Full review: https://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/2019/08/28/fate-accessibility-toolkit-review/

"The only problem with the Fate Accessibility Toolkit is an industry issue rather than a flaw in the book itself: in many ways, it stands alone. I want there to be many resources out there which help players both play the games they intend to play (whether they have sight or hearing issues or not) as well as help players make the characters they want to make (whether those characters are helping them explore trauma, schizophrenia, or something else). But in terms of strong products in this area, the Fate Accessibility Toolkit is a rarefied breed. Evil Hat went out of their way to find designers who could speak about disabilities from a first person perspective, and that more than anything else should sell this book."

Thank you ELSA SJUNNESON! This book should be on everybodies reading list. It gives such a valuable insight and definitely affects my approach on gaming and thinking when it comes to accessibility. It is helpful not only for gaming purposes, but also in every day situations. Well done!

This toolkit will save you a lot of research into topics that you may not be aware of -- which makes it even better because you wouldn't research it if you were not aware of it. It gives background on specific issues that you may face with a disability, as well as describing things that you may assume to be an issue but may not be. Very importantly, and fitting for FATE, it gives a positive as well as negative spin on aspects based on disabilities. I'm a bit anxious how much cooler my character with anxiety issues is than me with anxiety issues, but the same goes for their amazing physique.

When actually running a PC or NPC with a specific disability it gives good, condensed information -- that you will probably need to read multiple times to really digest it. This is not a negative, it just means that it's dealing with a complex topic in a differentiated way.

I bought this toolkit because I knew I would find use for it in any RPG system. The Fate Accessibility Toolkit gives advice on all things accessibility, guiding players and gamemasters on how to make games both fun and sensitive. It not only gives you guidance on how to create disabled characters (Sword Cane, anyone?) but also provides guidelines on making games accessible to all players. It brings to relief the disabled characters we already take for granted in our roleplay, the characters and players we should include, and how we can do better.

Since I purchased this during its protype edition, it does not have art yet. So consider this my vote for the full edition, which hopefully will lead eventually to a physical release. Our world needs this.

Bought this 5 months ago and I can't imagine writing NPCs without it! D&D, Fate, Dungeon World - I use it everytime I work on an adventure.

How often do you encounter a disabled NPC in a game? Especially without it being sad or strange? I'm not pointing the finger at anyone but myself. For so long I've been too nervous to include a deaf character or mention someone with mobility issues. Because of this book I was able to write a disabled NPC without feeling like I'm making things worse. It's been such a relief.

It's labeled a prototype but the writing is solid. Dense but easy to digest. Straight up: this book has a lot in it. Blindness, autism, ptsd - it covers subjects I've wanted to learn. Tackling common problems, providing easy solutions, and more. All in an incredibly genuine, straightforward way. The art isn't complete but I liked feeling like I was helping this project along. And I can't wait until they raise enough money to add the art in. As a visual person, I can't wait to learn from even more honest examples.

Even if all you want is more interesting crowds and shopkeepers, this book is absolutely worth it. But to me it's helped with so much more.

This might well be among the most important RPG supplements in the past decade. It deserves not just the full slate of artwork promised by Evil Hat, but a widely-distributed print run and multiple follow-up books. So many RPG settings, stories, and systems have ableist assumptions baked into them, ranging from the subtly hurtful to the egregiously uninformed and insulting. This toolkit goes a long way to undermining these problems not just in Fate, but in the hobby generally. (I know I'll definitely be using some of the advice within to inform my D&D games.) The writing is clear, the discussion is frank but unjudgemental, the topics surveyed are varied, and everything is written from the perspectives of people who live with the disabilities in question. As others have mentioned, the appendix on further resources could use expansion: pointing people to the DSM may be informative but technical manuals like that can be hard to interpret for non-specialists, and the useful links section only deals with (American) sign language, braille dice, generating audiobooks, and the widely-circulated "spoons" theory—strangely lacking the diversity of issues tackled by previous sections of the book. But here, as ever, search engines are your friend; the rest of the book gives you plenty to start from when looking for further information, so this criticism is a minor one. I want to see many more books like this, tailored not just for Fate but also for other RPG systems and for the hobby in general, at least until incorporating these perspectives into game design is a matter of course in the industry. In particular, a toolkit for decolonizing Fate (and other RPGs) would be a natural and important next step.

