Can an RPG be all about healing and acceptance?
Society of Rafa puts you in a Jewish fantasy realm far removed from any dungeon or dragon
I had the chance to interview the creators of a new RPG called Society of Rafa, Rachel Atwood and Jonathan Davidson, a game in which you play as a healer in a fantasy Jewish setting. The game explores themes like gender identity and the fabric that makes up a community.
NOTE: Society of Rafa has funded and is live on Kickstarter now!
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Hi, Rachel and Jonathan! Can you introduce yourselves and tell us about your relationship with tabletop gaming?
Rachel: Hi Dave! Nice to meet you. I used to work in the corporate world as a healthcare product manager and UX researcher. My interests range from art to religious studies.
I am actually relatively new to tabletop gaming. As a lifelong sci-fi and fantasy nerd, I was always intrigued by D&D but intimidated by all its rules and math.
We finally started playing D&D during the pandemic. There were things I loved about it, but in other ways I was disappointed. It was less immersive than I imagined and I honestly found combat boring. We tried a few other games. DIE is my favorite because of its relationship-centered and fail-forward approach. But I’ve always wanted to experiment with more healing-centric ideas to roleplaying and fantasy in general. Therefore, I started prototyping Society of Rafa and tested it with our D&D group. After a few iterations, I realized we actually had something that others may enjoy.
Jonathan: We all switch off between GM and players, so I think we learned really quickly how varied styles of GMing can get. Rachel and I were both high-trust in giving players agency to shape the story beyond mechanics, so Rafa was born from that and then really found its groove when we learned to center a moral dilemma that players can take in many different directions. I’m a Principal Data Engineer by day, but after the Kickstarter I hope to work exclusively on this project for a few months.
How would you describe Society of Rafa generally?
Rachel: In Society of Rafa, you delve into the close-knit village of Kahal filled with eccentric scholars, nosey neighbors, & rambunctious spirits. You are a Rafa, a healer, charged with caring for the health of your community and keeping the peace with the local spirits. At the core of each scenario you solve a complex moral dilemma, bound only by your chosen healing skills and creativity. It feels like playing a folktale.
So much of fantasy in RPGs is built from Christian European history and tradition. How does Society of Rafa distinguish itself with the use of Jewish tradition and folklore as its primary inspiration?
Rachel: Bringing in my Jewish culture was always important but really started fusing into every aspect of the game as we built it out. The folklore is fresh, even to many Jews, because we hear about golems and dybbuks but not estries and Lantukh, chicken-feet demons with long tongues. It’s really fun to bring the unfamiliar and unknown into the world building, drawing from Jewish communities around the world: the shtetl political structures, Ethiopian Debra healers, and the Third Place, communal ovens of Pitigliano, Italy.
Even the feel is immensely different because of the Jewish culture. Our folklore is often centered around being a good person in everyday life, rather than the hero’s journey of traveling to find oneself or earn glory through battle. One of the hardest elements to prepare players for is that there is no “right” answer to moral dilemmas and scenarios in play—you can discover and resolve in very diverse ways. Jews debate, and our religious texts are interpretative, making meaning by writing stories and filling in the blanks of our religious texts. In Medieval Europe, we weren’t kings or Machiavellian but were rooted in keeping our communities alive and prospering despite distrust from the majority surrounding us.
All of these help the game feel very Jewish, without the game itself being Judaism, and we make it accessible to everyone and not appropriative. I’d say Society of Rafa is Jewish in the way Tolkien or CS Lewis novels are Christian—they have a certain universality (or at least popularity) while being deeply rooted in the beliefs and interests of their creators. Society of Rafa has a universal relatability, because people feel pulled to the vibrant, close knit community where everyone is in everyone else’s business and wanting to care for each other.
I confess that I’m largely ignorant of most Jewish traditions and cultural practices, so when I read through some of the Society of Rafa materials, I couldn’t tell what was entirely fictional, partially based on Jewish lore or traditions, or entirely transplanted from the real thing. For example, the Avodai naming conventions. The name you end up with sounds very, very Jewish. Is the convention in the game just slightly altered from real Jewish naming practices?
