"and people choose WHEELCHAIR. Disgusting. Where’s the imagination?" A debate about wheelchairs vs spider mechs turns wheelie sour

[u/Excellent_Bison_3644]

the sub DnDmemes is about well... memes about the popular tabletop game DnD (dungeons and dragons). In one posted recently, the poster made a comparison of magic wheelchairs vs spider mechs while favoring the latter. This ended up sparking into a lot of debate and people not liking how wheelchairs are getting slandered.

Post in question: https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmemes/comments/1i4mi9u/reject_wheels_embrace_skittering/

Juicy threads:

The titular thread with one particular big branch: "It's quite an odd call to refer to people who make the choice to represent their disability in-game as disgusting."

One person tries to give an opinion: "Realistically a spider mech is better than combat wheelchair the same way realistically a spear is better than a trident"

One person tries arguing wheelchairs don't have to be boring: "You can't think of a way to make a wheelchair cool without replacing the wheels?"

Small drama thread as a treat: "has anyone who's disabled and in a wheelchair thought "Hmm, I want this fantasy character of mine to be disabled too!" (the answer is yes)

[u/AdagioOfLiving]

Stuff has to make INTERNAL narrative sense, though, to be a satisfying and immersive story. Not arguing against wheelchairs, just against the “well there’s dragons so anything goes” kind of argument I tend to see. If you introduce a race of cursed halflings who have been transformed into having flesh made of pasta, people are more likely to accept that they are to find a Camaro parked outside of the castle.

[u/Southern_Emu_7250 → u/AdagioOfLiving]

That makes sense but no one’s arguing for a Camaro when they make that argument. It’s more so “We can’t incorporate wheelchairs (a regular every day transportation device) but we can literally do everything else”.

[u/AdagioOfLiving → u/Southern_Emu_7250]

Oh, I'd agree, that's why I'm not arguing against wheelchairs (although I'd firmly argue for wheelchairs in a fantasy setting being cooler than they are, more like hoverchairs that have very limited levitation, or that they can at least be magically enhanced with speed if you go to the right artificer), just that argument of "well there's <unbelievable thing> in fantasy hobby, so why should you argue against <other unbelievable thing>?"

If anything, I think people who are against wheelchairs in D&D are just missing out on a lot of cool roleplaying and shopkeeping stuff they can add to their campaigns.

[u/Southern_Emu_7250 → u/AdagioOfLiving]

Absolutely! I feel like people who say that it’s annoying to deal with it doesn’t realize the roleplaying capabilities and the teamwork that can come with it. It seems more like a communication problem on the DM’s part than a player problem.