Roll For Therapy!

Central Coast Game Community

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Nov 02, 2022

Remember remember, the fifth of November

November 5th is a big day, PolyCon is holding Fall Minicon from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. in UU 200, Lompoc has it’s first in-person D&D at South Side Coffee Co. (more below), and Comic Con International tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. though you should queue in their virtual waiting room beforehand.

We have two new writing collaborators this month, welcome Brittany and Jamie. Here is your monthly dose of Central Coast D&D.

Rumors From The Barkeep

Rehabilitative Dungeons & Dragons

This week I spoke with Sara Carroll, a Rehabilitation Specialist at Transitions-Mental Health Association (T-MHA or “Tee-Mah”), which provides mental health support in San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria. I reached out to her after learning of an exciting project she is working on over at T-MHA, using D&D in a group counseling session to teach skills that will help rehabilitate participants with debilitating mental illnesses.

We had an intriguing conversation about skill building and rehabilitating learned helplessness, and although I couldn’t possibly cover it in its entirety here, because we spoke for nearly an hour, I’d love to share the highlights.

Chay: “I wanted to start by saying that I have a lot of respect for what T-MHA does. I have a mental illness myself, and have close family members that do as well, including my son. And I understand that most of the people that work at T-MHA have a really intimate relationship with mental illness in their personal lives”

Sara: “Well I do. It’s more common in the mental health industry in large.”

Chay: “I heard about the program you were starting at T-MHA and my mind was kind of blown. I knew that D&D was being used in therapy, but I didn’t think it was being used here in Santa Maria. When did you first consider D&D as a tool for therapy?”

Sara: “Well, I’m not a social worker, and I’m not licensed to do therapy, but there is a difference between a therapy service, and a rehabilitative service. There are people out there that are absolutely using D&D for therapy, and I think that, that’s great, because it can be used for different things like exposure therapy or addressing triggers or specific traumas in their past; I’m focused on skill building. The population that we work with at supportive community services is primarily individuals with severe persistent mental illness; this is a form of depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia that is not going away. And, some of their biggest struggles are communication skills, things like active listening; they struggle with things like poor memory and difficulty concentrating; budgeting, time management, you know, their socials skills are all usually compromised or impaired in some way.

Chay: “So are these people that have been through several other programs by now?”

Sara: “Yes, we are not the first line of defence with mental health. In Santa Maria there are three levels of outpatient programs.”

Chay: “What sorts of clients do you think would benefit from a program like this, and are there any clients that you think wouldn’t benefit from rehabilitative D&D?

Sara: “I think the clients who are, taking their medications, and not in the sense that they have to take every single thing that is prescribed, but they are working with the doctor to find the right medication, because, therapy can only go so far when you have a chemical imbalance in your brain. There’s got to be the chemical aspect that’s getting corrected, but I think that anyone who really wants more but doesn’t know how to start, if they want something different in their life, they want to be more fulfilled in their life but they don’t know how to start, I think those are great candidates.

One of the biggest negative symptoms, which is a symptom that is not necessarily easily observed that clients observe, is called abolition; that feeling that you just can’t get yourself out of bed. You know you need to do laundry, you know you need to go to the doctor, but you can’t do it yourself. I’ve experience it, it sucks haha. And, it’s hard to get people to get out of that, or just to want to [get out of that]. But if you can incentivise, if you can give them - give them something to look forward to, something that’s going to be fun and engaging, they’re more likely to show up, and they’re more likely to engage. And, it opens the door for those other conversations, like ‘Hey, that’s not the best way to communicate with someone, let’s try rephrasing that sentence’, or ‘You’re at the shop and you need potions but you really want that shiny sword on the wall’, balancing needs versus wants.

These are very important conversations and skills that a lot of clients struggle with that when you can’t get them to show up, you can’t have that conversation. But if you can get them there - you can get them in the door, then the opportunities come up to have these conversations. And, the more times you have these conversations the higher the chance that something will stick, because it’s not going to stick every time you have that conversation.”

Chay: “What sorts of skills are you planning to focus on?”

