One of my friend wants to introduce his brother to Pathfinder. His brother is visually impaired and can't see at all. Does anyone have any experience with running Pathfinder for the visually impaired?
I was thinking to ditch the grid all together and just describing combats and scenes in terms of relative locations of npcs/monsters.
I am not sure how I would do stuff like flanking and area spells.
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Well, first off see if you can get character sheets and quick reference sheets printed out on a braille printer for him. I think the printers themselves are expensive, but if he's blind there should be some way to hook up with a charity or other resource who can help print stuff for him. You may have to do up a simple text-only character sheet rather than a nice sheet with boxes, graphics, etc.
Tracking hit points lost etc. may take some improvising, like maybe paper clips on the edge of the sheet: big = 10 hp, small = 1 hp. As points are lost you move the clips from the "healthy" edge to another edge.
Dice are trickier but you could improvise with braille playing cards to randomize numbers (just take out the jack, queen, and king). Like for a d4 roll he just keeps drawing until he gets a number in the 1-4 range. There are some braille d6 out there as well which might be fun for him so he gets to have some actual dice of his own for the game--would make a nice birthday present.
For the playing "mat" you could try a braille chess board--and use the chess pieces as "figures". Or maybe you can find something at the hardware or craft store to lay flat which will make a grid you can feel; miniatures themselves should be easy to discriminate in a tactile way. Perhaps you can glue craft sticks down onto a board in a grid or something. But then you need something to indicate terrain. Again, the craft store should have bags of cheap stuff you can use for a tactile representation of stuff, like pom-poms for bushes and trees.
Great suggestions Zar, some dice have the number indented.
You will have to describe to a great extent Knight, be a little bit less precise about the distance and run with it. It sure can work.
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I am not sure if I am talking right, but, blind people usually have better other senses, including touch so he should have no problem with rolling his dice and "feeling" the number on dice rolled if dices have slightly internally placed numbers, like casino dices.
Maybe you should ask his brother actually? Maybe he has already experience with similar things.
I've played with restricted vision, but not total impairment. Description certainly helps a lot.
You can also make a tactile grid by weaving strips of hook-velcro together. The weaving makes it easy to feel the edges of the squares. If you stick felt under the bases of the normal miniatures, you can use them on the velcro grid without worries over them being dislodged or moved by accident. Thick wool is the easiest to make outlines with (especially if you precut the lengths) but anything vaguely fluffy will stick to the grid.
It's possible to get round the dice problem by using a dice roller on a computer with a speech program. You might also be able to use the computer for electronic character sheets, pdf rulebooks and general tracking. It depends how much computer you and he are happy with at your table.
For larger amounts of hitpoints, perhaps get a braille alarmclock. Take out the battery and use the hour hand for the tens unit and the minute hand for the ones. Wind back and forth as necessary.
battleboard - keep it. And then let the other players move the char after the vision impairs instrucktions. Wanna charge? you can do that... or you can't your fighter fiend is is in the way - but you can move up to the orc and hit it...
And don't play a caster. A melee type or perhaps a ranged guy - let problems with distance...
Is there a battle grid out there that is resistant to figures being nudged out of place by incidental contact, such as one with raised lines? If the player could feel the map and know where everyone is he could be part. But if doing so moves them around, thats not so good.
Is there a battle grid out there that is resistant to figures being nudged out of place by incidental contact, such as one with raised lines? If the player could feel the map and know where everyone is he could be part. But if doing so moves them around, thats not so good.
Maybe adding heavier bases to the figures or you could put a marker underneath in case the figure on top gets moved.
Worst-case scenario, if he's been blind for awhile he should be pretty good at holding an image in his mind, and if you describe distances he should be able to get his head around it well enough for play.
Velcro or magnets on the grid would be the best suggestion if you want him to be feeling the map, but I'm not sure that's even necessary for enjoyment. If he's playing a martial class all he really needs to know is where everyone is relative to eachother and if he can move far enough to hit someone. If he's a wizard that's using area spells, I think the velcro would be necessary.
Pathfinder is one of the few activities that is not hindered by being blind. If anything, I would say it could even make the experience more immersive.
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Here's some tactile polyhedral dice that he might find useful. They're a bit big, but they seem to have gotten some good reviews.
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Awkward moment: Blind player's character gets blinded. Have to argue with blind person how the blind status affects them.
I am not sure if I am talking right, but, blind people usually have better other senses, including touch so he should have no problem with rolling his dice and "feeling" the number on dice rolled if dices have slightly internally placed numbers, like casino dices.
I'm afraid that's an urban myth, Malag. Blind people don't have other senses that are sharper. Some (especially those who have been blind since birth or for a long time) must rely on their other senses more and so pay more attention to them and use them better than the sighted. Not all, though.
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We had a blind player in our group years ago - she had a great imagination. We all helped her with her character sheet, and she rolled her own dice (which we read for her). I can't really remember any problems. We didn't use miniatures at all that much back then, except for marching order (and combat only when it really mattered).
