ROLEPLAY & HEALING
A Hybrid Methodology of Therapeutic Applications
Our particular method can mix with many schools of psychology such as CBT and Inner Child Work, but has its own basis and applications. The reason this works is because our method facilitates a player/patient driven experience. The player is guided, but not controlled, to actualise and witness themselves. Being in a game-setting increases willingness to be vulnerable and to view themselves intuitively so long as the game master leads sessions with care and active goodwill. This approach is based on challenging a player with a problem, part, or thought experiment they can deal with in their own way, while communicating and being supported by a group of fellow players. Sometimes, it's best to select one single player and delve deep if they are open and willing, yet even then the fellow players are encouraged to help-but not smother-the lone player. Narratives geared towards one player or group of players might be thought to leave a person out. We realize that having this alternating focus not only shifts pressure when needed, but also allows for players to learn relationship skills by assisting the temporarily heightened needs of their party.
D&D specifically is a very accessible medium. We are not sponsored or affiliated in any legal way with D&D. It says volumes that Silken Dreams is able to engage with an entire system of gaming and storytelling pre-made by Wizards of the Coast despite that fact. Their Open Gaming License and following means we are meeting players in the biggest and greatest game on the market by sheer numbers, but their lore and connections to mythologies allows us to easily translate our goals through their system. D&D books in this early stage of development allows us to help the most people the most efficiently while founding studies assisted by a 50 year old foundation. We don't seek to reinvent the wheel, so we are waiting until the results of the studies on the most dependable wheel in the industry before we finish our RPG in development apart from the books down the line.
We've spoken on moral injury, PTSD, and sexual trauma. There's a reason for that. Some of our members have undergone and still deal with these problems. Some all at once. There was no clear answer on how to go about dealing with these issues, and also a stark lack of help or resources. Seeing as how it's a special set of issues, we created a special solution. The testimonial details the stories of how we made transforming some of the most complex and brutal experiences into our own narratives a common occurrence.
Products
The Styxdraught Shaman
Book one, The Styxdraught Shaman, is solely focused on how players/patients want to relate to this mode of therapy and the game. Subclasses are sets of tools a player can select without breaking the mold of the classes already in the game. These have an intrinsic relationship with behaviors already expressed or internalized in people, but can also allow them to engage with others that might suit them better. The spells allow for personalized interactions with the game world and their problems with powers similar to imagination and CBT concepts, but none of this breaks the game itself. In fact, adding these elements made it both more engaging and a better experience.
Lore of Lughnasadh
Book two, Lore of Lughnasadh. It is the book for the DM to be able to have 116 new and exciting monsters in the campaign. As well as 10 additional races for our players so they can further explore their creativity. Most of these monsters represent Mental Health Disorders that some people may be suffering and can be put to use to help those individuals with those issues they may be having. Some come from our nightmares and we needed a solution to help deal with them. As they may be part of Lughnasadh’s army they also can be interpreted as real world problems and the players are the solution to them.
Some more of our Books
We have more than 116 monsters, 116 spells, 33 subclasses, 1 class, 10 races, 10 backgrounds, and more miscellaneous items throughout the Styxdraught Shaman and Lore of Lughnasadh. Our monsters are meant to be as prompts to players and their adventures as the right question would be in therapy. Calls to action, and associations with real world problems affecting them. Our spells are modes of power to get more information, interact more deeply, but also destroy what players want to overcome in fashionable style. There are much more in our books to assist players and Game Masters, here are three examples of creatures and their applications, in game and in the real life, from Lore of Lughnasadh:
The Masquerade
A polar rising part of a person that embodies a struggle with a smothering darkness such as the requirements of a persons socially and culturally and their inner light.
In Game: The Masquerade seeks out players who are not engaging with themselves fairly and tries to show them a mask representing who they are without slave drivers or managerial parts interfering with their life.
Real World: Societal requirements sometimes should be honored but the self will not grow unless it too is validated if this part is faulty either authority issues are restricting a person from finding something greater than themselves or the owner of the part believes they are too small in comparison to their environment to deserve to grow at all. Either way even if a person is shown a faulty version of themselves by this creature their reaction of self is who they are.
The Caretaker
A celestial being that fears being burned yet is truly weak to the cold present when devoid of love.
In Game: This creature strives to meet people when they are not receiving warmth. It employs its fear with the players' reduction of their worth by making sure they will be remembered and cared for. It even seeks to shoulder the burden of their pain and feel when they are at their worst so long as the suffering individual knows that they are loved.
Real World: This part of a person might be flawed in its obsession with numbness to deal with the pain of empathy but when employed correctly it is the greatest giver a person can ever ask for.
The Ash Born
A being that used its relationship and awareness with loss to manifest honor and righteous change.
In Game: The Ash Born is typically helpful towards the players by giving them quests and direction specifically relating to the failures to the culture that surrounds them. It will also challenge the players if they themselves actively choose to waste the potential of those astound them.
Real World: This part of a person usually manifests from an unrealistic set of expectations for the owner of the part to protect what's already lost. However when this part is dealt with correctly it is the most loyal and stalwart warrior that will remind and enforce self worth and the worth of others.