RPG disadvantages and disability
Mar. 11th, 2010 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI read Ablism in RPG Gameplay and I wish to disagree with it. It talks about the interesting area of roleplay games character creation mechanics and ablism. Many RPGs have a points based character creation system where disadvantages are worth minus points, advantages are worth plus points, and you have a set amount of points available for a finished character. But the linked article doesn't, far as I can see, sit down and define ablism for you, so when it says "This is where the ableism is so thick you shouldn’t be able ignore it." you are left to spot it for yourself. So I tried to logic what their working definition was, and got puzzled.
The part I do agree with is there are potential problems with gamers playing characters from groups they aren't part of. "As a TAB-gamer, playing a character that has a disability has its issues. Much like anyone from a privileged position who plays an oppressed character — a cis-man playing a woman, someone who is TAB playing a disabled person, a white person playing a person of colour — it can be incredibly problematic when done without thought, understanding and respect. This isn’t to say that such a thing can’t ever be done, but that the potential for appropriation and caricature are great" Yes, yeah, and also *yes*. But - and this is a big but - all that means is a player, like a writer, should do the research, put a bit of thought in, and play or write these characters better. Huge old argument in writing, and not the part I want to get into here. And still they haven't *defined* ablist, just said it's likely a caricature will be ablist.
So here's what I logic they're saying about rule mechanics and ablism. If I'm wrong about this I'm arguing with invisible peopleagain. But it looks like:
Character Disadvantages are undesirable traits. Listing disabilities as undesirable traits is ablist.
Plus
Character Disadvantages give you points to spend like candy. It's the compensatory superpowers *facepalm* writ in rule.
Second part first: Can be, yeah, but...
First part: Character Disadvantages are NOT undesirable traits. The article's example is
"I can take an undesirable characteristic, like being vengeful, and attach it to my character to gain a benefit that can be applied elsewhere."
And that oversimplifies character creation in two different ways at once.
I can mostly speak about GURPS, because I have a whole heap of GURPS books here. And, er, I can mostly speak about character creation, because I haven't had an actual group to RPG with in years and years... but since the current topic is character creation, that works out!
GURPS Disadvantages are things that make it harder to do the things a gamer wants to do.
Some of those are things like having enemies or dependents. Some are traditional Bad Guy Stuff, like bully or sadism, that are pretty undesirable on moral grounds. And some are things you'd recognise as disabilities, like being deaf, or blind, or losing limbs, or having mental health problems. Plus there's a whole category for Social Stigma, which gets real complicated when you've got so many possible societies. And there's also traditional Good Guy Things, like Sense of Duty, or Truthfulness, or Honesty. Those have a minus point value too. What all of them have in common is there are situations where they constrain your options and make it more difficult to do things the a gamer might want to do.
What disadvantages are saying is:
This makes things harder for you.
So say you've got an average adventurer. Average stats, average skills, a few advantages, nothing spectacular. Their character point value will be about 100 points. They'll be able to get things done, especially the kinds of things adventurers like to do. Now add a disadvantage. Suddenly it is harder to do things. Whether this is because you're Diefenbaker and trying to hunt whilst deaf or Benton Fraser and trying to uphold the law to the very letter, the disadvantages system can put a points value on how much harder things are. And your character has a lower points value, because they have to work harder to do average things now, since they're working at a disadvantage.
And right there is why 'compensatory superpowers' are not inevitable. Because you don't have to play one point level. The points are just there to say if everyone has the same point level they're going to have about as much chance, as measured in dice rolls and probability of survival, of doing what the game is going to ask of you.
To say listing disabilities as disadvantages is ablist is missing the point. Having a disability makes stuff harder. The points try and measure how much so.
And it says nothing about the source of the difficulty. Are most of your problems from the social stigma, the reaction to your impairment? They'll still slow you down. Are they from the local tech being set up for people with more limbs than you? Inconvenient and inhibiting your chances of doing things the easy way. Have a minus number to put a point value on that. So there's some room about what model of disability they're using.
You can also put a point value on your assistive technology. There's a set of gadget limitations, ways to put a point cost on having a power unless someone breaks or takes the gadget that gives it to you. I haven't read up with this in mind and I haven't run the math, so I don't know how it applies. But there's two point costs for being short sighted, one for tech levels without glasses and one for levels tech can compensate but you could lose your glasses. (-25 points for Bad Sight and a -60% limitation for technological mitigators at TL5+ for total -10, if you're interested). You've bought a specific vulnerability that might slow you down in some circumstances, so you get the points taken off your total.
