My First Time Playing a Diabetic D&D Character

I love going on adventures! In my About Me page I talk about enjoying real life adventures and adventures using my imagination.  So far, the majority of this blog has told stories of my real life adventures. But now we’ll focus on adventures I go on using my imagination.

The most common way I go on imaginary adventures is by playing Dungeons & Dragons. Going on crazy, magical adventures, coming up with silly solutions, and getting into all sorts of messes, all while sitting comfortably around a table with friends. Maybe the safest way to go on adventures. 

Diabetes and D&D

D&D has become very popular over the past five years with a lot of people and companies creating new sourcebooks, monsters, and ways to build your character. One of the new ways to build a character is to build one with a disability. See my blog post Creating a Diabetic D&D Character – Disabilities in D&D to learn more about creating a diabetic D&D character.

I used the book “Limitless Heroics: Including Characters with Disabilities, Mental Illness & Neurodivergence in Fifth Edition” (not sponsored) to help me build a diabetic character. I added a few things and made some changes to what was in the book to help make my character more of what I wanted.

What it was like

To learn more about how I felt playing a diabetic character stay tuned for an upcoming blog post. That blog post goes through my feelings, each player’s feelings, and the DM’s feelings about playing with a character with diabetes. Each person had a different reaction/feeling about it.

Character: Male, Wood Elf, Barbarian – Path of the Wild Heart named Pip “Jawbreaker” Applejacks

Step 1: Character Creation

Create a character like you normally would using the Players Handbook.

• I used the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

Step 2: Add Diabetes

I chose to add both Hyperglycemia and Hypoglycemia to my character. The book gives the option to only give your character one of them, but I opted for both.

• The book gives different symptoms that you character can exhibit if they get Hyperglycemia or Hypoglycemia.
• Based on the book’s description and how I wanted to change and add things for my character, I made a notecard to help me during game. 

Step 3: Talk with your Dungeon Master (DM)

Talk to your DM about your diabetic character.

• I’m playing this character in my friend’s homebrew game. This campaign is set in Confectionaria (otherwise known as Candy Land). I didn’t realize the game was going to be surrounded by all the sugar and candy. But it’s funny, so I went with it.
• The DM told me that he wouldn’t be able to handle learning or remembering the rules for a diabetic character. This meant the responsibility was on me to remember and do everything. (This is a lot like my real life, where I have to do everything myself. Sometimes my friends will help, but most of the time it’s all on me.)

Step 4: Make Modifications

Make modifications that make sense to you and your DM.

• After the first session the DM and I spoke, and he wanted my character to need a concentrated form of sugar to deal with hypoglycemia. This meant that Pip couldn’t just eat or drink anything in the campaign to get his number up. I didn’t agree with this, but I went along with it.
• I created CandyCANEs as the game equivalent of real-world glucose tablets. The DM made them very expensive to purchase in game.
• We added some activities that could cause Pip to experience hypoglycemia. The only thing the book states that could trigger hypoglycemia is if the character doesn’t eat for 3 hours. The scenarios we added were if Pip went on a long walk, worked out, or was in a battle.

Hypoglycemia in Game

In the eight sessions that this game ran, Pip experienced hypoglycemia five times.

Each time Pip didn’t eat for 3 hours, worked out, or finished a battle I would roll a saving throw to see if he would experience hypoglycemia. (If this confuses you, please read my blog post Creating a Diabetic D&D Character – Disabilities in D&D to learn a bit more about the rules.)

In this game, our characters exclusively traveled long distances by boat, and each time we traveled I asked the DM how long the trip was. If the answer was close to 3 hours, then I would make sure Pip would have something to eat before we arrived at our destination.

Each time Pip’s blood sugar went low at least one of the other characters would notice he was acting differently and eventually would say something. It was fun for me to play out some of these symptoms in the game, so I was happy about that!

Hyperglycemia in Game

There was only one time in the game that Pip had a chance of going hyperglycemic. This only occurred because me, Emily (the real person) wanted to see what happened to Pip if his blood sugar went too high, so I purposefully made him eat too much.

When I rolled to see if Pip went hyperglycemic, I rolled too well and Pip was fine, no hyperglycemia.

Playing a Diabetic Character in the Future

Eight sessions is a short campaign. It was a little short for me to get a handle on playing a diabetic character.

There are a couple of things that I would change about my next diabetic D&D character.

Changes:

• Make the saving throw a straight d20, don’t make it a CON saving throw like the book says.
• Ask the DM ahead of time to figure out how long any travel takes, so they can say the time without me having to ask.
• Roll a saving throw after each long rest/sleep to see if character experiences hypoglycemia. This is something that can happen to me in real life.
• Adjust my card to make the symptoms for hypoglycemia change each time. I didn’t like that each time Pip went low, the same symptom was first. It would have been more fun to play different symptoms each time. Making the ordered list of symptoms to go through was a change I made. So, this would be changing it back to how the book describes it.

I’m sure I’ll have another chance to play a diabetic D&D character. I hope everyone who plays D&D has an opportunity to play a character with a disability, if they want to.