Rachel: Yes, that’s generally how it is. Bet is gender neutral in modern Hebrew (alternatively, Binai) rather than saying Bat or Ben (daughter or son of). Hebrew is still a very gendered language and we found Bet on the Nonbinary Hebrew Project. My Zoomer brother told me Bet was slang and I thought that was funny. I decided to do the birthing parent first, rather than the father first, as a feminist nod.
But after that, it’s kind of our own take on things. I started playing with different family configurations, beyond the nuclear heterosexual pairings. Our spirits, for example, are more neutral, neither good nor evil, which is heavily inspired by Japanese Shintoism. So maybe 60% Jewish, 20% other cultures, 20% our own philosophy and interpretations, but we’re very comfortable with players bringing in their own cultures as well.
Very cool. How about the Avodai pronunciation guide, is this basically teaching me the phonics of the Hebrew language?
Rachel: Approximately, it’s teaching transliteration. I don’t really care very much how people pronounce things, and I’ve been called out on my pronunciation of ‘dybbuk’ because it was closer to Yiddish than Hebrew, but for our audience who do care I provide simple rules to help them get close to real sounds. A lot of making the game was adding details people were looking for and balancing against openness that lets people use the worldbuilding however they want.
How does a person play the game you have created without feeling like they are appropriating Jewish culture, folklore and traditions?
Rachel: We designed the game to feel very Jewish, but we changed specific traditions and holidays to avoid the appropriation issue. I want everyone to be able to touch and use any aspect of the game. I am just one person, so others may disagree on the lines we drew.
As long as you play with the game as a foundation you’re good. We had quite a few non-Jewish beta testers and I never saw anything that I found inappropriate or uncomfortable. Overall just do not reinforce Jewish stereotypes or bring in traditions that are not your own.
However, we added pointers in the Handbook to avoid conflating play with understanding Judaism or canonizing anti-semitic tropes, such as:
“The Avodai actually deserve their persecution.”
“The Avodai are greedy or stingy.”
“The Avodai secretly control world politics or business.”
“The Avoidai perform secret murderous rituals, like the blood libel.”
What is the typical play cycle in a session of the game?
Jonathan: Many players assume based on mechanics and subject matter that their role as a Rafa is to diagnose a problem, apply a skill to fix, and hope to have fun along the way. However, these are merely what happens, so a satisfying story enhances this with who and why via moral dilemmas. Rafa's heart, then, is when players approach a harm or limitation compassionately, feeling out the complexities and ambiguities.
A good Society of Rafa scenario is like a two-stage journey. First, the Storyteller/GM guides players to a stunning vista worth exploring, after which the players scan the horizon and signal to the Storyteller which points of interest they want to traverse to. Reaching the destination, then, is a cooperative effort between players and Storyteller: that magical interaction of the medium of tabletop roleplaying. It’s a powerfully cathartic experience that honors player agency.
What are players usually aiming for in the long term in the game?
Jonathan: Our game is episodic, which contributes to how easily experienced and new roleplayers alike engage and enjoy from the first session. We encourage that each scenario builds layers into every group’s version of Kahal. Characters you meet, actions you take, and relationships you form persist to create a vibrant, living community with the players’ characters as members of the village. We also designed it so players can easily switch off who is the Storyteller between scenarios.
Society of Rafa was conceived in the height of the COVID pandemic and Black Lives Matter movements because our society yearns for ways to express empathy and kindness within an imperfect world. This is a transformational game, enveloping players into a communal vision set in an era analogous to Jewish emancipation (growing legal protection and integration), Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), and early-to-mid industrialization to help players imagine our world in a different light. The setting accommodates a lot of darkness, but optimism helps players repair this world (tikkun olam).
Postscript, and I guess players like earning new healing skills.
Some of the guidance for Storytellers (GMs) in the game includes approaching any given scenario as having five components: the moral dilemma, impetus, scenes, maladies and conclusion. Which of those components have you found to be most challenging for Storytellers in both prepping and handling in-game?
Rachel: The hardest part to get right is the moral dilemma because you need to find something that is interesting, actionable, and has multiple potential outcomes. The moral dilemma should shine over any mysteries. It is the part I spend the most time on because it will set the tone of the entire scenario. Everything else tends to fall into place once the moral dilemma is set.
