Agency, Dignity, & Dice

TTRPG Programming for Adults with IDD

A community recreation framework that uses tabletop role-playing games to build social connection, confidence, and leadership in adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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The Program

Imaginary Adversity Builds Real Connections

Since February 2021, this program has brought full-complexity tabletop role-playing games to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in St. Louis, Missouri. Participants don't play simplified systems designed for therapy. They play real games with real consequences, supported by facilitation techniques that make complexity accessible without removing it.

The result: participants who entered cautious now run their own tables for their peers. Groups that started with a facilitator now operate independently, setting their own schedules, meeting at each other's homes, and building social connections that extend far beyond the game.

This is not a clinical intervention. It is community recreation that treats the game itself as the point and trusts participants with the full experience. Growth is emergent, not prescribed.

Five Years of Data

The numbers speak for themselves

Single-site, practitioner-observed data from five years of sustained programming. Reported with honesty about what was formally tracked and what requires further study.

43
Participants Served
7
Active Groups
0
Left Due to Disinterest
4
Participant-Trained DMs
100%
Pipeline Completion
5
Years Running

Core Philosophy

Three commitments that hold everything up

I
Agency is non-negotiable. Every participant makes real choices. When someone is overwhelmed, we narrow the options but never remove the choice. We do not simplify by default. We scaffold aggressively.
II
Dignity over comfort. Participants are not shielded from failure, conflict, or consequences. The game reflects real-life dynamics. What changes is the safety of the container, not the difficulty of the experience.
III
Engagement first, mechanics second. Connection, energy, and joy at the table matter more than rule mastery. A facilitator who connects with people will succeed even with imperfect game knowledge.

The DM Pipeline

Participants become leaders

The program's long-term viability depends on growing facilitators from within the participant population. This isn't supplementary. It's the mechanism that allows the program to outlive any single facilitator.

Introduction Class
Hands-on first contact. Video, live demo, sample session, and a vote. Agency starts at the first interaction. One decline in five years.
Active Groups
Monthly sessions with an optional post-session DM class. Candidates self-select through voluntary attendance. The facilitator never recruits.
Graduated Handoff
Knowledge transfer, co-creation, personnel briefing, supervised launch, and independence. Twelve to eighteen months from interest to running their own table.
Independence
Participant-led groups that operate on their own terms. The longest-running independent group has been going for four years. The founding facilitator barely recognizes the stories being told at those tables. That's the whole point.

About

Jonathan Rabida

Jonathan Rabida built the Agency, Dignity, and Dice framework through five years of direct work with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities at Pathways to Independence in St. Louis, Missouri, drawing on twenty-five years of TTRPG facilitation experience. He currently serves as a Vocational Support Specialist at The Arc of St. Louis.

The program's facilitation framework — including the Closed Eyes Binary System, the DM Pipeline, and the three-tier conflict management model — was developed through practice and refined through experience, not derived from clinical theory applied to a recreation activity.

A practice report documenting this framework has been submitted to the American Journal of Recreation Therapy. To the author's knowledge, this represents the first documented program serving adults with IDD through sustained, full-complexity TTRPG programming at community recreation scale, with a structured pipeline for developing independent facilitators from the participant population.

Get in Touch

Interested in the framework?

For inquiries about the program, the facilitation framework, speaking engagements, research collaboration, or media.

j.rabida@agencydignityanddice.com
agencydignityanddice.com Pathways to Independence The Arc of St. Louis St. Louis, Missouri