ICS is in Booth EH06 (Located in Hall 1E)
Table of Contents
Join the Accessible TTRPG Games
Ready to roll the dice? ICS invites you to join our accessible tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) at NYCC! Just click the “stay connected” button to sign up. Filling out the form ensures you’ll get all the latest updates and info so you can jump into the adventure whenever it works for you. Follow along our accessible adventures on Instagram as well!
What We’re Playing: Dungeons & Dragons
We’re diving into 5th Edition (5E) Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)! Games run Friday through Sunday—you can join one, two, or all three sessions. Whether you’re brand new to D&D or a seasoned player, all abilities are welcome.
D&D Campaign Overview
As the town of Hickory Haven counts down to its 200th Harvest Festival, an unknown force stirs unleashing chaos and destruction that no one saw coming. Will you use your powers to save the Festival? Or will you uncover the past and reveal the secrets lurking below the surface?
Accessibility at the Games
Our campaigns are built for inclusion. Each game features:
- ASL interpretation
- Action description
- Captioning services
Our table is open to players of all abilities. Everyone is welcome to this adventure.
ASL Video with Interpretation
AD Video with Audio Description
The Inclusive Schedule at NYCC 2025
| Day & Time | Event | Description |
| Thursday, Oct 9 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM | Inclusive Resource Table & Photo Booth | Explore language-focused accessibility resources. If you are curious about making your events or content more accessible—we’ve got you covered. |
| Thursday, Oct 9 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM | The Accessibility Alliance: A Disability-Friendly Meetup | Finally … a meet-up for fans with visible and invisible disabilities! This is your space to nerd out, make new friends, and feel included. |
| Thursday, Oct 9 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM | Accessible Game: TTRPG 1-Shot [Live captions, description, & ASL] Session Zero (Game Prep) | Get a quick intro to our setting and meet the major NPCs. Learn how to play 5E D&D and create your character for the weekend. |
| Friday, Oct 10 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM | Inclusive Resource Table & Photo Booth | Explore language-focused accessibility resources. If you are curious about making your events or content more accessible—we’ve got you covered. |
| Friday, Oct 10 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM | The Accessibility Alliance: A Disability-Friendly Meetup | Finally … a meet-up for fans with visible and invisible disabilities! This is your space to nerd out, make new friends, and feel included. |
| Friday, Oct 10 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM | Accessible Game: TTRPG 1-Shot [Live captions, description, & ASL] Session 1 (Play / Spectate) | Two days before the Harvest Festival, a formidable force stirs in the town of Hickory Haven… join our 5E D&D adventure and discover what awaits. |
| Saturday, Oct 11 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM | The Accessibility Alliance: A Disability-Friendly Meetup | Finally … a meet-up for fans with visible and invisible disabilities! This is your space to nerd out, make new friends, and feel included. |
| Saturday, Oct 11 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM | Inclusive Resource Table & Photo Booth | Explore language-focused accessibility resources. If you are curious about making your events or content more accessible—we’ve got you covered. |
| Saturday, Oct 11 3:15 PM – 6:15 PM | Accessible Game: TTRPG 1-Shot [Live captions, description, & ASL] Session 2 (Play / Spectate) | One day before the Harvest Festival, a formidable force stirs in the town of Hickory Haven… join our 5E D&D adventure and discover what awaits. |
| Sunday, Oct 12 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM | The Accessibility Alliance: A Disability-Friendly Meetup | Finally … a meet-up for fans with visible and invisible disabilities! This is your space to nerd out, make new friends, and feel included. |
| Sunday, Oct 12 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM | Inclusive Resource Table & Photo Booth | Explore language-focused accessibility resources. If you are curious about making your events or content more accessible—we’ve got you covered. |
| Sunday, Oct 12 1:15 PM – 3:45 PM | Accessible Game: TTRPG 1-Shot [Live captions, description, & ASL] Session 3 (Play / Spectate) | It’s the day of the Harvest Festival …will the celebration go on, or will the town be forever changed? Join our 5E D&D adventure to find out. |
Where to Find ICS at NYCC
ICS will be in Hall 1E also known as Side Quest, home to all things gaming! Hall 1E is located on the “basement” or lower floor and located near the Main Stage.