Otherwise, my personal weakness is predicting which NPCs the players will want to bring into the scenario since I like to have those preplanned. In particular, having NPCs' perspectives thought out helps me improve more dynamic interactions and conflict.
Jonathan: I never really asked this because other Storytellers did such a great job. (Missed opportunities, which I’ll correct.) Asking our game consultant Bob Boyd, they said:
“Well, for me, I think the biggest challenge is bringing the malady to life. The system makes building them a breeze, and roleplaying/describing them isn’t overly taxing, but giving all the Rafa at the table, no matter their specialization, something to latch onto is always a bit harder to do on your feet at first. However, getting to know your player characters, more than their skills but what kind of characters they are, is always a good compass in situations like that. I definitely rely on that kind of knowledge when trying to give everyone at the table something for their character to engage with.”
The game suggests taking in player ideas about the world and the setting as fact, rather than having the Storyteller dictate everything about the world. In your experience, when have you seen this approach of informational symmetry have the biggest payoff?
Jonathan: Honestly, it feels a bit essential when you get to holidays and celebrations because to get people pumped about those community functions they can’t fear doing it wrong. Storytellers/GMs can canonize traditions and pull from the book, but being open to “what is your favorite recipe to eat with honey or apple?” allows you to learn a lot more about your players and their characters. You can bring a horse to a party, but you can’t make it party. You gotta encourage it.
When solicited in the proper spirit, it also eases burdens on the Storyteller. Certain details will make your stories pop, and certain details your players bring will pop. During my game, I’ve had people create their own difficulties stumbling around and checking in on former patients on their way to the main place I wanted them to go. These types of things are very charming, and encourage you as the Storyteller to stop and smell the roses just as much as your players.
Rachel: My favorite part of information symmetry is when players integrate lore details into their characters. It makes their characters so rich and integrated into the setting. The players also feel more ready to roleplay in a dynamic way. It is also fun when players pre-read the Book of Spirits and get excited about figuring out which spirit is involved. One time, a player decided to go talk to a spirit I did not bring into the scenario to ask advice on the dilemma. Lets just say it was delightful to roleplay the Frog Scholars for the first time. Overall, the information symmetry empowers the players and makes the roleplay richer.
Can you describe the village of Kahal and its significance in the game?
Jonathan: Kahal is a tight-knit community with landmarks that emphasize the Third Places where community gathers (or, in some haunted cases, avoid). We particularly love the communal oven where people bring their uncooked dough and gossip, influenced by Italian Jews. Other staples include the House of Rest which offers free lodging to travelers, acknowledging that such hospitality can bring prosperity to the community. (Jewish communities often hosted traveling Jews for free.) Superstition states that new or abandoned structures attract haunting spirits, so there's also a stewardship aspect that subtly rears concerns about resources and sustainability.
Because of its unique history when the Avodai people were rejected by broader society, Kahal remains a majority-minority village where past traumas and optimism for survival strongly bond its citizens. Not every character in the game is agreeable to players, but there's a shared ethos that gives you avenues to converse with anyone, human or spirit. We even have organizations set up with their own alignments, helping Storytellers roleplay social dynamics. While that might sound complicated, it's just flavorful worldbuilding that fleshes out this setting and encourages players to consider annual seasons and traditions.
What is the most analogous time period to the setting here in terms of the level of technology that characters have access to? And would the region around them essentially be the Middle East?
Rachel: The setting is roughly equivalent to the early industrial revolution with the growing use of energy bending correlating to the growth of technology in the real world. From a Jewish perspective, this also correlates to Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment movement, and Emancipation periods, where Jews fought for and gained equal rights in Europe. These overlapping themes allow for interesting stories around environmentalism, cultural continuity, and assimilation. I think these themes are relatable to people from any marginalized community. I could also imagine a more explicitly Steampunk twist on the setting. The region is roughly the Mediterranean, taking inspiration from Spain, Italy, and Northern Africa.
Jonathan: Don’t forget the walking carts, think four legged wagons (you can see them in the Kahal illustration). They are kind of a play on golems, artificial creatures created by man to serve and protect, and we introduced them for that steampunk aesthetic. When we started imagining disabilities and accommodations in Society of Rafa, the walking carts are a prime example of how the magic of this world supersedes historical realism.
