Last week, the sitcom The Big Bang Theory spent almost an entire episode on Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).

This was episode 23 of Season 6, titled "The Love Spell Potential".

If you were not a tabletop Role-playing gamer before, did their representation in any way alter your view of tabletop RPG?

Did it increase, decrease, or not at all impact your view of role-playing games and gamers?

If you are already a tabletop RPGer, how did you feel about the representation on the show?

If you are already a tabletop RPGer, how did you feel about the representation on the show?

How did you feel about the sexual rules added?

The stereotypes?

RPG Research Youtube Channel: http://youtube.com/rpgresearch

Below is the raw data compiled but without analysis, percentage calculations, or commentary. Those items will come later.

I will provide an analysis and commentary in coming days. I welcome others' thoughts and constructive comments for now.This questionnaire was originally intended for only female viewpoints on gender bias in the gaming community and industry, but two males insisted they be allowed to fill out the questionnaire as well. I did not have enough copies for all participants at the location (it was a much larger turnout than I expected). n future samplings I will try to encourage ALL participants available to complete the questionnaire. Though the focus of this study is more about the female perception of gender bias, it will be interesting to compare and contrast the male gamer perspective on the same questionnaire.

I haven't compiled the ages or zip code information yet.

Since this study was specifically about the female perspective on gender bias in the community, I specifically targeted female gamers.

The survey was designed to be as short as possible, since everyone was in the middle of gaming, otherwise I would have had very few respondents.

They were informed up front about the topic (so that I meet ethics requirements), the level of confidentiality of personal information while the aggregate publishing of data.

Every attempt was made to keep the conversation prior to questionnaire completion as short and succinct as possible..

Those that indicated they are willing to be included in future studies can be included in much more detailed, larger scale, longer questionnaires, with much better controls.

Though there are always more ideal approaches to try to increase "blindness" and controls in any study, for now, since I am the only person doing this, and it is challenging enough to find female gamers, this particular study is intentionally targeted towards finding female gamers specifically to answer their feelings on the level of gender bias in the gaming community.

The only reason 2 men completed the form, was because they approached me asking if they could do so.

Though I did not list "other" in the report (because it was zero), the questionnaire did have an other option included for gender..

http://www.rpgresearch.com - RPG Research - Today I was at the hobby store Gamers Haven - http://www.thegamershaven.net - in Spokane Valley Washington. Previously the store was located in Post Falls Idaho. The results from this questionnaire at the facilities will be posted on the website shortly. There were approximately 50 gamers total in attendance. All but one of the female gamers asked to fill out the questionnaire, said yes to filling out the questionnaire. The data is now being entered, and should be available on the RPG Research website in a few hours.

Also comments on social stigma towards gamer, some history on that topic (he has written a number of essays on this specific topic, available on the website), and a challenge to others to take action locally to attempt to undo the fear and ignorance caused by the media and the special interest groups spreading misinformation and disinformation about D&D and role-playing games.

Some relevant articles and links:

Video of Recent Pat Robertson Comments Against D&D on 700 Club -

The Christian Gamers Guild - http://christian-gamers-guild.org/faq.html

The Defamation of Role-playing Games and Gamers - http://rpgresearch.com/documents/rpg-research-documents/RPGR-A003-The-Defamation-of-Role-playing-Games-and-Gamers-Orig-20081120a-Ver2-20081206a-Ver3-20111209a.pdf/view

Personalities and Alienation of Dungeons & Dragons Game Players - Long Commentary Version - http://rpgresearch.com/documents/rpg-research-documents/RPGR-A005-Personalities-and-Alienation-of-Dungeons-and-Dragons-Game-Players-long-commentary-version-Ver-2-20111209c.pdf/view

Here is the new location for the video: http://www.youtube.com/rpgresearch

or the direct video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8VZe5PlvEE

What are your thoughts on these comments?

There are some numbers available, but unfortunately it is very difficult to pin
down the number of role-playing gamers and games because there are now so many independent publishers and because Wizards of the Coast (D&D) tends not to publish their market data.