Once you enter Hall 1E, look for the Mahjong area, our ICS table is right across from them and next to the Star Wars groups.
The official 2025 NYCC Map has not yet been released. However, you can access the 2024 NYCC “Better Map” here. Shout out to @Robbie_Yee for creating this “Better Map” showcasing locations of all gender restrooms, elevators, and escalators.
Level 1 is also home to several other accessible and inclusive spaces including: the ADA scooter charging room, pride lounge, prayer room, and a quiet room.
We encourage you to check out the NYCC ADA Assistance Program to help make the most of this epic experience. The program provides ADA stickers, guidance on accessible entrances, service animal policies, and direct contact information for submitting accommodation requests to the NYCC team. Please note: Inclusive Communication Services is not responsible for overall accessibility at NYCC.
Game Notes
Each game will begin 5 – 10 minutes after the start time, depending on player availability. Game length is subject to the DM’s (Dungeon Master) discretion to let the game run long or short. Players are asked to be courteous to others at the table and inform the DM of their availability for the session (ie. let us know if you need to leave early). The “Rule of Cool” universally applies at the ICS table.
We will have dice (numbered and tactile), game supplies, and access to character sheets; just bring your sense of fun and inclusion!
All games will have professional ASL interpretation, action and player description, and live captions. If you need additional accommodations, please reach out and let us know!
WITH GREAT POWER COMES … GREAT CONSEQUENCES
Character decisions and story choices will affect the story of the world overall. Join us over three days of games as we weave together an incredible story with the fabric of our imaginations.
Meet Your Dungeon Masters (DMs)
Andrew Zhang
Born and raised in the Bronx, NY, Andrew began playing D&D in his freshman year of college. During the pandemic, he would finally begin running his own campaigns, bringing to life what was years of doodling and worldbuilding (thoughtfully conceived in math class). While all of his home games were virtual, weekly game time averaged about 20 hours per week, spread over four different campaigns.
Outside of D&D, Andrew’s hobbies and interests include competing in triathlon, reading, traveling to hang out with his online friends (in person!), studying science and philosophy, watching anime, and running marathons. He also has a deep appreciation for improv and storytelling, but you probably already could guess that. He currently pursues a masters in clinical rehabilitation counseling, a profession where he hopes to empower people with disabilities to set goals and exceed their own expectations.
Adam Engel
Older than Google and nearly as full of random facts, Adam has been playing D&D and running games for over fifteen years. He delights in both telling stories and helping others tell theirs, and D&D is a favorite outlet for this passion. A founding member of Bardwired, a D&D podcast, Adam also headed the rules committee of the Crucible of Fate, a D&D game show where he placed in the top fifteen contestants! A voracious reader originally from farming country in Wisconsin, he went full circle after moving to Chicago for work by promptly fleeing to rural New York, where he is enthusiastically starting out his own hobby farm and family (currently just his wife, their dog, and a groundhog squatter named Comfortable Doug). Despite his frequent and unfortunately ominous laugh, rest assured that he is not in fact plotting the demise of his players but only enjoying himself.
Session 1 Recap (Friday)
Adventure Party: The Dog With No Name
Abridged Summary:
In which a party of stalwart heroes is hired by an old dog to rescue his boy. Braving the tunnels beneath Hickory Haven, our heroes fended off sewer monsters in defense of the missing child, using some violence but mostly song and… well, mostly violence.
Epic Adventure Summary:
An intrepid party of heroes has descended upon the sleepy hamlet of Hickory Haven. Checca Hecca the Hellborn, a tiefling druid. Kitsun the bard, a foxfolk devotee of music. Petra Mason, a goliath of gentle silence and bestial rage. Doma the Half-Orc, a paladin who balances moral struggles with a taste for fine literature. Gwynn Golvander, a dwarven cleric gifted in the healing arts. Lastly, Lais Onyons, a fighter gifted in telekinesis, his powers oddly flavored with sour cream. The party was gratified to learn that the town is soon to host a grand festival. Sparing no expense in the preparations, the townsfolk have been posting odd jobs in the village green for all comers. Eager for coin to spend on entertainments, our heroes made their way to the signboard.
