D&D 5E Aspurgers/autism effects?

[Knight Terrain]

Mod Note:

I am not sure where you learned to joke about people who have challenges, but it is doubly inappropriate in this thread. Please don't do so again.

I'm not joking about it! I'm on the autism spectrum and you should not shut us out just because we talk about our disabilities!

 

[Knight Terrain]

Id think most people playing DnD are on the spectrum anyway

I think you would be surprised at how many of us actually are on the spectrum and have played D&D for years!

 

[Knight Terrain]

Being on the Autism spectrum is not a joke. It can make life hard for us. I think playing a D&D character with Autism is a great idea! It would definitely add challenge and reward. I think that trying to make us stop talking about it is very inappropriate!

 

[Umbran]

I'm not joking about it! I'm on the autism spectrum and you should not shut us out just because we talk about our disabilities!

Mod Note:
1) Please look again. I was speaking to another user, not to you.

2) Please check out the rules ("Terms and rules" - at the bottom of every page) about arguing with moderation in-thread. The rule is don't argue with the moderators in the thread. If you have an issue with moderation, please take it to the private message system.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I'm neurodivergent myself (ADHD), and I often ask myself how my particular brand of divergence would be modeled by D&D rules. Here's my advice and suggestions, for what they're worth.

Whatever you do, resist the urge to make this a "racial" or cultural thing. Being autistic isn't a "subrace" or a "profession," and implications to the contrary will always be offensive. However you choose to address the topic, it must span all cultures, races, and backgrounds.

Also resist the urge to write new rules. The existing rules are plenty to build any kind of character upon--including neurodivergent ones:

• Many of the feats in 5E can be excellent stand-ins for particular types of neurodivergence. If you rewrite the flavor text a bit, the Alert and Prodigy feats can describe the insomnia, anxiety, and hyper-focus of being attention-deficit. Keen Mind could be reskinned to describe someone with a photographic memory, Observant could describe someone with heightened awareness or anxiety. I'm sure there are more.
• The Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws presented with the character backgrounds are just suggestions, you should feel free to write your own to describe how your character views and reacts to the world at large. Work with your DM and fellow players, and tread carefully when you get to Flaws.
• Your choice of proficiencies and skills could reflect your character's habits and mannerisms. Your character might have very different reasons for learning how to deceive others, learning how to be unseen, or learning how to play a musical instrument. Choose the skills, tools, and languages that best describe your character, not necessarily the ones that give you the best stats. (This is good advice for all characters, actually.)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. The goal is to play the character you want to play, without being disrespectful of yourself and your fellow players. If you do that, everything else will fall into place.

This is good advice.

I'd look into flaws, bonds and personality traits. There are drawbacks and advantages to every personality type. Think about both, jot them down and rp them. Re-flavouring mechanics, spells and class abilities to reflect some of the qualities or drawbacks adds a lot. I don't think it's necessary to venture into the realm of homebrew. Although, a homebrew background would work well.

This is an rp game. I've played blind characters, elderly characters, children characters, women, men. You are playing a Person and there are many, many ways to do that. Just make sure to be being respectful to everyone at the table when you do it.

 

[abe ray]

How would you fine people use the conditions mentioned for the demihumans Or sentient monsters?

 

[Libertad]

Fellow autist here. I don't really have much else to include that hasn't already been mentioned. I can speak best for myself, but I think focusing on the small quirks but making them like any other PC is best. For instance, many autistic people have trouble maintaining eye contact with others, so mentioning that that an NPC or your character is looking elsewhere (but still paying attention) during conversations with others can be a useful portrayal.

For those autistic people who hyper-specialize in some area of knowledge or tasks, making them skilled and talent in said areas may be my extent of "build advice," similar to what CleverNickName outlined: an autistic rogue who is fascinated by books on the Primordial Era or whatever may have Expertise in Arcana and History.

For nonhumans, I don't see why elves with autism would be any different than humans with it. Demihuman races are more or less built from a 'human' baseline and role-played like humans anyway (but with longer memories of eras long past).

 

[Iry]

Broad generalizations, but:

Don't take Insight.
Choose a sensory issue, like multiple sounds mingling together, being uncomfortable with light touches, or having trouble speaking while you are focusing on something.
Decide if you have Alexithymia.
Don't roleplay meltdowns. Just don't.

 

[Ace]

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?

5E isn't an advantages/disadvantages game like GURPS

Mechanically my suggestion same as Iry is to not take Insight as a skill at start to represent typical difficulties in that area and slightly low stats in Charisma or maybe Dex .In some not all cases a higher Int would be suitable. Strength and Con probably won't be touched.

As for tips. Play them like yourself or maybe look at some of the characters from Big Bang Theory , CSI's Gil Grissom or Bones Brennan from Bones , Spencer Reed from Criminal Minds should all give some ideas or the titular Acco

For lower functioning persons, the titular Accountant from the movie of the same name is a fighter/rogue basically and real life Temple Grandin would make a great druid but a caveat. Or heck Lisbeth Salander the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Action heroes on the spectrum are quite common these days.

However Its amazingly difficult to do this in ways that don't come off as insensitive so just make sure its OK with everyone else before going ahead.

 

[clearstream]

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.

For me it would be justified to represent autism in a game through game mechanics. One motive for doing so might be to allow people without autism to achieve greater empathy, through roleplaying.

A separate concern is the making of such mechanics. It would need research, conversations and playtesting iterations to reach a point that might feel successful; always acknowledging the authority of the community in question to say how their experience of the world ought to be portrayed.