Whether in a classroom, a friend-filled apartment, or a neighborhood game shop, tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) bring gamers together to create adventure-filled worlds and characters to explore them. Ruled by grit, teamwork, and a bit of luck, TTRPGs are, in theory, a dynamic activity for friend groups. But the TTRPG space hasn’t historically been welcoming to everyone.
Orion Black, creative director for Dimension 20, got into TTRPGs as a high schooler. “I had a crush on a girl and she wanted to play,” Black says.
Black played one-on-one games with that girl in an empty classroom but wanted to keep playing and sought out new spaces to play in.
Black’s early experience was largely at the house of a teacher who had three white sons. Black says being the only Black person and the only nonbinary person at the table was challenging. Black says there wasn’t a lot of overt racism, but one intentionally racist comment caused them to walk away from the table, although they ended up coming back.
“When you're the only place in town that has D&D, you gotta make up and come back and just hope that their parents straighten them out and you keep moving because the resources aren’t there,” Black says.
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Sign up for our Games newsletter and never miss our latest gaming tips, reviews, and features.Black’s introduction to tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons as white, male-dominated spaces isn’t unique. But Black is one of many creators reshaping those games and the spaces where people play them into safer, more inclusive places that better represent the genre’s growing, diverse audience and are more welcoming to people who want to learn to play.
The rise of actual play shows like Dimension 20 and Critical Role—in which casts play D&D on camera in real time—and related podcasts means more people have been introduced to games they may not have thought were for them.
Aabria Iyengar took the stage this summer as the Game Master of both Critical Role and Dimension 20 and has worked hard to create a safe and inclusive space for everyone who sits down to play at her table.
