Bridging Worlds: Alex Roberts on the Therapeutic Power of Play

In a world increasingly seeking solace and connection, the intersection of seemingly disparate fields often reveals profound insights. Such is the case with Alex Roberts, a name celebrated within the tabletop gaming community for her innovative designs, including the critically acclaimed Jenga-powered RPG Star Crossed and the beloved storytelling game For the Queen. The latter recently saw the release of its highly anticipated second edition, published by Critical Role’s Darrington Press, cementing Roberts’ status as a significant voice in the industry. Yet, beyond the dice rolls and narrative prompts, Roberts maintains another, equally impactful career: she runs a counseling service.

This dual professional life, while initially appearing divergent, is for Roberts, an undeniable testament to interconnectedness. Far from being separate endeavors, she asserts that designing games and facilitating healing are deeply intertwined. “Playing story games made me a better counsellor,” Roberts states with conviction, underscoring a symbiotic relationship that has shaped both her creative output and her therapeutic approach. “I obviously got into making games because it’s fun but it’s taught me how to play close attention and listen to people.” This revelation forms the bedrock of her unique perspective, suggesting that the very act of engaging with structured play can cultivate essential skills transferable to personal growth and emotional well-being.

A Symbiotic Relationship: Game Design Meets Therapy

Roberts’ journey into game design was, by her own admission, driven by the pure joy of creation and play. However, as she delved deeper into the mechanics of collaborative storytelling and character interaction, she began to notice a profound parallel with the skills honed in her counseling practice. The act of facilitating a game session, guiding players through a narrative, and ensuring everyone feels heard and engaged, mirrored the careful attention required to support clients in a therapeutic setting.

In counseling, active listening is paramount—not merely hearing words, but understanding the underlying emotions, unspoken needs, and intricate narratives clients present. Roberts found that designing and playing storytelling games inherently demanded this same level of engagement. To create a compelling narrative in For the Queen, players must truly listen to each other’s contributions, build upon them, and react authentically. This cultivated an acute sense of presence and empathy that she could then bring back to her counseling sessions, enhancing her ability to connect with and understand her clients on a deeper level.

Conversely, her insights from counseling profoundly influenced her game design philosophy. Recognizing the human need for acknowledgment, validation, and safe spaces for expression, Roberts began to intentionally weave these elements into her games. The result is not just entertainment, but experiences that can foster communication, empathy, and even catharsis, blurring the lines between playful escapism and genuine personal development.

"For the Queen": A Throne of Narrative and Empathy

At the heart of Roberts’ exploration of therapeutic play lies For the Queen. This acclaimed storytelling game distinguishes itself through its elegant simplicity and profound emotional depth. Players assume the roles of attendants to a powerful, often enigmatic, matriarchal monarch. The game’s narrative unfolds as players take turns drawing and responding to prompt cards, each response weaving into a collective tapestry that shapes the story of their queen and their relationships within the court.

Mechanics as Therapeutic Tools

The gameplay is deceptively straightforward: draw a card, read the prompt, and answer, always starting with “Yes, my Queen, and…” However, the prompts themselves are meticulously crafted to elicit deep personal reflection and imaginative storytelling. They present players with various scenarios that test loyalty, challenge moral boundaries, and force an examination of their characters’ relationships with their ruler and each other.

Crucially, For the Queen is designed as a collaborative journey, prioritizing the unfolding narrative over individual victories or strategic objectives. This emphasis on shared experience naturally encourages players to listen intently to their fellow courtiers. Roberts highlights this structural priming: “Players get into the mode of listening so they can answer follow-up questions.” Unlike competitive games where focus might be on one’s own turn or strategy, For the Queen necessitates an empathetic engagement with others’ stories, as each contribution directly influences the next turn and the overall arc. This collaborative listening transforms the game into a dynamic exercise in collective empathy and narrative co-creation. The video featuring Alex Roberts playing For the Queen with other creators and influencers vividly demonstrates this interactive and responsive gameplay.

Intentional Design for Emotional Safety

Roberts’ counseling background is particularly evident in the deliberate design choices made for For the Queen, especially in its second edition. The game’s themes span a wide spectrum, exploring relationships with power, authority, societal expectations, and various facets of femininity. While some cards challenge players with difficult moral dilemmas or emotional introspection, Roberts carefully curates the experience to remain supportive and safe.