Sara: “A big issue in the industry, in the mental health industry is this concept called learned helplessness. Where they get so used to other people doing things for them, making decisions for them, that when you tell them ‘ok you need to schedule this doctors appointment’, they’re just like, ‘How?’ And it’s like, ‘ok well first of all, what’s the doctor’s phone number?’ you know, so breaking it down. But, [also] teaching them that not only that these are the steps to doing this task, but that you’re an adult, you are allowed to make these decisions. And, giving them their power back is huge, because a lot of them feel like they have to do whatever the people around them are telling them, and that’s not the case.”

One thing that I think that, not all of our clients but some of our clients struggle with, is things are not always going to happen in the way that you want them to. And, just because you’re entitled or you ‘should’ qualify for this service or this benefit, doesn’t mean that you’re going to; you might have to hop through extra steps. You know, just because you should qualify for this affordable section 8 housing doesn’t mean that you’re going to, because you might have other issues in your background that are barriers and obstacles that you have to get over. So learning that you have to go through the right steps to get where you want to go, and learning when to adapt.

Chay: “That can be a tricky skill to teach in D&D.”

Sara: “It’s a tricky skill to teach!”

Chay: “As a DM I tend to say yes to a lot of things, as long as they make sense, so I could see myself having difficulty trying to teach the particular skill of doing everything in the right order.”

Sara: “But as a DM, that’s something that you can do at your discretion, when you’re trying to teach that. That’s how you tailor your session to be rehabilitative, to teach a lesson. For example, if you have a big bad boss who poisons someone - and this is something I fully intend to incorporate - if someone gets poisoned, just because they’re healed, it’s still important to follow up with a medical professional. It’s something that I’ve noticed in our campaigns, the DM lets slide a lot ‘Ok you’re healed and the fights over, so once you have a long rest you’ll no longer be affected’ - No! If you want to be free of this curse you need to go find this person who is a specialist who can remove it for you because it’s important to follow through with your medical appointments. It’s important to access care when you need it.”

Sara and I spoke outside of Starbucks for nearly an hour, and it was truly my personal pleasure to have sat down and shared a conversation with someone as passionate about D&D as I am. She shared with me some funny D&D stories, the fact that she has been playing D&D for 6 years, mostly with a group of close friends and family, and that D&D helped here through a time when she was dealing with postpartum depression. Unfortunately I cannot share the entire interview here, and the audio recording qualities were very poor, my apologies to the community. However, Sara has agreed to another interview in a few months, possibly on the podcast (more below) and I’ll be more prepared for the follow-up interview.

Community Outreach in Paso Robles

We are beginning a community outreach project focused on Paso Robles and Atascadero thanks to Austin (User: nory#1962) who is helming the initiative and putting in the footwork. We will be coordinating together to get the word out that in-person is back in town.

Austin, I tip my hat to you sir, you’re an ambassador for role-playing on the Central Coast, and may you roll with advantage on this endeavor.

Podcast in the works

Your eyes do not deceive you, we are in fact working on a podcast. User: Crassus668#6339 and myself, Chay (Hi), are currently putting together equipment and brain cells, to shoot a weekly podcast focused on TTRPGs top to bottom, everything rom how to start, to building custom game mechanics. Crassus668#6339 is a true grognard with over 40 years of experience as a player and working in the industry with the publisher Palladium Books, which produces a TTRPG you may have heard of, Rifts. And myself, while I may not be a grognard, I have been DMing for 15 years and recently earned the achievement of Professional Dungeon Master.

We will be inviting weekly guests to talk shop and promoting local creators. I am really excited to be working on this with Crassus

The Mists of Lompoc

Is that fog Lompoc is having again? Why no - it’s mist, a very odd mist. Watching the ravens gather I recall something; rumors of strange happenings, howls in the night and people vanishing into said mist never to return often follow this particular type of phenomenon.

For those who are well acquainted with D&D you may understand what is happening here. We are running a local in person Curse of Strahd game! Yes, that's right. In person D&D is coming to Lompoc once more!

