This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Calgary organization is testing a new program that uses Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop role-playing games in a group therapy setting.
D&D has seen a resurgence in popularity, and has been depicted in television shows and movies like Stranger Things and this year’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
At Simon Fraser University in B.C., David Lindskoog, a registered clinical counsellor, uses D&D in group therapy sessions mostly with students who are experiencing social anxiety.
Megan Ann Connell, a psychologist who uses Dungeons and Dragons as part of her practice and wrote a book on tabletop role-playing therapy, started playing the game in middle school.
Connell, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, said she took a long hiatus from the game but fell in love with it again after becoming a trained psychologist.
Connell said that in the early 1980s, there were a number of therapists and school counsellors who started to notice that tabletop role-playing games were helpful to their students and their clients.
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Ngl, I feel like there are better TTRPGs for this particular application, but either way roleplay is a great outlet for therapy.
Yeah something lighter on rules and RNG would probably be more helpful. It might be difficult to conquer social anxiety for example when you need to roll charisma to make people like you.
As bionicjoey said, something more rules-light, and I would add: less focused on combat. Of course, not all D&D encounters need to be combat-focused, but that’s where most of the rules lie.
Another concern would be theme, so something like Blades in the Dark or Candela Obscura would probably make a poor choice, despite being rules-light, story focused games.
Savage Worlds is a bit simpler, with a generally empowering tone. Or perhaps Mouse Guard, for a more cozy theme.
Honestly, for a patient with no experience with RPGs at all, I would argue for a very simple “just roll dice and see if you succeed” non-system. Though I can’t deny there are potential social benefits to learning D&D specifically, if that’s the goal.
I’m not an expert on Psychology nor TTRPGs, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Reccomendable played games in unsorted order:
- Arkham Horror: The Card Game
- Quest For El Dorado
- Bullet♥︎ [VSHMUP]
- Between Two Cities
- The Crew: The Quest For Planet Nine + The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
- Hive
- GIPF Project [GIPF, ZÈRTZ, DVONN]
- Cascadia
- Century Spice Road
IntoWelcome to the Dungeon- Cochroach Poker + Cochroach Poker Royal
- Mysterium
- Slay the Spire Boardgame Edition
- Splendor
- Codenames
Hopefully I’ll be able to do more boardgame nights during the break, if so I’ll revise this list
