Additional Player Guidance¶

This section provides guidance for playing disabled characters in Daggerheart.

Adjusting Abilities and Spells¶

Some abilities and spells in Daggerheart designate the use of particular assets and senses, including sight, sound, touch, and movement. Like players, characters can be blind, deaf, or mute, have disabilities or limb differences, or possess any number of unique qualities that occur among individuals.

Just as there is no set style for weapons combat, there is no set style of spellcasting within Daggerheart. No spell requires specific language or motions. For example, sign language is equally viable for a Wordsmith bard as an unbroken spoken aloud.

If instructions in the game aren't a good fit for your character's abilities (such as a blind PC's spell affecting "a target you can see"), work with your GM to adjust the requirements of that effect. For example, you might choose to make one of the following adjustments to the rules or campaign:

Utilise another sense ("a target you can hear")
Specify the mechanical range ("within Close range")
Add narrative character details (the PC uses an aid or magical means to perceive the target)
Address it through worldbuilding (the Mortal Realm is accessible for disabled characters)

Supporting the enjoyment of everyone at the table means modifying the spells, abilities, and other aspects of Daggerheart as you see fit. We invite you to adjust the flavour of cards based on the lines and veils established by the group (see the "Session Zero and Safety Tools" section on page 169). For example, a player might want their druid to use the Conjure Swarm spell, but either they or another player feel uncomfortable with bugs. In that case, they could conjure other objects such as flower petals, small birds, or even a specific bug (such as a butterfly) that everyone is comfortable with. All players, including the GM, should abide by the customisations made to accommodate one another.

Playing Disability with Purpose and Respect¶

By Rue Dickey

Portraying lived experiences—such as disability—other than your own is a powerful way to broaden your perspective when done with respect. Equality, disability, accessibility, and accommodations are a meaningful part of fantasy worldbuilding. For players interested in exploring these elements at the table, it's important to take care to avoid stereotypes and learn from disabled people themselves.

Disabled Identity¶

Like other marginalizations—such as race, gender, and sexuality—disability is just as much an identity as a state of being. When playing a disabled character, it's important to remember that disabilities are a part of people, not a mask they can take off. Different individuals have different experiences with their disability, such as how long they've been disabled, how society has treated them because of it, and how accommodations for their disability are handled. All of these elements are important to consider when building a disabled character, NPC, or fantasy world with accommodations.

Disability is a broad category, and some are more visible—both literally and metaphorically—than others. Some disabilities commonly touched on and explored at the table include limb difference, low mobility and mobility aids, low vision, hearing loss, neurodivergence, and mental illness. Mobility aids and prosthetics are most commonly included in disability representation, but it is also important to remember that there are countless "invisible" disabilities, such as chronic illnesses, chronic pain, genetic disorders, and autoimmune conditions. Neurodivergence—a blanket term that covers autism, ADHD, learning or cognitive disabilities, PTSD, and more—and mental illness can also sometimes be considered invisible disabilities. When building an inclusive world, it is important to consider disabled people from all walks of life, not just those who are most visible.

Mobility Aids, Prosthetics, and Accessibility Tools in Fantasy¶

A key aspect of playing and including disabled characters in your narratives is ensuring that accessibility tools are a part of the setting. "Accessibility tools" is a broad category for anything that makes the world more navigable for a disabled person, from glasses and hearing aids to prosthetics, wheelchairs, canes, and more.

These mobility aids and accessibility tools can take forms from real life, using modern technology or historical reference. People have invented new ways to help disabled people access the world for thousands of years. But you should also feel encouraged to get fun and fantastical with it—maybe a prosthetic grown from plants and vines, or a wheelchair that uses magic better align with your PC or the campaign. If you'd like to implement a mobility aid mechanically, see the "Combat Wheelchair" section on page 122.

Telling Disabled Stories¶

When playing a disabled character, or when including disabled characters as central elements in the plot, it's important to know what sort of story you're telling. Is the adventurer's disability a central element of their character? Is it part of their backstory or something they gained as part of their adventures? How do they engage with that part of their identity—are they proud of their disability, coming to terms with it, or looking for new coping strategies? All of these stories are valid explorations and will have different implications and directions for your character's journey throughout the narrative. Some players will want mechanical involvement for their disabilities, while others will want more narrative flavour without the mechanical aspects.

