Giuseppe Femia is a PhD Candidate at the University of Waterloo. Overall, his research in disability game studies observes different types of gaming media and the design, purpose, and function it has while approaching disability identity. His current work observes disability representation and disabling mechanics in TTRPG narratives and systems.
Disability, Magic, and Technology in TTRPGs
FROG 2024 – Talk
This presentation delves into modern public perception of failure and how our learned fear of it makes it difficult to incorporate disability into pre-existing TTRPG systems, like D&D. Observing failure as a rhetorical tool, I will discuss scholars concerning the conception of the queer art of failure to situate losing a game as a productive affordance of game systems that should not be thought of as failure (Juul 60). In this manner, I will also be investigating alternatives to the traditional conventions governing success in games to provide affordances and set precedence for the experience of disability in games to abate a neoliberal dystopian/apocalyptic world. This will be done from two angles: 1) loss illustrated through the game mechanics; and 2) perceived failure within the narrative.
Concerning game mechanics, the RPG systems that are being considered will have different methods of taking action and navigating the world for the players’ characters. Mechanics that accommodate or exemplify disability could potentially be exploited to fetishize disabled characters and appropriate the culture. Mechanics that punish or make playing a disabled character harder might deter players from wanting to attempt to do so or lead the outcome of the story to seem more like a tragedy. By observing the mechanics available to the player in the object gaming texts I have selected, I can develop an understanding of how disability is, or is not, approached.
Concerning narratives, the perceived disabilities of a character could play into a story that is made and interpreted entirely by the players. However, the settings of the games might have pre-existing narratives that guide the gameplay into a tragic enactment of their disability. Therefore, the framing of the story provided by the game system sets a precedent of what the players’ expectations might be. For example, the dark fantasy genre of TTRPGs tends to implicate tragedy so depictions of characters with a disability are not afforded a positive setting to frame themselves in. Within the narrative, we can observe how failure is depicted and how disability might be framed.
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