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For this episode of the podcast I’m exceptionally joined by not one, but two guests, AND I hand over the reigns to Dina, who led us in playing a lovely demo of the Norwegian surreal tabletop roleplaying game Itras By.
I happened to exchange a few tweets about roleplaying games with Dina who is based in Finland, and noticed her bio mentioned the fact she is hard of hearing. I was reminded of being in contact with Ashley last year, given she works with Rosie and Faris Yakob of Genius Steals, and I was guest writing an edition of their Strands of Genius newsletter. Ashley also happens to be deaf, and I browsed her website, as well as a few videos from the Hearing Like Me community that Ashley participates in.
I suddenly thought that I’ve been publishing an audio podcast for the past five years without barely ever worrying about whether it was accessible to the deaf and hard of heard, and now I’m beginning to publish videos, I didn’t really take much care of checking the automatically generated Youtube captions that they often rely on to consume content.
I reached out to both Ashley and Dina, who were keen to have a conversation and demo a game, which was awesome!
Ashley Derrington is a world traveler, soccer / football player, expert creative producer and project manager, published a wealth of awesome content as part of her Deaf, Tattooed, and Employed project, learning about deaf and hard of hearing communities around the world. She also actively works with the Hearing Like Me community, contributing content and sharing her experiences
Dina Ramse is also a seasoned traveler, game designer, avid playtester, seamstress, and helps games publishers (and I believe other businesses) with their marketing, social media, and community management activities. She has been actively running games for over 15 years, and as you’ll see or hear in the video, is a beautifully talented storyteller and narrator.
Itras By is the surreal tabletop roleplaying game we demo in the episode, originally published in Norway, it is also available in a number of other languages, including English and French. I had heard a lot of great stuff about the game and had been looking forward to trying it out, so when Dina offered to lead a game demo I jumped on the occasion.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Ashley Derrington
- Deaf, Tattooed, and Employed
- Hearing Like Me
- Dina Ramse on Twitter
- Tales of Sampo (Board Game)
- Itras By (Tabletop roleplaying game)
- Norwegian Style – An Anthology of Norwegian Roleplaying Games
- Surrealism – Art Term (Tate website)
- Invisible Sun (Tabletop roleplaying game)
