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Caladors
2018-07-30, 04:13 PM
Hey all
I am being straight up, this isn't the only place this is being posted. I thought that the general RPG area was the best place to put it on giants in the playground, but I could very much be wrong. I am trying to cast a wide net when it comes to this. As rule most tables won't have someone with a disability or one at most. So I am looking specifically for people who are or who have played with a person with a disability. I want to put together something that everyone can use, so they don't have to step on eggshells or treat that person like glass just have a guide to playing on hard mode.

I apologise if I have breached any forum edicit and I beg your indulgence

Playing with players who are playing on hard mode (disabilities)

Hey guys. I am working on a game, and I have found that most GM books don't give a whole lot of advice unless you get the GM book two where it is pretty much all advice. I wanted mine to have a mix of both. But one of the things I wanted to talk about is playing with people who have disabilities.

Now there is probably some politically correct term I am missing, but in my experience, if someone is deaf they will just say "I am deaf", so I don't want to disrespect that. So there is something I would like to learn from those of you who have or have played with the impaired in some way. What tips do you guys have because I haven't really seen a collection of bits of advice based on this.

So as you may have guessed I have played with hearing-impaired players, also a bloke in a wheelchair but other than not sitting at a really high table that isn't a problem. So for hearing impaired players, you can't use DM/GM screens, a lot of them lip read in addition to listening so so you may cover your mouth with the screen which may cause problems. Your NPC gestures become a little more limited for the same reason no mouth covering. However, for the most part that was the only problem he ever had.

For my game, despite it being a noir-themed game I have my traditional sheet and what I call the open sheet. While both sheets have lots of icons on them which I think helps those who have some visual disabilities, limited sight as opposed to no sight. Victims of the school system, who weren't taught but passed up, and so on.
So while the traditional sheet is in black white and red (noir themed) the open sheet, puts the skills/abilities within a colour wheel for easy identification, and I would say the type of the script is fairly large so that it is easier to read.

Now, all of this bleeding heart stuff may fool you into believing I am not a cold-blooded capitalist. I want my game to be open to everyone, but, I have already put a lot of money into this and I know how much things cost, and I can probably only fit in two or four pages of advice for this topic as it won't be applicable for most people, so if you have advice could you make it concise?

My goal is to collate, and compress what you guys and other people have said, and put it into a single document. I am going to be posting this on multiple subreddits/forums and that sort of thing, because I am hoping to gain a collected wisdom. My goal will be to put together a short document and turn it into a blog and then have that available for everyone.

Beleriphon
2018-07-30, 04:27 PM
Now, all of this bleeding heart stuff may fool you into believing I am not a cold-blooded capitalist. I want my game to be open to everyone, but, I have already put a lot of money into this and I know how much things cost, and I can probably only fit in two or four pages of advice for this topic as it won't be applicable for most people, so if you have advice could you make it concise?

The most concise answer is address the topic, and then ask your players for their feedback about what would make things easier for them. If you have a deaf player and they don't lip read and instead rely on sign language, and you don't know how to sign then you're going to have to resort to something else. There are no generic answers beyond ask the person with a disability how they would like to be treated and figure something out.

Anymage
2018-07-30, 04:52 PM
Different disabled people have different degrees of impairment, and there aren't really any one-size-fits-all accommodations. Some hard of hearing players can ask the person next to them to clear up whatever you said, while deaf people will possibly need you to brush up on your sign language in order to keep them fully in the loop.

You can always go back and rework something if you think that there are accessibility gains for little or no real cost. (Video games limiting visuals that could cause epileptic seizures come immediately to mind.) But there's no way to know ahead of time what any individual player might or might not need. Engage your players and listen to them.

Quertus
2018-07-30, 05:10 PM
I love the Playground. The first two posters (in case I'm ninja'd) got it right.

The only thing I can add to their wisdom is, make it clear that you're open to change and feedback. If they ask for something, ask them if your implementation of their request worked to their satisfaction, or if there's any tweaks that you should consider, perhaps after the first time you do it, and maybe again 4-5 sessions later, "is it still working ok?". Couple this with asking if anyone else has any suggestions, to make it clear that you aren't just helping them, but genuinely open to change / improving in general.