There is a city described in the game called Terida. The various locations described for it include a bunch of cozy spots like a library, a cafe, and just normal slice of life places like a grocery, school, house of worship, etc. Was this city modeled after a particular one from our world?
Rachel: Yes and no. Throughout history Jews often lived in Jewish quarters either by force (ghettos) or by choice. The closest equivalent for the Avodai Quarter in Terida is the Jewish community that existed in Pitigliano, Italy. In her cookbook, Edda Machlin, an Italian Jew who grew up in Pitigliano, described her childhood home. Non-Jewish children often attended the Jewish school because of its quality. There was a vibrant tradition of Yiddish theater, arts, and activism both in Eastern Europe and New York. These often took place in cafes. The Yiddish Book Center is an awesome project preserving Yiddish literature and culture. As a culture, Jews have a great love for books and learning, so I liked the idea of bringing in the library as a community feature.
In Avodai society, which your player character is a member of, parents and midwives assign children at birth with one of three genders: Male, Female or Timtum (neither male nor female). Then at age 13 they declare their gender and pronouns to the community. But they can then change their gender at will, and midwives in the setting wield an energy bending technique that can physically reassign their gender. So as an adult in Avodai you can be up to six different genders: the three aforementioned, as well as Androgynos (both male and female), Aylonit or Saris. Can you explain Aylonit and Saris a bit more?
Jonathan: Aylonit and Saris are additional analogs on the trans spectrum. Whereas Timtum and Androgynos represent non-binary trans identities, the binary trans are Aylonit (transition to man) and Saris (transition to woman). Borrowing from feminist reinterpretations, Society of Rafa upcycles terminology from earlier Jewish law, making it so that parents can raise a child with intentions and guidance toward an assumed gender expression while explicitly relinquishing autonomy to the child to claim their own gender expression.
Everyone, including cis people, should contend with the fact that their gender expression is a choice. I know that working on the game helped me come out as trans femme despite believing for years that I did not identify with binary gender. Learning to express it was powerful, not an uncommon side effect with roleplaying in general. Gender might be a light choice or a taxing one, but there are interesting facets to explore if your society or religion impose expectations or obligations on your gender.
Does the player’s choice of gender have any mechanical or narrative bearing in the game?
Jonathan: Gender has zero mechanical bearing, but narratively it has only as much importance and emphasis as given by its participants. In all the ways that matter, this should be a safe space for players to tell and experience the stories they need or want.
Rachel: When we chose to include specific alternative genders there is both a risk and benefit. In my own gender journey, I have always been intrigued by cultures that have specific roles for nonbinary and trans identities, such as Two Spirit people in Native cultures. (Which is also why non-Natives should not take on Two Spirit as an identity). Even though I consider myself nonbinary at a personal level, our society does not really have an understanding of what that means. For many folks that nonbinary freedom is powerful. For me, I do not get much benefit from coming out more broadly because I will still be perceived as a woman in interpersonal interactions. Bringing in these explicit, alternative genders explores a society where they are built in. There are ceremonies for gender reflection and transition. The risk is, the Jewish genders do not align exactly with our current understanding of gender in the LGBGTQ+ community. We modified them to be more about gender rather than sexual characteristics (while making sure to be inclusive of intersex folks). We also tweaked our approach based on feedback from a nonbinary beta tester.
Especially where trans folks are increasingly being persecuted, we need to be very careful. Yet I think there is a power in exploring different ways society could handle gender, even if it is not perfect. Roleplaying games are an opportunity to, well, roleplay alternative societal structures.
Do you think that the gender autonomy and fluidity found in this game could or should be incorporated into other RPGs? Would you like to see Wizards of the Coast (for better or worse the publisher of the bestselling and most widely adopted RPG of all time) adopt a more fluid and open approach to gender, or are there reasons why you might not want to see that?
Jonathan: If you take Wizards of the Coast’s behemoth, Dungeons & Dragons, lots of people still experiment with being the opposite sex. Men play women and vice versa. In modern discourse: “trans women are women”, which is very true, yet many find power in the experience of being trans rather than cis. A setting like DnD doesn’t really have easy options for exploring representative trans identities up front, so many, myself included, just default into being cis whether that’s man or woman.
