The real treasure was the friends we made along the way: Co-presence with likeminded others drives the social benefits of TTRPGs for autistic individuals

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) are increasingly proposed as a social safe space for autistic individuals, yet quantitative, large-scale evidence is lacking. Using an online survey (N = 1,113), we compared TTRPG players (n=364), RPG videogame players (n=434), and other videogame players (n=315) across autistic (n=293) and non-autistic (n=820) participants, examining three aims: (1) whether TTRPG players indicate greater satisfaction with social interactions than solitary gamers; (2) whether immersion and flow mediate the relationship between game type and social satisfaction; and (3) whether autistic individuals show the double empathy pattern, here operationalised as lower satisfaction in general social contexts but satisfaction with likeminded others comparable to neurotypical individuals, and whether this is predicted by affective rather than cognitive empathy. We developed two new neurotypical-norm-free measures: a Monotropic Flow Scale and a Satisfaction with Social Interactions Scale. For autistic participants, playing TTRPG was associated with no effect on satisfaction with social interactions generally, but greater satisfaction with social interactions with friends and likeminded people, suggestive of a double empathy effect. Autistic participants showed lower general social satisfaction and empathy overall, but similar levels of affective reactivity to neurotypical participants. Path modelling showed that immersion negatively predicted social satisfaction, while typical flow predicted it positively. These findings suggest that the social benefits of TTRPGs stem primarily from co-presence with likeminded others, not from role-playing itself.