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View Full Version : Attention Deficit & Dyslexia: Ergonomics and Accessability in RPGs



Yora
2016-05-19, 04:05 AM
Yesterday I had an interesting short discussion as a GM had asked about ways to help a dyslexic new player with managing his character sheet. While I don't have any experience with that field in particular, a gave some comments based on my struggles with the wall of text character sheets that are default for D&D 3rd edition and Pathfinder and my ADD.
And one thing that I also got thinking about was how first time players in my groups never were able to find any number on their character sheet quickly during the first two sessions. Even those without any impairments in that regard.

And now that I have started to think about this wider subject, I believe that human usability of RPGs is something that is very rarely discussed, especially with a wider audience of players and GMs. We can often see people saying they dislike a system for being too clunky or overly complex, but that is usually treated as a matter of taste. Not an issue of design.
Videogame developers are only now starting to even consider how they can make their games more playable for people with color blindness. When it comes to RPGs I've not really seen any talking about making the games more accessible to people with impairments.

The question that triggered all this was about making character sheets more accessible to people who have difficulties processing written information, so I think that would be a great subject to start a discussion with.

When I was playing D&D or Pathfinder, I constantly was struggling with looking up something on my character sheet when the GM told me to roll something. Usually you have to make a roll in the middle of an exciting scene and while you're busy picking out the dice and looking up your modifier, all the other players tend to keep talking about their ideas how the situation could be dealt with and what they might try after you made your roll. This is important stuff that you need to keep track of, so you're simultaneously trying to listen to the conversation and process what everyone is saying and trying to find a specific line and number on a big sheet of text.
I don't know about other people with ADD, but for me that's always total system overload. Finding my modifier feels like it takes forever and when I concentrate on the discussion I sometimes even forget what line on the sheet I was looking for.

I have not tried this out yet, but I think something that might really help with this issue is to fill the character sheet with lots of visual cues. Finding one line of small print text that looks about the same as all the surrounding lines is difficult when highly distracted. Searching the right number by using "landmarks" should make it much easier. This is an example of the idea I am talking about. (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wHKOr2KUoB4/TfySN3hzEbI/AAAAAAAAASE/YHWN9Sb7CtM/s1600/SW+chrctr+sht.jpg)
Another big improvement to the D&D/PF character sheet would be to take a sheet that does not have all the skills printed on it, but only blank lines to fill in yourself. (I think the first 3rd edition sheet had that.) That way you only have the skills on your sheet in which you actually have points, which for many characters shortens the list significantly.
There is also an effect that writing down something by hand makes it easier to remember because more parts of the brain are working simultaneously to make a memory. Having written the name of the skill on the sheet yourself and not having it already printed should make it easier to remember where the line is.

Knaight
2016-05-19, 04:14 AM
For the character sheets in particular, a lot of it is just straightforward document design, and they tend to be poorly made. Part of that is the number of rules heavy systems that have huge amounts of text and numbers on it, part of it is that they have a tendency to use white space incredibly poorly.

Getting more specific than that tends to need the topic narrowed to a specific game. I will say that I have seen document designs that could work for any game which has attributes and skills which are attached to attributes where you have the attributes larger and list the skills under the appropriate one, which honestly seems like a much better design most of the time from a usability perspective, and which can crop up fairly often. Other specific techniques are the judicious use of bolding, using lines sparingly to make them more significant, varying font sizes as needed, and basically a bunch of other stuff that gets summed up by the term "straightforward document design".

As for accessibility and impairments generally, RPGs have a leg up there. You tend to need to be able to hear, speak, read black text on a white sheet, and lift and roll dice. Movement related disabilities usually won't pose an issue, colorblindness is no issue, a lot of sensory stuff isn't an issue, so on and so forth. Videogame designers have to think about it more because they run into those issues much more often.

hymer
2016-05-19, 04:15 AM
When I've made 3.5 pregen characters in the past, I used a marker pen to highlight skills that the character has spent points on. I also note down weapon attacks calculated for one or two values of Power Attack, for those who get swamped mid-battle. That's about all I've done.
One of my players has made a character sheet that fits our house rules and includes a lot of things not on the regular 3.5 sheets. I wish everyone would use them, it would have made our lives easier in the long run if everyone was accustomed to the same (good) sheet.

