a group (during 'Gamer's Club' at our school, I'm the teacher-advisor) of table-top gaming for groups of students with varyling levels of cognative disabilities (mostly ASD stuff) that went well so long as we were all patient with eachother. One 3.5 DnD, one customized 'Hero System' Pokemon RPG.
#8 KaribouOfDoom Sep 01, 2014 21:15:45	bawylie wrote:
#9 bawylie Sep 01, 2014 22:17:38	How many party members are manageable? (I'm a teacher and an experienced DM... was thinking no more than 6, three with disabilities and 3 "buddies.") -This seems right depending on your ability to manage a table. Especially if the buddies understand their roles and are helpful. How do you document the game? (I use Realm Works, which I love.) -Old fashioned way. I get a lot of mileage out of the campaign fronts sheet from Dungeon World. Do you review the previous game extensively at the start of the next game? -Not extensively. In any given description, I don't feel I have more than 4-5 sentences at most. These must be effective and on-point. (However, during the game & especially "off-grid" I use 1-2 sentence ReCaps. "As the goblins close in on Fennoch, Marla notes an opportunity to strike at their chieftain. Will she help her friend or attack a hated enemy?" Like pretty much setting a mini stage for each turn. You don't have to lead them by the nose, but some guidance helps). Do you make any rules modifications? -Constantly. I often incorporate other games to enhance the experience. Example, trying to stabilize a dying ally? I pull out Operation & we play that. Barrel of monkeys, jenga, hungry hungry hippos, anything that takes 10 min or less. Further, I don't believe the players are responsible for the rules. In my DM-philosophy, all a player requires is their imagination; they say what they want to do and how they want to accomplish it. It's up to me to work with that. If the rules help me, I use that. If the mini games help, I use that. If chucking it all and making it up helps, I do that. It's all a tool anyway. Pick the one that suits the job. Obviously, some of this needs to be tailored to an individual group, but I'd be very interested to hear anything you might be willing to share on the subject. -Hope this helps. Overall, my goal as DM is to evoke a particular experience or emotion in the players. To do that, I have to build trust, connect, and engage. With the disabilities group, the goal is the same but the approach is tailored. More mini games. More framework. More "and how do you do that?"
#10 Harakhet Sep 02, 2014 17:29:29	I'm glad to see this prompted a great discussion and that there are several groups out there working on similar things. Karibou, I hope your group works out! bawylie wrote:

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

Harakhet

Aug 30, 2014 18:02:32

I’m in a group of players who are disabled and we are looking for an experienced DM to run a game for us. Because we all have physical limitations and/or energy issues, none of us are feeling able to learn the new rules well enough and run the game.

Thank_Dog

Aug 31, 2014 0:24:47

45m to an hour is a huge limitation. Not saying it can't be done but I've found that regardless of whether doing it online or in person, a good half hour of every session is wasted just getting everyone organised and ready to start play. Add in a bit of roleplaying here and there and you're looking at doing very, very little each session.

Would it be possible to do a two hour session but with a short break in-between each hour? You might have more luck that way and a better experience for everyone.

I'm not sure how to use G+ for games but I've heard it works OK. I would recommend looking into Roll20 as well though as it's specifically geared towards playing online and is quite popular so you'll possibly find more DM's willing to run it. I know you mentioned Theatre of the Mind however I'd recommend against that for your scenario simply because it can actually take longer than using a grid as the DM will constantly have to remind everyone of positioning and constantly answer questions about range, available targets, attacks of opportunity, cover, etc.

Arawn76

Aug 31, 2014 5:53:06

If I wasn't so rusty and probably in the wrong time zone I'd love to.

I agree with Thankdog though about the time issue, its inevitable you'll lose a chunk to fooling around. Also if you have players with memory issues you might want to use one of the online tabletops instead to help keep things focused.

Ansbach

Aug 31, 2014 7:28:57

Roll20 is definitely your best bet. It's a great tool for playing online, it's free and it has a huge community - their website says half-a-million players have signed up since they started.

If you post your requirement in their "Looking For Groups" section, you will most likely get several responses.

Harakhet

Sep 01, 2014 1:18:36

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. We have thought of the problem of the short time frame and chit-chat, and one idea is to have everyone who is able to manage more time come early to get that out of the way, and then the one or two who have to be more strict can come in right as things are getting rolling. The break in the middle might be an option, too.

