Review of Adventures in ADHD, a D&D campaign setting centered on neurodiverse experiences

Review of Adventures in ADHD, a D&D campaign setting centered on neurodiverse experiences

Hello!  I’m Steph from the TTRPGkids.com website, and I’m here today to write an article that’s a little different from the kid-specific game reviews that I normally write.  In addition to running TTRPGkids, I have also playtested several campaigns from Awfully Queer Heroes, including Adventures in ADHD, a D&D 5e campaign setting that’s focused on neurodivergent experiences.  I’ll be discussing what the game is, how I saw it impacting my players, and what it felt like to GM this awesome adventure.

What is Adventures in ADHD?

“May I have your attention, please?”

This is normally an innocuous question shouted out over a crowd of rowdy tavern-goers… unless the person asking is a fey lord.

As someone in the adventuring party will surely reply with some form of agreement, the figure deftly takes the party’s “attention” and departs, leaving the group to wake the next morning with their lost attention calling to them from afar. 

This is the start to a wondrous adventure. 

The party must now quest through a brilliantly magical realm full of colorful characters to track down the culprit and take their attention back.  However, this realm… it’s starting to break and is taking its toll on the inhabitants.  

To earn medallions required to enter the final area, players will need to take on quests ranging from playing a game within a game to battling an origami manifestation of writer’s block to figuring out how to overcome The Wall of Awful.  

On top of that, because PCs have had their attention stolen, they also may pick up some additional traits that could make things more challenging (especially at first) but that may also end up helping them too. 

How to use (and not use) this game

Before I start talking about the full impact this game has had on my players and me, I do want to preface that this game, while focused on neurodivergent experiences, is not therapy and you should not be trying to use a game to do therapy on your players… unless you are a therapist or other trained professional who is certified to do so and your players openly consent to this type of use for a game.

When I GM’d Adventures in ADHD, it was played as a for-fun campaign, which is what it’s intended to be used for.  While I saw many therapeutic benefits (like how exercise can make us feel good), I did not use it for therapy (this would be targeted use, tailored to an individual, to address a particular need… like how you would go to a physical therapist for help with a sports injury).  Therapy is delicate and can easily go wrong if someone who is not a trained professional tries to target an individual’s concerns, trauma, etc without full understanding.

The impact to my players

On to the fun stuff!!

When I told my players about this game, they were all for it and excited to play, but I could also see some nerves hanging in the background during the first session.  

I think there was a combination of both new-campaign anticipation and concerns about being in a situation where we’d obviously be talking about topics that people were not used to talking about too much.

Once we got a few sessions in though… I saw people opening up and starting to act very differently from how I’d seen in our other interactions or in other games that we played.  I think this was because we all started to admit to common experiences and found that we were just not alone with how we felt about certain things.

Through this game, we were playing out lots of different social puzzles that involved talking about topics like constant daydreaming, procrastination, particular types of overwhelm, and more.  They were heavy topics that we probably would not have regularly brought up in other conversations, but that we started to talk about in order to help the NPCs in the game.  

We ended up finding out that many of us had really similar experiences and some of us had strategies that we could offer to the NPCs… and then the other players saw that and were able to learn strategies from each other while finding out that someone else felt this “same thing” that they did too.

As we all got more and more comfortable talking about neurodiverse experiences, we also became more comfortable being ourselves with the group.  I noticed people allowing themselves to get excited, ramble on beautiful tangents, and throw random and creative solutions at problems openly.  

This whole campaign quickly became a safe place for players to be themselves and to offer their wisdom and ideas to fictional characters in a setting that others could hear and really learn from.  We all connected a bit more, and I know from messages from other players, it turned into a regular time that said, “come and be yourself with friends who understand this part of you.”

Adventure in ADHD is a very fun adventure, but then, because of what it is, it also really established a different level of understanding and empathy between players that I have not seen when playing any other campaign.

The impact to me as a GM

When playtesting Adventures in ADHD, I was the GM for the playtest, so this meant that I was playing ALL of the NPCs that were in need of aid from the players.

I acted out a kid who, it turned out, just wanted some friends to play with, a living door that everyone used but took for granted, and a daydreamer who needed to find a reason to reconnect with the world. 

These, and other characters, touched notes for me that were sometimes difficult to approach because of my own past and present… but that my players then approached with curiosity and such a willingness to help. 

I watched, listened, and played along as they gave pep talks, sat and talked with an NPC, asked questions, stretched out a hand, offered a hug, took time to understand, and encouraged NPCs to accept themselves.  And they showed such absolute joy at befriending these folks!

I think this was one of the first times that I really felt seen by my peers (both from my players and from the writers of the game), in a positive way, about a lot of the neurodiverse aspects that I’ve experienced… and it was wonderful.  

Overall thoughts on Adventures in ADHD

This game had a pretty profound impact on me, and, while I cannot speak directly to the impact or feelings of my players, it really seemed to have a positive impact on them as well. 

From a technical standpoint, Adventures in ADHD is well written with a clear layout and a fun story, making it an awesome game from that sense.  

Then, from a connection standpoint, it’s so far beyond what any other campaign has been able to do.  It allowed practice for empathy and understanding, gave us opportunities to share parts of ourselves in a safe place, and helped us to understand each other.  

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to play this game, and would recommend it to anyone as a fantastic opportunity to find connection and have fun.

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You can find a copy of Adventures in ADHD here on DriveThruRPG!*

If you’d like to check out more of Steph’s reviews, you can find their work on TTRPGkids.com!

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