On Wheelchairs and Dungeons

I started to post about this on Twitter, but honestly there’s no enough room to explain it right on that platform. The other issue is people can’t seem to separate real life from fantasy, so I’m sure this opinion is going to get a lot of crap from people who equate every opinion with hate against their particular interests. If people hate the idea of wheelchairs in dungeons, it doesn’t mean they hate real people in wheelchairs. If you think that’s true then you have some growing up to do, or you’re just lying for clicks. On the flip side, if they love this idea, it doesn’t mean they want to ruin RPGs.

First and foremost, the beauty of RPGs is how customizable they are. Who in their right minds plays the game out of the box after the first couple sessions? Every table I’ve ever sat at has house rules, modifications, and things that the group has agreed on that they have changed. Don’t like a rule? Change it, cut it, or ignore it. Hell, my tables have NEVER used encumbrance after the first few sessions. I keep track of the character’s hit points, make skill rolls for those skills in which success or failure is not redily evident (searching for traps is my favorite), and a whole slew of other changes. If your group has a wheelchair bound character who wants to remain that way, you can add all the ramps you want. If your party is in a dungeon with ramps, and you don’t want it, take them out…or turn them into death traps. Hell, that last would apply to both parties in my game. Of all the entertainment hobbies out there, TTRPGS offer the most customizable experience, but people act like it’s a railroaded story walking simulator with zero conversation options sometimes.

“What do you mean ‘if they want to remain that way’?” Yah, I said it. In our world, people in wheelchairs rarely have any other option. Our medical science has come a long way, and some people have found ways to overcome many disabilities. However, in your RPG (presumably) you have magic and/or technology well beyond what our world has. Take D&D for example. There are at least a dozen spells, arcane and divine, that I can think of that would overcome being in a wheelchair, from outright healing to Tenser’s floating disk (is that still at thing?) If your character is wheelchair bound in D&D, it’s because they choose to remain so. Which is fine. I played a blind elven blade dancer for a time, knowing full well he didn’t have to be blind. What I didn’t do is ask the DM to change the campaign to add sound alerts and alarms so that he could navigate the world without sight. For Paladine’s sake, we have people in the real world modifying wheelchairs so they can climb stairs, play sports, race, and so on. What makes you think an adventurer in a wheelchair can’t think of ways to overcome obstacles in a dungeon?

That comes to my main point. If you don’t already hate me for the above, let’s keep going and see where you jump off. When did a game about overcoming obstacles, and solving puzzles, defeating monsters, and saving innocent people from baddies turn into tourism the RPG? Stick with me here. Humans can’t see in the dark, but instead of asking the big bad who built the dungeon to install track lighting, they carry torches. The party brings along a rogue to find and disarm traps, they don’t ask the demon king to remove them ahead of time. Lots of pits? The wizard packs feather fall in his brain. Everyone prepares for the dungeon, they don’t go down to the local municipal office and report the gold-hoarding dragon for the inaccessible dungeon. If you have a character in a wheelchair, and that wheelchair isn’t equipped with magical motion devices, climbing equipment, and all sorts of weapons, what kind of adventuring wheelchair is it? And, what’s next? Instead of carrying 50 feet of rope and a grapple, the party petitions the local underdark government to install elevators for those long descents? Forget the idiocy of thinking the big bad lich wants to make it EASIER to raid his lair, why is your wheelchair bound character so unimaginative?

But, this kind of illustrates the mentality of some of the people in our hobby. When faced with something they don’t like, rather than adapt and overcome, they demand it be changed. And I’m not talking about bad behavior at public events. IF, and this is a big IF, someone is being sexist at a public event, shop, convention, etc, that’s not cool at all and not something our hobby should be about. On the other hand, if you think that orcs are bad because you’ve been led to believe they represent real world minorities, not only have you been lied to, but demanding they be changed or removed is silly. If you don’t like it, remove them from your game. It’s so damn simple. It’s not a video game where you’re stuck with the options the devs give you, or a movie where you have no options at all. You can literally make the game whatever you want for your group, but instead demand it change for everyone. I’m looking at the other side too. If a company decides to change the game in ways you don’t like, and you still want to purchse their product, guess what? You can change anything you want about that game. Don’t like elves being made genderless peeps or the orcs suddenly being lawful good? Change it. We have one of the greatest hobbies in the world, and one of the reasons it’s so great is there’s so many options. Hell, with all the old books that most of us have, you don’t have to touch a current version of any game, ever. Just keep making new stories with the ruleset you like, and ignore the rest.

At the end of the day, RPGs are about imagination. I’m astounded by the number of people who play them, that lack that one basic attribute. Does that upset you? Think about it for a minute. You’re playing a game about creating entire worlds from nothing, and you’re hung up on whether a company publishes a dungeon with, or without wheelchair ramps. Are you having trouble imaginging a solution in your own game, or are you just mad because it’s fun to get mad on Twitter and call people names? Would that time on Twitter be better spent making modifications to the game so your next session better fits what your table needs and wants? Are your players benefiting from your time arguing with anonymous people online?