I don’t think that’s wrong, because gender is just one facet of a person’s reality. Ultimately, what’s relatively unique in queer games is getting to sit with differences and identities that are ignored elsewhere. Corporatization of Pride has really led to rainbow capitalism, where corporations will provide enough representation to attract audiences, but there’s always something special about indies and explicitly queer places. I think it’s even better when those queer spaces exist well alongside straight culture, or culture that transcends explicit divisions.
There has been a massive trend in RPGs in recent years where character sheets ask you to write down your character’s pronouns. How is choosing from one of many genders different?
Jonathan: If I interpret you correctly, you’re noticing that on the Character Sheet, pronouns are blank text while gender is a checkbox. So, just because someone checks that their character is Saris (AMAB to woman), character creation doesn’t force them into she/her pronouns. There are such wide varieties of pronouns that some people use: xer, zir, and others I don’t know about.
To be perfectly frank, the explicit addition of pronouns was a result of beta testing; one player gave feedback on how the lack of pronouns and the presence of different genders soured their entire experience. We appreciate their feedback and welcome the chance to improve.
Rachel: We actually had pronouns in our first draft, but I ran out of space in that iteration of the design. Plus I was doing a lot of beta testing with my mom’s friends at the time who aren’t used to sharing their pronouns.
I know there are some, including myself, who feel that perhaps just reading random news articles and listening to NPR human interest stories about gender identity is not quite painting the full picture. Do you have any recommended reading on the subject of gender?
Rachel: This is a bit of a cop out, but I’d say follow as many different queer folks as you can on your social media of choice. Read trans literature. Everyone has different experiences.
Jonathan: But we can share names. I love comics because they’re generally low commitment, so the big ones that I enjoy include the banned book Gender Queer by Maia Kobab, Stone Fruit by Lee Lai, The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen, Julia Kaye, ND Stevenson or his spouse. Speaking of the last one, ND’s behind Nimona, an excellent movie adaptation on Netflix. And Rebecca Sugar is great, the animated series Steven Universe (the original, not the sequel) is absolutely transformational if you make it far enough. And I know this is ANCIENT, but scifi Ursula Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness is fascinating as an entire alien world which lives with chosen gender, a classic for a reason.
I like fiction because people get to experience it mostly where they are at. Theory is vital too, but somehow answering with the above list feels better to me.
Rachel: To add a few, Becky Chamber’s work is excellent and often deals with gender in interesting ways with parallels to Le Guin. R.B. Lemberg is a Jewish LGBTQIA+ writer. Some of our handling of gender was inspired by Lemberg. Rivers Solomon is also a great queer Black author, who explores themes of gender and race.
In the case where you got enough interest in Society of Rafa that you had the resources and demand to expand the game, how do you think you would expand it?
Rachel: My dream is to create an online community where players can co-create Society of Rafa and Kahal together. I imagine folks sharing new villagers, spirits, histories, and locations. I would love for folks to create alternative towns or worlds with our ORC license.
From a gameplay perspective beta testers have expressed interest in adding a Veterinarian specialty (a stretch goal) and playing as a spirit (please do!). The directions we go will be driven by players’ interest and feedback.
I think the diversity in RPGs in recent years has just gotten wider, and that has only made the hobby more exciting, interesting and intrinsically valuable. How do you feel about the future of RPGs? Is ever more diversity assured, or is there maybe a possibility that we’re in a golden age and that there will be a contraction or decline at some point?
Rachel: I sure hope RPGs will continue to diversify. Roleplaying games are such a powerful tool for shared storytelling. There are so many different stories we can tell together.
Jonathan: I agree with you both. I suppose that diversity is never assured, especially with political landscapes being what they are today, but I find the future of TTRPGs very exciting. It wasn’t awesome that Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast got possessive about licensing and wanting a lot more of the pie, but things like the industry innovating with the Open RPG Creative (ORC) license to keep mechanics open while protecting copyright is really cool. Society of Rafa will be released that way in December (for what mechanics we have) and that we can selectively signal more things such as town landmarks and their physical characteristics to be covered under the license. We’re finetuning exactly how much extra will be released under the ORC, but I’m so excited to think someone might build onto the base game.
Society of Rafa has funded on Kickstarter.