Revisit the Disability Requirements

[rrrrrr]

On 29/06/2024 at 18:12, Sniblet said:

At this moment, saying that Horizon is the SCC's ideal public face feels like a joke. Don't mistake this for a bad thing. It's something we should permit more of. Maybe we shouldn't be the flagship.

At the risk of being somewhat off-topic, I feel like this idea should be explored in a different thread... mostly because I think it's a good idea. The Horizon being the flagship seems to preclude certain things, which is sad.

[Peppermint]

On 10/07/2024 at 18:36, Arrow768 said:

There is one thing that I do want to point out in that discussion.
Our setting is at a point in time, where most disabilities are by choice.
Characters have the option to get artificial replacements for pretty much any organ they have.
There can be reasons why a character might not want to go that path, but I do question if the Megacorps have to respect that choice in all cases or just go "if you want to work for us you have to meet those requirements. We can offer you a very attractive* repayment plan for those implants"

The simple reason is that it's boring and prohibits a lot of different character archetypes people might find fun. Nothing I've listed here makes people unable to do their job. I agree with you that the kind of thing you mention would likely happen if our setting was more grounded, but it isn't.  Especially not when the number of different character types that can be hired is so big, including unathi pirates, terrorist exiles from multiple different factions, free IPCs, ect. 

The flip side of this is also that characters who have something wrong joining one of those schemes and having to deal with the consequences of their implants being straight up owned by a corp who can rip them out at any time is a cool, interesting, and flavorful thing to do. There is the argument of 'okay but then they should have been hired with them', that axes a ton of concepts right off the bat and for a set-up like we have, essentially relegates it all to background info.

My main 'thing' here is that yes whilst allowing any disability in megacorp hell is probably not going to happen, neither would the vast, vast majority of characters we see day to day. The disability changes I've put here would all be entirely doable for said individual and how people with said problems exist in the setting, with the issues it faces, is much more interesting imo than a 'yeah they wouldn't exist here' kind of take. The realism ship sailed a long time ago and instead it feels we have more vague believably, which is fine - it works much better for a video game and I'm not suggesting we have blind security officers or deaf captains; just a few more options in the civilian sections specifically, all of which can be justified.

'I struggled for a job due to my disabilities/being too poor to fix it/am way overqualified but this is all I could get' is much more appealing and adds a lot more RP to nobody's detriment than 'yeah no disabled people here, they wouldn't get hired' and there are plenty of ways to ICly justify it that wouldn't create plot holes. Dropping the psych one would be fine, but the rest have plenty of potential with minimal issue to other people and given the sheer amount of concepts we allow, people have always been trusted to justify why their character is how they are.

Skrell/tajara also have a bunch of lore related disabilities. People can have a load of fluff medical conditions via medical records and are trusted to not go overboard with them. Consulars have also recently gotten permission to have missing limbs and similar. Plus we already have disability options for civilian roles, this just widens the option - if the chaplain can be blind, why can't the bartender?

 

My main reason for arguing all this all over again though is that policy suggestions tend to just go nowhere. Matt has said he agreed with some of these, but I don't know if that means I can go ahead and make character with some of them, or if I can't. If it's in discussion, or it isn't, ect. 

Edited July 25 by Peppermint

[greenjoe]

On 10/07/2024 at 18:36, Arrow768 said:

There is one thing that I do want to point out in that discussion.
Our setting is at a point in time, where most disabilities are by choice.
Characters have the option to get artificial replacements for pretty much any organ they have.
There can be reasons why a character might not want to go that path, but I do question if the Megacorps have to respect that choice in all cases or just go "if you want to work for us you have to meet those requirements. We can offer you a very attractive* repayment plan for those implants"

in regards to this, there's a good article that was posted on tumblr about disabilities in a futuristic setting here.

[Peppermint]

On 19/08/2024 at 23:39, greenjoe said:

in regards to this, there's a good article that was posted on tumblr about disabilities in a futuristic setting here.

Yeah, this is a good summary of what I mean, just explained a bit better. The current stance of disabilities being so limited kind of sucks, so fingers crossed something comes of it - it's been a while though so also being told to just leave it would also be fine, as not sure if I'm supposed to be arguing the point some more or just leaving it for now.

[Lmwevil]

The true issue is the vast majority of disabilities ingame are just incredibly boring to play around. Wheelchairs for example, are very boring, asthma is mechanically uninteresting, being nearsighted is a pain and so on. 

Lore is secondary to the fact that being blind in ss13 is just awful, actually the worst. Much of the job restrictions come from ooc reasons as well to make sure the job can actually be done in a sane timeframe for what they need to do.

[Peppermint]

3 hours ago, Lmwevil said:

The true issue is the vast majority of disabilities ingame are just incredibly boring to play around. Wheelchairs for example, are very boring, asthma is mechanically uninteresting, being nearsighted is a pain and so on. 

Lore is secondary to the fact that being blind in ss13 is just awful, actually the worst. Much of the job restrictions come from ooc reasons as well to make sure the job can actually be done in a sane timeframe for what they need to do.

Nobody is forcing anyone to play a character with one. If people don't want to use them they can just...not. Some people are fine with the headaches however, as seen by playing with the color blind modes not that rare.

I'm not sure I remember when helping design them much worry around ooc play; it was more to do with IC realism with a little about impact on other, which I have considered when presenting which jobs should change. Especially when a lot of what I want you can already do, just with an odd job spread that I would like to see changed.

However that is why I have suggested changes mostly to the civilian areas, of which the original post was agreed with by the person who told me to put this up to begin with which is why I'm replying to this still.

At the end of the day, I seriously doubt many people will play these traits but how restrictive it is in certain areas just feels a bit much - especially civilian, which isn't going to really bother anyone all too much round to round.

Edited August 22 by Peppermint

[greenjoe]

Giving this a bump, hoping changes can come into place.
In addition, there are a few jobs I think would be fine with being heavily mobility impaired.
Pharmacists
Regular Scientists.
And Xenobotanists.

All three of those jobs seem like they would be fine to be done by a character in a wheelchair.
 

[Carver]

58 minutes ago, greenjoe said:

Giving this a bump, hoping changes can come into place.
In addition, there are a few jobs I think would be fine with being heavily mobility impaired.
Pharmacists
Regular Scientists.
And Xenobotanists.

All three of those jobs seem like they would be fine to be done by a character in a wheelchair.
 

I agree with the first two, but xenobotanist would be a bit odd given you’re ostensibly working around in the planter soil a bit and carefully working around delicate xenoflora. I feel like it’s the kind of work where you’d be on your knees or leaning over a fair bit.

[greenjoe]

41 minutes ago, Carver said:

I agree with the first two, but xenobotanist would be a bit odd given you’re ostensibly working around in the planter soil a bit and carefully working around delicate xenoflora. I feel like it’s the kind of work where you’d be on your knees or leaning over a fair bit.

It's possible the planters are raised somewhat so it may be reasonable for them to be able to do it?