Here are some links that can give you a very rough estimate, but I would
round up a few million players just in the USA alone, and at least several hundred games because of self-publishing, and kickstarter-based (and similarly crowd-sourced) projects.

Relative reports are available, but absolute numbers are very tricky.

A lot of non-D&D-based games have significantly simplified their combat
systems to speed up, or reduce emphasis on combat.

Our focus is primarily on the educational and therapeutic aspects of RPG's, we do try to keep somewhat abreast of the market as best as possible, though we do not yet have any "insider" information. Hopefully these help:


2004 - http://rpgr.org/news/bbc-what-happend-dungeons-dragons

2010 - http://rpgr.org/news/rpg-sales-up-video-games-down-in-2010

2011 - http://rpgr.org/news/hobby-games-up-again-2011

2012 - http://rpgr.org/news/hobby-games-up-third-year-in-a-row-2012

October 2012 - http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/24061.html

December 2012 - http://rpgr.org/news/scott-thorne-on-future-of-rpg

January 2013 on Hasbro cuts - http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/24939.html

While trends are down in a number of areas (toys, videogames, etc.) boardgames and hobby games appear to continue to be trending up (maybe for the fourth year in a row?). Though Hasbro is struggling, because D&D 4 has been such a disaster (Pathfinder has dominated the D&D market), D&D Next/5 will possibly be a make or break for the future of D&D, while RPG's become increasingly more independent and scattered

There is a lot of extrapolation necessary, but that should be helpful.

Sincerely,

------
-Hawke Robinson

About Hawke Robinson related to RPG Research: http://rpgr.org/staff/hawke-robinson

Role-playing gamer since 1979.
Game master since 1984.
In training as recreation therapist, music therapist, and research psychologist.
Retired computer scientist.

The RPG Research Project
Research Facilities & Mailing Address
http://www.rpgr.org
(509) 252-0800
1312 N. Monroe Suite 114
Spokane, WA
99218

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/rpgresearch

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rpgresearch
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpgresearch
Skype: dev2devportal

Mission: Clearly establish through rigorous scientific
testing the causal therapeutic and educational impact
of role-playing gaming on participants.

"Holistic medicine treats the person rather than the disease,
its concern lies with the 'whole person' and with permitting
individuals to assume self-responsibility for their own health.
Whereas illness is the sole concern of 'traditional medicine',
holistic 'well medicine' deals with wellness and health promotion"

Your comments are most welcomed.

http://www.gamermessage.com/2013/02/22/why-gaming-matters/

As full disclosure, my major is recreation therapy (with research psychology emphasis) so I am very interested in issues related to recreational activities and games related to impact on quality of life. I also received the link to this article because of my involvement with the CAR-PGa (Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games) http://www.car-pga.org and the RPG Research Project: http://www.rpgresearch.com (studies on the educational and therapeutic aspects of role-playing games (tabletop, live-action, and computer-based).

While the author of that article takes the perspective that men are protective of games, and do not want women (generally) to participate, I'm not so sure about this in the tabletop RPG context. This is an area I have had trouble finding research information about because it triggers a lot of political correctness issues that makes it difficult to discuss in relatively uncontrolled public fora. For example, I tried running polls on the RPG.net site about how many women play tabletop RPG's, and the rpg.net folks quickly locked the polls as part of their list of topics never to discuss, because people started getting into discussions about transgender, gender identity, etc. Every public site I have tried to find information about the current ratio of female:male in tabletop and live-action RPG's has had the same reaction. Computer-based/online RPG's are less problematic since those industries have a lot of demographics information at their disposal. There have not been any official, properly controlled scientific studies performed (yet, that I know of) regarding gender ratio in tabletop or live-action role-playing games. This is the closest I can find currently: http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/theory/gender/disparity.html .So I can only really base these ideas on anecdotal experiences of my own, and those willing to discuss the topic. If anyone knows of a reliable source that would have useful information, suggestions are very much welcomed.

