The Architecture of Empathy: How Alex Roberts Uses Tabletop Games to Facilitate Healing

In the modern landscape of tabletop gaming, the line between recreational entertainment and profound human connection is increasingly blurring. At the center of this intersection is Alex Roberts, a prolific game designer known for titles like the Jenga-powered RPG Star Crossed and the globally acclaimed For the Queen. While her name is synonymous with innovative indie mechanics, Roberts maintains a dual career as a professional counsellor. For her, these two paths are not disparate; they are two sides of the same coin, each dedicated to the art of listening, narrative construction, and the cultivation of human empathy.

The Intersection of Play and Professional Practice

To the casual observer, the worlds of professional therapy and tabletop gaming appear to occupy different dimensions. One is clinical, confidential, and rooted in psychological theory; the other is social, often boisterous, and rooted in imaginative play. For Alex Roberts, however, these spheres are irrefutably connected.

"Playing story games made me a better counsellor," Roberts asserts. "I obviously got into making games because it’s fun, but it has taught me how to pay close attention and listen to people in a way that transcends traditional settings."

This realization stems from the fundamental nature of tabletop storytelling. In a well-facilitated game, players are not merely rolling dice or moving tokens; they are building a shared world through active engagement. This requires a heightened state of awareness—a skill that is foundational to effective counselling. By designing games that prioritize emotional resonance and interpersonal dynamics, Roberts has created a framework where the mechanics of the game serve as a scaffolding for genuine human vulnerability.

Anatomy of a Narrative Engine: For the Queen

At the heart of Roberts’ design philosophy is For the Queen, a storytelling game that has recently seen its second edition published by Critical Role’s Darrington Press. The game is deceptively simple: players act as attendants to a matriarchal monarch, drawing cards that present various scenarios, prompts, and dilemmas.

Rather than being a competitive experience, For the Queen functions as a collaborative engine. The game forces players to examine their character’s relationship with the sovereign, effectively testing their loyalty and forcing them to articulate their internal emotional states through the lens of their character.

"The game is structured in such a way that people are primed to listen to each other," Roberts explains. "Players get into the mode of active listening because they know they need to respond to the prompts and, more importantly, engage with the responses provided by their fellow players."

The narrative is not predetermined; it is the result of collective participation. By shifting the focus from individual victory to collective storytelling, the game encourages a form of communal intimacy that is rare in modern social interactions.

A Chronology of Iteration: Evolving the Experience

The second edition of For the Queen is not merely a visual refresh; it represents years of playtesting and feedback. Roberts has been diligent in refining the game’s mechanics to ensure that it remains a safe and inclusive space for all participants.

The Removal of Toxic Prompts

In the transition from the original edition to the second, Roberts took a hard look at the card deck. One specific prompt—which suggested a character was "ugly"—was removed entirely. Roberts noted that in playtests, this prompt consistently drew negative reactions that hindered, rather than helped, the narrative flow. "Being told they’re ugly hits people a certain way," she reflects. "Keeping it in was not worth the bad times it caused. My goal is to facilitate a space where people feel safe enough to be vulnerable, not to introduce unnecessary, damaging conflict."

The Power of the "Pass"

Crucial to this evolution is the "pass" mechanic. Roberts views the ability to opt-out of a prompt not as a failure of the game, but as an essential feature. She recalls a session with her sister—a self-described quiet person—who passed on nearly half the turns. "I was so happy with how that worked," Roberts says. "They were still enjoying the session immensely. It’s important to design for those quieter players who might not want to jump into the spotlight every time."

The "Therapeutic" Potential of Roleplaying

The implications of Roberts’ design philosophy extend far beyond the tabletop. She draws a compelling parallel between the "empathetic witnessing" found in group therapy and the experience of playing a character in an RPG.

The Concept of Empathic Witnessing

In group therapy, participants benefit from being "witnessed" by others who share or understand their experiences. Roberts argues that the roleplaying table can provide a similar, albeit fictional, environment. "The experience of being acknowledged and treated as a valuable human being that is being listened to is powerful," she notes. "Being able to say things that you’ve maybe never said before and have it be accepted as alright—that is the essence of healing."

Rehearsing for Reality

Roberts suggests that roleplaying can serve as a "rehearsal" for real-world relationships. When a player embodies a character who is allowed to be angry, vulnerable, or assertive in ways the player might not be in their daily life, they are expanding their own emotional repertoire.

"I’m interested in the healing that comes from expressing emotions you’re not expressing daily," she explains. She highlights the "hyper-gendered" expectations that govern emotional expression—the societal tendency to suppress anger in women and sadness in men. "These kinds of reparative experiences are often things that people should have experienced when they were younger or with their families, but that didn’t happen for some reason. The game provides a surrogate space to process that."

Official Perspectives and Broader Implications

The professional community is taking notice of the therapeutic potential inherent in tabletop RPGs. While one-to-one therapy remains the gold standard for clinical treatment, Roberts warns against the Western-centric view that it is the only way to heal.

"I like to remind people that ‘therapy’ as we know it hasn’t been around for that long," Roberts says. "People have always suffered and found ways to work with that suffering through community, ritual, and storytelling."

She points to global examples, such as community-based trauma processing in Rwanda, where individuals often prefer communal rituals over individualized clinical sessions. By providing a structure where people can share in a narrative, games like For the Queen tap into an ancestral human need for collective catharsis.

However, Roberts is careful to delineate between "therapeutic" and "therapy." She stresses that a game does not need to be an clinical intervention to provide healing benefits. "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," she clarifies.

Cultivating the Right Culture of Play

Despite the potential for profound emotional discovery, Roberts offers a necessary caveat: the environment is everything. Not every game session is meant to be a deep dive into the psyche, and that is perfectly acceptable.

"It has a lot to do with the culture of play at the table," Roberts explains. "It’s perfectly legitimate to not want to be in anybody’s therapy session. You need to play with people you like and trust."

The success of these games as a tool for personal growth relies on consent, mutual respect, and the establishment of clear boundaries. When these elements are present, the results can be transformative.

"You don’t know when something profound is going to happen in a roleplaying game," Roberts concludes. "But when you open the door to genuine connection, you might find that you come away with more than just a win or a loss. You might come away feeling truly heard."

As For the Queen: Second Edition reaches a wider audience through the reach of Darrington Press, it stands as a testament to the fact that play—when crafted with intention and empathy—can be one of the most effective tools we have for navigating the complexities of the human condition.