Humor, jokes, memes about TTRPGs
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.
Fantasy and sci-fi are designed as alternate realities to this world and usually disabilities are expressed through metaphor rather than literal real world disability. A person can’t use magic so they become the worlds greatest artificer and the like.
I’m all for representation, but what is fantasy without being able to fantasize about not having a disability?
Conversely, why would a person want to fantasize about having a disability? I’m not saying there aren’t valid reasons, but I would imagine most people would be doing it in a performative manner.
One of the characters at my table was a blind monk who used blindsight to fight and move about the world a la Toph. It was an interesting thought exercise for us all, especially because he literally only had 30 feet of "sight." Another time we had a barbarian who decided not to fix a severed arm because he wanted to be constantly reminded not to take stupid risks and it would keep him humble. I had another guy who rolled up a low INT, high WIS character and played him like Forrest Gump. So yeah, there are people who will spice up their roleplay with some sort of disability.
I mean, dwarves in wheelchairs is already a thing in 5e. https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Banak_Brawnanvil
Conservative old men are so sensitive.
But... That depends on the magic, doesn't it? I'd argue you could easily use magic to fix disabilities. Or do healers not exist in your world?
The exist, they're not everywhere though. And are typically very cagey about teaching others.
And often times their prices for using their services is pretty bad for the typical person.
One of the PCs though (who joined after the other guy left) is an artificer who was born without legs (currently has prosthetics they made) and the reason he's out adventuring is to bring legs to those who lack them. Like his mentor did for him.
The next town they're getting too will have an NPC without a leg and the artificer should have the components to make a magical prosthetic for them if they want to.
The wheel chair is a bit of weird in the setting. GRRM was more creative and in a more massively magic world it should be easy to think of a more fitting solution.
This would be cool to see! Lots of ways to represent historically unrepresented people in alternative settings.
Let's just pretend that Zatoichi wasn't a thing. NB he might be fiction but the blind swordsman kicked serious ass.