D&D General Diabetes in dnd

[Tonguez]

I agree with @Dannyalcatraz.

People keep overselling the healing spells but by raw they only heal injury, disease and specific conditions, there is nothing in them that says they correct genetic variations (eg wearing spectacles) or lifestyle choices (eg addiction)

 

[Zaukrie]

I guess it depends on how realistic you want things.....I've been working on a PDF of "real" and fantasy diseases, and I'm definitely having tetanus (lockjaw) lock a PC's jaw over time....

 

[Alzrius]

Okay, I knew I saw this somewhere, and eventually managed to hunt it down.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #115: Trail of the Hunted (Ironfang Invasion 1 of 6) has an NPC who not only has damaged eyes (and can still see, but only with limited ability), but was born missing a foot, and says this about curing those injuries:

Now, the part about needing a heal or restoration to fix their eyes is obviously wrong, as per what a remove blindness/deafness spell can fix, but insofar as repairing a congenital defect such as a missing foot, needing a limited wish or miracle is fairly reasonable.

I mentioned in another thread that I recently bought Cryptosnark Games' Book of Distinctions & Drawbacks. It turns out that they also published a Book of Distinctions & Drawbacks Modern (affiliate link), which includes specific entries for both type I and type II diabetes.

 

[Starfox]

I'll come with one of those depressing "this is a bad idea" posts. I'll just make my case, no need to discuss it unless you really want to.

I have Type 2 diabetes IRL - tough it is not in an acute stage yet. The last thing I want is to play a diabetic in DnD or any other RPG.

Then again, I did enjoy the Oracle in Pathfinder 1 and loved writing inventive curses for that class to wrestle with. For those who don't know, the Pathfinder 1 (a version of 3.5) oracle class had a curse feature, that initially gave you a significant penalty, often a physical handicap. As you advance in level, this curse slowly changed into an advantage, often with an interesting twist on the initial penalty. But even at maximum level, there was still some negative aspect to the curse.

I guess that if someone wrote an interesting oracle curse on the theme of diabetes, that could be a good idea after all.

I also guess that people with other types of handicaps would feel the same I do about having their handicap represented in the game. But others might feel proud and even empowered by being a hero despite their in-game handicap. Escapism means different things to different people.

And now I feel like I am derailing this thread rather than just raining on its parade. Aw well...

 

[Weiley31]

All I know is, a Sweet Tea Elemental or a Sweet Tea Gensai rival would suddenly become a problem for said PC with diabetes.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I would deal with it in the same way I deal with any other special stuff during character creation.

Player: Oy, I want to play a diabetic character.
Me: Ok, do you have a background explanation for your character being diabetic and not cured in this setting with high magic and real gods that meddle with mortals?
Player: Yeah, it's because lorem ipsum.
Me: Cool, will it have any mechanical impact, and if yes how?
Player: Yeah, it'll work like this lorem ipsum.
Me: Cool, note it on your sheet and in the background info/story you'll send me, and as usual I let it have some impact in the campaign.

 

[MoonSong]

I'll come with one of those depressing "this is a bad idea" posts. I'll just make my case, no need to discuss it unless you really want to.

I have Type 2 diabetes IRL - tough it is not in an acute stage yet. The last thing I want is to play a diabetic in DnD or any other RPG.

Then again, I did enjoy the Oracle in Pathfinder 1 and loved writing inventive curses for that class to wrestle with. For those who don't know, the Pathfinder 1 (a version of 3.5) oracle class had a curse feature, that initially gave you a significant penalty, often a physical handicap. As you advance in level, this curse slowly changed into an advantage, often with an interesting twist on the initial penalty. But even at maximum level, there was still some negative aspect to the curse.

I guess that if someone wrote an interesting oracle curse on the theme of diabetes, that could be a good idea after all.

I also guess that people with other types of handicaps would feel the same I do about having their handicap represented in the game. But others might feel proud and even empowered by being a hero despite their in-game handicap. Escapism means different things to different people.

And now I feel like I am derailing this thread rather than just raining on its parade. Aw well...

I think this is worth its own thread.

 

[RedSquirrel]

I'll come with one of those depressing "this is a bad idea" posts. I'll just make my case, no need to discuss it unless you really want to.

I have Type 2 diabetes IRL - tough it is not in an acute stage yet. The last thing I want is to play a diabetic in DnD or any other RPG.
...
I guess... that could be a good idea after all.

I also guess that people with other types of handicaps would feel the same I do about having their handicap represented in the game. But others might feel proud and even empowered by being a hero despite their in-game handicap. Escapism means different things to different people.

And now I feel like I am derailing this thread rather than just raining on its parade. Aw well...

Nope. Not at all. Don't feel bad 'bout that.
And I say that as a Type 1 diabetic, diagnosed for about 25+ years, who must wear an insulin pump 24/7 and can't even go 2 hours without it, without consequence.

While I haven't ever thought of having a diabetic PC specifically, that's largely because it wouldn't ever have occurred to me to think that it was even remotely possible. And I guess that's the point of the representation. I wouldn't have thought of an aspect of myself as being something that's admirable to persevere through, even through adversity. It's just a part of my daily mundane life, and I often forget how many people haven't gotten as far as I have. I do have a lot of consequences like retinopathy, neuropathy, gastroparesis, kidney disease, thyroid disease, etc from the IDDM.
But, I still have a fairly active, normal lifestyle, to the point of being a sport skydiver.

So, yes.
While it might not be for everyone, and I hadn't even thought of it 'til I read this thread... it now occurs to me that I can think of myself as an adventurer, slaying a horde of diabetes demons every single day. (OS joke: they're "type 1 demons"!)