It's certainly close to D&D's very lenient blindsight rules.

I really like the concept but I don't see myself able to reliantly describe the einvironement whitout using sight Imput.

Edit: I missed Old Geezer's post. It's probably exactly the same thing I would do.

Quote from: Omega;854988Not lazy really. A sightless race must have other sensory apparatus about as good as sight to be able to live in the absolutely hostile environment that is a D&D or other fantasy setting. Especially if a player race.

Simmilar to having a race without legs, or limbs even. To be a viable PC race they have to have some means of getting around or manipulating things on par with a every one else on some level. Telekinesis, robots, waldos, some sort of creature they ride or are the head for, etc.

Both of these aren't really playing a handicap, so much as a vulnerability. Alternate sight usually has some limitation, like range or not being able to read flat text on pages. Robot beerers or Professor Xavier-style wheelchairs are able to be disabled/suborned, and might identify you as a futuretech user to those who see you. These are all reasonable and relatively easy to play. My last sci fi campaign I played in (hero systems), we had a race called the Ihgrin, which were hard, silicon crystal creatures. They were blind, but had excellent sonar. The player could see around corners, through people, etc., but couldn't read minotor screen.

Playing actual handicapping blindness should be doable. After all, if I can play and elf or a ratling, why couldn't I roleplay something that real people go through in my real life? That said, I'm not sure that I could do the experience justice. Sighted people are apparently bad at imagining what real blindness is like. I remember the show Tru Calling (Or maybe Dollhouse, Eliza Dushku either way), where they brought on a real blindness effort to help when the character went blind for an episode. They ended up not using any of their advice, because when they used it, Dushku didn't act "blind enough" for the test audiences).

Quote from: Willie the Duck;855204Both of these aren't really playing a handicap, so much as a vulnerability.

Exactly. Handicapped yet not really. To be effective in a combat oriented RPG or one where travel into the unknown is common then a blind character for example must have some means of sensing and navigating the environ or they are very dead very fast.

A personal example. There are some games that rely on stereo hearing to tell where attacks are going to come from. I am utterly incapable of playing these. The really funny part? One was designed for blind players.

Think I've mentioned it before but in high-school I had a one-on-one (i.e. just me and the GM) Rifts game where I played a Blind Warrior Woman character. They have radar senses and whatnot but it was kind of interesting in that without any sighted PCs, the GM ended up described everything in terms of what the character could sense.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;854729Would you allow a player race that is naturally blind but has enhanced senses (blindsight in the D&D context) to compensate for it? Is the role-playing potential worth the GM headaches and balance issues?

Objectively, sure why not? I've allowed blind pcs before. Subjectively I might be a little squicked as blindness is a big phobia for me but I've gotten over it before. It might be interesting coming up with the society and cultures for a race that has never seen and might not even have any concept for what sight is or at least things like color, brightness, etc.

A very long time ago I read a science fiction story in which most people could not hear. The people in town knew what hearing was but had a religion which demanded that anyone who could hear have their ears put out because it was somehow sinful; other people viewed being able to hear as some form of clairvoyance--people with that ability knew when someone was coming before they could be seen.

I would allow the blind race with an alternate sense that compensates; it comes down to various odd limitations that might not apply much (e.g., color blind, can't read most writing, can't see very far; all not that significant if you're mostly in dim dungeons with smallish rooms) or even provide an occasional advantage (e.g., sonar negating invisibility or insubstantial illusions). I'm not sure there's huge role-playing potential, though.

Races like this are a good fit fore fantasy and science fiction so I'd allow it. I'd also be pretty interested in any alternative senses they may have developed, particularly if they work very differently from sight.

Basing off of nature some possibilities other than sonar/radar or infra-red/UV are...

Electromagnetic: Sensing the ambient currents generated by living things and metals. Like some sharks have.

Thermal: sensing heat patterns. Some snakes have this.

Vibration: sensing locations of things via the vibrations of the ground. Some snakes have this, as do some worms and some tunneling predators.

Air displacement: somewhat like a passive sonar? Some insects have this as do some fish (water displacement in that case.)

I would generally allow almost anything as long as we can explain it.