Caladors
2018-07-30, 05:17 PM
This game will have a print run so yeah cost is a factor, so I won't be able to go back and rework it as it will be printed, and while errat is up there print is forever.

My go to is always, know your players. However, what I am looking for is putting out some information so that people can spring board off that, and they don't have to treat their players like glass. There are a thousand and one things that a person could be dealing with however, my focus is to get a general group of things together. This way they won't feel lost. Like I said in my post I know about dealing with people with hearing loss, I am looking for feedback for other things. For tips for X and Y and I am going to try and compress it down. Now people may not like and say you need to have this that and the other.

But if someone opens a book and sees a two page spread they look at that and they say this something I can read, it isn't a whole chapter, they don't get overwhelmed. No matter how much I write it won't fit any individual group, no matter how elquent or wordy I am. I want a spring board not a whole gym.

Algeh
2018-07-31, 12:48 AM
I don't think it's really possible to give disability-by-disability advice on accommodations and modifications in a few pages like that.

The general advice I'd have for GMs in home games with a consistent group of players is to communicate with your specific players and figure out what supports and adaptations will help them specifically. Universal Design is a good starting place for published material or anything involving too many people to plan for individually, but for small groups focus on the needs of the people you have.

If you're trying to brainstorm things that might help, you might look at things commonly used in education on IEP or 504 plans, but I don't see how to usefully do something short enough for your book yet comprehensive enough to be useful if you go into detail.

Knaight
2018-07-31, 01:34 AM
The vast majority of disabilities don't have any real effect on playing RPGs, and most of the ones that do aren't worked around with the system being particularly relevant, including varying degrees of hearing loss or deafness. You're producing a rules text and some reference texts, and essentially only have words and images on pages as your tools. That restricts what accessibility barriers you can even put in place.

Of these documents some are referenced far more than others. Character sheets are in a class of their own, followed by notable reference sheets, followed by the rest of the rules, with big gaps between these. Making versions of the character sheet and notable reference sheet that are easier to use is probably your best option.

This ties into vision and reading. Don't use color schemes that break down for common color blindness types. Pick fonts that are easily read by people with dyslexia (there are lists of these, but the general trend is more distinct shapes and to some extent less clean shapes). Release large text character and reference sheets, probably as supplemental pdfs.

Tipsy_Pooka
2018-07-31, 02:39 AM
I was totally taken off guard by this topic. I initially thought this topic was going to be about players willingly giving themselves disabilities to make the game more interesting. That being said...

First off.. I respect the HELL out of you for the lengths you're going to accommodate players with disabilities...

Secondly... I'm not one to normally cry foul.. I would try and re-name your thread away from "playing on hard mode" to something like "Help me provide a positive TTRPG experience for people with disabilities". I mean, I get the whole "not walking on eggshells thing" but...

My *best* answer is talk to your players. After all, you are going to know them better than any of us can. They will know what best helps THEM immerse themselves in the story that you write. Find out what combination of aids work best to overcome their individual disabilities. If you can find commonality in aids that work for various disabilities, please share them with the respective forums to better help other GMs in the same situation.

Caladors
2018-07-31, 01:51 PM
Playing on hard mode was just a title I used due to most of the people with disabilities I have met who have had a **** you **** attitude when people try and do anything more than accomidate them, they don't want to be coddled they just want a playing field they can fight on.

I am not looking for a comprehensive list, and I won't be able to include everything but what I may be able to include is enough that someone doesn't feel lost. I don't know about you, but I haven't seen a single bit of advice mainstream or otherwise.

How many books have you seen that includes 2 pages? I haven't seen any, it leaves it all up to the internet. My goal is for people to have a spring board. A lot of people get figitty around disabled people, they don't know what to do, my goal is just to say there people too, but they need some considerations.

I will never get everything down no one will but are you saying I shouldn't try?
Some tips is better than no tips.

ShedShadow
2018-08-01, 04:49 AM
In my experience, there are two main categories of disabilities: purely physical disabilities and mental disabilities. Dealing with the first is quite straightforward at times, dealing with the second somewhat harder, and it becomes a lot harder when those two are present at the same time. I will try to explain the medical jargon names with easy definitions. Below the listing of conditions, I shall put in my five cents on each disability I can think of.