It seems like every week (at least) I see, in various systems and forums, someone going "a player wants to play a Deaf character, but wouldn't they then have difficulty communicating to the party/ wouldn't they then be immune to silence spells etc" or wanting to play blind characters but "then how would they notice enemies" or discussing a player who wants a character with mutism, etc... and almost always, these conversations are from people who have no knowledge of how these conditions actually can go, leading to not only system modeling questions (or the dreaded "but it'd be unrealistic" in a game that might have dragons in it...) , but also ignorance of how people with these conditions go about their lives. We play too, we live too, and disability is not an off/on switch.

I work in accessibility and AM disabled. And I have been waiting for this book since Evil Hat announced it, and the people who worked on this have disabilities of their own. This is not only an amazing resource to make characters and help people who don't have a clue about disabilities try to understand that process, but also to be inclusive and respectful of people who do have disabilities at the same time - who want to see ourselves represented also.

Thank you, Evil Hat. And thank you to everyone who worked on this book.

This should be required reading for RPG creators and is a valuable resource for any system, not just FATE.

With this supplement! You could play, one eyed Odin, even betterm an eyeless Dare devil! You could play a handless Captain Hook, or Play as Armless version of Nero of DMC! Play as you! A genius on a wheel chair! wounded war veterans!! This is a really a great point to start with when you consider above stuffs.

In a hobby where playing a D/deaf character generally got you 3 extra points to offset your "negative trait", this reframing of disability is refreshing and empowering to people who want to bring their whole selves to the table.

All in all, good job. I commend the effort.

Two recurring themes in the toolkit are how to be inclusive of players with disabilities, and how to portray disabilities in the game with respect and verisimilitude instead of caricatures or ignorance.

The book is much stronger on portrayal than on inclusion, probably because it is, after all, an RPG toolkit. It's easier to suggest game mechanics than it is cover the broad topics of accessibility and inclusiveness.

The material on portrayal is generally pretty good. The aspects and stunts ring true (at least for the disabilities where I have any famiilarity) and let the character do cool or interesting things without lapsing into super-hearing-because-you're-blind stuff. While some might claim that representing disabilities with game mechanics trivializes the disabilities, I disagree. Trivialization would be in the attitude of the players. On the contrary, seeing "someone like me" represented in the game can be quite gratifying to those whose experiences are perpetually ignored or misrepresented in game settings. Or it could be the last thing they want to see; listen to your audience and be flexible.

The material on inclusiveness and accommodation was good as far as it went, but I was hoping for more. The appendix on "Resources" is thin - blink and you'd miss it. Frankly, the half page of Resources looks like a 5-minute afterthought. I was hoping for more material along the lines of "Here are the tools we've found useful" for accommodating various disabilities at the table, or online. You don't have to get down to specific product endorsements. Another area where I wanted to see more was about breaks. Some disabilities force people to take breaks during play, so I'd be interested in tips on various ways to handle breaks (short of "everyone just stops playing for as long as it takes").

The appendix on ASL signs for Fate terms is best suited for someone who already has some facility with ASL but who wants to establish some signs for specialized terms. For my part, I'd sign some of them differently, so I'm curious whether these are tried-and-true signs from on-going gaming groups, or something someone made up for this toolkit. In any case, paragraph-long descriptions of signs are hard to follow even if you have some ASL skills. Someone who has no knowledge of ASL probably isn't going to get these signs right. A page of videos demonstrating these signs would be more helpful than paragraphs of description.

I have my own disabilities to deal with. In fact, I had a flare-up while writing this review. As a result, it took me almost three hours to write these few paragraphs. (That's another thing about disabilities. In some cases, they can vary by the minute, hour, day, or year, sometimes with warning, sometimes without.)

I admit that I have only made a cursory flip through of the book, but it's not often that I can say there is something new and unique in the RPG world and this is it.

This is a product that was desperately needed, and by having members of the impacted communities writing the sections just adds more to it.

This is a book that every game designer should have. Full stop. Perhaps every game can't utilize everything in it...but it should be in your awareness.

Now, I'd just like to see a similar book on other diversity issues like race, sexual orientation, and gender.