The Starry Mirror Stinks for Color-Blind Players.

[Shimrath]

'Nuff said!

Tonight i ran the puzzle of the Starry Mirror, only to realize that it was no fun at all for the color-blind player in the group. A quick notation next to each color made it ok, and he ended being the player to crack the code part-way open, with a second player finishing the job and solving it.

Is there a hotline to report adventures that discriminate against the color-blind?

[logic_poet]

Shimrath wrote:

'Nuff said!

Tonight i ran the puzzle of the Starry Mirror, only to realize that it was no fun at all for the color-blind player in the group. A quick notation next to each color made it ok, and he ended being the player to crack the code part-way open, with a second player finishing the job and solving it.

Is there a hotline to report adventures that discriminate against the color-blind?

That's too bad, but it sounds like you found a partial workaround. I do know of a puzzle that should favor color blind players, however.

Spoiler:

In the early 3e module NeMoren's Vault, there is a plaque that needs to be read aloud. It contains a long string of color words, like red purple blue orange yellow yellow blue green etc. However, every color is written in a color different from the text, so one "red" might be blue and the next "red" yellow, and so on. If you can see color at all, the string is long enough that it takes major concentration on a player's part to read the text, and not repeat the colors of the words. Transcription in pencil helps, but also requires concentration.

[PulpCruciFiction]

As an interesting sidenote to that puzzle, Steven Pinker does this really interesting experiment to show that profanity is hardwired into the brain using the same puzzle. Basically, first he shows a list of colors as words - "red," "green," etc. but each word, as you mentioned, is in a different color - so the word "red" would be colored blue, for example. When you try to read the word instead of saying the color, there is a moment of hesitation within your brain.

Then, he puts profanity up, with the words in different colors. The object is to say the color, but the same moment of involuntary hesitation occurs. It's really fascinating, and I think he likes it even more because it gives him the chance to say bad words in class.