I have been involved with RPG's on and off since 1979. I do not recall anyone in any of the groups I gamed with stating, or behaving in any obvious way that indicated to me, that we did not want female participants in the groups. That being said, the observed ratio has continued to be around 4:1 or 5:1 male:female  over the past 34 years. Sometimes I managed to get a group with 2-3 female gamers, but that has been extremely rare. And usually there was only a female member because she was the girlfriend/wife of one of the male gamers. Currently I am running 3 groups. 1 online with 1 female player and 4 male, another at home with (the same) female player and 5 male, and a third at the RPG Research office as a preliminary observation group that has zero female players. During the search for participants for the third group, only 1 woman applied, while nearly 20 men applied. She was in the end unable to participate due to scheduling issues.

I have always been puzzled by this ongoing imbalance. In discussions, people have claimed "RPG's just aren't interesting to women, because it is not the kind of activity they enjoy". This sounds like ongoing stereotyping to me. Most of the female gamers that I have spoken with, enjoy RPG just as much as any of the male gamers.

I will make the following statement with hesitancy due to the risk of stereo-typing; the main difference the female gamers did point out however, was that they preferred campaigns (the world and setting and style of the RPG) that involved a lot more social dynamics and ROLE-playing (detailed character backgrounds, complex social interactions between player characters and non-player characters, etc.) over ROLL-playing (statistical number crunching, hack and slash combat, divvying up loot, etc.).  I generally prefer the ROLE aspect over ROLL myself as well, and run games with the ROLE-playing emphasis.

There is also of course the stereotyping (proven false through real research) about all RPGers (role-playing gamers) being socially inept, anti-social, suicidal, homicidal, occultists, freaks, etc.

Plenty of research in the 1980's and early 1990's disproves all of the negative stereotypes about RPGers. Since tabletop RPG's are by nature a completely social activity, it requires strong social skill development in order for it to work effectively and be fun for all. In fact the research showed that RPGers were either within the "normal" range, or else exceptional ranges for their population group. For example the suicide rate in a (meta-analysis) study indicated that RPGers had 1/5th to 1/10th the suicide rate of the same age groups in the US (http://rpgresearch.com/documents/rpg-research-documents/web-version/potential-benefits-of-rpgs ).

I am attempting to develop research that tries to determine causality. Are people with strong social and problem solving skills drawn to RPG's because it lets them exercise these skills effectively? Or is there something else about RPG's that draws them to the game (favorite books, movie, tv series, etc.), and then BECAUSE of the game they develop strong social and problem-solving skills? There have been many correlative and meta-analysis studies on the topic, but next to nothing on causal relationships in controlled, large scale, longitudinal studies.

Again from a purely anecdotal observation, in the early 1980s it seemed there were a lot more female gaming groups than in the latter '80s, 1990s and 2000s. In the 2010s it seems even fewer female tabletop gamers, but a lot more computer-based and live-action role-playing gamers are female.

While videos games in the '80s and '90s were predominantly male-dominated, the video gaming industry reports increasing balance between male and female gamers:

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/women-comprise-40-of-us-gamers-26-of-whom-are-over-age-50-5327/ (a 2008 report)The question still remains, why do there seem to be so few women involved with tabletop role-playing games?

There are millions of role-playing gamers in the US, and millions more around the world (though nothing like the peak in the '80s around 20-30 million players/consumers per year in the US).

Are male gamers actually (as the article at the beginning of those post suggestions) being resistant to allowing female gamers and driving them away?

Or is there something about RPG's that is just a "turn off" for women to even consider trying them?

Does all the false stereotyping by the media and the general public about gamers keep women from even considering this cooperative, social, shared narrative, recreational activity?

It seems fairly obvious that women do experience significant gender-bias in mainstream sports settings, (and video game settings?), but what about other gaming venues like tabletop RPG and live-action RPG?

Have you seen or experienced incidents of gender bias in various (non-sports) game settings?

Significant networking accomplished, and expect a lot of momentum to begin from further dialog with some of the contacts made.

Mentor is going to see about arranging potential discussions and potential use of RPG for TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) patients and other client populations, will see how that develops over time.

Very positive and productive experience!

