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Trial
by Trolley
36 Accessibility Features

We've documented 36 accessibility features for Trial by Trolley, including No Pressured Reveals, Playable Without Sight, No Close Inspection Disadvantage, Easily Verbalised Game State and No Busy Backgrounds. Its accessibility is strongest in Physical and Getting Started but it also has features in Visual, Difficulty, Reading and Audio to reduce unintended barriers.

This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.

Trial by Trolley is a game about exaggerated moral choices, based on the trolley problem that forces you to choose between two bad scenarios. Each team places a series of innocent things on their track and not-so-innocent things on their opponent's track. They then try and convince the Conductor player to send the train down the other branch. It's a simple premise about making really difficult decisions that is made fun by how over-the-top (and how of-the-current-cultural-moment) the choices are.

Our accessibility examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Trial by Trolley accessibility 22 months ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 21 months ago.

NotesAccessibility Notes

The cards are of standard size, and the card is described with text that runs across a long edge. There is a very large deck of cards which means shuffle isn't often required during a game. All the cards are always visible to everyone, so players can easily describe the cards to others if necessary. Along with this text, which is high contrast and fairly large, there is an associated picture, although this is not required for an understanding of the game. There are also death counters that are given to each player/team, which are smaller than cards. Alternatively, the score can be kept with a pen and paper.

You or your team need to be able to give convincing arguments as to why the conductor should run over the other team's track.

It's a low pressure game as it's a game that's played for participation and fun rather than to win. You can also mitigate decisions with the Modifier cards that also reduces pressure.

The nature of the game includes a degree of arguing and convincing the judge to pick a particular track, which makes it difficult to play without hearing as players tend to simultaneously speak over each other.

For more details breakdown check out Meeple Like Us

DetailsGame Details

Release Date: 01/01/2020

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Players: 3-10

Genres: Narrative, Sequencing (Communication and Creative)

Accessibility: 36 features

Components: Board and Cards

Developer: Skybound (@Skybound)

Costs: Purchase cost

 

DifficultyDifficulty

We've documented 5 accessibility features for Difficulty in Trial by Trolley which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play.

Difficulty Options

No Memorisation Advantage: You don’t need to memorise and recall the state of the game, cards played, sequences and resources to play the game well. Players who are able to do this more easily are not at an advantage.

No Hidden Information: All players can see the full state of the game at all times.

No Deceit Advantage: No game mechanic where players need to deceive each other to progress. This includes bluffing and lying.

No Colour Advantage: Game can be played without colour-blindness being a barrier to performance.

No Mathematics Advantage: Game can be played effectively without doing more than simple counting. It doesn't require calculations or working with large numbers.

Getting StartedGetting Started

We've documented 7 accessibility features for Getting Started in Trial by Trolley which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game.

Assistance Getting Started

These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.

Clear Manual: Game provides a manual that breaks play into number sections, groups information sensibly and uses illustrative pictures.

Electronic Version of Manual: A free online version of the manual provided by the publisher.

Getting Started Video: Game provides a tutorial video to get you started. This video must include subtitles and offer real examples of play.

Assistance Progressing

These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of managing your pieces and progression.

Play Order Tokens (Or play order doesn’t change): Where player order impacts the game or there are multiple play phases the game provides a means of keeping track of this. Includes provision of play order tokens or use of piece/board orientation.

Reaction-Time Not Critical: Individual game actions don’t need quick reactions. This means you don't need to quickly respond to events in the game or other players.

Low Pressure: Decisions aren’t time-limited so you can take your time with each action.

Low Impact: Decisions are low impact. If you get something wrong, you can still make up for it and/or progress another way.

ReadingReading

We've documented 5 accessibility features for Reading in Trial by Trolley which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides accessible text.

Reading Level

How much reading is required to play the game and how complex the language is.

Moderate Reading: Moderate reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a high school student (14-year-old) would appreciate.

Necessary Text Visibility

How clear are the required text or numbers to play the game.

Large Clear Text on Board (Or no text required): Text or numbers are large and clear font at least 8mm tall (22pt) on the board and any other elements that are at a distance to the player.

Large Clear Text on Cards (Or no text required): Text or numbers are large and clear 5mm tall (14pt) on the pieces that you can hold close to read.

