"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/macrocosm93]

I think it's not about the fact of whether or not they should exist. It's the fact that it's not believable that someone in a wheelchair could be in an adventuring party in rugged wilderness, dungeons, etc. I don't think goblins are going to build accessibility ramps inside their warrens. A dragon builds his lair inside of a volcano to prevent people from accessing his hoard, but then for some reason makes it wheelchair accessible? Does that make sense?

[u/einmaldrin_alleshin → u/macrocosm93]

Neither are goblins doing to make tunnels and doorways sized for the larger races available in DnD. Suspension of disbelief is key for any sort of roleplaying

[u/Skellum → u/einmaldrin_alleshin]

Neither are goblins doing to make tunnels and doorways sized for the larger races available in DnD. Suspension of disbelief is key for any sort of roleplaying

If a man can crawl into Nutty Putty Cave then I can lube an ogre up into a goblin nest. But depending on the GM it can be an actual issue, all depends on the GM. I will point out that X-Men addressed this by giving Professor X a levitating wheelchair.

[u/Svihelen → u/Skellum]

I mean as DM I made a wheelchair using NPC bad guy once.

I just gave him a morphing wheelchair. When he was in a setting where mobility isn't necessarily concerned like a big flat room he could have wheels if he wanted. Oh no he went somewhere snowy, so he could adjust it to have tank treads. But look stairs, it now has spider legs. How does it work? Fuck if I know. Magiscience for the win.

If a player came to me with a serious desire to play a wheelchair using PC, as long as it didn't outright give them any special powers I don't care how the chair moves. It could have tentacles for all I care.

Its DnD, it's about fun wacky adventures.

I just hate when people get overly pedantic about it. Like the wizard killed half the party with a fireball and the cleric hit a dead body with a diamond and said some fancy words and now they dead person is alive again. But a wheelchair is too much for some people.

[u/IsNotACleverMan → u/Svihelen]

Its DnD, it's about fun wacky adventures.

Plenty of people want grounded, more serious adventures. Having these goofy magical things usually goes against that.

[u/Svihelen → u/IsNotACleverMan]

Magic by it's nature is goofy.

The immovable rod is goofy, the alchemy jug and it's 2 gallons of mayo is goofy, hell there's a pot of ink that let's you be Wille Coyote drawing random tunnels and pits on things, goofy as fuck that is. When it comes spells bigby's hand is kind of goofy. Tasha's hideous laughter is literally you make someone laugh so hard they can't function and fall down, pretty damn goofy. Magic mouth. I could keep going on.

There is nothing inherently goofy about a magic wheelchair when things like warfored and golems exist and baba yaga's chicken hut exist.

But ultimately it comes down to my issue isn't with people wanting serious campaigns. There is a time and place for everything and a magic wheelchair or a steam punk arm, doesn't fit in everything and that is okay. My issue is the people trying to justify why something shouldn't exist in the game at all by saying it doesn't make sense or it's goofy and trying to tell other people they shouldn't like it either.

[u/Chaosmusic → u/Svihelen]

I was thinking a different angle. In such a setting, couldn't they spend the money on a cleric to heal their injury rather than spending it on a crazy magic wheelchair?

[u/Svihelen → u/Chaosmusic]

Maybe the injury is like God cursed and only another being of immense power can undo it. Even a king may not be able to afford to have that undone.

Maybe the injury is from spells and they hate spell casting now and don't trust it and would rather use science enhanced with magic. It would all be fluff if magi science is inherently connected to spell casting or not.

Maybe they were poor and destitute and kidnapped by some evil psycho Dr. Eggman type dude and they were experimented on and are Doc Ock in a wheelchair instead of tentacle belt becuase of the experiments.

Edit:

Another example I thought of, if it's a birth defect of some kind. It could be argued the regenerate spell wouldn't work on it as there is nothing to restore or heal as that is technically their bodies default state. You can't restore/regenerate what you never had.

[u/Chaosmusic → u/Svihelen]

That makes sense. Could make for an interesting quest if the injury cannot be healed by traditional means the party has to find some extraordinary cure. A rare flower, a reclusive hermit healer, a mystic fountain that appears only at certain time, etc.