Episode 4: Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Welcome to Episode 4 of the Drumbeat Autism Outreach Podcast. In this episode we explore tabletop role playing games, and why they might be both appealing and potentially also beneficial to some autistic people. In this episode we welcome our special guest, Emme Watkins, who joins us all the way from LA!  We want to assure you that no prior knowledge of tabletop role-playing games is required in order for you to gain something from this episode - in fact to the contrary we hope that this episode will be an introduction to listeners who know nothing of this particular subject. We feel that whilst the subject itself is quite niche, our discussion covers some very universal ideas around autism which include ideas around roleplaying, structured social time, the comfort of rules, storytelling and of course special interests and the communities around them. This episode kicks of with a conversation where I explain to podcast regular Pete my reasons for wanting to do a whole episode about TTRPGs.  We assume that most listeners, like Pete, know absolutely nothing at all about this subject, so fear not, the first section will hopefully give you a little bit of a sense of what it is all about! Following that, you will hear our interview with Emme Watkins. Emme is an autistic tabletop role playing gamer who is part of a group called the “Adventures Pack” who produce a bunch of online content relating to both Dungeons and Dragons and TTRPGs in general. Emme agreed to talk Pete and I about her own experiences and explore some of the connections between tabletop roleplaying games and autism.