Creativity on the Spectrum: Perspectives from Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Author
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2022
Submitted on
2022-11-03
Pages
55
Abstract
An autism diagnosis is accompanied by several assumptions about the person being diagnosed. Their behaviour, understanding of the world, capacity for creative thinking and social interaction all come under increasing scrutiny, explained as major pathological deficiencies. This project aims to illustrate, instead, that people on the autism spectrum possess a capacity for creative expression and are able to develop their social competencies. The project uses the medium of tabletop role-playing games (tabletop RPGs) to illustrate the concept of distributed creativity, and uses the groups that form around tabletop RPGs as examples of social frameworks in which people on the autism spectrum are capable of more complex social interaction than they may be capable of in their everyday lives. The data consists of an autoethnographic account of the author’s own experiences with tabletop RPGs, supplemented by two interviews conducted in a participatory action research frame-work. This data is then discussed alongside other research contributions from the study of tabletop RPGs to discuss potential ways in which tabletop RPGs can contribute to the creative and social development of people on the autism spectrum.
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