TTRPGs have been used to teach empathy, social skills, and even basic math! A new TTRPG launching on Kickstarter next week will conclude its trilogy of adventures, telling a story through sign language.

Underisles Brings Sign Language to the Table

Underisles is the third and final entry in a trilogy of TTRPG adventures published by the UK-based Hatchlings Games, specifically designed to encourage players and the deaf community to learn American and British Sign Language through gameplay.

The concept of the game is simple; players are Pendragons, the teenage descendants of Arthur and Guinevere born in modern times. For them to fulfill a pact that their ancestors sealed with the fey, they must travel to a mythical version of Great Britain and Ireland to act as heroes and protect the realms. The series initially began with Inspirisles in a traditional fantasy session, then ventured into the clouds with Overisles. The latest journey, Underisles, sends players into the underground portions of the world, where they will journey into caverns and underground lakes to find the source of the ongoing tremors and landslides.

The game was designed by Rich Oxenham and written by Kathryn, who own Hatchling Games. The premise was developed while both Oxenhams were working as support workers at a deaf charity in their local town. Rich was also working as a DM, providing D&D experiences to teenagers in the local community. One day, he decided to combine both of his interests into a single subject through the creation of Inspirisles, which he initially attempted to fund in 2020. The project received an outstanding amount of funding during its initial launch and earned multiple awards.

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Encouraging Sign Language Mastery Through Narrative

While observers might assume the game was initially designed to offer an alternative to D&D for the deaf community, Oxenham argues that it’s more about helping people be aware of the practice. “It's a game for people to learn sign language and to be able to communicate with the deaf community.”

The game “works best when no one knows anything,” Oxenham told TTRPG Insider. “So even the person running it knows no sign language. This allows you to learn the language as a table together.” This learning occurs through the use of either American or British Sign Language gestures whenever players want to activate the various forms of magic in the world, which the setting refers to as “shaping.” So if a player wanted to perform magic related to earthen elements, they’d have to spell out the word in question.

Each of the volumes in the trilogy presents players with new opportunities to master different parts of sign language, with the ultimate goal of encouraging general awareness of how sign language works and how one might best communicate within deaf communities.

“[Sign language in Underisles] is principally for magic,” Oxenham argued. But there is a lot more than that built into the game once you've got the core system under your belt. You know, you understand how it works. Maybe you've mastered the alphabet, numbers and greetings. Then, you can start to reiterate your kind of signs for the elemental spell casting. And then you're starting to bring other signs into it, and you're beginning to form sentences. And the idea is that you're learning more and more in increments,” Oxenham explained. “By the end of some sessions, we hope that players will have an underpinning knowledge of BSL or ASL, including deaf awareness. We encourage awareness through practices like waving instead of clapping to celebrate victories.”

The campaigns are designed to be short, with an average of 1-2 hour sessions and only around six sessions per campaign (although any good DM can make that longer if they wish). It’s also extremely kid-friendly. Underisles is the “dungeon crawl” part of the trilogy, Oxenham said. Players will have to collaborate and devise creative and innovative ways to address the obstacles and opponents they may face together, combining their skills and expertise to think through the issues they encounter.

The game has had a substantial impact among families with deaf individuals, Oxenham told TTRPG Insider. People have played the game with friends or family who are deaf, and he’s also collaborated with teachers in the United States to help spread it among ASL teachers. He’s also working with local non-profits in the United Kingdom to get it recognized as an educational tool in the United Kingdom.

There is interest from international markets for adaptations of Inspirisles that could help teach other variations of sign language, Oxenham noted, although translating that would require a significant amount of new art and transcription since the book relies heavily on art with ASL and BSL gestures.

Inspirisles and Hatchling Games are designed to serve an underrepresented community within the TTRPG space. An estimated 3.6% of the American population, or approximately 11 million people, identify as deaf or hard of hearing so that they may be at a tabletop game near you. While many of these people have had to learn how to read lips or speak despite hearing issues, nearly half a million Americans rely entirely on ASL to communicate.

The game provides the absolute basics in ASL or BSL that’s needed to communicate. But that start may help people realize the tools and opportunities that learning this language might have for themselves, their community and their fellow man.

Thank you to Rich for talking with us. Underisles is scheduled to launch on July 15 on Kickstarter. You can also access the old versions of the game on DrivethruRPG and Itch.io.

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