Waiting there, however, was the sad little figure of The Dog With No Name, an adorable old beast resembling nothing so much as a loaf of bread with legs, a disapproving squint, and a magic collar allowing him to talk. Raising his gravelly voice in a plea for aid, he related that his “Boy With the Best Skritches” was missing. He offered the party his entire trove in payment for finding the boy. Though the paladin suggested the reward would be nothing but buried bones, the party agreed.
At the dog’s advice the party consulted “Them Kids,” an attempted gang of teenage hoodlums with whom the boy was last seen. Kitsun struck up with a popular song, wowing the kids before they had a chance to get belligerent. While the gang was still processing a rendition of Taylor Swift on a lute, the party pressed them for information.
It came out that, as the ritual challenge to join their little gang, the missing boy had been left to stand an hour in the Catacombs, an ancient warren of tunnels beneath the town.
That had been over four hours ago.
The party grimly pursued the boy into the yawning dark, following signs of his passage over walls of collapsing debris and past tribes of warring kobolds, all the while oppressed by a growing certainty that something stalked them from the shadows (well, the space beyond their darkvision).
Eventually, something did more than stalk. Four thorned tentacles ringing its cruel, hawklike beak, a Grell flung itself from the darkness to attack our heroes and was promptly beaten to a squishy, glue-and-pork scented mash.Grell are cold, vicious predators, paralyzing their prey before hauling it back to their lairs and devouring it at leisure. Recognizing signs pointing toward the beast’s lair, Lais lead the party forward and found the unconscious but still living child, returning him safely to the surface…
But are they safe? More than the grell haunts the catacombs: our heroes found claw marks ripped through solid stone and signs of an inexplicable lessening, as though the magic underpinning all of creation itself is slowly fraying. Worst of all, just as they found the child a dark shape, tall and inhuman, stepped briefly into the light before vanishing like a ghost. What could it be? What does the rapid decay of the stone beneath Hickory Haven mean for the town? And, most importantly, will the Dog With No Name really pay the party in bones? Come back soon and find out!
Adventure Party: Nobody’s Home
Abridged Summary:
Wherein a party of righteous adventurers look for Mickie D’s! But instead only find dead bodies… Some moving, some in pain, and many just looking for a way out.
Epic Adventure Summary:
Here lies Hickory Haven, what appears to be a deserted town. Once known for their great exports of Hickory Brew and Hickory Smoked bacon, the town has gone silent in the last couple of years. A few adventurers, passing by on the nearby Great North road, come by to investigate. Initially scattered in their purpose and understanding of the town, the party rallies around the idea of finding and partaking of some fabled Mickie D’s. However, further investigation of the town only revealed troubling signs. The main gates were destroyed, the town was empty, and shops that were boarded up were full of the town’s now dead inhabitants. Disturbed, the party turned to the last part of the town that may harbor live inhabitants: the mansion located at the northern part of town.
After approaching the mansion, the party found their way blocked by tall walls, a sealed gate, and a strange magical disturbance that obscured their sight into the mansion. After some exploration, they found their way into the mansion via a suspiciously clean sewer passageway that led directly under the estate. They emerged into the parlor room, where the party did battle with several mimics, disguised as furniture. The party then took a short rest, after which they began exploring the mansion for any signs of life. The dwarf known as Cheezit instead began cooking some famed Hickory smoked bacon while being guarded by Shel, the barbarian. Gil, the most righteous of the adventuring party, made a direct beeline for the master bedroom which he found to be well sealed. Hearing voices which seemed to be trapped, he broke open the door, only to realize that there were several undead abominations beginning to crawl their way out of their now opened prison. Gil, understanding his mistake too late, fled the mansion, calling for the rest of his party to retreat with him and that “this town is beyond his paygrade.”
The party successfully retreats from the mansion, though the bacon and the kitchen were set aflame. They flee the town, never quite understanding the horrors they’ve seen or why the town came to be the way it was. The party, with the best of intentions, has only managed to unseal the horrors within the mansion, leaving behind a much more dangerous town than it once was just a few days ago.
