The game master of Dungeons and Dragons “Llewellian” shared a touching story on Reddit which shows that a paper and pencil game can be more than entertained – it can make a real difference. Llewellian regularly organizes D&D sessions https://www.dndbeyond.com/ for children and adolescents in a local youth center. During a session, he asked a new player, about 12 years old, to choose the guest’s “yellow dice” but the boy took a transparent game instead. Later, when the group was invited to draw its route on a white paper card using a bright yellow marker, the boy said: “The pen must be broken, no color comes out …” While the others clearly saw the line, he saw nothing at all.
The master of the game reacted with care and sensitivity. He interrupted the session and, in a fun way, tested the boy’s ability to recognize colors. It clearly appeared that the child had trouble identifying certain shades. Without drawing attention to the problem, Llewellian used a green marker and continued the adventure. Later, when we came to pick up the boy, the master of the game discreetly spoke to his mother and suggested that he carry out a medical examination. When the boy returned to the youth center, he explained that he had been diagnosed with a deficit in the vision of yellow-blue colors (tritanopia). Since then, his mother has bought him dark red dice with white figures – much easier to see for him.
In Reddit’s comments, many users have expressed their own experience in color vision disability, often discovered later in life, sometimes in school, in video games or even during military service. Several remembered having faced misunderstandings, even discrimination, in their childhood. The compassion with which Llewellian managed the situation was widely applauded, a comment perfectly summarizing the situation: “You are a big SM and a large person”
History also highlights a rare disease, tritanopia, a form of daltonism where individuals have difficulty distinguishing the shades of yellow and blue. Affecting less than one percent of the population, this disease is more frequent in men than in women. The problem is particularly visible in combinations with low contrast, such as yellow on white, where colors may seem washed out or blend in with white or gray. For educators, this is a familiar challenge: color vision deficiencies often go unnoticed and are only discovered by chance. Experts therefore recommend earlier and more frequent screening, using tools such as online pre-tests, such as the Ishihara () test. However, these tools do not replace a professional medical diagnosis.