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Had this conversation with someone who chose to no longer be at my table after meeting a blind NPC
(files.catbox.moe)
Another player who was at the table during the incident sent me this meme after the problem player in question (they had a history) left the group chat.
Felt like sharing it here because I'm sure more people should keep this kind of thing in mind.
This wheel chair looks out of place for the setting. I love what Psychonauts 2 did: there is a disabled character that uses psychic levitation for his "wheel" chair.
Another reason the chair looks out of place is because it's a transfer chair, not a self propel chair. These chairs are designed to push someone, they aren't designed for independent mobility.
These chairs are commonly represented in media because they are cheap and often the "first chair" a disabled person will get because of their affordability and needing something quick. But they are bog standard and you can't really get around by yourself in one without more pain or fatigue. You'll then start the process of getting a measured for a chair that will fit your needs.
Some people only have a transfer chair because they are semi-ambulant/part time chair user, so that's all they need. But most people who use a wheelchair will not use a transfer chair long term. It's temporary because it's shit.
So it doesn't make sense that someone with an active lifestyle, like a DnD character, would use this style chair as their main aid. Unless there's something in the campaign, like their main chair was damaged, or the disability is recently acquired, the character is poor, etc.
Possible but unlikely way around this: cast unseen servant and make it push the chair.
They busted out of the hospital and took what wasn't nailed down. Turns out, that was the only thing not nailed down. Twas an odd hospital
We see almost nothing about "the setting". Not everything is LOTR, Harry Potter or D&D.
The issue is that this toes the line on erasure. If a character is disabled but offsetting all of their disabilities with magic, they’re not disabled. The disability is just flavor text at that point, which feels a little bit like wearing an offensive caricature of a race as a Halloween costume.
If you want to include a disabled character in the party, that’s great. But disabilities come with drawbacks that real people with disabilities struggle with every day. If a person with a disability wants to erase their disability in a fantasy setting, that’s cool. At that point, it could simply be a power fantasy, the same way people want to play super powerful wizards and super strong barbarians.
But if an otherwise able bodied person wants to play a caricature of a disabled person without actually role playing the disabled part, it could become downright offensive to the people who actually struggle with those disabilities. Because at that point it’s not roleplaying a disabled person; It’s just leaning on stereotypes when it’s convenient, without actually roleplaying the real life struggles that accompany the disability.
Look at Toph from Avatar as a good example. She was blind and used her abilities to offset that when possible. But the important part is that she was still blind, and still regularly dealt with the drawbacks from being blind. She couldn’t read or write, because braille hadn’t been invented. And if she was ever away from solid ground, (like when flying or on sand) she wasn’t able to see anything. Because her sense of “sight” relied on her physical connection to the solid ground. So when she wasn’t touching solid earth, she was completely blind. And she also couldn’t see anything that was airborne, like when they were attacked by giant flying insects. She was blindly throwing rocks into the air, because she couldn’t see where the enemies were.
"If you have an amputated leg but offset it with a prosthetic leg, you are not disabled"
What if the magic is still not as good as a fully functioning body, for one reason or another?
I think you may have missed my point. Finding creative ways to offset a disability with magic is great. But even that magic would have limitations.
Maybe you have a flying carpet instead of a wheelchair. But even the best magical items have a limited number of daily uses, because magic power isn’t unlimited.
Maybe you have blindsight instead of regular sight, like giant spiders who can see even in magical darkness. But then you’re completely blind outside of the 30’ range, because blindsight only applies to the specified range.
Maybe you’re missing an arm and have compensated with an artificer’s prosthetic that has some built in features/tools. But you don’t have any sense of touch or proprioception (so you tend to bump into things and knock it against things when you aren’t consciously paying attention to where it is,) and have disadvantage on strength or dexterity checks/saves that involve gripping/climbing/etc.
My point isn’t simply that using magic to counteract a disability is wrong. In a world where magic permeates everything, it would be expected. My point is that you can’t simply erase the disability and use it for flavor text only when it’s convenient to you. Because disability permeates the disabled person’s life and inherently shapes how they interact with the world on a day to day basis.
The thing is just that this started with a Psychonauts 2 character, and I haven't played it, so for all I know maybe it makes no difference. But I assume constant telekinesis is at least somewhat inconvenient in that world. What about someone like Toph from Avatar TLA, whose blindness is acknowledged occasionally, but most of the time functions fine?
A question might be, how do you define a sufficient amount of limitations? I'm sure there's a point where everyone will go "yeah, you may as well be healthy", but I assume most situations are a grey area. But I'm also neither disabled nor have experience with disabled people, so I'm probably the furthest from judging.
Also things like, how that magic carpet would be even more useful for a fully functioning person, even with a large amount of uses. Still a disadvantage on the merit of being the only option, rather than being AN option.
So what you're saying is that if she shits her diapers in the game, it's ok? Weird kink, but w/e floats your boat, I guess...
dude....
It's literally a made up world.
There's most definitely a better solution than a standard wheelchair in a magical world though
Floating disk
I could definitely see like a gnome tinkerer coming up with something like a wheel chair that, after numerous iterations, looks pretty similar to a normal wheel chair.
Ok, start with a chair that literally just has 4 wheels on the feet. Gonna need a way to push it so put handles on the back.
Ok that's pretty unstable and the test subject fell off repeatedly, damaging several important pieces of equipment and also themselves. Ok so what if we moved the back wheels out a bit and made them a little bigger. Ok pretty stable, gonna need arm rests though the test subject keeps falling off.
Ok now they stay in, and it doesn't flop about, but it needs two people to move, what if... Hmmm... Ok we need some kind of drive mechanism that can be both powered AND steered with just the hands. Well this is wildly over budget with all the gears... What if we just push the wheels directly with the hands. Gotta make them a lot bigger and put a handle on...