The lengthy hypothesis is listed on the front page of the RPG Research website http://www.rpgresearch.com in detail regarding the potential therapeutic and educational benefits of participation in tabletop RPG's.

A blog of the adventure is posted on the Spokane RPG website: http://spokanerpg.com/forum/rpg-group-discussions/456025782

The short version is the question, Does participation in the recreational activity known as role-playing gaming have measurable short and/or long term effects on participants? Can causality be established? If so, can RPG's be modified for use as a controlled specific therapeutic treatment from the Recreation Therapy perspective/discipline? Initially I am focusing on tabletop RPGs, but over time will include live-action, computer-based, and other formats.

This first preliminary observation group doesn't really address those overarching issues directly, the preliminary aspect is referring to just working out the administrative process for bringing complete strangers to the tabletop RPG sessions in an office/facilities setting (rather than a game store, or someone's home), and dialing in the variables of the environment conducive to participation. This was initially with experienced role-playing gamers, but over time I hope to achieve the same with those that have never participated in RPGing previously.

Initial Setup

I arranged for facilities that balance the friendly environment of a home settings, though in an office building, so as not to be too austere (like a plain office or medical setting), while still having a more "professional" setting.

I experimented with using Meetup.com to find gamers (posting in January), and this is where most of the participants were found, though two walked up when we had our first session at Merlyn's (those were the two I later had to encourage to leave), and another joined on the second session. It took several weeks to get enough people with coordinated schedules to arrange the first session. 9 people said they would be there, only 5 showed up.  Last week the third that joined on location during the second session at Merlyn's contacted me to indicate his wife, schedule, and health prevented him from continuing, so we are now back to a more reasonable size of 5 players (not counting the GM).

I have had to develop a number of documents including "Participant Code of Conduct", Contact Information/Emergency Information, very short questionnaires about Length of time involved in RPG, age, zip code, etc These are generally not necessarily things I would do (other than basic contact information and discussion) with a "normal" TRPG group.

When the group was so large, I was planning to implement the use of 30-60 second sand timers (mini-hour glass) to keep the game play flowing quickly enough, and I am still holding those in reserve if game play is slow during combat or other settings.

Unfortunately I also had to "encourage" two participants to leave since this was not a therapeutic group, and these two showed signs of significant emotional and cognitive impairments observed that were very disruptive.

Goals

This is all in preparation for the first full observation groups that will actually fill out IQ, personality, mood, demographics, and other information as a baseline, then they will participate in RPG once per week for 8-12 weeks (will try longer and shorter periods over time), for about 1-8 hours per session (will try various time periods as well, this is just a starting range), fill out short pre-and-post-game questionnaires each week, and then take the full battery of tests again for any potential differences noted. This will still NOT be therapeutic groups, so participants that have very disruptive behavior will unfortunately not be included in early studies. I will have to keep those people in reserve for later when I have achieved the necessary degrees, certifications, and licensing necessary. For now these studies are purely observational.

Before undertaking those more detailed studies, II wanted to start with fundamentals of the most basic level of organizing these groups, the tools to use for finding players, the level they would tolerate regarding observation, game session frequency and duration, etc.

For example, I am currently GMing 3 groups, only one of which is "observational" in a loose sense, while the other two I am not undertaking any of those tools (questionnaires, etc.) To my surprise, all 3 groups have been okay with my recording the entire sessions on video and audio. 1 group is my homebrew "World of Beru" campaign, another is Tolkien-based TOR RPG (The One Ring Role-playing Game) by Cubicle 7.

This has been done via a laptop set at the side of the room. I have not observed any behavioral differences between the sessions that were not recorded, and those that the participants agreed to the recordings.  I thought I would have some push back, or at least noticeable behavioral differences from this aspect.

I am also attempting to determine the minimum amount of time each session can be, and still seem to be rewarding enough to the participants (achieve state of "flow"), that they still wish to continue with the sessions.

I have started out with this group at 4 hours. Typically it takes about 30-45 minutes for everyone to show up, shoot the breeze, etc. Gathering/start time is 6:00 pm each week. During the previous sessions, folks were fine with wrapping up at 10:00 pm, however last night, since things were really on a roll, they begged for more time. One player wanted to stay later, but could only stretch it to 10:30.  I hope over time to try to trim this down to 2-3 hours (would 1 hour even work for anyone?), but I don't know that this group will tolerate such short sessions.