There's different ways to use disadvantages. You can run groups with varying point totals, even wildly varying. It's harder for the GM, but it's possible. Like if you've got one supernatural character and a group of humans. The thing there is usually to specialise. So, maybe your high points guy is a combat specialist, but to know where to aim him you've got to have researchers and stuff. There's ways around it. Everyone gets to play, but some have a harder time once it gets to those chances of survival.
Or, you can have the same point total by spending just as many plus points on advantages and skills elsewhere.
But that's still not necessarily 'compensatory superpowers'. The trope is easiest to describe with the blind seer thing: like Daredevil or some old school oracles, to lose your sight enhances your other senses in some magic handwavey way, so your disability literally results in superpowers. And that's just *facepalm*. Because really, doesn't work that way. Same with that 'mental illness makes you creative!' bit or 'autistic people get savant skillz' or whatever. All you can say about a person with a disability is they have that disability, there's not generally a bundled set.
But RPG character points might not be spent in such a bundled way. There's probably gaming systems that do it, but that's a system specific, not a general concept problem.
If you have a character with disabilities, as turned into game mechanics through character points, but they still have the same point level as your average (or above average, or outright superheroic) other character, they've spent a lot of points elsewhere. And if they put a bit of thought into it, that just makes for interesting characters.
It should be possible for character creation and the disadvantages system to encourage putting thought into the situation of oppressed groups. (Social stigma for historical women costs how much? Woah! added to ethnic group... oh wow, this character can't do anything in public without a major reaction penalty!) It is of course possible to use it as a points sink, take the disads and ignore the impact... but it's bad roleplay and a GM can totally make sure it bites. And it is of course of course possible to play a bad stereotype when you think you're rping your disads real well. But again, since you have to do it out loud in public, there's opportunities for enlightenment right there.
There's two other ways for disabilities=disads in RPGS to be ablist, as I see it:
If a character with a disability is assumed to be generally useless, always the victim, whatever their point value / advantages / skill set, then that's ablist.
and
If a disability disadvantage is always bundled with character traits: say if a dwarf is supposed to be funny or a blind person wise or someone in a wheelchair is a bully or I don't even know what else.
Those could be a GM and player problem, but they're not in the character creation rules, at least not in any set I ever seen. There may be gaming systems with stereotypes built in to the setup, but GURPS, as far as I can see, is not one of them.
So is the disadvantages/advantages system ablist? Really, really no.
Unless you play it that way.
The part I do agree with is there are potential problems with gamers playing characters from groups they aren't part of. "As a TAB-gamer, playing a character that has a disability has its issues. Much like anyone from a privileged position who plays an oppressed character — a cis-man playing a woman, someone who is TAB playing a disabled person, a white person playing a person of colour — it can be incredibly problematic when done without thought, understanding and respect. This isn’t to say that such a thing can’t ever be done, but that the potential for appropriation and caricature are great" Yes, yeah, and also *yes*. But - and this is a big but - all that means is a player, like a writer, should do the research, put a bit of thought in, and play or write these characters better. Huge old argument in writing, and not the part I want to get into here. And still they haven't *defined* ablist, just said it's likely a caricature will be ablist.
So here's what I logic they're saying about rule mechanics and ablism. If I'm wrong about this I'm arguing with invisible people
Character Disadvantages are undesirable traits. Listing disabilities as undesirable traits is ablist.
Plus
Character Disadvantages give you points to spend like candy. It's the compensatory superpowers *facepalm* writ in rule.
Second part first: Can be, yeah, but...
First part: Character Disadvantages are NOT undesirable traits. The article's example is
"I can take an undesirable characteristic, like being vengeful, and attach it to my character to gain a benefit that can be applied elsewhere."
And that oversimplifies character creation in two different ways at once.
I can mostly speak about GURPS, because I have a whole heap of GURPS books here. And, er, I can mostly speak about character creation, because I haven't had an actual group to RPG with in years and years... but since the current topic is character creation, that works out!
GURPS Disadvantages are things that make it harder to do the things a gamer wants to do.
Some of those are things like having enemies or dependents. Some are traditional Bad Guy Stuff, like bully or sadism, that are pretty undesirable on moral grounds. And some are things you'd recognise as disabilities, like being deaf, or blind, or losing limbs, or having mental health problems. Plus there's a whole category for Social Stigma, which gets real complicated when you've got so many possible societies. And there's also traditional Good Guy Things, like Sense of Duty, or Truthfulness, or Honesty. Those have a minus point value too. What all of them have in common is there are situations where they constrain your options and make it more difficult to do things the a gamer might want to do.
