Deaf players or sign language users want to game?

Hello! New to Roll20 and I am hoping that it will help me, as Deaf player, hook up with some other gamers. I would love to join or even GM a game that has Deaf players, or sign language users (or those who have some sign ability and are passionate to learn!). Failing that I will try and join a game that just doesn't use their voice feature (any takers?) but I thought first, why not dream big. So, I'm wondering if there are any Deaf players or ASL-users out there who wanna game. If you sign something other than ASL I know bits of BSL and DGS and we could make it work if you also were able to chat in English. Let's play! -Liam

Hi, Just a quick suggestion, if you haven't done it already you might want to try to use the "looking for group" tool and keyword something like "text only". Just looking quickly on that very search gives me the following three results: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/10030/versus-th" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/10030/versus-th</a>... <a href="https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/10273/classic-d" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/10273/classic-d</a>... <a href="https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/10428/look-to-t" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/10428/look-to-t</a>... I realize, a text-only wasn't your first option, but at the very least there are games out there! :) Good Luck, I hope you find something soon!

Hey thanks for the great suggestion, Alex. I will go ahead and do that as well. I am still holding out hope that there are a few players lurking that may want to join me. Cheers.

Some things could be done with chat to make it more immersive with API. Few come to mind: This really spices up turn order in the chat. <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/931415/script-tu" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/931415/script-tu</a>... This fakes demi-human languages. <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1169270/script-w" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1169270/script-w</a>... This could be leveraged so many ways... <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1226651/script-d" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1226651/script-d</a>... And Power Cards... <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1054686/script-p" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1054686/script-p</a>...

These are good ideas too. I think next year I might go from supporter to mentor. Seems a whole other world of stuff to mess with. Liam, let me know how it works out for you. if you have trouble hooking up with a group, I can try to do a text-only for you, if nothing else as a one-off adventure. I have DM'd a good deal, but never have approached it that way, frankly I am not sure I'd stack up, but I could give it a shot.

Liam J. said: Hey thanks for the great suggestion, Alex. I will go ahead and do that as well. I am still holding out hope that there are a few players lurking that may want to join me. Cheers. Another idea along those lines -- start up your own campaign (which is free to do on here). Enable the LFG search listing for your campaign. Title your campaign recognizably and tag it with ALS friendly, sign language, Deaf Players welcome, and so on. Leave the listing active in LFG for a few weeks. This way you'll have a chance to catch and attract more responses from people who might be searching for that in LFG. Your campaign could serve as both game and a community -- finding a group for yourself to play with, but also helping others who have similar interest to connect with each other.

One of my regular players is blind, so I definitely understand where you're coming from. If I can help out with anything via the API, please don't hesitate to ask!

Hello Liam J and welcome to the site. I know for a fact there are text based games for those that are hearing and speech impaired out there as I run text games almost exclusively. I don't know about the ASL though but I have or had players in your situation.

Not deaf, but slightly hearing (and visual) disabled (auditory processing disorder) which has gotten a bit worse so I would prefer text games at the moment. What type of game would you have in mind?

Stephen S. said: Some things could be done with chat to make it more immersive with API. Few come to mind: This really spices up turn order in the chat. <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/931415/script-tu" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/931415/script-tu</a>... This fakes demi-human languages. <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1169270/script-w" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1169270/script-w</a>... This could be leveraged so many ways... <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1226651/script-d" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1226651/script-d</a>... And Power Cards... <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1054686/script-p" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/1054686/script-p</a>... Stephen, this stuff is solid gold, brother. I really appreciate it. As soon as I learn my way around this thing I hope to implement (or help a GM to implement) this stuff. So much to learn!

The Aaron said: One of my regular players is blind, so I definitely understand where you're coming from. If I can help out with anything via the API, please don't hesitate to ask! The Aaron, thanks for the generous offer. What a cool and supportive community on Roll20! I will most likely be taking you up on this especially if I am the one doing the running of things. Cheers!

Pat S. said: Hello Liam J and welcome to the site. I know for a fact there are text based games for those that are hearing and speech impaired out there as I run text games almost exclusively. I don't know about the ASL though but I have or had players in your situation. Hey Pat! Curious what games you are running and any tips you might have. And by my "situation" do you mean Deaf players? I wonder if you might be able to connect us. I promise I won't steal your players away. And can you point me to said "hearing and speech impaired" groups? Thanks for chipping in!

Agnes O. said: Not deaf, but slightly hearing (and visual) disabled (auditory processing disorder) which has gotten a bit worse so I would prefer text games at the moment. What type of game would you have in mind? Agnes!! Hello! Great to meet you and I haven't started playing any games on here... yet. I hope to assemble a good group of people and then let the group to decide. I, of course, have my preferred games but we can get to that later. :-) I wonder do you have CAPD? I'm Deaf and I used to worked in a Deaf institute, and in our school we had a dedicated CAPD classroom. In fact the CAPD kids were right next to my classroom. I became good friends with their teacher and we ended up learning a lot about each other's worlds. Would be pretty cool if we could get something going on here.

I tended to run old school systems or retroclones. I had everyone doing emotes with all the dice being inline tacked on at the end of the emote. Made sure everyone understood that they had to make their posts as an attempt if it involved rolling in any manner. This allows me as the gm to be able to declare if it succeeded or not. I used the game chat itself for the game and skype for all other chatter such as out of character talk and whispers. I had generic macros but none were used because of how fluid the game was. I'm not in contact with the deaf players anymore as that was a while ago and I never looked for specific groups persay just found people that were gamers that had impairments.

Liam J. said: I wonder do you have CAPD? I'm Deaf and I used to worked in a Deaf institute, and in our school we had a dedicated CAPD classroom. In fact the CAPD kids were right next to my classroom. I became good friends with their teacher and we ended up learning a lot about each other's worlds. Would be pretty cool if we could get something going on here. Yes, that's exactly my problem (autism spectrum, seems many of us have this issue). I didn't even know why I had trouble understanding people (my ears are fine, after all) until someone in the Aspie community sent me a link. Lots of time I don't even understand what my husband is saying. It's just a random string of noise with maybe a word or two registering. I do know a bit of German sign language but it's mostly limited to catch phrases lol

another common keyword besides "text only" is "silent" ... also there's a search feature for the forums, on the main forum page.

oh I'd never thought to try that, thanks.

You've peaked my interest. I am hearing, but a few years ago, I got the idea of trying to learn ASL through gaming. Before I'm branded as a heretic again, bear with me. I was learning Japanese Sign Language in a casual group at my university while living in Japan a few years ago. We just learned new words and a bit of grammar every week and practiced using everything in little skits and short conversations. Having a background in language learning and linguistics already, I know that all language learning requires a certain amount of motivation. As gamers, what better motivation to learn a language than to use it in play? If a really basic game was available, with a GM willing to try this out, I think it would be really enjoyable. I know a very small amount of ASL through JSL (since finger spelling comes from ASL and some words are similar, plus some from my own self studies), but my work schedule prevents me from enrolling in a class to get any real proficiency. Something like this would give gamers a chance to learn more about ASL in a less threatening way as well as to practice their skills outside of any classes they may have taken. Probably not what you had in mind, but the idea might be something of interest.

I learned English through gaming :-) Not such a far off concept.

Hey everyone that was interested in text only games. Someone has put together a collective that is looking for text chat gamers. <a href="https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/18465/knights-o" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/18465/knights-o</a>...