I have an interview today with AdamD from Game to Grow about Critical Core, which is currently in preorder! It sounded like such a fascinating project focused on helping autistic gamers! Check out Adam’s responses below!
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Tell me about Critical Core. What excites you about it?
Critical Core is a starter set for therapeutic tabletop role-playing games. We’ve been using games to help kids and teens build social skills for around 8 years now, and have always wanted to reach a larger audience of people than we can reach directly in the greater Seattle Area. At Game to Grow we’ve been saying for years that we think the world would be a better place if everyone played more games together. This is our opportunity to get a game into more homes, hospitals, schools, clinics and libraries around the world.
What are the backgrounds like for the various people working on Game To Grow? What motivated you to apply it to games?
Adam Johns is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I (Adam Davis) have a masters in education with a specialization in Drama Therapy. We met in grad school at Antioch University Seattle and started working together running drop in groups using Dungeons and Dragons with socially isolated youth. As we ran the groups we realized the potential that the game has as an intentional intervention for building social competence. We created Wheelhouse Workshop, a for-profit company, in 2013 dedicated to using RPGs to build social skills. After several years of running groups and serving the local community, they formed Game to Grow in 2017 to continue to expand on the use of games to help people learn, grow, and change.
Game to Grow was formed as a nonprofit to reach a larger audience to help with a wider range of challenges. Another member of the development team is Virginia Spielmann, who is a British-trained Occupational Therapist with more than 20 years experience working in pediatrics. Virginia is a specialist in the DIR Floortime™ framework of developmental intervention. Virginia approached us with the Critical Core project as a collaboration with the ad agency Mcgarrybowen Hong Kong, who sought to use their creative talent in design and project management to serve the autistic community in Hong Kong with an innovative idea. Critical Core was born from this international collaboration.
How does the starter kit work and what is included in it?
The starter kit contains three main components: the rules and materials for a simplified and easy-to-play role-playing game, a facilitator’s guide with the best-practices we have developed over the near decade of experience we have running groups and using this method to help clients, and adventure modules in which the in-game scenarios are targeted developmentally to real-world areas of social growth.
The goal is for new game masters to be able to pick up the starter set and learn a simple game they can use to help and connect with their family, students, clients, or community. They can use the modules and facilitator’s guide to improve the outcomes of their game and provide some support for kids, whether they’re on the autism spectrum or not. Experienced game masters will be able to apply the wisdom in the facilitator’s guide and adventure modules to other game systems and use the games they already know and love to help their community. Trained therapists, educators, and other community support will have a new tool in their repertoire to help their community in a way that is, fun, safe, and enriching.
How do you approach accessibility for those with disabilities like blindness, or who have mobility issues?
Our approach to accessibility is that, as our colleague Mike Fields said during a presentation: ”An impairment is only a disability when there is no accommodation.”
We also recognize that every individual is different and may need a different level of modification or accommodation for them to fully participate. The key element to accessibility is open dialogue around what a participant needs and how we can help. There are obvious ways we can improve accessibility, i.e., by making sure paths are clear for wheelchairs and walkers, or by providing braille dice, though it is impossible to be 100% prepared for everything so we must be open to conversation about how we can make sure our table has a place for everyone.
How do these starter kits work for people who aren’t experienced professionals, based on your testing?
We’re still developing the kit to make it the best it can be to professionals with less experience using RPGs to help. Our “official” beta-testing with Critical Core kits hasn’t begun, though in the trainings we’ve conducted over the years using the wisdom and best practices that will go into the facilitators guide, we’ve seen the largest area of growth is making sure that the professionals new to facilitating RPGs for growth remember that they are also a player, and that SO MUCH of the power in the work comes from relationships and play. So we’ll make sure that the kits have a clear outline of the game structure, but also explain in depth how to use the game to maximum impact. Not just the what, but the why and the how. Much of that will be in the facilitator’s guide included in the Critical Core box.
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Thank you so much to Adam for the interview! I hope you all enjoyed it and that you’ll check out Critical Core and consider preordering if it is a good suit for you!