Dungeons & Dragons introduces its first canonically autistic character

Wizards of the Coast is closing out the 10-year run of the original 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons ruleset with a bang, sending several highly anticipated new books into the world ahead of its planned 2024 revision. The original 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons ruleset is ending its 10-year run with a bang, sending several highly anticipated new books into the world ahead of its planned 2024 revision. PhYou can also find out more about the following:elver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk and Planescape Adventures in the Multiverse represent traditional world-expanding splatbooks, the company’s October release is something new for Wizards — a singular product based on a storied magical item called the Deck of Many Things.

You can also find out more about the following:Deck of Many ThingsAt first, the set looks more like an accessory. The set includes a deck tarot cards that represent the magic item, which is an incredibly powerful collection of magical items and spells. It also comes with a booklet called The Book of Many Things. Like many modern releases from the D&D team, it is written from the perspective of a fictional character. Asteria is described as “a princess turned paladin” and, like Xanathar, Mordenkainen, and Tasha, Asteria chimes in throughout her book with commentary, jokes, and other little flourishes meant to make it fun to read on its own. The creation of the new character, however, was different than those who came before. That’s because Asteria is the first canonically autistic character added to D&D.

Wizards of the Coast

According to project co-lead Makenzie De Armas, the choice to make Asteria autistic was the result of serendipity — a happy accident that evolved from an organic creative process. The idea of being friends with a Medusa is hard but, according to De Armas, could be easy if someone doesn’t want to make eye contact.

De Armas, who is autistic herself, was able into incorporate her own experiences in the character. For instance, there’s text in the book that mentions Asteria’s hyperfocus on a puzzle to the point of forgetting to eat as well as animosity toward a particular character for breaking Asteria’s fidget toy.

Wizards of the Coast

“It’s not just a little ribbon that’s put under her character,” De Armas told Polygon in an interview at this year’s Gen Con. “It permeates all of her actions, but it doesn’t define her. It allows her to show off other passions besides love. I’m autistic, and it’s so rewarding to see her experiences and get to reflect her experiences through the notes and her story.”

An original creation attributed to D&D co-creator Gary Gygax himself, the Deck of Many Things first appeared in 1975’s GreyhawkThe 5th Edition of the game has not yet been fully redesigned. The launch of a new product is more than simply bringing a piece back to life. Deck of Many ThingsIt is anticipated that many new players will be attracted to this hobby. They represent a very different kind of community than the traditional white, male, non-neurotypical player base that for many people is the traditional image of the D&D player. Today’s D&D is more welcoming to everyone — as noted by organizations like Baltimore’s Child, The School Library Journal, and Australian advocacy group Autism Actually, which have all explored the benefits that tabletop role-play can have for individuals with autism.

In 2021, Polygon published a piece called “How autism powers my D&D,” in which author Meg Leach agreed:

Role-playing games like D&D are valuable for neurodivergent people because they bring structure to a relatively unstructured and chaotic experience — social interaction. While a quest or dungeon crawl may seem somewhat confusing to a casual viewer, there’s a subtle yet solid narrative thread binding the story. This thread is kept by the rules that apply to every situation. People with autism don’t have to worry about misunderstanding sarcasm because an insight check can more or less reveal the speaker’s intentions.

This thinking is directly in line with De Armas’ own experiences in the hobby. She said when she began freelancing, she was told that D&D was actually It is not a good idea to use Social interaction is important for people with autism.

“I decided to come out as autistic because I wanted people to know that those people were wrong,” De Armas told Polygon. “This feels like a wonderful next step for me, and for making this game really reflective of all the wonderfully amazing people who play it.”

De Armas has a hook in that Asteria is empowered by her neurodivergence. Not despite this. Asteria is as capable as any of the other previous characters featured by the D&D books, equally able to make a roll of the dice against a god or a demon as anyone else.

“It resonates so much with the idea of the [cards]It is a way to challenge and change the idea of what an actual story should look like. And that resonated so much with my own journey with accepting what my identity meant and how people had perceptions about me and how I wanted to rewrite those.”