autism & adhd (5e)
A downloadable mechanics
Autism & ADHD mechanics for D&D 5e
Choose 1 - 3 traits to add to autistic and/or ADHD PCs or NPCs
Choose from 5 shared traits, 3 autism-specific traits, and 3 ADHD-specific traits
Traits can be beneficial, detrimental, or a mix of both!
Created by an autistic social worker with a focus in autism & ADHD
Includes formatted document and dyslexia friendly plaintext
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This is rad as hell
thats very sweet, thank you! :D
Hiya! Starmeoh again, after seeing Dr Russel Barkley's amazing redefining of ADHD, I've decided to be brave enough to make my own traits. I'll be calling out EFDD, I'll eventually upload it here. Thankyou for encouraging me! still looking for a doctor with the equivalent genius and medical accuracy of Dr Barkley, an eternal advocate for "ADHD" who's a controversial but brilliant figure in the neurodivergence community. Again, thankyou for your encouragement! I'm not usually brave on my homebrews, but why not give it a crack?
that's so exciting!! im so glad you feel inspired to put your own work out there and i could help foster some drive for that in some way. i wish you the best of luck with it!! very exciting!!
Did you ever get around to making any?
I love this with all my heart but there's one glaring omission - no masking/camouflaging?
As a woman with autism i literally cannot imagine creating an autistic character without this trait. May I request it please? Thankyou for all your wonderful homebrew, if I weren't broke as an old car I'd donate something but for now all I can offer is my admiration for your ability to turn life's little quirks into playable art. I look forward to more content.
oh, you're so right! i definitely should have thought of that! i'll have a think on it and then update the files when i come up with something :o) i appreciate the kind words and the interest!
<3 thankyou so much, youre so sweet.
I could add half a dozen things but... what makes adventures hard irl usually doesn't translate effectively to tabletop adventures, for example premenstrual dysphoric disorder. In fact I can imagine it could actually be comical in a group of women gamers to have someone with this feat, oh the cope-humour. I can't imagine using that practically in something like Critical Role, which is one of my mental tests prepping an as usual complex character for play, but intellectual disabilities can be roleplayed without a feat, which whats-his-face did REALLY well. Less is more, as they say. Anyone, I'm done rambling, thanks for your homebrew, love it heaps!
May i share a rough demo version I came up with? It's based off my online uni website briefly explaining autism, I tried not to plagiarise. It's not much really... def not happy to implement it, very alpha stage.
yeah, go for it!
Art Of The Mask
In the presence of others conceal certain traits and replace them with atypical or normal ones to avoid being recognised as odd or unusual. This can involve changing things such as tone of voice, facial expressions, eye contact, speech patterns, and body language. Make these changes to match the dominant social norm of the group or environment you are currently in.
Masking and camouflaging can cause immense stress, as they’re different to the adjustments usually made in response to social cues. While most will moderate behaviour to enhance social success, masking and camouflaging differ as they are used to avoid negative consequences.
Art Of The Mask changes a deception or persuasion check into a performance check with advantage. Afterwards, roll d20 to determine what condition you gain from this list:
1 - 10 ● One level of exhaustion
11 - 13 ● Charmed
14 - 16 ● Stunned
17 - 19 ● Incapacitated
20 ● Frightened
Masking and camouflaging may protect from negative consequences in an encounter or social interaction, including violence. The consequences of failure can be enormous. If Art Of The Mask creates suspicion the risks vary from being thrown out, unwanted treatment, and even violence.
Recovery takes a short or long rest as long as you are doing nothing else during that rest, for example swapping spells or using a class or racial trait.
Whatever traits you have adopted become a permanent part of your mental inventory. You may enact a previous mask in inconsequential circumstances without after-effects, so long as you are in familiar company with no stakes on the table.
->homebrewed stuff
Sources: https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2023/opinion/masking-and-camouflaging-a...
oh, this is really interesting, thank you! you should definitely publish this somewhere when youre happy with it as well! i won't lift from you, but no harm in having multiple versions of a mechanic out there!