Final Fantasy actually hits on this well in 7&8s original release. In 8, Ward loses his voice, but through gestures and other NPCs narrating smaller actions (since graphics weren’t capable of that so early on without a cutscene) he had a clear personality and his motives and methods were clear. Barret Wallace of Final Fantasy 7 has a gun on his arm instead of a hand. The game tells you how it occurs, but most people playing the game would not classify him as “handicapped” because he is that capable. He is strong enough to climb with one hand and his grip with said hand means the average antagonist could not overpower something from his grasp. As far as GMing, one of my players is a merfolk. She can shift between legs and fin, but has a “fishbowl buggy” built by the artificer in the group that travels at her move speed. Only once so far in over 10 sessions did the buggy become an issue: they ventured into a cave to save a girl from the denizens and the girl had a way to crawl out, which would make the opening tight for the full grown adventurers, but really impossible for the buggy to get out that way without first enlarging the hole (because otherwise they would have seen an entrance that wide as they cased the cave exterior). What happened next was a frantic series of dice rolls to see if they could open the passage wide enough to get the buggy through before said denizens realized what they were doing and tried to go through the passage AND THEN to see if they could CLOSE that passage before the denizens came through it after them. The idea was to make them go back later to deal with the denizens for good if the buggy had to be temporarily abandoned, but never to penalize them for extra gear that gave no in game bonus. Also, I’m not a monster, I wouldn’t kill off the sea turtle pet that also lived in the buggy bowl. Later in the campaign, I have a monastery where a blind monk is being held captive by a vengeful air elemental. Having been raised at the monastery, the monk knows the layout and due to having to rely on other senses, can sense air discrepancies and thus sense the elemental better than most, as well as hearing would-be assailants. I guess you can just assume he is the monk version of Daredevil, who is also a good example of someone differently abled in sci-fantasy.
I think the issue of the handicapped character should rest squarely on the shoulders of the player, the one that wants to play said character. It is up to the player to describe their handicap and how they overcome adversity, much like how a player describes their actions, through the lens of alignment.
Hi. I'm autistic so it can be very hard for me to roleplay characters who aren't. NPCs are easier than PCs because they're often one dimensional plot points with a predetermined personality. Though I've never made autism a specific beat of any of my characters it's hard to stop my personal thought processes from influencing how a character behaves. So it comes down to basically all my characters being autistic too because i don't really know how an authentic allistic character would behave. This usually has very little effect on any gaming though. It's more background character fluff. It does effect my GMing though. I have to be careful about how I leave hints or hooks, how i do puzzles or red herrings. Autistic and allistic minds often pick up or see importance in different things. TTRPGs have always been a place where outsiders can go to roleplay being superheros. Where people who are pushed out of society can escape and become something else. Or be themselves in an environment that doesn't punish them for it. And it's that sentence that i think is a key one in any of these discussions. It's why i think having disabilities in TTRPGs is fine. Whatever the disability is once the player and GM together iron out how it will work in game then it's no more of an issue than classes. Sometimes players want their characters to reflect themselves, sometimes they have little choice like I said about myself earlier. Sometimes players want their characters to be something they could never be. Is there really that much difference in game between those two? I don't think so.
@Localfriendlyanarchist Thank you SO much for this comment. Neither of us had heard the word Allistic before. Thank you So much for educating us on that today, we really appreciate it. Yes, Agree, as long as the Player and GM iron out how it will work, is the important part Thank you again for your insightful post, and for helping us understand more, and to appreciate you, our follower
Final Fantasy actually hits on this well in 7&8s original release.
In 8, Ward loses his voice, but through gestures and other NPCs narrating smaller actions (since graphics weren’t capable of that so early on without a cutscene) he had a clear personality and his motives and methods were clear.
Barret Wallace of Final Fantasy 7 has a gun on his arm instead of a hand. The game tells you how it occurs, but most people playing the game would not classify him as “handicapped” because he is that capable. He is strong enough to climb with one hand and his grip with said hand means the average antagonist could not overpower something from his grasp.
As far as GMing, one of my players is a merfolk. She can shift between legs and fin, but has a “fishbowl buggy” built by the artificer in the group that travels at her move speed. Only once so far in over 10 sessions did the buggy become an issue: they ventured into a cave to save a girl from the denizens and the girl had a way to crawl out, which would make the opening tight for the full grown adventurers, but really impossible for the buggy to get out that way without first enlarging the hole (because otherwise they would have seen an entrance that wide as they cased the cave exterior). What happened next was a frantic series of dice rolls to see if they could open the passage wide enough to get the buggy through before said denizens realized what they were doing and tried to go through the passage AND THEN to see if they could CLOSE that passage before the denizens came through it after them.
The idea was to make them go back later to deal with the denizens for good if the buggy had to be temporarily abandoned, but never to penalize them for extra gear that gave no in game bonus. Also, I’m not a monster, I wouldn’t kill off the sea turtle pet that also lived in the buggy bowl.
Later in the campaign, I have a monastery where a blind monk is being held captive by a vengeful air elemental.
Having been raised at the monastery, the monk knows the layout and due to having to rely on other senses, can sense air discrepancies and thus sense the elemental better than most, as well as hearing would-be assailants. I guess you can just assume he is the monk version of Daredevil, who is also a good example of someone differently abled in sci-fantasy.
@angelojohnson9441 thanks for the comment
I don´t see any problem. on the contrary it can be fun because it is not so normal. we love adventure right. nice topic guys.
@HornsfromtheDeep Thank you for the comment, and agreed.
I think the issue of the handicapped character should rest squarely on the shoulders of the player, the one that wants to play said character. It is up to the player to describe their handicap and how they overcome adversity, much like how a player describes their actions, through the lens of alignment.
@aattrpg3199 Thank you for the comment. Agreed
Hi. I'm autistic so it can be very hard for me to roleplay characters who aren't. NPCs are easier than PCs because they're often one dimensional plot points with a predetermined personality. Though I've never made autism a specific beat of any of my characters it's hard to stop my personal thought processes from influencing how a character behaves. So it comes down to basically all my characters being autistic too because i don't really know how an authentic allistic character would behave. This usually has very little effect on any gaming though. It's more background character fluff. It does effect my GMing though. I have to be careful about how I leave hints or hooks, how i do puzzles or red herrings. Autistic and allistic minds often pick up or see importance in different things.
TTRPGs have always been a place where outsiders can go to roleplay being superheros. Where people who are pushed out of society can escape and become something else. Or be themselves in an environment that doesn't punish them for it. And it's that sentence that i think is a key one in any of these discussions. It's why i think having disabilities in TTRPGs is fine. Whatever the disability is once the player and GM together iron out how it will work in game then it's no more of an issue than classes. Sometimes players want their characters to reflect themselves, sometimes they have little choice like I said about myself earlier. Sometimes players want their characters to be something they could never be. Is there really that much difference in game between those two? I don't think so.
@Localfriendlyanarchist Thank you SO much for this comment. Neither of us had heard the word Allistic before. Thank you So much for educating us on that today, we really appreciate it.
Yes, Agree, as long as the Player and GM iron out how it will work, is the important part
Thank you again for your insightful post, and for helping us understand more, and to appreciate you, our follower