Blind/Deaf

I think blind is too debilitating to have in an RPG that requires line of sight for a lot of things.

John

John so dont take them…

Matt that might be interesting it shouldnt take up too much space in one of the upconing products for those

Increasing character choice that could make for better/more interesting roleplaying is always my default mode. Unless story compels it, no one is forced to take the Flaw (if it is allowed) or play with anyone who does have it. Remember, if blinded, a character still has “line of sight” in terms of being able to make attacks, it is just that they are at -6 to hit and all opponents get Tactical Edge against them. Yeah, it would be a very harsh disadvantage, but if someone wants to play a Blind character, I think we should not prevent it because it just because it makes things difficult.

So the details of the reasons I feel this type of flaw is ‘too much’ to be codified in the rules (Now, you are free to call your character blind or deaf and determine exactly what percentage of your senses you have).

Blind – The Blinded Condition in the book appears to be written for simplicity and ease of use when someone is subject to a limited duration blindness. It doesn’t take into account many things like movement and other problems being blind is going to have. The big tell is that there’s nothing in “Blinded” that says “A character with blinded automatically fails any perception check based on sight.” This is the key aspect to being blind.

1) Being unable to see means that moving around new cities, buildings, dungeons, etc. is going to require a lot of ‘trial and error’ on the character’s part.
– Examples: “Okay I take another step, do I run into anything?” “No, keep going.” “Okay I take another few steps, do I run into anything?”…This type of RPing of being blind could bog down many encounters.
– Alternatively, the character would need another character/NPC to guide them around. This is of course possible, and would generally be ‘glossed over’ in most cases.
2) In combat, being blind means you have to be able to find out which squares your targets are in. The -6 applies if you know what square your target is in. You can’t just ‘attack blindly’ with no idea where someone is and get -6. In practice, the person playing the character would have no knowledge of the battle map with miniatures unless they get lucky and find someone. OR, they have to rely on people constantly calling out things like “He’s 20′ in front of you and 5′ right.” every time. This is even true if the character tries to cast a beneficial spell on an ally that’ at range, they’d have to figure out where that person is first.
– The person could rely on range 0′ abilities, either melee combat only (Again needing to find their targets and move accordingly) or range spells that start at their square.
– Movement would also be problematic. It’s not realistic for a person to ‘dash’ across the battlefield blind with no idea where people and objects are. Even cautious advance would be slow going.

If a Blind Flaw is just the ‘blinded condition’ with no other restrictions or caveats, that doesn’t truly represent being ‘blind’ and is more akin to very poor eyesight.

Deaf – This again is a simple and easy to use rule for a limited deafened condition. It does nothing to take into consideration normal communication the character’s going to have for a large portion of the campaign.

1) Sign Language: There’s no sign language that’s known throughout the lands that I’ve seen (I could be missing something), so a deaf character is going to be constantly having to ask for things to be written down. This again could take up lots of RP time to determine which things are written down and which aren’t and bog the game down, or it would get hand waved to the point of “Oh, I forgot you were deaf, since you always know what we’re saying.”
– Even sign language presents a big problem since it generally requires 2 unoccupied hands to fully communicate.

2) Lip Reading: There’s rules for this for the occasional time you do it. However, it requires secret rolls on behalf of the GM and the target’s must be facing you clearly. Having to constantly roll to see what a deaf character picks up could bog down a game and again if it’s ‘hand waved away’ then it becomes irrelevant.

3) Combat: Combat isn’t as big of a deal here, except the player has to make sure the character does not act upon anything said. Combat is not a situation where someone can read lips or engage in sign language with any certainty.

If a Deaf Flaw is just the ‘deafened condition’ with no other restrictions or caveats, that doesn’t truly represent being ‘deaf’ and its implications for a character in a long term campaign and is better served by a hard of hearing flaw.

Feel free to disagree, I encourage it, but do so with some backup logic and discussion and avoid attacking the person.

John

Josh
Cool down, dude.

ummm, I find this insulting.

Josh
Cool down, dude.

ummm, I find this insulting.

I found your initial comment to me insulting, as if I was commenting because I would or wouldn’t take the flaws. It seems you cannot respond to things I write without making it personal and you bring a lot of this on yourself.

John

well I’ll speak up for myself, but the gist of the post I feel that you may have misinterpted, is that a player has to select those flaws they arent things they are going to have thrust upon them randomly from a spell, if a player want to RP that, I have no problem with it.