D&D 5E Aspurgers/autism effects?

[abe ray]

How would you fine people play a person with aspurgers and/or autism?
along these lines:how would you fine people BUILD a person with aspurgers/autism?

 

[jgsugden]

Very, very carefully. When you bring this into the game, you need to be respectful to avoid being offensive.

Mechanically, I would do nothing to introduce this element. This would be entirely role playing.

This is something I would only do in a group that I know well. I'd pool it into my categories of advanced role playing elements that I only attempt with groups I have been in for several years. Even then, I would not generally attempt it myself.

 

[abe ray]

I’m asking because I’ve got aspurgers syndrome myself.

 

[TheDelphian]

well I would think that is a potentially touchy subject.

First I would talk to my table on how they felt. I'm not a huge doer of the written social contract or of discussing veils and off stage but I know all the concepts and have never had an issue reading my table and avoiding pitfalls regarding those but I would probably talk to my table if I was going to be obviously portraying such a roll.

That said.

It is hard to say. Like portraying someone with cancer. You can say the word but it means a hell of a lot, like Autism it has a scale, are we talking stage 4 cancer of the pancreas vs stage one skin cancer. each has its own portrayal.

so you would have to define on the spectrum.

I also have a player who is autistic and is quite self knowledge about it. so to be honest I would probably use someone I know as an example but probably not while that person was a player or had knowledge for fear of them thinking I was mocking them, something, I understand, could be a possibility greater than the norm.

 

[Fenris-77]

I probably wouldn't, but if it were to come up I would also handle it as entirely role playing focused. I don't think detailing mechanical advantage or disadvantage in-game is really fair or appropriate considering the immense breadth of possibilities on the spectrum.

 

[jgsugden]

I’m asking because I’ve got aspurgers syndrome myself.

Then what do you mean? To an extent, playing someone with aspurgers syndrome should come naturally, I would think.

Mechanically, I would make no changes to the game and would allow it to be a role playing decision.

 

[abe ray]

I was just asking...

 

[Charlaquin]

I’m asking because I’ve got aspurgers syndrome myself.

Interesting that you’re asking the community at large then, as I would normally expect the opposite. If I was going to play an autistic or otherwise neurodivergent character, I would ask someone with the divergence I intended to portra for advice about how to do so accurately and respectfully. It wouldn’t be comfortable with a man telling me how to play a woman, so I can’t imagine why you would want me telling you how to play a character with aspurgers.

 

[abe ray]

I’ve never played a character with my particular mental problems, thusly my question.

 

[Charlaquin]

I’ve never played a character with my particular mental problems, thusly my question.

But the thing is, you have the lived experience of aspurgers and most of us don’t, so you’ve got a better starting point from which to figure out how to play such a character we do.

It’s not a bad question to ask, it’s just the kind of question I would expect a neurotypical person to be asking you.