Hey guys sorry to interrupt your discussions on d&d and Warhammer etc but I'm in a bit of a pickle. One of my friends is recently blind, and I'm looking for traditional games (table top, card games, traditional board games, etc) that can be easily played/learned without sight. Is such a thing possible? If you all have any suggestions that'd be great. I'm thinking of hosting a game night at my place and don't want to exclude them.
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I don't see why most TTRPGs wouldn't work. It's called Theater of the Mind, not Eyeball-Required Gaming. Just avoid wargame shit.
I'd imagine character sheets/players handbook/etc would make it difficult. Full disclosure I don't play d&d myself so I don't know what the frick I'm talking about.
Are there really audiobooks of that shit? They don't use braille.
There might not be, but a lot of games now have text based websites that could be read out by the standard text-reading software that blind people use.
At the end of the day, it's a book and rules written in text. Some rule sets have organized websites with everything split up by category and relevance.
Edgay who works with the blind. TTRPGs that are realtively narrative heavy and rules light are the best choice here.
Eg West End's D6 systems.
Also, I've seen braile dice before, but doing that electronically really seems to be the way to go.
>Are there really audiobooks of that shit?
Last I checked, yes. Library of congress has a PHB and MM.
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/281672/Fifth-Edition-DD-SRD-Audiobook
>Last I checked, yes. Library of congress has a PHB and MM.
Kek and/lmao.
Seriously, though, that's kinda cool.
Based fellow edgay thank you for the high quality post
If they're recently blind I understand why they don't know Braille yet, but unless they're killing themselves this week they need to start learning Braille. Actual need.
>They don't use braille.
That guy should learn braille REALLY fricking soon. Should probably prioritize it over playing tabletop games.
ttrpg, just avoid stat heavy things.
7th sea for example is very low on stats you have to keep track of (until they learn Braille or get used to screenreaders).
I am sure there are other systems that are heavily about the roleplaying and not the stats at all, they just require a better understanding between DM and players.
Don't listen to the people saying Blind people can't learn complicated/rules heavy systems. If they could learn them when they could see, they can learn them while they're blind. I'm in a game of GURPS where one of the party members has been blind since 2011 and he knows the system better than I do. Just find a TTRPG you want to play, get your friend a PDF with the rules that his screenreader can read and he should be good to go. The GM'll just need to be more descriptive and tell him distances and directions of enemies when/if you get to grid or hex combat, and move his mini for him if you're using minis.
just make the sheet in brail.
If they are bat people they probably have bail making tools already.
Any RPG could do it, the only hurdle is getting them an audiobook or braille copy of the rules and dice (And maybe a character sheet example so they can put one together under whatever writing solution they use now). Especially most modern ones that don't use highly complex and specific distances represented by models on a board. Many allow for blind characters if they'd want that, but since they're recently blind, they could just as easily imagine what their character sees if they want to play a sighted character.
Can you just read the rules and text to him?
I don't see why not, it'd just be a little cumbersome. You could just read out loud whatever he needs to know too.
>audiobook or braille
dude, any text PDF will do. We're in the XXI century. They routinely use text-to-speech software since the late 1980s. In fact, in YOUR phone (both Mac and Android) you have built-in blind support that includes text reading, and in YOUR computer (both Mac and PC) you have built-in screen readers that do the same. Albeit chances are, OP's friend will likely use a dedicated screen reader like Jaws (https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws/) if he or she lives in a first world country.
Seriously. ANY text document in any format will do (as in, actual text, not the text scanned like an image).
Any RPG COULD do it, but ttotm games that don’t have tactical grids in play are gonna be easier to grok. Speaking from experience as a “blind” player using only vc when everyone else had access to the vtt
Nyctophobia was actually designed by someone who wanted to share their love of board games with a blind family member. The game even comes with blackout glasses for sighted people. I played the vampire spinoff once. Get ready for a lot of literal handholding
This looks interesting. Is the game actually good/fun?
S'alright.
>Nyctophobia
have played it with actual blind people. It sucks.Get a real game, not a niche one.
At the current century, learning to use Talkback in an Android phone is a more urgent need. As mentioned
, we're in the XXI century. Actual blindsmen mostly use text-to-speech, Braille is more of a backup.
t. long-time and recent blind people in my extended family, only one of those who became blind in the fricking 80s actually knows Braille.
I have played TTRPGs, magic the gatheing, and even larped a bit while legally blind. He was in the "can see light and dark, knows from experience what sort of shadows are people moving, walls, etc" area - unable to read, at all. He'd been that way since either birth or early childhood, I never found out which, but he didn't remember ever having sight.
He would bring a braille typewriter to games and punch a character sheet for himself. This was before 3D print took off, I imagine he has braille dice now, but back then he had to either have other players read his rolls or use a phone app for it.