Recently, I did a map for a blind player. I just used text and placed the names spatially. It should have worked fine, except they didn't have a braille printer, which made the whole exercise a bit useless. They did have some sort of 'reader' though, so they were able to 'hear' the map, and it did help some.
Thats one thing you really need to be aware of - blind folk have no awareness of distance, at least not how the rest us do. You can't just say "the monster 10 feet in front of you", or "its 30 feet tall". I mean, you could, but its not the same for them. You'd be better off saying "the monster is practically right in front of you", or "its as tall as three story building" (because they are keenly aware of space). You shouldn't say something is 60 miles away, instead say 'its a 3-day ride' (so it translate into time). Always make sure its relatable.
I have had a visually impaired member in my gaming group for some nine years now. We still use a grid, miniatures and a map. We simply describe the action as it goes and tell him where his character is in relation to the others, and he decides his actions accordingly. We have had no troubles and I sometimes forget that he is blind! So there shouldn't be any issues at all: just describe what is happening descriptively—even when it isn't his turn—so that he knows exactly what is happening.
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I teach blind and visually impaired kids for a living, so maybe I can help. None of my students are gamers, though, so keep all this in mind and take this with a decent-sized grain of salt.
Without knowing much else about the specifics, the first thing I'd suggest is go digital as much as possible, as HerosBackpack suggested. Pathfinder's availability in PDF format is awesome, and it can be handled by any decent screenreader program (if your friend's brother uses one and is computer-savvy). I'm not sure if digital dice programs/apps can be read by screen readers, since I've never tried.
For HPs, Zarzulan's idea isn't bad, but you can also use chits or even coins to represent HPs. Give him some dimes and pennies (just to keep things simple), and have him add or subtract from his change pile as he gains or loses points. If his character has 36 HPs, then have him use three dimes and six pennies, or any other combination.
I'd also suggest describing things verbally as much as possible... don't say "she's a gnome druid with green hair," say "she's a gnome druid with spiky green hair, maybe a touch over three feet tall, with gray and silver leather armor, lots of beads and baubles in her hair, and a quiver full of sticks." The trick is not to go overboard, of course, so make sure to ask the new player how much description he wants. Describe combat environments, positions of monsters and PCs, and encourage questions.
Is your brother's friend new to RPGs, or just new to Pathfinder? If he's new to RPGs, also keep in mind that you've got the (occasionally overwhelming) job of introducing game concepts and rules too. If he's played other games, get his advice on what worked for him.
Hope this helps, and feel free to ask. I've been teaching for a while, but never tried adapting a RPG for a blind person, so it's fun to come up with new ideas.
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Well, the reason I thought about using the paper clips specifically is that you can leave them stuck in place on the sheet from one session to another. Plus, I know that my gaming table is always super cluttered with stuff and so I'm really big on avoiding clutter. Or you could use the chips or coins at the table, since there could be a lot of losing/gaining of HP during a session, and then use the paper clips to record the remaining HP when going home at the end of the session. Kind of a quick idea on my part, could use some refining.
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Depending on his age I would suggest talking to the player and asking him how he deals with things. If he is a no older teen or adult he probably knows his strengths and weaknesses and how to deal with them. He may be blind, but he still has to count and writing things down like the rest of us. Find out what systems he uses to deal with his handicap.
As for using a battle map, I would say just go ahead and use it and make good descriptions for him. Maps are more useful for some then others. I've been at a table with a map where I'm marking out distances and another guy does not even look at it at all. He may not need the map the way another player does.
When it comes to distance, I would suggest describing things in the number of squares instead of feet. For one a smaller unit is easier to track in your mind. Also, even if he cannot look across a room and know what 30ft is he can still understand the idea of 6 squares (fixed distances reguardless of size) away.
He might be up for him handling everything he can and letting someone else handle whatever he can't handle.
It might slow down your game a little, but if it means allowing someone to enjoy the game it is more than worth it.
I'd be more inclined to change '5 ft. square' to 'pace' or 'stride' for describing distance. When you can't see, you need to count paces to know where you are anyway (in my experience). It's easy to remember and understand. Also, don't say 'over here' or 'over there'. Give the actual direction.
Eg. There's 1 orc at 9 o'clock, 2 paces away, and 3 orcs at 1 o'clock, 5 paces away. Which do you want to shoot at?
I mainly play pathfinder with some old friends who live too far away to travel there every time. So the rest assembes as normal around the table and I join them via skype. Often the video quality is so bad that I am very much visual impaired, myself.
If it gets so bad that I can't see the battlemap any more I just ask questions like: Can I do a 5ft step so I can cast without provoking? Yes? So how many bad guys can I hit with my 5ft radius spread spell without hitting friends?
Or I stick to another pc like: I move forward to attack the same guy (inser name) attacked, flanking him if possible.
It slows things down a bit sometimes but it works well most of the time.
And I guess it would work out the same with a blind player.