PS: I saw what you did with the title acronym. :smallbiggrin:


As for accessibility and impairments generally, RPGs have a leg up there. You tend to need to be able to hear, speak, read black text on a white sheet, and lift and roll dice. Movement related disabilities usually won't pose an issue, colorblindness is no issue, a lot of sensory stuff isn't an issue, so on and so forth. Videogame designers have to think about it more because they run into those issues much more often.

I have a colourblind player, and he has trouble with maps sometimes. Green and brown looks about the same to him, making a lot of standard hex maps difficult to read. One of my friends sometimes GM for someone whose eyesight is quite poor. This limits her understanding of the tactical situation with minis considerably.
We could forego minis and tactical maps and maybe invent a different colour scheme for the hex maps, I suppose. I really don't want to, though.

Yora
2016-05-19, 04:45 AM
Old hex maps often combined colors with symbols to make them readable in black or white, or add newly explored hexes to a blank map without colored pencils. (Exibit A (http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/map_images/429106/IMG_0001.jpg))

You could do both, like in hexographer. (Exibit B (http://www.inkwellideas.com/hexmap/178b.png)) The design of the symbols would be important, though. I am not sure how readable hexographer maps actually are when you have them in black and white.

hymer
2016-05-19, 04:52 AM
Thanks for the suggestions! The main problem (I gather) is with areas with no symbols, as you might expect. Grassland, plains, sea and 'blasted lands' (think the Brown Lands of Middle-earth) are all denoted in my usual map scheme by no symbol, and just a colour. I suppose I could develop symbols for each, though I'm not sure the clarity wouldn't lose something.

http://dark-was-the-dawn.wikispaces.com/file/view/Name%20map3.jpg/571598505/Name%20map3.jpg

Add in brown trails, blue rivers and black roads, though these are less of a problem for that particular player.

hifidelity2
2016-05-19, 06:11 AM
As someone with Dyslexia I find that hand writing the Character helps a lot

However when playing a new system I tend to write out the key skills I will need on a separate piece of paper - so that might be

Basic Combat Skills (att / defence / dodge)
Move
Any key Stats

That way I only have to look at a few lines of text that I have written

Secondary skills I leave on the sheet as its not time critical (i.e.e will not slow down the game) if it takes me a bit of time to find my "Craft X" skill

Yora
2016-05-19, 06:36 AM
Something I've been doing for years, and which I know realize never worked, is to have all players make their characters simultaneously by explaining each step, have all player fill the fields on their character sheet, and then explain the next step. In practice this means that I go around the table from player to player while the others keep happily chatting while waiting for their turn.
And for the first two sessions no player is ever finding lines on the character sheet agan.

I believe the problem is that there's too long a break between each step and too much distraction so that they lose track of how everything connects together.

In university I made the experience that I have a much easier time following a lecture if the lecturer starts by showing a general outline of what will be covered in the next 90 minutes and then show it again each time a new part of the lecture starts. When they just start talking and keep talking for 90 minutes, everything is bleeding together and I am constantly wondering if the thing that is talked about now is going somewhere and how it will matter for the larger topic. I don't know about other people with ADD, but one of the main effects for me is that my mind immediately discards all information that it assumes to be nonessential. Knowing in advance what the intended purpose will be helps me a lot with that.
Now ADD is not really a defect. All the parts of the mind are working, but you could say they are not as well calibrated or in sync as they are on average for most people. And so I think that anything that makes things easier for people with ADD should make things easier for everyone, even if the effect is smaller. Next time I'll teach new players I'll go with them through the whole character creation process once and let them decide on a class and race (as applicable), and then I'll do the first player's character start to finish, then the second player's character start to finish, and so on. I think this could really help players understanding their character sheet as a whole, and not as several random and disconnected parts.

Knaight
2016-05-19, 02:45 PM
I have a colourblind player, and he has trouble with maps sometimes. Green and brown looks about the same to him, making a lot of standard hex maps difficult to read. One of my friends sometimes GM for someone whose eyesight is quite poor. This limits her understanding of the tactical situation with minis considerably.
We could forego minis and tactical maps and maybe invent a different colour scheme for the hex maps, I suppose. I really don't want to, though.

