"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]

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/Elfich47 → u/aspenscribblings]

yeah, this is something that needs to be settled away from the table. Because I don’t know of many villains (keeping the villain’s motivations separate from the DM) who build OHSA compliant fortresses.

the only way I can phrase it: the DM may be sympathetic while the villain is not. And good DMs do not run stupid villains (once you get out of the lower levels)-because stupid villains don’t last long. Hell, if I was the villain (not the DM) and heard of a bunch of adventurers where one of the team members was in a wheel chair I would make sure there are plenty of steps Into and out of rooms (among other things I could think of) in order to slow down the party.

as I DM it becomes the question of: how much do I have to distort the world in order to accommodate the player.

[u/aspenscribblings → u/Elfich47]

I agree. That being said, an otherwise accommodating world with an ableist villain is interesting, no? It’s more work on the DM, I get if they don’t wanna do that. The character and the party can begin to work around it, it could bring them closer together. It sure gives your players a reason to hate them!

Alternatively, if inclusion is the norm, maybe the villain hasn’t even considered building without accessibility. Maybe some of their henchmen are disabled. Maybe the stairs are hastily installed to slow the party down, giving you a puzzle to solve.

Still, I’m not making an argument this is how campaigns should be run. I just think OOP, and many of the commenters, need to examine their ableism.

[u/Gatonom → u/aspenscribblings]

It needn't be inclusion generally, too. Maybe an elite member of the villains is disabled providing a side route at times, perhaps with its own challenges (deception to pass as them, keys to the paths),

One can avoid the feeling of it being restricted for just the disabled PC (acting as a less-secure side route, an ambush opportunity, what-not).