Thank you to everyone who responded to the survey! There are definitely some things I’ll look out for in the future, and many ideas that I can work with (whether a little silly or not, I love them regardless) :)
The rest of this update will be a rant, so click away if you’re not up for that.
To the person/people who asked for me to keep avoiding “SJW nonsense” and “real-life politics”: I am a neurodivergent, non-binary, queer person, I use they/them pronouns and I support BLM, feminist movements, the LGBTQ+ movement (naturally) and equal rights for everyone. Don’t like that? Don’t follow me.
Equal rights, women’s empowerment and multiculturalism has been part of D&D since Gary Gygax handed it over, and it will keep growing and expanding and learning according to real-world developments. Gay elves have a place in D&D. Good-aligned orcs have a place in D&D. Women in positions of power have a place in D&D. The combat wheelchair has a place in D&D.
Do you disagree? Then I’ll ask you to move your mouse into the top-right corner of your screen and hit that “Unfollow” button. Close-minded views are not welcome here. This is a safe space for everyone.
Thanks for reading.
You can have your gay elves, good Orcs, and powerful women if you want, so long as it doesn’t clash with the dms worldbuilding. Shit I’ve played all those to some extent (though, given my tastes, my only gay characters have been hot lesbians)
However, the idea of “combat wheelchairs” does not make any fucking sense in a setting with healing magic. It’s not an issue of inclusivity, it’s an issue with worldbuilding:
That’s not to say there might be some poor peasant npcs in your setting who might not have access to healing magic, and use a normal wheelchair, but literally no adventurer is going to go into a dungeon with a “combat wheelchair” when they can hire a cleric, druid, paladin or other divine spellcaster instead, or just buy a healing potion.
Youd literally have to design a homebrew setting where healing magic just straight up doesn’t exist.
Hi there! I was going to let this slide as I’m not particularly feeling up to argue about this once again, but I feel like I can’t simply allow you to perpetuate this kind of thinking on my blog. So here’s a (short) breakdown of reasons why I disagree with your logic on why the combat wheelchair shouldn’t be in D&D (and a short breakdown on reasons why it absolutely should be in D&D):
First of all, your entire argument hinges on the fact that you assume to know what my games look like, who I play with, and what my DMing strategies and house rules are. Unfortunately, as I’m pretty sure you’ve never been at my table, you don’t know any of these things. For all you know, I might be running a homebrew magic system. I might be running a low or no magic game. I might be running a game where healing magic is rare, or where nobody knows how to heal beyond closing some wounds or fixing up a broken arm. You don’t know what my world looks like, so don’t assume you do.
Secondly, healing magic in D&D doesn’t “just” fix everything that you throw at it. An official, RAW healing potion heals 2d4+2 hit points. Nowhere in the description does it say that you can fix paralysis with a healing potion. Nowhere does it say that deformities or amputation or fibromyalgia or any reason why someone could be in a wheelchair is instantly fixed by drinking a healing potion. Cure wounds doesn’t cure diseases. Your logic is flawed in the sense that even if healing magic in my setting (and I repeat, you don’t know anything about my setting) DID fix these problems, an adventurer might not have access to any of this before a certain level or before saving up enough gold to afford a healer.
And lastly - and not at all leastly - even if all of the above was moot because the rules for magic were determined beforehand and always the same at every table - why does any of your argument matter or make sense when the purpose of a combat wheelchair is to make people who are disabled in the real world feel more comfortable with the games they play and the characters they play therein, in a game you have no ties with nor any say in? Why does it bother you that other people are playing a game the way they enjoy it, by adding a homebrew feature that you don’t particularly like?
If my players want to play a person in a wheelchair, I let them, because it’s their decision and I can make it fit in my world, because I’ the DM and I get to say if a combat wheelchair does or doesn’t make sense. If a player wants to play a trans character on magic HRT, I let them, even if there are a billion wizards out there with a single spell that could just change their sex instantly for a few hundred gold. If my player wants to play a blind character, I let them because it’s their character. I let them because my world has people who are disabled and it has people who are trans and it has people who are gay and it has people who need wheelchairs to get around.
And if that doesn’t fit with you, if a homebrew feature that makes people feel comfortable and seen at my table makes you angry or frustrated or start crying about realism in a fantasy game, then I suggest blocking my blog and never looking at D&D homebrew on Tumblr again, because you won’t like everything that you see.
And a final notice: I’m done discussing the combat wheelchair. You will not change my mind and I don’t want to fight to change yours. Do not come into my inbox with new arguments or suggestions or other unwanted messages. Thank you, and have a good day.