Session 2 (Saturday)
Adventure Party: Going Beyond
Abridged Summary:
In which three chaos goblins and one harried barbarian make a madcap attempt to fetch a handheld showerhead on behalf of a crazy gnome. No damage was taken, but there was a casualty! Please note that only one player was actually a goblin.
Epic Adventure Summary:
Reivier, a thieving goblin trickster. Cyndakaya, a bestial barbarian with a practical perspective. Peter Pestilence, a divine caster with a decidedly impractical one. Griselda, an… erratic young warlock. These unlikely heroes, enlisted by oil-spattered gnome in a snuggie, quest for something called a deluge rod in the ruins to the east of Hickory Haven. “Seek the sign of Beyond” was the gnome’s cryptic instruction.
The rod is intended to improve the fountain of Hickory Haven in time for a festival in the sleepy little town. Beyond is his secret stash of treasures from an ancient civilization, and the heroes are not only offered gold but whatever they can carry from this wealth of valuables.
He also assures them that any traps he might have left in the ruins are decidedly nonlethal.
For a place with such an imposing name, beyond is also not that difficult to find. Per the gnome it rests only two leagues from Hickory Haven, just past the world’s largest patch of poison ivy.
Before Cyndayaka could assure them how deeply bad the idea was, Peter pestilence took it upon himself to light a section on fire and see what happened. Now the world’s largest patch of poison ivy slowly going up in toxic smoke, the party elected to take a wide detour, thankfully able to avoid the clouds beginning to billow from the evil little plants.
Reaching the ancient ruins and seeing an alarming and wildly conspicuous techno-magical trap above the entrance, Griselda declared that since the gnome said it was nonlethal she would run right through it. Thankfully, the quick-thinking Reivier was able to disrupt the trap with a well-flung stone, shattering the mechanism before whatever nastiness the gnome inventor had intended.
Within the ruins, they found themselves in a vast hall stretching north and south. Bones and scrub speckle a deep layer of dirt, save where the tracks of various varmits meander through the dim light. Far above, great skylights of broken glass fight a constant battle to allow the sun into the great space despite the efforts of grime and choking plants. Great doors of glass with strange signs above them, spaced along the walls like market stalls on a village green, hint at strange treasures within.
Griselda elected to run right through it. Ignoring the glimpse of a sign the gnome had instructed them to seek and stumbling across a small vendor cart in her haste, she then sees a wonder. Preserved from the ravages of time behind a layer of pristine crystal is a beautiful spiral of cinnamoned, sugary perfection. Not a creature to waste time, Griselda shattered the crystal, brushed the shards from the pastry, and shoved it in her face.
Meanwhile Cyndayaka, following the lunatic in polite concern, noticed the sign that the gnome had foretold. Locked with an arcane mechanism of the gnomes devising, the party were able to trip the lock easily and step into Beyond. Inside, in a space beyond the petty concerns of the world, the party finds a vast warehouse of goods. Most importantly, a vast collection of the deluge rods. Taking two backpack falls of the things, along with silk sheets and a cinnamon bun machine, the party took their booty and prepared to leave.
As they stepped from Beyond, however, it became clear what had been scattering bones through the hall lurching from the shadows, came a bemused but delighted wyvern, which snapped up Peter Pestilence before pausing to savor the tasty surprise.
Griselda, never one to hesitate, decided to run right… well, past it, and the others followed.
At this point, gentle reader, your narrator is obliged to point out two simple facts of wyvern anatomy. Built for grace and speed in the air, they are reduced to a slow, and awkward crawl when kept on the ground by, say, a long and crumbling hallway. Furthermore, unlike their draconic brethren they are unable to breathe fire. As a final note, they are somewhat stupid.
In short, the party was easily able outrun the creature, craning its head after them with a sad and perplexed little whine.
Stopping to test the deluge rods by putting out the fire that was Peter Pestilence’s final legacy, the party returned to the gnome and received their reward, closing out their adventure with Reivier’s misguided and thankfully nonlethal attempt to pick the gnome’s pocket.
Session 3 (Sunday)
Adventure Party: Blazing End
Abridged Summary: Adventures set to quell nearby wildfires! That is, until they realize some fires just need to be tamed. Whatever the case may be, one truth remains certain, don’t touch the mushrooms!