Players with poor vision

[Umbra]

I DM an older group so we are a little slower than we used to be but one player has diabetes and his eyesight has deteriorated badly. He has had to undergo some laser surgery leaving him with tunnel vision. He can no longer make out maps drawn on a battlemap or which figure is which so I've started to modify the way I run melee with a lot more description of who's where, against what wall, etc, and the other players do the same. Unfortunately he hasn't got a great mind for keeping spatial relationships organised so we often have to repeat things. This, of course, slows things down a bit.

Apart from the unsuitable solutions (for our group) of don't use minatures or use bigatures one foot high , what suggestions do you have to help everyone involved. Anyone else in similar situations?

thanks in advance

 

[Piratecat]

I've played with a blind player before, but he was better at spacial relations than your player is. Would it help if he felt where the miniatures were?

If anyone has a LCD projector and if you have a flat wall, you could also use a laptop to project where people are relative to one another.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

I'm in the same boat as PC- I've had a blind player, and we just had to describe everything for her (including dice rolls). She seemed to enjoy herself anyhow. I would imagine that, in both these cases, the person in question has simply become more used to having to picture things in their mind than someone who has just recently found themselves in this situation.

How is the player with colors? You could try dipping the minis in colors, if they aren't already painted- use different bright colors for party members, a single color for the bad guys (maybe a unique one for the BBEG), etc. If painting is out, you could try some color markers under the piece, like plastic chips or squares of tissue paper.

 

[Dogbrain]

If your player can see anything, maybe you should abandon the "battlemap" and go to a pseudo-3d representation. Miniatures can be expensive, but there are cheaper alternatives. I often use Legos. Instead of just drawing flat marks for terrain, you can build up things real quick-like. They don't have to be representational so much as iconic.

 

[pogre]

Would giving his miniature a large back banner help?

 

[Funksaw]

Would giving his miniature a large back banner help?

To me, this seems like a great excuse to go ditch the minis.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Can he see things close at hand? If so, you might give him his own copy of the battlemap (make one for each planned combat in advance). Then mark the characters' starting positions and anyone who moves can call out their move. "A3 to C5" for example.

 

[DrZombie]

This may sound a little crazy, but try making things smaller. If he's got tunnel vision, but can pick out details within his "tunnel" (not being farsighted or having glasses to correct it) you should try to determine how big an area he can see on a piece of paper all at once. If it's big enough you can put all the positions on that one piece by using a 5mm*5mm grid and using green numbers for friendlies and red numbers for enemies. Just change the piece evry round, should be quicker then describing what's going on and him getting frustrated for not knowing what the hell is happening.

Let me know how it works out. Thanks.

 

[CalicoDave]

If he can make out colors Alea Tools make colored, round, magnetic markers to go under miniatures. If he tunnel vision allows these might make it easier to distinguish which minis are which. I haven't used these but they look interesting.

Also, I work with a woman who is legally blind. She has a set of glasses that has a small (about 2" long) telescope attached. This allows here to focus on a small area in the distance and see it pretty well. So maybe there might be something along those lines his doctor might know about that might help.

 

[alsih2o]

Get otu the legos baby. Edges between floor bits can be felt and the little lego people are 3-4 times as thick as minis.

Shift the light, stark overhead lightiing may not help, try a harsh side light.