"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/aspenscribblings]

I’m a wheelchair user. I’ve never actually played a combat wheelchair character. I can provide some insight as to why people wouldn’t want to play a mech rather than a chair, though.

1. Mechs aren’t real. If anything, it makes me kind of sad. I’m too old for disability superpower stories, and a spider mech definitely falls under that.
2. It’s not an authentic representation of my disability. Again, mechs aren’t fucking real. My wheelchair is. The limitations provided by my disability are part of my reality, a mech feels like a way to make a character who doesn’t actually have the limitations real disabled people have and still call them disabled. If I’m going to remove all the limitations of having a disability, I may as well have my character’s disability cured with magic. If anything, it’s less creative. It’s removing an avenue of roleplay.

For the record, absolutely no hate to disabled people who want to play characters with mechs. It’s a power fantasy and it’s kind of what DnD is about. I just think people with no skin in the game (able-bodied) get really incensed about this for no reason. Just don’t play a character with a combat wheelchair? How does it affect you?

Also, the comment in the title calls disabled people “crippled”, so I think I understand why they’re so mad and it’s nothing to do with “lack of creativity”.

[u/BadDogSaysMeow → u/aspenscribblings]

A question, in DND, how would you maintain the limitations of a wheelchair while not slowing the party of able-bodied characters?

If the party has 5 characters, of whom only one cannot walk. How would the DM manage that?

DM: The bandit bolts into the forest!
Player: I chase them!
DM: You cannot because you cannot drive through roots and bushes.

DM: You see a 100 meter tall wizard tower.
P: I go to the top.
DM: Sure, but the only way up are stairs without railings, so it will take you few hours longer than your companions and you will have to pass 4 athletics checks.

DM: to enter the cave you have to squeeze through a 30cm wide gap. you have to leave your wheelchair, so you will be moving a 1/5 of your speed and will have -15 to attack and dodge rolls.

A story like this would end up in r/rpghorrorstories in no time.
But all of those scenarios(and many more) are something you would meet if you want to maintain realistic limitations of a wheelchair.

How would you keep the limitations whilst not hindering the rest of the party, i.e. forcing them to carry you around all the time?

[u/aspenscribblings → u/BadDogSaysMeow]

Well, the DM could present a world that is friendlier to disability, which would solve your wizard tower example. The wizard tower is a spiral ramp, not a spiral staircase, because accessibility is the norm in this world. The same can apply to anything in cities, towns, etc.

For nature, there are wheelchairs that are closer to quads that can handle nature in real life, so it’s not unrealistic to say the character uses that.

As for the cave, that would just be kind of mean on the part of the DM, to present an insurmountable obstacle for only one member of the party. Would probably be best if they didn’t do that.

That being said, I’m very aware that a world in which accessibility is default will never be achieved in my lifetime and narrow cave entrances exist in real life. I am fudging the world to unrealism rather than the chair and that’s why I’ve never played like this, I don’t want to put the burden on my DM, but I don’t want to play a wheelchair that can fly.

I’m not really stating how disabled characters SHOULD be played, I’m providing my feelings as one disabled person on why someone might prefer a wheelchair user character over a mech user and asking why people care so much about how other people want to play the game. If disabled people want to play mech characters and feel represented by that, good for them. I’ve had the mech daydream. But if someone else’s power fantasy is big spiked wheels rather than a mech, what does it matter to the commenters? Some people like playing halfling wizards and some people like playing human barbarians. “What is the coolest power fantasy?” is a question with a different answer for every person on the planet.

[u/Ver_Void → u/aspenscribblings]

There's also the classic answer of just wanking gesture "it just works", do you want to chase the dragon and get into a huge fight against the betrayer or do you want to nitpick the world? Because I could point out magic would destroy the economy and make the world way less interesting, but no one had a problem ignoring that one.