Question for a Blind Character

[Dane Fleetfoot]

Hi all question for you I'm making a blind character and I was wondering about a possible skill for him. I guess it would be called blind navigation, but basically a skill making it easier for him to walk around easier not bump into things. Just wondering the feasibility of that thanks!

[Ife]

Having never had a blind PC, or wrote with one, I'm possibly not the best person to answer this question...

BUT in my journeys I HAVE spotted a now-retired PC called Stitch who was blind. As I said, that account is now retired, and I assume the writer behind him has also gone (I may be wrong, though!). It might be worth if you read his CS through to see what skills he had?

Regarding other skills, I would guess that things like Land Navigation would still be named as such (without the 'blind' bit), but perhaps the lores given to your character would be vastly different. I'd suggest maybe making one of your starting lores about navigating via touch or sound or something.

Then again, I might be totally wrong, so anyone else feel free to correct me here!

[Yisanareysin]

Stitch "saw" using auristics. I'd talk to a storyteller if you plan on doing the same, just to hash out the details of what you can and can't do.

It's also worth noting that if your character was born blind, you don't have to use sight as the primary auristical sense. My character, for instance, uses smell and taste because he's a dhani. Your blind character might well use auristics with hearing or touch or something, which, I have to tell you, is a very fun thing to write.

[Kavala]

If you are planning on playing a blind pc, my suggestion is to actually utilize that blindness as a handicap and not actually work around it by utilizing other skills to get past being blind. Talk to a blind person about being blind. There are blind forums out there for people who use software to navigate the internet and they won't mind talking to you about how a 'blind' book character would navigate things. Writers have to research these things all the time.

[Shadyn]

I have a friend who has been rping for years with a blind character, and while it is not on Miz, at least some of the principles still apply, and others can find parallels in Miz.

So, first, big number one is was Kavala said, and do IRL research on how you can navigate. Your basic navigation for a blind man would be to rely upon your other senses to notice things. Observation would be the skill correlated to this....oddly enough, you would be the first person probably in the history of the game to have a need to have Observation as a starting skill. But hearing and feeling would be your main senses.

Now, onto more occult skills that could potentially help.

First and easiest one would be Spiritism. If you use this, I would suggest starting with the maximum 30 XP so that you are Competent in the skill. The main part of Spiritism that would interest you would be "Graceful Possession" in which a ghost possesses you, but yet you remain in control of what happens. The benefit would be that a ghost might be able to help you with special references and sight. I am no spiritist IC, so I COULD be wrong...ask a mod before acting on this advice .

Second skill would be one which you cannot start with, but could be valuable to learn. Familiarity involves bonding with an other-worldly being. The relationship is Symbiotic...meaning that as the skill progresses the being becomes more on a partner to you than a servant. The use here, however, would be that said being would not be blind, and thus could act as an ever-present "seeing-eye" for you.

Lastly, and most interesting and practical, I think, would be to devote a good chunk of your skills to animal husbandry, and have a seeing eye dog. This could potentially be a Kelvic, as well, but the "Seeing-eye" part is what is most important. This would be unprecedented in Miz, I believe, but could work wonderfully. I'm absolutely certain this would need moderator permission, but that would not be much of a problem for such a simple request.

Personally, I would go with the last option, and instead of using skills like Observation (this is the easiest skill to get, so using starting points on this would be a shame), I would suggest lores.


**Thus, you would be starting with a Seeing-eye dog (could be normal, could be Kevlic...that much is up to you and the mods to decide) and then have your starting lores be Lore: How to Create a Mental Picture by Feeling and Lore: Using My Hearing to Judge Distance and Location.**

This is just my idea. You would have to tweak it to fit your char, but I think that this offers a good idea. You could, of course, go with one of my other ideas, or none at all. But...just a thought.