High Contrast Text (Or no text required): Text or number colours contrasts to the background. The text in instructions and other information is presented in high contrast ideally with a solid background.

Primary and Secondary Text Distinguishable (Or no text required): Game separates non-essential flavour text from essential gameplay text, to ease comprehension. Includes games that don't have flavour text.

PhysicalPhysical

We've documented 11 accessibility features for Physical in Trial by Trolley which deal with how you interact with the game components and how accommodating these are of different requirements.

Pieces

How the game components accommodate interactions through touch, shape, texture and colour.

No Non-Standard Dice (Or No Dice): The game uses standard numerical dice, doesn’t need dice to play or ensures dice are readable by touch.

No Tiny Pieces: Game pieces are not very small. This doesn't cover cards. The target size for this is not less than 20mm wide and not less than 2mm thick.

No Paper Money: The game doesn’t use paper money.

No Sprawl: You can play the game on a small surface (train table or hospital bed table) of approximately 1/2 meter square. Or you can manage this in a small space easily.

Cards

How the game assists interaction, manipulation and management of game cards.

Large Card Size: Cards in the game at least the size of a standard playing card (64mm x 89mm). This ensures the cards work with accessibility equipment like card-holders and shufflers.

Standard Card Shape: Cards confirm to standard size so they work with card shufflers and other card management devices.

Limited Hand Management: You don’t need to hold more than 8 cards in your hand. This includes games with larger hands that require minimal in-hand card management.

No Excessive Card Shuffling: You don’t need to shuffle the deck of cards more than twice per total play of the game. This wouldn’t include games like Poker.

No Right-Handed Advantage: Cards don't position key information in only top-left corners that favours right-handed in-hand card arrangements.

Placement

How the game assists interaction, manipulation, management and placement of game pieces.

No Fiddly Placement: No movement or manipulation of small pieces or cards in limited space on a board or other location.

Easily Verbalised Actions: The game is clearly labelled (landmarks, coordinates and so on) to make it possible to unambiguously describe game actions and relate those to the board or other pieces. This is useful for players who need others to move their pieces.

VisualVisual

We've documented 7 accessibility features for Visual in Trial by Trolley which deal with how well the game offers visual clarity and adjustments to accommodate visual needs.

Printed Visibility

How well the art on (and design of) components support a range of visual needs.

Colour Blind Friendly Design: Game prioritises the use of colour blind friendly palettes. This eases distinguishing elements of the game where colour is used. Ensure colour blind supporting graphics can be easily described or verbalised.

Double-Coding Colour: Colour is not the only way to distinguish elements. This includes games that make use of texture, shapes, symbols or other visual differentiation, to supplement colour information.

Component Identifiability

How easy it is to see and identify the components you need to work with to play the game.

Outline Key Elements: Game uses a highly distinctive visual silhouette for essential elements required to play the game. This may be from the shape of game elements or by applying a bold outline or backing colour. It may also be clear text if that is the only pertinent information

No Busy Backgrounds: Game board or cards have a simple or monochrome design to aid in identifying game elements when observed in play on top of the board.

Easily Verbalised Game State: Other players can describe the state of both their playing area and shared areas for players unable to see them. The verbalised game state is not too complexed to memorise.

No Close Inspection Disadvantage: If necessary, players can inspect similar pieces to distinguish them without time limit or risk of leaking gameplay intention.

Playable Without Sight: Standard version of the game is playable without sight. This includes playing with the usual assistive aids/approach for blind players (and where teammates can perform this function) but doesn’t include games you have to recreate wholesale.

AudioAudio

We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Audio in Trial by Trolley which deals with how the game supports player communication to meet a range of requirements.

Communication

How the game accommodates different styles of communication, particularly non-verbal.

No Pressured Reveals: No reliance on revealing actions or choices simultaneously. This ensures players who can’t perform the revealing action in real-time aren’t excluded.

VSC LogoAccessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors Ben Kendall and Andy Robertson


Taming Gaming Book Written by parents for parents, the database complements the in-depth discussion about video game addiction, violence, spending and online safety in the Taming Gaming book. We are an editorially independent, free resource without adverts that is supported by partnerships.

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