Physical disabilities
When I think about it, there are disabilities that have to do with our senses and those that have to do with our physical composition. The list for senses becomes something like:

Deaf - Missing the 'hearing' sense
Blind - missing the 'seeing' sense
Anosmia - missing the 'smelling' sense
Hypoesthesia - missing the 'touch' sense
Ageusia - missing the 'taste' sense
Mute - missing the 'talking' ability. Not technically a sense, but this may not be a mental disability, and it felt appropriate to list here


And the list for disabilities having to do with physical compositon something like:

Amelia - Birth defect of lacking one or more limbs. Can also be apparent as a deformed or shrunken limb.
Amputation - Having one or more limbs/body parts removed for any reason.
Craniofacial anomalies - Umbrella term for congenital (from birth) defects in the face/skull/head area. Some of those are:

Cleft lip or cleft palate - a separtion in the lip or the roof of the mouth. These are the most common congenital craniofacial anomalies.
Craniosynostosis - a condition in which the sutures of a child's skull close too early, affecting brain and skull growth. May cause later skull deformity.
Hemifacial microsomia - a condition of underdeveloped tissue on one side of the face, most often affecting the ear, mouth and jaw area. It appears as if the face is sunken in on one side.
Vascular malformation - A birthmark or growth that results in a large swelling composed of blood vessels. This condition may be dangerous and is often operated on to remove it before it can casue harm.
Hemangioma - known as the common 'wine stain'
Deformational plagiocephaly - a misshapen skull due to repeated or sustained pressure in the same position.

Now that we have a list of the most prevalent physical disabilities, let us take a look at what problems they might cause at the roleplaying table and what solutions, that don't involve costly machines or surgeries, can come to the rescue.

Deaf - A possible problem for communication at the table. The person in question might be able to read lips, which can be accomodated by speaking slowly, solving the problem. Another solution might be to have the players and DM learn sign language, although this might be too much to ask of those who are not close friends or familyt members. A third solution would be to communicate by writing, although that might be too slow. One alternative to writing could be using a speech-to-text program as you play and have the deaf person read along with the conversation going on.
Blind - A problem for tactically focused games, not so much for a general d20 roleplaying game. If the blind person wants in on tactics, they need to have a keen mind for envisioning the battlefield and remembering relative positions and coordinates, that way it can be made to work. If the table is more focused on roleplaying, there really isn't too much to see anyway, except for where the pizza is at, so that shouldn't be a problem. For more reading this can be an obstacle, since many rulebooks, to my knowledge, do not exist in braille form. Character sheets can be made in braille form, but it would be easier to have someone else read the character sheet upon request. Have the person ask, "what is my Hide modifier again?". All in all, not a problem that cannot be worked around.
Anosmia - They can't smell the pizza. Too bad.
Hypoesthesia - Don't know when they are exerting too much pressure on that expensive miniature and might snap its head off. Otherwise, no problem.
Ageusia - Can't taste the pizza. Too bad.
Mute - Problem for communication at the table. Can be gotten around by using sign language, although that might require effort on the other players' half, or simply by using written messages on paper or electronically. This might be a little slower, but not an unviable solution. A problem that can be dealt with as long as you have enough patience for the person to write the thing out.



Amelia - Lacking one or more limbs should not impair the game all that much. If you have no legs, you can roll around in your wheelchair, otherwise no problem. If you have no arms, you can ask someone else to toss the dice for you. Taking notes might be difficult, but let others do it for you. Having a tablet can allow you to still take notes with whatever body part is accurate enough to use the keyboard on it. You might also need to ask someone else to feed you the pizza. Alternatively, ask them to also get an XL milkshake with a straw so no one needs to feed you in case you want to avoid that. Should not be a problem.
Amputation - See above.
Craniofacial anomalies - None of these should, in and of themselves, affect your game noticably. Someone with a cleft lip might lisp a bit more, but that's about the extent of the influence any of these has on the game directly. The skull deformity can also cause brain growth abnormalities, which in turn may cause mental disabilities, but here we were talking purely about the physical ones.


As we can see, none of the purely physical disabilities are, when present by itself, a problem to the game such as to be game disrupting. Mental disabilities, however, might be a different thing. I will try and say more on that later.
Edit: Something is wrong with the text editor it appears, since the listing won't work properly, sorry about that. I will try and fix it when it works again.

