D&D General Nolzur creates inclusive miniatures, people can't handle it.

[Staffan]

In a setting where you have magical/sci-fi healing why would anyone willingly decide to remain in a wheelchair?

This bit, at least, is easy to justify in D&D. This might just be my interpretation, but I'd rule that any injury that'd leave a person permanently disabled would require Regenerate or the like to heal. And that's pretty dang powerful magic.

It reminds me of the introduction to Seven Days to the Grave, a Pathfinder adventure that deals with an epidemic spreading through a city. And the question asked is, of course: how can that work with easy access to remove disease and similar magic (note: this was originally 3.5e and later remade as Pathfinder 1, so healing diseases was slightly harder than it is in 5e)? And the answer is that a city the size of Korvosa has like a dozen people capable of casting remove disease or the equivalent, which is nowhere near the amount needed to put a dent in the epidemic. It lets powerful people stay reasonably safe, but does nothing for the population at large.

 

[Staffan]

“Disability is a superpower” is also a potentially harmful trope. I love Toph, but I’m skeptical that many blind people would consider her good representation.

That's fair. I see Toph more along the lines of "compensates for disability with superpower" (I think we see some other earthbenders use "tremorsense" as well without being blind, but I could be wrong) rather than a Daredevil-esque "disability gives superpower", but I can see how that can be interpreted as splitting hairs, and given that I'm not in the disabled group in question it's ultimately not my call to make.

 

[Umbran]

Exactly a one size fits all response, which is what is often presented with these rules, isn't without problems, pointing out those problems isn't automatically coming from a place of hate.

I agree - one size fits all doesn't work well. But it isn't ever the job of any one gaming product to fit all sizes! Third party materials, especially, are presented for you to pick-and-choose what works for you. So, I find "they only present one way to handle it" to be kind of bogus, I'm afraid.

If we agree that there should be a discussion, a major goal of that discussion should be to determine what, if anything, might be issues for the table. Claiming issues of verisimilitude and game balance before that discussion is inappropriate, putting the cart before the horse. Figure out the needs first, then talk about what fills the needs well or poorly.

It is all-too-easy to depersonalize these discussions. It is easy to talk about mechanics, and we will tend to do so in the view of some hypothetical default game. And it looks really bad when we do that. Because, if there is a real person, sitting there in a wheelchair in a Session Zero, asking to play a character like themselves, "But lava!" would seem a heartless approach to the discussion, but it looks like the approach we take.

There's also a big issue that a lot of folks will raise various complaints when, for them, it is a hypothetical. They don't have a disabled person at their table, ever, but are raising mechanical complaints about wheelchair implementations they will never use. That's going to come off as inappropriate, too.

I will reserve "hate" for far more clear cases - but here, the approach to the topic can raise questions of priorities, open-mindedness, empathy, or entitlement.

 

[Umbran]

“Disability is a superpower” is also a potentially harmful trope. I love Toph, but I’m skeptical that many blind people would consider her good representation.

There are many modes of representation, and they don't sit on a clean and straight spectrum between "good" and "awful".

Toph doesn't get powers from her blindness - she'd be a powerful earthbender anyway. Instead, she used the perspective of her situation to create new uses for her power that sighted people didn't usually consider.

 

[Bagpuss]

There's also a big issue that a lot of folks will raise various complaints when, for them, it is a hypothetical. They don't have a disabled person at their table, ever, but are raising mechanical complaints about wheelchair implementations they will never use. That's going to come off as inappropriate, too.

Well that's because the only case I've seen of someone wanting to use any of these rules is an able bodied person wanting to use the spider chair in Cyberpunk Red, and I suspect most likely for the unbalanced reasons I've mentioned.

 

[Charlaquin]

There are many modes of representation, and they don't sit on a clean and straight spectrum between "good" and "awful".

Indeed, but disability unlocking greater ability than able-bodied people is territory one should tread carefully.

Toph doesn't get powers from her blindness - she'd be a powerful earthbender anyway. Instead, she used the perspective of her situation to create new uses for her power that sighted people didn't usually consider.

Being sighted myself, it’s not my place to say if Toph is good blind representation or not. That’s why I said I’m skeptical blind people would consider her such, rather than claiming she is good or bad. I’m just noting that she does tread into “disability as superpower” territory, or at least adjacent to it, which is something to be cautious about when writing disabled characters.

 

[Alzrius]

I’m just noting that she does tread into “disability as superpower” territory, or at least adjacent to it, which is something to be cautious about when writing disabled characters.

I haven't watched Avatar in some time, but I thought that part of the reason she became so good at earthbending was because she was using it all the time to compensate for her lack of visual ability.

 

[Umbran]

Which shows generally he needs an assistant (sometimes two), specialist equipment, and occasionally there are still places where it just isn't practical to get to.

Yes, but when we talk about the special equipment, we get arguments about verisimilitude!

While the video does point out there were some places he couldn't get, the stronger message was that, while folks thought he'd slow the team down, that turned out to be false! And that's with a guy using a manual chairs, due to limitations of modern technology.

Our games are not generally limited by modern technology. Imagine it with even low-level magic - some of the basic functionality of Tenser's Floating Disk and Mage Hand, for example.

 

[Umbran]

Indeed, but disability unlocking greater ability than able-bodied people is territory one should tread carefully.

We are talking about a situation at the gaming table - the "we" is with the person who is apt to be offended present, an active participant and collaborator. "We" don't have to police this for everyone in all games at once.

 

[Micah Sweet]

We are talking about a situation at the gaming table - the "we" is with the person who is apt to be offended present, an active participant and collaborator. "We" don't have to police this for everyone in all games at once.

Like I said, the whole thing is table and personal decision. There's no greater scope here.