What disadvantages are saying is:
This makes things harder for you.
So say you've got an average adventurer. Average stats, average skills, a few advantages, nothing spectacular. Their character point value will be about 100 points. They'll be able to get things done, especially the kinds of things adventurers like to do. Now add a disadvantage. Suddenly it is harder to do things. Whether this is because you're Diefenbaker and trying to hunt whilst deaf or Benton Fraser and trying to uphold the law to the very letter, the disadvantages system can put a points value on how much harder things are. And your character has a lower points value, because they have to work harder to do average things now, since they're working at a disadvantage.
And right there is why 'compensatory superpowers' are not inevitable. Because you don't have to play one point level. The points are just there to say if everyone has the same point level they're going to have about as much chance, as measured in dice rolls and probability of survival, of doing what the game is going to ask of you.
To say listing disabilities as disadvantages is ablist is missing the point. Having a disability makes stuff harder. The points try and measure how much so.
And it says nothing about the source of the difficulty. Are most of your problems from the social stigma, the reaction to your impairment? They'll still slow you down. Are they from the local tech being set up for people with more limbs than you? Inconvenient and inhibiting your chances of doing things the easy way. Have a minus number to put a point value on that. So there's some room about what model of disability they're using.
You can also put a point value on your assistive technology. There's a set of gadget limitations, ways to put a point cost on having a power unless someone breaks or takes the gadget that gives it to you. I haven't read up with this in mind and I haven't run the math, so I don't know how it applies. But there's two point costs for being short sighted, one for tech levels without glasses and one for levels tech can compensate but you could lose your glasses. (-25 points for Bad Sight and a -60% limitation for technological mitigators at TL5+ for total -10, if you're interested). You've bought a specific vulnerability that might slow you down in some circumstances, so you get the points taken off your total.
There's different ways to use disadvantages. You can run groups with varying point totals, even wildly varying. It's harder for the GM, but it's possible. Like if you've got one supernatural character and a group of humans. The thing there is usually to specialise. So, maybe your high points guy is a combat specialist, but to know where to aim him you've got to have researchers and stuff. There's ways around it. Everyone gets to play, but some have a harder time once it gets to those chances of survival.
Or, you can have the same point total by spending just as many plus points on advantages and skills elsewhere.
But that's still not necessarily 'compensatory superpowers'. The trope is easiest to describe with the blind seer thing: like Daredevil or some old school oracles, to lose your sight enhances your other senses in some magic handwavey way, so your disability literally results in superpowers. And that's just *facepalm*. Because really, doesn't work that way. Same with that 'mental illness makes you creative!' bit or 'autistic people get savant skillz' or whatever. All you can say about a person with a disability is they have that disability, there's not generally a bundled set.
But RPG character points might not be spent in such a bundled way. There's probably gaming systems that do it, but that's a system specific, not a general concept problem.
If you have a character with disabilities, as turned into game mechanics through character points, but they still have the same point level as your average (or above average, or outright superheroic) other character, they've spent a lot of points elsewhere. And if they put a bit of thought into it, that just makes for interesting characters.
It should be possible for character creation and the disadvantages system to encourage putting thought into the situation of oppressed groups. (Social stigma for historical women costs how much? Woah! added to ethnic group... oh wow, this character can't do anything in public without a major reaction penalty!) It is of course possible to use it as a points sink, take the disads and ignore the impact... but it's bad roleplay and a GM can totally make sure it bites. And it is of course of course possible to play a bad stereotype when you think you're rping your disads real well. But again, since you have to do it out loud in public, there's opportunities for enlightenment right there.
There's two other ways for disabilities=disads in RPGS to be ablist, as I see it:
If a character with a disability is assumed to be generally useless, always the victim, whatever their point value / advantages / skill set, then that's ablist.
and
If a disability disadvantage is always bundled with character traits: say if a dwarf is supposed to be funny or a blind person wise or someone in a wheelchair is a bully or I don't even know what else.
Those could be a GM and player problem, but they're not in the character creation rules, at least not in any set I ever seen. There may be gaming systems with stereotypes built in to the setup, but GURPS, as far as I can see, is not one of them.
So is the disadvantages/advantages system ablist? Really, really no.
Unless you play it that way.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 07:22 pm (UTC)don't know if that would interest you