Cluedrew
2018-08-01, 08:09 AM
Out side of a particular type of really sever disabilities (and dealing with those is outside what you could hope to cover in a book that is mostly about something else) the best source for information about a disability and how to deal with it is: the person with the disability.

Unless with suddenly and recently brought on by an accident they have been dealing with it for years and have a lot more, very specific, knowledge about it than you, we or a trained professional. Because it is them, they are the ones dealing with it.

Morghen
2018-08-01, 09:22 AM
An idea: Search google for Reddit support groups for people with conditions X, Y, and Z. I suggest using google initially because people frequently name their subreddits weird, jargon-y things that those outside the community won't know to search. Any advice they have for school-based accommodations will likely work just as well for TTRPGs.

This might yield nothing, but accommodations at casino tables might be worth looking into. There are plenty of similarities.

Caladors
2018-08-02, 03:43 PM
@ShedShadow Thank you for the detailed response

So to both you and @Cluedrew, my goal is to give people a jumping off point this means I will primarily be focused on less severe disabilities. My current list is mobility restriction, and reduced motor fuction. So cerbal palsy and missing an arm could fit into that catagory. Then deaf, visually impaired.

I only have 1,000 words tops properly, and my goal is not a comprehensive list but enough so that people will just treat them like people not like glass.

I currently have a decent amount of information on deaf/hard of hearing people, speaking slowly may be seen as an insult ha ha, but that is just because my mate blew up one time, "I am deaf not stupid". But yeah
(there is a link but I am not aloud to post it yet because of the forum rules)
this article has been pretty helpful and they have been some of the first to speak up. I don't know why but deaf people really seem to be into role-playing.

@Morghen
I should really look into the caisno thing they are usually light years ahead of the game they don't care if your black, brown, or doing blow, they only care about green so they have learnt how to squeeze every dollar from everyone.

Thank you for your comments guys I am still working on but thus far I am feeling pretty lack luster about it as a lot of it is common sense stuff and I feel like I am like "Here is some advice" well dah. May be well dah is what people need or may be I am too close to it and these will be suprising revalations. Regardless I am still working on it.

Andor13
2018-08-02, 06:26 PM
Others have covered the advice segment adequately, and you have direct experience.

However since you're publishing a book, and it is a concern of yours I'll add that some things you can do directly in your publishing are to take into account a couple of the more common disabilities that your readers might face.

Color Blindness is pretty common, and especially so among males. So Color-coding your sheets is fine, but don't over do it. Red-Green color blindness (deteronopia) is the most common sort by far. Which isn't to say you can't use red and green on the same sheet, but make sure they have different saturation values.

Dyslexia is another common disability you can address directly by font choice in your book. There are fonts designed for dyslexics available for free, and you can easily find style-guides to help.

Caladors
2018-08-02, 08:33 PM
I would link again but apparently I can't yet haha but yeah I have been connected with some dyslexic fonts and I have two sheets my open sheet and my traditional sheet.

Mordaedil
2018-08-06, 07:20 AM
I dunno if this outright counts, but I once found I couldn't do the voice of the character I wanted to be right, so I did it in text instead, so I'd be the one on mute in a Discord conversation and write my roleplay into a chat while the others verbally roleplayed. It worked pretty well for me, since I'm not a slouch when it comes to typing. I suspect if you have a deaf player at the table, maybe do things digitally over a chatroom might be an interesting challenge.

We also have a color-blind player in our group, so we've had to make some small adjustments to help him out by not relying heavily on visual aids, but describe the colors and stuff instead. This does mean puzzles relying on colors are strictly out for games with him. But nobody complains about that and if it comes up, we'll help him anyway, by using word charts instead of just colors.

Blind players are maybe more difficult to placate in that respect, but since the game can be done wholly orally, it becomes a point where it is wiser to ditch the miniatures and play the game entirely in your heads.

GungHo
2018-08-14, 10:22 AM
I use a speech-to-text app (Dragon) for the guy in my group who has noise-induced hearing loss (artillery). It's on the higher end, but I have the ability to swing licenses for ergonomics. Once it's tuned, it works decently well. I already use a few electronic aids (projectors/large screens), so it's not a bunch of extra stuff i wouldn't already be using.