Right. I totally spaced maps and minis, as I tend not to use either to any real extent. Those could pose a much bigger problem.

For the maps, symbols are a good idea. I'd go with something more minimalist compared to the mountains, forests, etc. Even dotting the center for some of them could help, as a quick and dirty method.

OldTrees1
2016-05-19, 03:10 PM
Now ADD is not really a defect. All the parts of the mind are working, but you could say they are not as well calibrated or in sync as they are on average for most people. And so I think that anything that makes things easier for people with ADD should make things easier for everyone, even if the effect is smaller. Next time I'll teach new players I'll go with them through the whole character creation process once and let them decide on a class and race (as applicable), and then I'll do the first player's character start to finish, then the second player's character start to finish, and so on. I think this could really help players understanding their character sheet as a whole, and not as several random and disconnected parts.

ADD does have some qualitative differences. One of the main ones, from my own experience, is that the Future has lower than expected ability to influence our choices compared to the Present. This both makes us easier to distract and impairs our ability to plan ahead. Compressing future decisions into the present (choosing everything at once OR making character progression plans rather than single level snapshots) helps with the latter and surprisingly is less disruptive than for people without ADD (again, from my personal experience). However everyone with ADD has probably been working on strategies to deal with their ADD, so what works for one might mess up the plan of another.

So I think your idea of handling 1 character start to finish at a time is well chosen.


PS: Yes, I too filter incoming information for only the important parts. I don't think this is part of ADD but rather is a common component in our strategies for dealing with our ADD (cuts down on distraction).

Yora
2016-05-19, 04:08 PM
I can totally confirm not perceiving future consequences as feeling as real as immediate ones. :smallbiggrin:
Future reward does not motivate to do something unpleasant now. Future trouble always seems irrelevant compared to immediate comfort. (Which is the source of the very common extreme procrastination.)

Not sure if there's any lesson for game design or gamemastering in it, though. I have never experienced or observed this to be a problem for players playing the game.
But as a GM I have always struggled with handling individual character initiative. When a fight breaks out and everyone rolls initiative, I have a big problem with getting the number from everyone and then arranging them in order on paper. I don't have the processing power for this relatively simple task while listening to the players already coordinating the first moves they planned. Not arranging the names in order is even worse. When narrating the fight, even the banal task of "the ogre had acted on initiative count 12; which character acts next?" takes very long. If someone acts on 11 it's relatively easy, but when the other numbers are 17, 14, 9, 7, 3 and are not already listed in order, it quickly turns into a minor mental meltdown.

The solution I found for that is to use group initiative. One die is rolled for each side in the fight and all members of a side act in whatever order they want on their initiative count.
This also does have a great side effect on the players. All PCs are making their turn as a group and it makes a big difference whether one character makes his move and attack first or waits for another character to cast a spell first. With individual initiative you take your turn when it comes up, followed by two tof five minutes in which you have nothing to do. And then you talk with another player who got nothing to do, or stack your dice, and suddenly "hey, it's your turn!" "Oh yeah, sorry. So, what's been happening in the battle so far?"

I think group initiative is a great method for all groups for this second reason. But for GMs who are struggling with tracking the initative order, I very highly recommend it.

And now reading it again, this doesn't have anything to do with delayed rewards. But whatever. :smallbiggrin:

Beleriphon
2016-05-19, 05:33 PM
I've always felt that anybody that has dyslexia already has coping mechanisms if they're diagnosed and applying those to D&D is the same applying them to a text book, a novel, or anything other written text. I've met a two people that can't, as in literally cannot, process black text on white paper. If its black on blue, or black on yellow no problem, but have them try to read black text on white paper and it just doesn't work. In those instances having a coloured acetate projector sheet goes a long way to helping, although that is a bit of a rare disorder to say the least.

On the topic of sheets, depending on level of ability this might be a good choice. It arranges everything around the central stack of ability scores, and then splits off left/right as Character Stuff (bonds, flaws, etc) and the other side are the numbers stuff like like weapons, proficiencies, and what not.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1323

Knaight
2016-05-19, 05:37 PM
I've always felt that anybody that has dyslexia already has coping mechanisms if they're diagnosed and applying those to D&D is the same applying them to a text book, a novel, or anything other written text. I've met a two people that can't, as in literally cannot, process black text on white paper. If its black on blue, or black on yellow no problem, but have them try to read black text on white paper and it just doesn't work. In those instances having a coloured acetate projector sheet goes a long way to helping, although that is a bit of a rare disorder to say the least.

