Hi all,
I've recently lost a fair amount of my vision, and have no idea how long I will have what remains.
That said, I've been going around on various RPG and Table Top forums trying to collect tips, tricks, and opinions on playing games like this while visually impaired and even fully blind. Why these games? Well for one, I love them. I've been playing RPGs and table top wargames for a couple of decades now, and I don't want to have to stop! Why else? Because frankly most of these games are predominantly communication and feature a great deal of description and/or utilize miniatures and tokens that can often provide sufficient tactile feedback (sometimes with modifications) to have detailed play with. I won't lie... I have a dreadful fear of boredom, and a GREAT deal of entertainment options seem at a glance (no pun intended) to require vision.
In RPGs such as Pathfinder and newer forms of Dungeons and Dragons you can play with "theatre of the mind" (just like most everyone did back in 2nd ed D&D and earlier!), but they do have grid based maps that feature a lot of finicky rules for positioning and movement that most people use. I think with a little practice and some mods that system is doable. The RPG portion most certainly is doable - there is software that can read rulebooks and the like to you, as well as roll dice, etc with keystrokes and voice commands.
Games like Star Fleet Battles? Very complicated on the table with minis and tokens. And those ship cards? Yikes! But with some legwork on the tokens and minis and maybe some Excel conversions or clever use of pegboards and the like... I hope I can find a way, both with sighted friends and without.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way: I realized I don't have a good Sci-Fi RPG picked out that's suitable for various kinds of sci-fi. I used to play an old version of a Star Wars RPG from the 90s, but that's long dead now and honestly... well... Star Wars. So not only do I need a new Sci-Fi RPG, I also need to find one that might be usable once blind without TOO much assistance.
So... In your storied opinions, how accessible do you think Traveller is for visually impaired and blind people to play?
1) Do any of you know any blind players?
2) Are any of you blind players?
3) Do any of you GM for blind players?
4) How do you manage playing or GMing for the blind or while blind?
5) Can anyone describe how combat plays out to me or point me in the direction of some good examples of all scales of combat?
6) Does the combat in this game require grids, hex maps, or miniatures?
And so on and so forth! I'd be happy to hear from any and all and welcome all (polite, lol!) advice.
Thank you all very much for your time and patience
I've recently lost a fair amount of my vision, and have no idea how long I will have what remains.
That said, I've been going around on various RPG and Table Top forums trying to collect tips, tricks, and opinions on playing games like this while visually impaired and even fully blind. Why these games? Well for one, I love them. I've been playing RPGs and table top wargames for a couple of decades now, and I don't want to have to stop! Why else? Because frankly most of these games are predominantly communication and feature a great deal of description and/or utilize miniatures and tokens that can often provide sufficient tactile feedback (sometimes with modifications) to have detailed play with. I won't lie... I have a dreadful fear of boredom, and a GREAT deal of entertainment options seem at a glance (no pun intended) to require vision.
In RPGs such as Pathfinder and newer forms of Dungeons and Dragons you can play with "theatre of the mind" (just like most everyone did back in 2nd ed D&D and earlier!), but they do have grid based maps that feature a lot of finicky rules for positioning and movement that most people use. I think with a little practice and some mods that system is doable. The RPG portion most certainly is doable - there is software that can read rulebooks and the like to you, as well as roll dice, etc with keystrokes and voice commands.
Games like Star Fleet Battles? Very complicated on the table with minis and tokens. And those ship cards? Yikes! But with some legwork on the tokens and minis and maybe some Excel conversions or clever use of pegboards and the like... I hope I can find a way, both with sighted friends and without.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way: I realized I don't have a good Sci-Fi RPG picked out that's suitable for various kinds of sci-fi. I used to play an old version of a Star Wars RPG from the 90s, but that's long dead now and honestly... well... Star Wars. So not only do I need a new Sci-Fi RPG, I also need to find one that might be usable once blind without TOO much assistance.
So... In your storied opinions, how accessible do you think Traveller is for visually impaired and blind people to play?
1) Do any of you know any blind players?
2) Are any of you blind players?
3) Do any of you GM for blind players?
4) How do you manage playing or GMing for the blind or while blind?
5) Can anyone describe how combat plays out to me or point me in the direction of some good examples of all scales of combat?
6) Does the combat in this game require grids, hex maps, or miniatures?
And so on and so forth! I'd be happy to hear from any and all and welcome all (polite, lol!) advice.
Thank you all very much for your time and patience
