Deafness & Dragons Update

After some consideration, I realised my ambitions for Deafness & Dragons were too high. The project needs to be manageable and deliverable by my deadline of August 2019. Therefore, I have decided to concentrate more on teaching BSL and deaf awareness to the teens I’ll be DMing for.

I have run a series of deaf awareness sessions in the centre of Bath with local businesses, to encourage their interactions with the deaf community and to ensure they know basic BSL such as the alphabet, greetings and any signs specific to their job roles. I have always found that the students love and appreciate learning the language and I have seen them using it when out and about in town.

Inspirisles will now incorporate deaf awareness, a BSL alphabet and signs specifically designed to express the many spells and abilities in the game.

Beyond this, once the setting is complete, I still want to bring Inspirisles to the deaf school in Bristol and to the wider deaf community.

New Character Sheet

After about 8 hours of designing, editing, tinkering and finishing, I finally have a completed Foundling Sheet for my Inspirisles players. While I liked the previous one, using content from the DMs Guild felt a little cheap and wouldn’t future-proof my material if I wanted to pursue publication.
The new sheet also gives me an aesthetic base for additional material such as NPCs, monsters, items and maps.
This template includes all the terms I’m working with currently. Changes to bio such as Friend and Path replace Race and Class, Shape replaces Spell, and Rank is measured by how much Belief players accumulate.
I hope the addition of the visual symbols, such as the foot, eye and the tree of life will please the teens I DM for now and in the future.

Monday 17th June

This week I added the first chapter of my YA novel, The Sinking World, I’m hoping people discover my writing through an interest in Dungeons & Dragons, as I’m very proud of my take on modern Japan and the young female protagonist I’ve created. The novel explores my interest in the supernatural, but also chronic illness, isolation and violence.

A lot of work was done on Inspirisles, including a character sheet for my Foundlings, descriptions of my four gods, the Inspired, bios for key characters, a set of class options and finishing touches to the world map. I’m making good progress with the setting but the task will surely stretch beyond my August deadline.

I am also acting as a mentor for the RPG Workshop (@RPGWriterWrkshp), which I discovered through Ashley Warren via Twitter. I have a couple of mentees who I hope to help throughout July and they seem to have much in common with me. Hopefully I can be a source of inspiration and growth for them on their road to publication.

For the week ahead, I hope to make contact with potential candidates to endorse/fund my projects. These include the British Deaf Association, Action on Hearing Loss (again) and Bristol County Council. Beyond this, I will continue to mentor for the RPG Workshop and complete the Questing section of Inspirisles.

Go to relevant pages for these updates.

Artist Criteria

HATCHLINGS is developing at breakneck speed, with any energy not reserved for family life and earning money being poured directly into the projects. I now have a working document for INSPIRISLES (see Project Planner post), which I am gradually moving through, however something I’ve lacked from the very start is a satisfying visual aesthetic. I’m a confident writer and designer, but my limited ability as an artist has always proved frustrating.

I would like to commission an artist for my work, but the financial implications of this are impractical. Therefore I am looking at a collaborative hobbyist to take on the Inspirisles project and make it as much theirs as my own. Once my Patreon begins and the intended Kickstarter down the line, they can expect royalties and a share of the proceeds.

If you are an up-and-coming TTRPG visual artist and wish to cut your teeth on this worthwhile project, please get in touch.

Rich

Introducing Inspirisles

Welcome to the Inspirisles, a campaign setting for teens using a simplified version of 5^e Dungeons & Dragons. This unique guide will incorporate an educational toolset and inclusive options for deaf players.

The world I’m crafting was inspired by my upbringing in windswept, beachcombed Cornwall and time spent exploring those magical coastlines through the lens of a fantasy-obsessed kid.

I have been playing D&D since the late 80s, and in early 2019, thanks to local community project, Community@67, I had the opportunity to run my first group for teens. And so Hatchlings was established with seven local children and without fail we’ve met every fortnight since.

I decided to create Inspirisles after my beginner Hatchlings were struggling with the extensive rules in the official Wizards of the Coast books. I knew if I wanted to nurture them into future dungeon masters, I would need to strip things back to basics.

A homebrew setting would allow me to adapt the rules, would give my Hatchlings ownership over a world they had contributed to, and would give me something to share or sell to the wider tabletop community.

Alongside the Hatchlings, I work for the deaf charity, Action on Hearing Loss. Many of my colleagues play tabletop games, but not a single one is deaf. I wondered if the same pattern applied to the larger community and discovered there were practically no opportunities for people with this disability to play.

After contacting a local deaf school, they expressed interest in bringing D&D to their students. And so was born Deafness & Dragons, a project to establish an inclusive platform for the deaf community to enjoy what I believe is one of the most beneficial hobbies in the world.

Contained within these pages you will find an alternate United Kingdom full of mysterious cultures, otherworldly magic and frightful monsters. You will visit places from Celtic legend and discover ways to bring your own stories to life. If you are an educator, there will be toolsets to encourage learning and development. And if you are deaf, you’ll have everything you need to enjoy this wonderful experience many people take for granted.

Rich Oxenham

Project Planner

Over the next 3 months, I will be tackling each section on the below list, starting with an introduction page this weekend. Once the Patreon is set up, I’ll look to hire a pixel artist and graphic designer on the road to publication. I will strikethrough sections as I complete them.

Contents page.
~~My introduction, including Deafness & Dragons project.~~
BSL alphabet with key monster signs.
BSL cards for key magic spells and skills.
~~Brief History of Inspirisles, ancient and modern.~~
Questing the Inspirisles.
Inspired and their descriptions + symbols.
Friends and their bios/pics.
Paths and their descriptions.
~~Inspirisles Character Sheet.~~
Societies, their purpose and key members + symbols.
~~World Map~~, locations and story hooks for low, mid and high tier play. Pepper with NPCs, proverbs, magic items, currency, languages etc.
Additional Path options.
Inspirisles artefacts (Caliburn).
Additional rules such as human interactions, BSL at the table and educational milestones.
Monsters of the Inpirisles.
Famous Friends.
Famous Foes.
Index.
Acknowledgements.