Major Project Workplace and Disability Game: A Riff Off of Dungeons and Dragons Game

Workplace and Disability Game: A Riff Off of Dungeons and Dragons Game

By Amanda Smith & Ben Fancher

Our project is based off of the tabletop-paper-and-dice game “Dungeons and Dragons.” The concept of the game is to roll a number to successfully perform an action that will benefit them to “survive” throughout the campaign (story plot). Characters will have modifiers that will make the rolled number go up or down depending on their skills, physical appearance, mental and social capabilities. To depicted this game into a disability lens, our four characters that will be played will vary in certain abilities, that will be observed through their skills. Our first character is Victor Frankenstein, based off of Mary Shelley’s main character of her novel, Frankenstein. He will depict an straight, white, abled-bodied, wealthy, and education male. Victor is not disabled, and will have a great advantage over all the other characters throughout the game’s campaign. Our next character is Tom Robinson, he is a supporting character in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. Tom represents an uneducated, black-male with a shriveled left arm (from his cotton gin accident). Tom will be disadvantaged against Victor because of his race, education, and disability. Our third character is Arthur “Boo” Radley, also a supporting character in Harper Lee’s novel. Arthur is a white male that is mentally disabled with an assumed diagnosis of autism and agoraphobia. With these, Arthur will be extremely disadvantaged from Victor and Tom with certain skills. The fourth character, is The Mermaid from the Oscar Wilde’s short story, The Fisherman and His Soul. The Mermaid is a foreign female character that does not have legs and cannot walk. The Mermaid in this campaign is heavily disabled character compared to the others character because of her impairments. All our characters will be doing a campaign that will resemble every character going to their first day of work to the same office to complete the same task, their ultimate goal is to get through the day and get money. By creating these disabled characters and this campaign, our goal is for players to realize some characters will be more advantaged than others and will succeed more easily in skills to succeed in the workplace. It is possible for all characters to finish a day at work,  but for some characters the task will come easier. Throughout this semester in Disability in Literature we have learned that the abled-bodied straight, white, educated male from a wealthy family will have far easier time succeeding in the workplace than other characters who might be just as if not capable to do the job. The only thing that is holding them back is their impairments or disabilities.

Campaign Map: Newspaper Office

-Editor in Chief office

-Stairs to front

-Ramp on side

-Individual desks

-Cooperative group (desk of three)

-Conference room

-Bathroom

-Waiting area (three chairs)