As for time zone, we already have people on both the west and east coast, but if you're on the other side of the world then it would probably end up being too late at night/early morning for you.

I'm in a group right now that uses G+ for a online Bible study. It lets up to 9 people in the hangout at the same time, with options for text chat and just voice chat with the video off. It's quite versatile and easy to use. It has some gaming apps too, but I haven't played with them much.

I haven't played D&D yet, so I can't weigh in about the board vs theater of the mind, but my boyfriend Harakhet (he asked me to post on his account for him) thought that would actually be faster than using a map/board. I'll run your thoughts by him. It makes sense to me that seeing where everything is would especially help with the memory issues.

I'll check out the Roll20 site, thanks!

I keep getting the infinate loop error, too. Odd.

bawylie

Sep 01, 2014 7:37:00

I am running a group for people with disabilities. It meets once a month for 3 - 4 hrs, in person.

We have 4 players. Some have physical limitations, most have mental/cognitive issues. Ages between 11 and 55.

It takes a certain patience, skill, and a lot of advice from special ed teachers to pull this off. It also takes knowing how to manage what the group wants and what the group needs.

Because of the scope and calendar commitment, I doubt you will find a DM that fits. 3 times a week in prime time is pretty big, even only for an hour.

You also need someone who can keep your specific needs in mind and find ways to address them. Ex - Gridless, mapless play will be a hindrance to those of you who have short term memory problems unless you find a DM that really knows what they're doing. (Even the BEST grid less guys don't know how to run for disabled groups).

And 6-7 players is too much to wrangle, without special considerations and accommodations. You'd have to be very serious or very dedicated to the game play. (This is easier face to face, for me).

So, all that in mind, I humbly suggest that you take one of your number and appoint them as DM. They can come here and we will talk, train, advise, help etc. Presumably, the appointed DM already knows you all, is alright with the schedule, and is very sensitive to the group's needs. That's the most important thing anyway - the DM-ing we can train.

I sincerely wish you the best of luck.

SpedGuy

Sep 01, 2014 14:46:13

I've done a group (during 'Gamer's Club' at our school, I'm the teacher-advisor) of table-top gaming for groups of students with varyling levels of cognative disabilities (mostly ASD stuff) that went well so long as we were all patient with eachother. One 3.5 DnD, one customized 'Hero System' Pokemon RPG.

KaribouOfDoom

Sep 01, 2014 21:15:45

bawylie wrote:

bawylie

Sep 01, 2014 22:17:38

How many party members are manageable? (I'm a teacher and an experienced DM... was thinking no more than 6, three with disabilities and 3 "buddies.")

-This seems right depending on your ability to manage a table. Especially if the buddies understand their roles and are helpful.

How do you document the game? (I use Realm Works, which I love.)

-Old fashioned way. I get a lot of mileage out of the campaign fronts sheet from Dungeon World.

Do you review the previous game extensively at the start of the next game?

-Not extensively. In any given description, I don't feel I have more than 4-5 sentences at most. These must be effective and on-point. (However, during the game & especially "off-grid" I use 1-2 sentence ReCaps. "As the goblins close in on Fennoch, Marla notes an opportunity to strike at their chieftain. Will she help her friend or attack a hated enemy?" Like pretty much setting a mini stage for each turn. You don't have to lead them by the nose, but some guidance helps).

Do you make any rules modifications?

-Constantly. I often incorporate other games to enhance the experience. Example, trying to stabilize a dying ally? I pull out Operation & we play that. Barrel of monkeys, jenga, hungry hungry hippos, anything that takes 10 min or less. Further, I don't believe the players are responsible for the rules. In my DM-philosophy, all a player requires is their imagination; they say what they want to do and how they want to accomplish it. It's up to me to work with that. If the rules help me, I use that. If the mini games help, I use that. If chucking it all and making it up helps, I do that. It's all a tool anyway. Pick the one that suits the job.

Obviously, some of this needs to be tailored to an individual group, but I'd be very interested to hear anything you might be willing to share on the subject.

-Hope this helps. Overall, my goal as DM is to evoke a particular experience or emotion in the players. To do that, I have to build trust, connect, and engage. With the disabilities group, the goal is the same but the approach is tailored. More mini games. More framework. More "and how do you do that?"

#10

Harakhet

Sep 02, 2014 17:29:29

I'm glad to see this prompted a great discussion and that there are several groups out there working on similar things. Karibou, I hope your group works out!

bawylie wrote: