The Altered Sensorium - a possible theme for Freelance Traveller Freelance Traveller (20 Mar 2016 04:24 UTC)
Re: [TML] The Altered Sensorium - a possible theme for Freelance Traveller Jeffrey Schwartz (24 Mar 2016 13:28 UTC)

Re: [TML] The Altered Sensorium - a possible theme for Freelance Traveller Jeffrey Schwartz 24 Mar 2016 13:27 UTC

Does this do anything for you?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i809pu4G-iUvGOMdAg7zGsvE6pqDvweH8Fzn-ojgf4A/edit?usp=sharing

On Sun, Mar 20, 2016 at 12:25 AM, Freelance Traveller
<xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com> wrote:
> Most Traveller games that I've played in - or even been aware of - have
> centered on characters that are more-or-less "normal". But not everyone
> is "normal", and exceptional people may have challenges of their own to
> meet. Sometimes, those challenges are known to the people around them -
> blindness, deafness, neural or muscular deficiencies impeding normal
> movement or manipulation, amputated or malformed limbs, and so on.
> Sometimes, the challenges aren't immediately obvious, because the person
> has learned to compensate, can control the challenging condition
> medically, or because the challenge doesn't really impede normal
> activity at all - colorblindness, synesthesia, depression, allergies,
> and so on.
>
> In SF, sometimes, the challenge may not be a problem with the person,
> but with the environment that the person find himself/herself in - a
> normal human in an environment designed for a species that doesn't have
> color vision, and uses a combination of pattern and texture to mark or
> identify things where normal humans use color. An alien whose color
> vision range excludes what we call blues and purples, but includes extra
> "colors" beyond red, into what humans consider infrared - and needing to
> cope with a human-oriented environment. Or maybe the difference is in
> the range of audible frequencies - the high-pitched whine of older
> computer monitors that's just a tiny bit too high for most humans to
> hear might well drive Vargr straight up the wall. And so on, et cetera,
> und so weiter.
>
> My challenge/request to you: Write something for Freelance Traveller
> that centers on a difference in perception, or on an environment where
> "normal" perception is potentially troublesome - a story where the main
> character is colorblind, or a synesthete; a set of rules for handling
> blindness or deafness in play; a profile of a character who suffers from
> a psychological condition that needs to be kept in check with a
> difficult-to-get-and-possibly-illegal-in-some-places medication; an
> adventure where a K'kree family group has to cope with being among those
> bloody-smelling meat-eaters /without/ killing them; a world where the
> habitable areas seem to permanently have a fourteen-cycle note in the
> background whose cause can't seem to be found - or muted; whatever.
>
> If I get enough of these, and they're good enough, I'll turn it into a
> theme issue. If there isn't enough for a theme issue, they can still end
> up being interesting, and might inspire ideas for future play.
>
> Don't just look and listen for ideas, feel around for them. See how they
> taste, see if they pass the sniff test. Or smell if they look good. Or
> some sort of mixed-sensory metaphor...
>
> --
> Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
> Freelance Traveller
>     The Electronic Fan-Supported
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