Character Sheets

Campaign Outline

  1. All characters arrive to work at DisLit Times, the self-proclaimed newspaper for teens, tweens, and everything in betweens.  
    1. Characters all arrive at 8 a.m. for their first day. DisLit Times recently had a massive set of layoffs and they need new employees
      1. Introduce the players, have them introduce themselves to each other too
    2. The new Editor-in-Chief: Tom Robinson, the kindest and best man in all of Maycomb county. Recently moved to Fredericksburg, VA, with his family for this new job opportunity. Is optimistic.
    3. The new Health Editor: Victor Frankenstein. Victor left his life in Europe after a number of failed scientific experiments which he refuses to talk about. Is prepared to share his wealth of knowledge of the human body and its needs with the readers of DisLit Times
    4. The new Advice Columnist: Arthur Radley. Arthur’s life has been spent observing people and their troubles, so he is extremely prepared for his new job as the anonymous writer of the “Dear Boo…” advice column. He works from home, but, despite his protests, has to come in today for orientation and to sign some papers.
    5. The new Horoscope Writer: The Mermaid (the one from The Fisherman and His Soul). A life spent musing on life and love has turned the mermaid into the perfect horoscope writer. She is unable to work out of the water, however, so the Fisherman built her a mobile tank to enable her to go to the office and work. The Fisherman moves her around in her tank until they are able to devise a way to make the tank self-propelling in a way that doesn’t combine water and electricity in a harmful way.
  2. Characters roll a perception check as they stand at the front of the building
    1. Looking to beat a 5
    2. If characters succeed in the roll, they notice that the only way up to the front door of the building housing the DisLit Times’ small office is a staircase
      1. This is fine for everyone except the mermaid, who must try and see if there is any other way into the building
      2. Mermaid must roll investigation, looking to beat a 10
      3. If successful, the player sees that there is a ramp on the left side of the building, leading up to another entrance.
      4. If unsuccessful, other players can roll for the same check, assuming that they are polite and not, you know, unempathetic monsters.
      5. Mermaid (propelled by the Fisherman) goes to the side entrance and goes up the ramp and goes inside, while the other players go up the stairs to the front entrance
    3. Describe the Office
      1. Once inside the front entrance, Tom, Victor, and Arthur see the receptionist, Becky.
        1. Ask if they wait for the Mermaid
          1. If they don’t, start the interaction with Becky
          2. If yes, then have the Mermaid head to the front with the others
  3. Interaction with Becky begins
    1. Ask if anyone wants to approach the receptionist, who is ignoring the group of them
    2. Whoever wants to approach starts a dialogue with Becky. Becky reacts like a deer in the headlights if anyone except
    3. During the dialogue, have the characters all roll Constitution saving throws to avoid Becky’s offensive comments.
      1. Victor has to beat a 5. If he doesn’t beat it, he gets asked if he’s sick, since Victor is kind of wiry and pale (because, you know, anxiety) but if he beats it he gets asked if he is the new Editor-in-chief. Becky is very respectful and formal with him, but seems almost nervous about having to talk to the others.
      2. Tom rolls, and has to beat an 18 to avoid hearing Becky say “Oh I heard we were hiring a cripple, are you going to be working in the warehouse? The foreman can give you a tour of the warehouse, you don’t really have to come up here that much.” If Tom rolls high enough, Becky simply asks him to introduce himself to her.
      3. The Mermaid rolls and has to beat a 19. If she doesn’t Becky looks confused and asks the fisherman if this is some sort of new art exhibit that he is delivering? If the roll is successful, she simply introduces herself too and expresses concern that the office isn’t really designed to have a tank wheeled around in it.
      4. Arthur has to beat a 17. If unsuccessful, Becky speaks to him, which is bad enough, but also she inquires about his health, saying that he looks so pale. Probably would call him a pencil or something. If he beats a 17, she remembers seeing in one of the papers that the new advice columnist had severe agoraphobia and would most likely not want to do a lot of talking, and says hello.
  4. After this, the characters roll initiative. This decides what order they are shown around the office. The characters’ respective trips through the office are outlined below
    1. Before all this, Becky calls the various people who are showing the characters around the office to the reception desk
    2. Tom
      1. Shown around the office by Becky. She takes him into the bullpen and to the conference room and finally to his office. Once in the office, Becky begins asking probing questions about his injury: “Does it hurt”, “how did it happen” “Can I see it?” (Unless he rolls another +19 constitution saving throw)
    3. Arthur
      1. Shown around by the Style Editor, Gerald. Gerald is pretentious, rude, and judgemental. Unless Arthur beats a 19 saving throw, Gerald will march him through the office and ask Arthur what’s the matter with him, why is he so quiet, he should speak up if he’s a real man, all that nonsense.
    4. Victor
      1. Shown around by Susan, a columnist for the health section. Victor needs to roll a Charisma check and beat Susan’s modifier of 9. If he does, then Susan is absolutely charmed by him and is just so friendly and welcoming. If he doesn’t, then she is just professional.
    5. Mermaid
      1. She is shown around by the Style Editor, Thomas, who sort of doesn’t know what to do with her, since the tank can’t really be pushed around the office completely safely. (character will do various Dexterity checks to see whether or not the tank is able to get through the office without bumping into anything). Thomas is quiet and polite and helps the Mermaid as much as he can. If the Mermaid succeeds on a Charisma persuasion check of 17, Thomas tells her about how, when he was younger, he had braces on his legs to straighten them out, so he knows how hard it is to get around.
    6. After the four characters are shown around, they are given their paperwork to sign. While the characters sign paperwork at their desks (Tom in his office, Victor at an Editor’s desk, The Mermaid and Arthur in the conference room) the have to do Charisma Intimidation checks to see if Susan and Gerald are going to come up and bother them or not. Victor has to beat a 7, everyone else tries to beat a 15.
  5. Once all the paperwork is done, everyone can give it to Becky to send to HR. All of our characters are now free to get to work.

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