So these are the fundamentals I am attempting to address, before I start to really target the more therapeutically-related aspects.

I will generally be approaching from a Therapeutic Recreation perspective by the way.

I hope to have the first "real" full observation group by early summer. I have about 30 people signed up so far, now I'm trying to work out their schedules and demographics (mostly age), to form actual groups. I am attempting  to get those that have not gamed before, that I think will show the most noticeable effects (if any) between the baseline, and exit tests.

Setting & Game System

For the setting, I am currently using a Tolkien-based setting in the Second Age of Middle Earth, S.A. 1198. The core adventure begins on the peninsula of Andrast, based on adventured I wrote for MerpCon/Tolkien Moot 2007 "The Gift Bearers of Numenor". Since it is difficult to find players that like TOR RPG, MERP/RM, and other less "main stream" game systems, I am using the Ea d20 3.5 RPG - http://www.earpg.com  as the lingua franca of RPG systems.

When I am ready for the full research study groups, I will probably (to avoid any copyright, trademark, licensing costs, or other annoying intellectual property issues), use my own RPG system (Ea RPGS, different than Ea d20), in a campaign location that is free of trademarks and copyrights, but accessible to people in general (Robin Hood, Shakespearean, Arthurian, Greek Mythology, etc.).

Details currently lacking, hopefully he'll agree to an interview, and can get more details to folks soon. Stay tuned....

Population type: Bipolar clients currently treated by medication and other support, that will participate in tabletop role-playing gaming as the core recreational activity.
Focus on using Role-playing games as core activity, since this is an exceptionally strong tool for working on interpersonal interactions.

Forming Relationships

Need to find others with the same interests. For example other Role-playing gamers interested in tabletop RPG. Let’s say they are all known to be diagnosed with bi-polar of one type or another.

The clients are all being treated, but still need to improve some of their social interaction skills. Through the game hoping to develop skills to self-regulate when around others, whether in a manic swing or down swing. Even if on medication these swings can still exist to a lesser degree, the medications may minimize the swings from being harmfully extreme, but the clients may still have smaller swings that may not get them fired from a job, but may make it difficult to maintain long term friendships/relationships because of inappropriate interactions when on a high or low end of a swing.

The participants also may need to be interested in the same game systems, and often the same game settings, genres such as science fiction versus fantasy, mystery versus horror, etc. as well as sometimes specific campaign settings, for example Arthurian versus Star Wars, or Mystery! versus Call of Cthulhu or Supernatural.

Though not required to have identical interests, the more similarities the participants share, the better chance for a stronger connection with the others, and more likely to be tolerant of the others in the interest of continuing the game sessions. You probably do not want several players that love sci-fi but hate fantasy, and then a few other players that feel the inverse. In such a case, might want to go with a more neutral setting, lets say they all have some enjoyment of Westerns, so use that as the common ground for the setting instead.

The participants need to overcome the initial awkwardness of properly greeting initially complete strangers, but that fortunately have at least the common interest of the game.

Regulating Behaviors Within Interactions

Over time as they get to know each other at game sessions, even at the beginning, in a group of participants there can be VERY strong personality differences that need to be worked with. Some will have more overbearing or argumentative interests, while others will have more reserved or passive approaches. Each participant will have to work out what is the correct way to approach the other participants in a way that will be conducive to the glow of the activity, rather than interrupt and distract from the flow.

Some members of the group may be experiencing a minor downswing, while others on the upswing. Understanding about the others being in a different place, and being tolerant and patient with the other in waiting for decisions and responses. Or if one is more up, and being impulsive at the risk of the imaginary adventuring group, the other group members knowing how to help dissuade that player/character from acting on the impulse, and listening to the others, in a way that doesn’t make the player defensive.

