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
    Traveller® Fanzine and Resource

xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
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