Tabletop Access Trailer

[00:00:00] Esther: Welcome to Tabletop Access, a show about disability, neurodivergence and tabletop role-playing games. I'm Esther Wallace. I use she and zhe pronouns. 'Zhe' is just like 'she' with a z on the beginning. You may know me as the co-host of Know Direction, a Pathfinder news, reviews, and interviews show; as the GM of Chromythica, a Pathfinder 2e actual play; or from my work with the Rainbow Roll Network; or, you may not know me at all, and that's just fine too. Whoever you are and however you got here: welcome. I'm so glad you're listening or reading along.

Like I said, Tabletop Access is a show about disability and tabletop roleplaying games, _and_ about the disabled and neurodivergent people who design, make, and play TTRPGs.

This show is my love letter to us and our experiences -- and our labor -- in the field of tabletop roleplaying games. The show is intended to spotlight the experiences and contributions of disabled and neurodivergent people in the TTRPG space, especially multiply marginalized disabled people: disabled black folks, indigenous folks, and people of color; disabled trans people; queer people; poor folks; and people outside the US.

You may be wondering: why am I making this show? Why now?

I believe that tabletop roleplaying games are powerful tools of the imaginal. I believe that to create new, liberated worlds for ourselves and each other to live in, we need to invest in our ability to dream and imagine new ways of being. I believe we need to practice playfulness and inhabiting new paradigms of being with one another, practice handling conflict and navigating complex situations. When done within specific kinds of containers, with conscious facilitators, game systems, and players, I think that tabletop is one of the most powerful mediums for this kind of play and these kinds of imaginary practices.

And I know disabled and neurodivergent people have incredible imaginations. I know that we are already dreaming up and creating new ways of being. We're experts in patching things together, making it work somehow despite the fact that we have really limited resources, and making things up as we go along. All things that, I don't know, I think pop up pretty naturally in the world of tabletop! So it seems to me that disabled and neurodivergent people, crip people, and Mad people, we're already doing so much of the work that goes into making a tabletop RPG just by living our lives.

I know that we are involved in every stage of making tabletop RPGs, from game design and production, to playing, to performing and producing, to making fan art and writing fan fiction. I know that we have given so much to this space... and we have so much more to give. I want to honor all of the disabled and crip and neurodivergent and Mad labor that has gone into making tabletop over the years.

So I guess my first answer to why I'm making this show _now_ is that I'm making it because I think crip imaginations matter, and crip futures matter, and tabletop RPGs are one tool that can help us as we create more liberated futures for everyone.

I want to learn from disabled and crip and neurodivergent and Mad people who are making games, playing games, and using games to create new paradigms and new frameworks of relationship to ourselves, to others, and the world.

I want this show to be a bold love letter to us, a show that centers us and our experiences, where we get to take up space and demand to be witnessed.

I want this show to be an invitation to non-disabled and neurotypical people, an invitation into new ways of understanding the world.

Mostly, I hope that this show will help you feel like you belong in the world of tabletop roleplaying games -- that you belong in the world, period.

I hope to launch this show in late September or early October 2023. And, the show is being made on what we call Crip Time or Disabled Time, which means that things may take a little longer than anticipated. You can watch all my social media, which will be under the handle @dungeonminister for updates and more information.

Or visit tabletop access.com for the latest updates.