He'd braille up a cheatsheet of the game system, if possible. He also found which mtg sleeves worked best for it and would braille up sleeves for his decks, which took a while but let him play. He'd just trust other people were playing what they said they played. Eventually when I realised he was also a great speed listener, I wrote up text files of game rules for him, since he was used to playing everything on his phone at low volume and 1.75 speed.
However all of that is predicated on being confident with braille. If your friend is still adapting, then that's not necessarily something they will get good with. This guy, who insisted he be called "Blind Old <name>" rather than "Blind <name>" because it's funnier that way, had a lifetime of experience reading it with his fingers.
I think the most important thing is gonna be getting good tech setups for your friend. Screen readers, assistance software, the right kind of phone setup, all that jazz.
Remember that you can get card sleeves for almost any size of cards, and that you can braille punch them. You can also read it as a seeing normie, by sight, since it's just an alphabet substitution. You could, in theory, sleeve up basically any game that's mostly card based.
Pic related is what you want to get. You roll these 2 plastic pigs like dice and based on what positions the pigs land in, you score points. You can just call the points for your friend. I would recommend this game to anybody, blind or not. Ridiculously easy to learn, fun to play, and games are quick.
Seconding this anon. I found this game in a drawer as a child and loved it.
There are braille playing cards which would be cool to set him up with before the session. I would imagine they're pretty easy to learn, too. All you need to know are some numbers, face cards and suit. Even if you pick a TTRPG anyway it's the kind of thing that would be nice for him to have.
Any roleplaying game can be played by a blind personn.
t. that's how I meet my wife. She's blind, I was GMing a game at a con, she joined the game, that was back in the '90s.
I would love audio rulebooks. I could drill into myself at work.
A friend of mine records himself reading rules to learn them.
>One of my friends is recently blind,
Excessive masturbation?
Vampire the masquerade is really easy to run and it's one of those games that is purely and exclusively theater of the mind, so no minis, grid based combat and only runs on D10.
Would recommend 20th Anniversary edition.
Is this your friend?
So, I am partially visually impaired, and at different points of the past decade or so I've been different grades of blind. There have been situations where I've had to be completely without sight, and couldn't do the things I enjoyed.
So, first things first, I want to say that you're making the right call on getting him in to tabletop games. Specifically RPGs or team based games where he can make a call, but have others kind of be there on his side to help him out.
Ignore the posts talking about braille. Yes, it will benefit him to learn it, but it's not something that just happens over night. It takes a long time to associate "feeling" with reading, and when you're first visually impaired your fingertips aren't sensitive enough to read it. Going blind later in life is fricking hard. It's THE hardest thing a human can face. Period. I don't give a frick what anyone else in this thread says.
I would start by buying him some 32mm dice or a dice set that he can feel the numbers on. Also, I'd try to have a conversation with him about what degree of blindness he has. If he can see enough to see a board, then you might want to look into color-coded pieces and making similar boards. There are people on youtube that read the rules of various D&D rulebooks out loud.
Keep with him, stay patient, and be there for him.
You're that homosexual with a youtube channel aren't you, I fricking hate your guts.
How'd you know? And Why do you hate me?
Because you talk like a gay, and because you're a fricking gay. I hope your one wish in life was seeing those 3D images that require depth perception.
sensitive b***h
Please tell your friend that I am sorry this happened to him & wish him the best.
What a horrible thing to happen to any living thing.
>recently blind
What happened?
Diabetes
No games, only treadmills.
You know that diabetics aren't all fat people, right? Diabetes is oftentimes just a genetic thing that gets passed down without any relation to diet or exercise.
type 2 diabetes is so common people forget type 1 is also a thing
What a c**t, he stole superpowers from the blind guy
Card games may be impossible, but I don't see why most TTRPGs couldn't be played with a help of a friend who just reads the dice roll for them.
I know a guy who when he plays has an oracle (person who says what's happening/been drawn) for card games - netrunner specifically, which has a TON of hidden information, so it is possible, but the guy's memory/presence of mind to keep it all in his head (including knowing a ton of card off by heart) is absolutely amazing - so if there's a card game he knows inside and out, he might still be able to do it.
The blind guy is also one of the best netrunner players on the planet, and having seen him in action and even oracle'd one time for him at a tournament, it's incredible.
Well then, playing card games may be extremely hard and not really something for most blind people, but the point about most TTRPGs working for them still stands.
hide and go seek/marco polo
>I'm looking for traditional games (table top, card games, traditional board games, etc) that can be easily played/learned without sight.
Sorry, anon. I haven't seen any.
TYPE 2 DIABETES DOESN'T JUST HAPPEN TO FAT PEOPLE. IT DOESN'T JUST HAPPEN TO PEOPLE THAT EAT TOO MUCH SUGAR, SOMETIMES IT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE SIMPLY BECAUSE THE ORGANS FOR PROCESSING ORGANS FAIL. DO YOUR FRICKING RESEARCH
Okay, fatty.
Braille shooters
Ditch the board games, play RTS with your friends completely blind on your PC's.