Terminating Relationships

Every group has participants come and go over time. Some times there is a pre-planned end determined in advance for everyone, or specific individuals, sometimes other reasons lead to the need for participants to leave. Or if the group is completely voluntary, a participant may decide that this particular activity or group just isn’t their “cup of tea”. They need to know how to considerately express their desire to leave, or their reasons why they are considering leaving. If they decide to leave, doing so in a congenial fashion, and not in a “flaming out” way by making a scene, or sending mass flame mail, etc.

Chose to consider a completely blind client's participation in the leisure activity of tabletop role-playing gaming with other people

around a table at a non-care-provider's home.

For this hypothetical scenario, the client has total visual impairment (b210.4) “total blindness”

due to TBI of the occipital lobe (s11993).

Within a structured facility or at home, the client is able to

perform very well overall without assistance from other people through the use of various adaptations,

modifications, training, tools, and technologies (Performance: 1), but is severely challenged without

these aides (Performance: 3). Of course tasks such as driving (d475.4) are not possible.

Other than transportation to areas outside of public transit (d4702.1414), client does not

generally need assistance from other people, but does have complete dependence on the

assistance from visual-impairment aiding devices (braille, text-to-voice devices, walking cane, etc.).



Without these devices or aide from people, client is severely limited in many activities,

including the proposed tabletop RPG (2nd qualifier: 3 – Severe).

With the assistance of devices, client is almost able to perform all functions normally, just mild

difficulty (3rd qualifier: 1). This is mostly due to client still adjusting to state of visual impairment and still

developing the skills necessary, but getting closer to 0 difficulty.

Without people to assist, the client has little trouble if able to use assisting devices (4th qualifier:1),

but if unable to use assisting devices, then client will have severe difficulty accomplishing the task

(4th qualifier: 3)

Implementing overall ratings as per recommendation to use the higher (more difficulty performing the task) rating over the lower or average.

So, overall coding and rating: b210.4

Total blindness due to (s11993) occipital lobe structural damage.

Performance in tabletop RPG activity rating: d9200.1313

Participation in a tabletop role-playing gaming group as a player for recreation rather than

specific therapy: D920 Recreation & Leisure - d9200 Play - “Engaging in games with rules.... such as

playing chess or cards...”

While RPG could also be placed under Community Life because there are many formalized

RPG clubs, meetings, and conventions, the most common, and more casual form is a group of players

that regularly meet, typically once per week for several hours at a participants home for a tabletop

role-playing game session. This is structured play.



Accommodations/Modifications

The the client has complete visual impairment (4), the client will need braille versions of the

rulebook(s) for the game system, and some means of keeping track of the character's statistical

information, and any notes the player/client may want to keep as the adventure progresses (maybe a

digital voice recorder with a headphone so the client/player can play back verbal notes to self as needed,

without disturbing the rest of the group to do so).

Use of electronic dice that have an auditory ability to indicate the result of a roll. Alternatively

many apps on smart phones and PC's are available that can electronically represent random dice

results, then the app just needs to have a text-to-voice component for the visually impaired participant.

Failing that, the client is dependent on the other players and/or Game Master to verbally indicate the

result from the client rolling the dice on the table.

Since the rest of the game play is primarily auditory, other modifications are not necessary for

complete unimpaired performance in the game.

Status update. Ea d20 RPG group #4, new group formation trying out using meetup.com.

Forming Cubicle 7 The One Ring RPG (TOR) group beginning in March.

Continuing World of Beru RPG Campaign, just finished session #6.
Began, and progressing with Role-playing Gaming Therapeutic Recreation Handbook of Practice (more details and draft of book on RPG Research website).
Request for feedback from care givers that are also role-playing gamers, about your thoughts using Tabletop RPG, Live Action RPG (LARP), and/or computer games for different client needs.

Discuss hypothetical use of RPG heavily modified for someone with TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) or other cause leading to coma, but beginning to recover, possible (hypothetical) modifications that might make it still applicable even in severely disabled instances.
I look forward to folks friendly, constructive, feedback.

I'll try to update a little more frequently here, and of course subscribe to the blog postings on the RPG Research website.

Until next time, keep those dice a'rollin'!