Happy Holidays & Upcoming New Content from RPG Research

Happy Holidays & Upcoming New Content from RPG Research

by Hawke Robinson — published 2018/12/25 15:02:00 GMT-8, last modified 2022-10-21T17:22:06-07:00
Happy Holidays everyone! Thank you for your wonderful support of the non-profit 501(c)3 RPG Research this year. We have been working hard researching the effects of all RPG formats, how they impact lives, and providing real-world programs in the community applying this information and feeding that information back into the body of knowledge.
 
Thanks to the generous support of donors and swiftly growing team of volunteers, 2018 was an amazing year, and thanks to you much more is coming in 2019!
 
This year we began overhauling our websites and started moving over 3,800+ content items from the old servers to the new server (one 20 page essay is just one content item for example). This is still underway.
 
If you are not yet supporting us, please join as a Patreon donor today to support our non-profit 501(c)3. Patreon supporters get access to our contents weeks, and sometimes months, before the public as a thank you for your wonderfully generous support!
 
We have been operating online since 2004, and just in 2018 alone we:
  • Were on Wizards of the Coast's D&D Dragon Talk
  • Have been speaking on multiple panels at multiple conventions across many topics from inclusiveness & accessibility, to good game mastering, religion in games, and much more.
  • We've been included in many papers and zines
  • Touring across the country with the wheelchair accessible RPG Bus & RPG Trailer
  • and much more!
We've been engaged with multiple communities including:
  • The Muscular Dystrophy Association
  • Spokane area Deaf community
  • Many different facilities for various at-risk populations
  • Spokane Public Schools
  • Spark Central Community Center
  • Spokane County Library
  • and many others!
In November we added volunteer number 43!  (1)
We have applications currently under review for about a dozen more, some of which might be completed before the end of 2018.
 
We have active volunteers throughout North America, South America, Europe., & Saudi Arabia!
 
As we grow our opensource based infrastructure and volunteer capacity, we have been undertaking an increasing amount of research and community programs.
 
We are applying for multiple research and community program grants (2)  in 2019 in addition to support from direct donations through donors on Patreon, PayPal, Facweook, Amazon Smile, etc.Each member of our growing research team will be posting at least one blog posting per month. Some will just be stubs for research ideas and concepts, others may be ongoing series delving into more depth and potentially becoming more formal research projects (pending funding capabilities).
 
Increasing the number, frequency, size, and locations, of our weekly community programs.
 
We have been formalizing training documentation, processes, etc. for new volunteers with various goals, including some training manuals under way.
 
We have released a number of original content items in text, audio, & video through broadcasts several time per week including:
  • Heroes of the Mist Actual Play Audience Interactive RPG (Sundays)
  • RPG Theory (Mondays & Thursdays)
  • RPG Talk Show (Thursdays)
  • RPG Training & new games evaluation (Mondays & Thursdays)
  • GM Training (Saturdays)
Just a few of the games covered just this year include (in addition to D&D variants):
  • Doctor Who RPG
  • Adventures in Middle-earth
  • Sentinels of the Multiverse RPG
  • Hobbit Tales
  • Top Secret New World Order
  • Kids on Bikes
  • No Thank You Evil
  • A Song of Ice & Fire (Game of Thrones)
  • & Many others!
 
We covered a diverse range of RPG related theory & lecture topics this year, just a few included:
  • Immersion & Flow State
  • Bleed
  • Small group formation dynamics: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning, & Reforming
  • Voicing
  • Rosters
  • Gaming with Children
  • Gaming with At-risk populations youth & adults
  • How to write a game modules
  • House rules
  • Don't Split the Party
  • 4 Different approaches to Professional RPG engagement: Recreation, Performance, Education, Therapeutic.
  • Incorporating RPGs into clinical practice
  • Reviews of various Braille Dice & other tools for players with visual impairments
  • Cooperative versus Competitive
  • Using RPGs to correct misbehavior
  • RPGs that offer built-in behavior modifications
  • Debate about paid Game Masters
  • EEG and gaming
  • Screen considerations
  • Violence in RPGs
  • and much more!
 
Just a quick heads up about some of the upcoming content coming that are (or will soon be) available to Patreon supporters before the general public:
  • Revised "Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of Change, Therapeutic Recreation and Role-Playing Games" by Hawke
  • Just released to mid-tier supporters "Important Basic Considerations for Programs Using Role-Playing Games with At-risk Populations" by Hawke
  • "RPGs & Bleed", by Erik
  • "Women in RPGs", by Omar
  • Series on "RPGs and Incarcerated Populations", by Hawke (upcoming series as we work with various Department of Corrections facilities across the US).
  • Sneak peeks at the soon to be published "RPG Professionals Handbook" by RPG Therapeutics LLCs W.A. Hawkes-Robinson.
  • Sneak peeks at the "Study on Gender Bias in the Gaming Industry & Community" begun in 2013 and nearing completion, through WSU IRB waiver.
  • Sneak peeks at upcoming chapter on "RPG Therapy" Facilitation Techniques in Therapeutic Recreation textbook chapter by Hawke.
  • Upcoming article on "Important Considerations for Accessibility Inclusiveness for Gaming & Public Events", by Hawke
  • "Interview(s) of the Month" series by various RPG Research staff. A series interviewing various role-playing gamers & game masters each month.
  • Additional content coming from Jonathan and others as we continue to add more research assistants to the team. They will each be tasked with one content item per month.
Reminder about the current tier release schedule. The highest tiers $25+ get access at least a week before $10 tiers, which get access a week before $1+ tiers, which get access at least a week before the general public (so typically higher tier Patreon supporters get access at least a month before the public, sometimes several months as a great big thank you for your generous support of our non-profit 501(c)3's efforts).
 
We would really appreciate feedback on what you would like to see, what motivates you to support RPG Research, and what could help improve motivating more donors and more donors at the higher tiers. We're planning a complete overhaul of the tiers but need feedback about what would work better than our current model.
 
Thank you for your support and Happy Holidays!
 
Sincerely,
 
RPG Research Volunteer Team!
 
 
(1) Each new volunteer, upon completing the application, "hiring" and onboarding process receives a unique identifier. This number indicates _all_ volunteers in the system, though some are more active than others, and some might actually not be active at any given moment. Some are seasonal. So having as large a pool of volunteers as possible is critical to keeping our research, community, and administrative services functioning.
 
(2) Regarding research grants, we only apply for grants that are funded by voluntary donations and not any that are taxpayer funded. 

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