Above all, make sure to collaborate on the worlds you build, the characters you create, and the stories you tell. Be open to adjustment and change, and take care of yourself and your fellow players. The game will be safer, richer, and more fun if everyone has a seat at the table.

By Dawn Rue

For ease of information, this section uses the term blind to refer to individuals who lack all sight, and visually impaired (VI) to refer to individuals with low vision, who have visual impairments, or who are legally blind by definition.

Though every individual in the blind/VI community has their own experiences and preferences, here are a few tips on how to play a blind/VI character respectfully. First, consider the following when developing their backstory:

If your character was born blind/VI, remember that from very young ages, blind/VI children develop their own methods to interact with the world.
If your character wasn't born blind/VI, what caused it, or is causing them, to lose their vision? A sudden loss of sight can be traumatic, creating a sense of helplessness until they learn ways to adapt.
If your character is visually impaired, what level of sight do they have? Do they see only shadows and light? Or are things blurry blobs at a distance?
Does your character want to gain or regain their sight? Not all blind/VI individuals care about "curing" their sight, especially if they've been born that way. It's hard to miss something they have never had, and some treasure their unique interpretation of the world. On the other hand, those who've lost their vision might miss what they once had.
Will your character use a cane? Blind/VI people don't use canes to "see"; rather, they use them to gather information about the surface they're walking on (by sound or how far their cane sinks into the ground), inclines or declines, and the edges of objects around them.
Does your character have a service animal or familiar? Blind/VI people develop close bonds with their service animals, and these companions alert them of potential danger or obstacles, guide them, and bring them items they need. While characters who weren't born blind/VI could potentially see through the eyes of a familiar, a character who was born blind might not understand the images a familiar projects into their mind, as they haven't experienced sight and don't have the necessary context.

Strive to give blind/VI PCs and NPCs the same level of independence and function as other characters in your game, and make them common enough to let others know they not only exist in your world, they thrive.

When roleplaying, you're encouraged to include descriptions that go beyond appearance. Blind/VI people do not inherently have heightened smell or hearing, but these senses can inform them about their environment. Think about an area's scent, temperature, wind flow, and more. Describe obstacles, people, and enemies in relation to their current position, such as stating that someone is "several paces in front" of a character or referencing a clock face or compass (where the character is always standing in the middle).

Above all, don't be afraid to play a blind/VI character and open yourself up to these roleplaying opportunities, experiences, and perspectives.

Playing a Deaf Character¶

By Rogan Shannon

Deaf people exist on a wide spectrum ranging from mild to profound deafness. Some are deaf in one ear, but otherwise hear and speak, while others are entirely deaf and living in a fully visual world—or one of the many possible combinations in between. When you play a Deaf character, consider the many factors that influence how they move through their life. The following questions are a good place to start:

Have they been deaf since birth, or did they become deaf later in life from illness or injury?
How do they choose to communicate with their friends, loved ones, and the world at large?
Growing up, did they learn how to speak, use sign language, or a combination of the two?
If they don't speak the predominant language, how do they communicate? Do they use paper and pen? Or do they hire accommodators, magical or otherwise?
Is this person a loner, keeping to themself and interacting with people only when they have to, or are they part of a community of other Deaf people?

As an accommodation for a Deaf character, the GM and players can flavour senses using other senses. For example, the character might feel the rumbling of a dragon's deep roar or the intense heat from a fire's spell, rather than hearing the bellow or an explosion of flame. They may have a metallic taste in their mouth and hair standing up on their arms as the air crackles with electricity. Rather than hearing the groan of the undead, those might be assaulted with the pungent smell of rot.

When roleplaying, be mindful of how you portray the character's chosen communication mode. Either speak as you normally would or be intentional about how you do it.

Above all, Deaf people are people. Play them as you would any other character while considering the added layer of how they move through the world differently due to communication needs. If you're able, don't hesitate to ask someone Deaf for ideas and feedback.