This seems like a needlessly complicated solution. Wouldn't just getting some blue or yellow paper and then printing on that work just as well?

Beleriphon
2016-05-19, 05:51 PM
This seems like a needlessly complicated solution. Wouldn't just getting some blue or yellow paper and then printing on that work just as well?

Coloured paper is great, but it only gets you so far when the PHB is black text on white paper, as are most books. Character sheets are for sure printed on coloured paper. The acetate sheet works great when they need to read something that just wont go on coloured paper for whatever reason.

hymer
2016-05-20, 12:46 AM
For the maps, symbols are a good idea. I'd go with something more minimalist compared to the mountains, forests, etc. Even dotting the center for some of them could help, as a quick and dirty method.

Dots make perfect sense. Thanks!

@ Yora: Re.: Initiative. Let me tell you the method at our table. Maybe you could use something like that. The structure lets me keep my head for initiative even towards the end of a long gaming day, when I get easily frustrated.
Every PC has a bent piece of cardboard with their name on both sides. I, as the GM, also have a card for 'Ally' and some for 'Bad Guys 1' and up to 'Bad Guys 3'. I call out to get everyone to roll their initiative, rolling for the NPCs at the same time. At this, players roll their initiative, and shut up. If there are many NPCs, I make quick notes of their numbers to prevent confusion.
Then I count out loud, starting low, and the players respond when we get to their count. As they respond, I arrange the name plates in front of me, and ties are broken, until the initiative order is established, clearly displayed for everyone at the table.
If anyone wants to move their initiative, we simply rearrange the list.
I have a Lair action card for 5e, though it hasn't seen much use yet.

Anonymouswizard
2016-05-20, 04:24 AM
I've always felt that anybody that has dyslexia already has coping mechanisms if they're diagnosed and applying those to D&D is the same applying them to a text book, a novel, or anything other written text. I've met a two people that can't, as in literally cannot, process black text on white paper. If its black on blue, or black on yellow no problem, but have them try to read black text on white paper and it just doesn't work. In those instances having a coloured acetate projector sheet goes a long way to helping, although that is a bit of a rare disorder to say the least.

I know at least four people with Dyslexia, and they all deal with it differently. One just ignores more reading and writing than is absolutely required, which is annoying when he decides to run a game, has the book for a month, and then after 15 minutes with the book I know the rules better than he does.

The other three seem to cope much better. As far as I can tell one just does it all with a bit more difficulty, one has previously admitted that they're not sure if their posters are correct because of all the coloured words, and one has written a PhD thesis and is trying to write his own RPG.

For what it's worth, the last one also runs games, and the difference is shocking. He actually understands the rules, whether it's Unknown Armies or GURPS, and is willing to let the players check the book in-game. The other one essentially let's us look if it's required to advance our characters.

So yes, I can see the need for a better sheet, but rulebooks should also be considered.

Yora
2016-05-20, 05:00 AM
In recent years there seems to have been a big increase in popularity in the old Basic/Expert rules for D&D from 1981. Which you could kind of argue was written for children. (The 1983 revision even more so.) Compared to any other editions (except OD&D) it's a very small package that covers only the bare essentials. (And explains them much better than OD&D.) The people who run it tend to be in their 30s, 40s, and 50s and often used to run much more complex game. The simplicity is something that is greatly appreciated by many.

Now when we're talking about ergonomics and accessability, I don't think we need to even discuss the attack matrix and THAC0 resolution mechanics for attack rolls. You can learn to use them by practice, but for new players and especially people trying to learn the rules from the book, they are extremely inaccessible. ("Roll d20, add modifier: This is the highest armor class you can hit" is something that everyone understands instantly.)
But other than that it's (mostly) great. All seven classes are covered on three pages. The total rules are covered in 26 pages. There are very few conditional modifiers to rolls.

I find this vastly easier to run than pretty much any other RPG I've seen before. All these little +1s and -2s of AD&D and particularly 3rd edition have always been a nightmare for me. I could never keep track of them. I consider those to be a big ergonomic failure as well.