The second edition, published by Darrington Press, not only boasts revamped artwork that offers diverse visual representations of the Queen but also includes significant changes to certain prompt cards. Roberts specifically cites the removal of a prompt that implied a character was “ugly,” explaining, “Being told they’re ugly hits people a certain way, keeping it in was not worth the bad times it caused.” This decision reflects a deep understanding of player psychology and a commitment to fostering a positive, engaging environment, even when exploring challenging themes. It’s a testament to Roberts’ dedication to creating spaces where vulnerability can thrive without unnecessary distress.

This commitment to player well-being extends to a crucial mechanic: the ability to pass on any card. Players are explicitly empowered to decline answering a prompt if they feel uncomfortable, for any reason. This isn’t merely a safety valve; it’s an integral part of the game’s design, reinforcing autonomy and respect within the playgroup. Roberts recounts a session with her sister, whom she describes as "quieter," who passed on roughly half her turns. Yet, her sister thoroughly enjoyed the experience. “I was so happy with how that worked, because they were still enjoying it very much,” Roberts recalls. This experience solidified her belief in the importance of designing for all player types, including those who may prefer to observe or contribute less directly. “It’s important to me to think about those [quieter] players in my design.” The pass mechanic ensures that participation is always consensual, making the game accessible and enjoyable even for those who might feel hesitant to share extensively. The visual variety of Queen cards further allows players to choose a representation that resonates with their group, adding another layer of personal connection and comfort.

The Healing Arc: From Play to Personal Growth

Roberts firmly believes that games like For the Queen offer more than just entertainment; they can be powerful conduits for personal growth and healing. Her counseling expertise shines through as she articulates how the tabletop space can mirror and even enhance therapeutic processes.

The Therapeutic Space of the Table

“The experience of being acknowledged and treated as a valuable human being that’s being listened to is powerful,” Roberts emphasizes. In a world where many feel unheard or invisible, the collaborative and attentive nature of For the Queen provides a unique opportunity for genuine recognition. Players are not just telling stories; they are being empathetically witnessed by their peers. This act of being seen and heard, Roberts explains, creates a profound sense of validation. “Being able to say things that you’ve maybe never said before and have it be accepted as alright.” This acceptance, often in a fictional context, can be incredibly liberating, allowing individuals to explore parts of themselves they might otherwise keep hidden.

Roberts draws a compelling parallel between these gaming experiences and group therapy sessions. “What can happen in group therapy is that you’re empathetically witnessed by people with a shared experience.” While the "shared experience" in For the Queen is fictional, the emotional resonance and the process of collective storytelling can evoke similar feelings of camaraderie and understanding, fostering a sense of belonging and mutual support that is inherently therapeutic.

Rehearsing Real-Life Relationships

Despite the fantastical settings and fictional scenarios, For the Queen and similar storytelling RPGs often tap into genuine human emotions and interpersonal dynamics. Roberts is particularly fascinated by "the healing that comes from expressing emotions you’re not expressing daily." She observes that games can provide a safe arena for players to explore feelings like anger or sadness, which might be suppressed in their daily lives due to societal norms or personal anxieties. “I want that person’s anger to come out, I want to hear about their sadness,” she says, highlighting the cathartic potential.

Roberts points out the "hyper-gendered" nature of certain emotions—for instance, the stereotype of women being allowed sadness but not anger, and men the reverse. Roleplaying games offer a unique opportunity to subvert these expectations. Within the safety of a fictional persona, players can express emotions or perform behaviors that challenge their real-world conditioning, leading to "reparative experiences." These are moments where individuals can experience the acceptance and validation for expressions that might have been denied or discouraged in their formative years or family environments. Roberts succinctly summarizes this transformative aspect: "We often talk about therapeutic relationships [between counsellors and counsellees] as being a rehearsal for other relationships, these things can also happen in the roleplaying space." The roleplaying table becomes a laboratory for social interaction, allowing players to experiment with different forms of communication, emotional expression, and relationship building in a low-stakes environment, which can then positively influence their real-world interactions. The YouTube video showcasing various recommended RPGs that aren’t D&D further emphasizes the breadth of these therapeutic opportunities within the tabletop landscape.

Personal Testimony to Transformative Play

Roberts herself has personally experienced the profound positive effects of roleplaying within a supportive environment. She candidly shares how these experiences contributed to her own growth: “A lot of the ways in which roleplaying has changed my life for the better is doing it at a table with other people I liked and respected – during a time where I felt under-confident and didn’t have a ton of self-esteem – offering my opinions and having other people say: ‘That’s great!’” This personal anecdote underscores the power of a validating community and the boost to self-esteem that can arise from being genuinely heard and appreciated in a playful context. It demonstrates that the benefits Roberts champions are not just theoretical, but deeply personal and experienced.