For those not as familiar, Curse of Strahd is one of the more well known horror modules for D&D 5e. It contains more than a few darker themes. Definitely very gothic horror in scope it in my opinion has one of the best written and designed villains as the bbeg, Strahd von Zarovich. Strahd is a very powerful, some would almost say godlike, vampire who rules over his land, Barovia. How you get there, what your story is, how you survive and what you must do in order to ensure that survival? That tale is yet to be told.

Hopefully everything will be ready within a few more weeks near the end of November or early December at latest. I warn you, the mists are treacherous, the vampires are hungry and the DM is…new? Yep this will be my first time DMing as well. So far we have three, perhaps four players and we can accept up to five players total as I want to start fairly small with my first group. We will be playing Saturdays at Southside Coffee Co. in Lompoc, most likely mornings though exact time will be decided for sure when we host our Session 0.

Depending on who attends the Session 0, we will set times for the actual session, see who wants to play what type of characters and work on backstories fitting them into the story as best I can and of course come up with fun ways to scare, torment and get in your characters head. We will also set some very basic table rules, and go over what I call limits or lines and veils for comfort's sake to make sure everyone has a good time and no boundaries are crossed.

As of right now, I’m hoping to do Session 0 on the 5th of November at 9am over at South Side Coffee Co. on 105 S H St in Lompoc. Please stay posted for changes or further details and check the Central Coast D&D server Discord if you are interested in joining our journeys in Barovia. Other articles detailing progress, group antics and tales of a DM on her training wheels may follow this article.

Author: User Zara#8153 (Brittany)

Games Exchange

Our third official campaign has kicked off Tuesday night at the Games Exchange in Arroyo Grande. Congratulations and thank you to user: Cappy#5956 for organizing the group and user: MatTheOctopus#5598 for DMing!

There is no way to tell if it’s a direct result of our organizing Central Coast D&D, because I didn’t bother to canvas beforehand and establish a baseline of how many D&D group sthere are at any given time on the Central Coast, but I’d like to think at least 1 of the 4 campaigns, counting the upcoming Lompoc campaign, is a direct result of us all coming together.

This project here on the Central Coast is something that I am really passionate about, and personally heavily invested in. Thank you all for being a part of this with us =)

Bulletin Board

The Rebirth of In-Person Gaming

2020 saw the pandemic strike and with it people were forced inside and away from each other. Despite this the D&D brand saw a 33% increase during that time as players were forced underground and onto the internet. Fans of the tabletop game now used platforms such as Zoom and Discord to assemble their groups and services like Roll20 or D&D Beyond to hold stats and share maps. Many existing players also used lockdown to teach family and friends how to play ushering in a new wave of fan and players.

Now with lockdown over and restrictions lifted, games are leaving the online realm and like a rising phoenix, flooding the tables with the new fans as well as the original base. People looking for the comradery and human to human interaction are returning to the in-person games and the shops and establishments hosting these are seeing a new influx of customers and potential business to their establishment. While the in-person gaming boom is happening the online world still has a place allowing groups to play from a distance as well as exposing players to groups of people otherwise impossible due to distance. Online still is a great place for people of similar interest to gather and chat, organize gatherings and bounce ideas off each other.

Author: Discord User amlosthere#4215 (Jamie Morrisroe)

Help Wanted

Central Coast D&D is currently looking for volunteers in the community that consider our project worthwhile, and would find catharsis in participating in it’s growth. This is a passion project of mine, but it is a big project, so if you would like to volunteer we are looking for the following:

Social media manager - who can do a better job than me at managing our various socials (Not a high bar, haha)
Discord Server Administrator - someone who has experience with discord bots and server management. If you’d like to volunteer we’ll meet via zoom or in-person first to talk about the direction and design of the server.
Community Organizer - from Santa Barbara, Ventura, or any other area who’s willing to step up and try to put some games together? I can collaborate with you and lend a hand from here, share what I have tried, what has worked and what hasn’t worked.
Podcast guests - anyone who wants to sit around on a Thursday morning at the Santa Maria Public Library and talk all things TTRPG, or if you have experience or equipment you’d like to lend that’s great too.

Thank You

Thank you all for joining us this month. I am very excited to play D&D with you all, and hopefully I get the chance to.

Inspiration for everyone!

Your local DM, Chay Comas