Dobble Debate logo, two capital D's, Dobble in orange, Debate in blue
Bake-your-own

Creating your own game

Want to create your own home-brewed game? Perhaps you tried the Ready-to-Go game and had an idea or two about other ways to encourage discussion about disability?

Check out our Pre-baked Games for examples of different approaches to playing Dobble Debate, such as a non-competitive or narrative based game.

Ready to bake your own? Below are some guiding questions to help you develop your gameplay; our decks of cards to flip through; PDFs of the decks to print out; an animated version of the avatars we have developed; and some roles we created for the Ready-to-Go game.

Guiding Questions

  • What are your overall goals for this game? To increase awareness of disability? To create an icebreaker game? To engage with people's ability to empathize with others?
  • Who is devising this new game? What are your own experiences that you bringing to the game?
  • What are your more specific goals? To create a competitive game? A cooperative game? A narrative game?
  • Which decks of cards would help you build your game? Or do you need to create your own deck?
  • Do you want to play in teams or as individuals?
  • How do you keep the group active and engaged throughout the game?
  • What's luck got to do with it :-) Do you want to use chance, such as card shuffling as an element in the game?
  • Do you need to award points, keep track of a score or declare a winner(s) of the game?
  • Is time a consideration in the gameplay you devise?
  • How would you like to end the game? Time constraint? Point count? Consensus ending?
  • How do you design the gameplay that is respectful and helps people to understand other life experiences?

The Cards

Dobble Debate has developed 4 decks of cards that you could use to make your own game.

are stories from people living with disability. The stories are a range of humourous and poignant narratives, everyday events and innovation from peoples' daily lives.

Download printable deck. QR codes are printed on the Spark card PDFs so that you can access International Sign Language interpretations of the stories by scanning the printed QR code using a smart phone.

example of the front and back of a spark card

describe a range of capabilities, some that are traditionally called disabilities, such as autism, and others that are not usually thought of as a disability, for example synesthesia.

Download printable deck. The printable PDFs of our cards contain QR codes so that you can access digital media through the hard copy option.

example of the front and back of an ability card

illustrate environments. They range from the everyday, like public toilets to the fantastical, such as a giant's castle.

Download printable deck. The printable PDFs of our cards contain QR codes so that you can access digital media through the hard copy option.

example of a situation card

are points. They range from +3 to -1.

Download printable deck. The printable PDFs of our cards contain QR codes so that you can access digital media through the hard copy option.

example of dobble cards front and back

The Avatars

We developed the following avatars together with our community co-creators who live with visual impairment. They are sensations that everyone can imagine. Click on each one to animate them through sound and movement.

Download the avatars as printable PDF cards.

The Roles

For the Ready-to-Go game we developed the following roles for our players. We hope they inspire you to bake your own roles.  

Pro role... is the player or team who is using their best arguments to convince the referee that a given ability is an advantage in a particular situation.
Con role... is the player or team who is arguing the disadvantages. They are refuting the Pro's points and putting forward their own.
Ref role... is the player or team who are listening to all the arguments and then deciding how many points, between -1 and 3, they will award to each debater.
Kibbitzer role... is the active audience. While waiting your turn to be Pro, Con or Ref you can hustle, heckle or help the debaters. Kitbbitzer (pronounced kib-it-ser) is a Jewish word. According to Wikipedia it means "a spectator, usually one who offers (often unwanted) advice or commentary".