Redefining Healing: Games as a Community Modality

While one-to-one therapy has gained significant traction and acceptance, Roberts cautions against overlooking other, equally valid forms of healing. She observes a tendency to downplay or under-acknowledge alternative modalities, often rooted in community and shared experience. She provides a compelling example from Rwanda, where individuals offered one-to-one counseling for trauma preferred to engage with their suffering through communal grief and shared cultural practices rather than individual sessions. This highlights the diverse ways humans process and heal from distress.

Challenging Traditional Views

Roberts offers a crucial historical perspective: “I like to remind people that ‘therapy’ as we know it hasn’t been around for that long but people have always suffered and found ways to work with that suffering.” This statement challenges the notion that modern, individualized therapy is the sole or superior path to healing. Throughout history, communities have developed rituals, storytelling traditions, and shared activities to process trauma, build resilience, and foster well-being. Tabletop roleplaying games, in this light, can be seen as a contemporary evolution of these communal healing practices. The question cards of For the Queen: Second Edition perfectly illustrate this, acting as catalysts for shared narrative and character development.

The "Therapeutic Benefits" vs. "Active Therapy"

It is vital to distinguish between games being therapy and games providing therapeutic benefits. Roberts is clear that she doesn’t position For the Queen as a substitute for professional mental health care. Instead, she argues that games can offer significant, healing experiences without needing to be formal therapy. "One of the reasons why I do feel that games are therapeutic is that they don’t have to actively be therapy to provide some of the healing benefits."

These benefits stem from the unique blend of structure and imaginative freedom inherent in RPGs. They provide a framework for interaction, decision-making, and emotional expression that can be both challenging and supportive. Players engage with complex scenarios, explore different facets of identity, and practice social skills in a context that feels safe and playful. This allows for a gentle, organic form of processing and growth that complements, rather than replaces, formal therapeutic interventions. They offer a space for self-discovery and connection that taps into innate human needs for story, community, and meaningful interaction, all of which are powerful components of well-being.

Cultivating a Conducive Environment: The Right Table, The Right Trust

While the potential for therapeutic benefits in games is immense, Roberts is quick to emphasize that these outcomes are not guaranteed. The efficacy of such experiences hinges critically on the environment in which the game is played. The "culture of play at the table" is paramount.

Not every game session needs to be a deep dive into personal emotions, nor should it be forced. Roberts acknowledges that “it’s perfectly legitimate to not want to be in anybody’s therapy session.” Players come to games for diverse reasons—fun, escapism, strategy, social interaction—and respecting these individual boundaries is crucial. The transformative potential of games like For the Queen is unlocked when there is an unspoken or explicit agreement among players to engage with empathy and openness.

Therefore, Roberts offers a simple yet profound piece of advice for those seeking to tap into the deeper, more emotionally resonant aspects of roleplaying: “My God, just play with people you like and trust.” This highlights the fundamental importance of psychological safety. When players feel secure, respected, and genuinely connected to their fellow participants, they are more likely to let down their guard, express vulnerabilities, and allow for those "emotional or behavioural cathartic moments" to occur naturally. Trust creates the bedrock upon which meaningful shared experiences, and indeed, healing, can flourish within the playful confines of a tabletop game.

The Uncharted Potential of Play

Alex Roberts stands as a compelling figure at the vanguard of a burgeoning movement that recognizes the profound connections between creativity, community, and psychological well-being. Her unique dual career as a celebrated game designer and a practicing counselor offers invaluable insights into how structured play, particularly in the realm of storytelling games like For the Queen, can serve as a powerful, albeit informal, therapeutic tool.

From fostering attentive listening and empathetic engagement to providing safe spaces for emotional expression and the rehearsal of healthy relationships, Roberts’ work demonstrates the rich, untapped potential of tabletop gaming. She challenges conventional notions of healing, reminding us that humans have always found diverse ways to navigate suffering, and that playful, communal experiences are a vital part of this ancient tradition. As society continues to explore holistic approaches to mental health and personal growth, the contributions of designers like Alex Roberts illuminate a path where the simple act of playing a game can become a profound journey of self-discovery and connection. The Second Edition of For the Queen is not just a game; it is an invitation to explore the narrative of ourselves, witnessed and validated by others, one card at a time.

You can buy For the Queen: Second Edition from the Critical Role store.