Playing a disabled: a fun ground for everyone

[Taliaferro]

I'll keep this brief. I don't have anything intelligent to say, and nobody's clamoring for my hot take on the matter. I've been playing with Baki's player -- mostly with the character in question -- for a good while, now, on an almost daily basis. I don't know the player well, but after so much RP I consider them a friend. So bear that in mind.

It's never once occurred to me that this RP was disrespectful to people with real-life cognitive or developmental disabilities. Maybe that speaks to ignorance and insensitiveness on my part. I can think I can say with something approaching metaphysical certitude that the player means no disrespect, but I understand that intent is not the issue, here. I have no doubt that the people who raised concerns about it were sincere and that their concerns were legitimate and I have absolutely no interest in trying to make light of or to be dismissive of those concerns.

I think a number of the issues that have been raised in this thread are very worthy of consideration and I hope Baki's player will continue to take them to heart. I don't think it was quite fair to suggest bad faith on the player's part in creating this thread. I think the player's handled it really quite maturely.

Baki's a handful, and sometimes I'm not in the mood for that kind of RP. My experience has been that initially, the player could verge on being a little attention-demanding, but with time that's diminished to the point that they've become really quite good at not doing that. They'll engage you in RP, but if it's not reciprocated, Baki will fade into the background and do his own thing. I really admire the player's ability to do that. Clearly some people have differing perspectives on this, and that's fair and valid.

Anyway. Baki's given me a few headaches over the months that I've been interacting with him, but also quite a bit of joy. I hope very much that the player will continue playing him. I think some slight retcons might not come amiss (that Flowers for Algernon reference a few posts up, for instance, struck a nerve with me that I'd not considered before, and it was well put), but that's for his player to decide and not my business. Whatever happens, I'll never forget the character.