In what may become a prophetic article “Could Legendlore’s return show us the future of D&D?” Geek Native talked to game designer Steffie de Vaan about many things and a combat wheelchair.
It’s LegendLore that provides the illustration for this blog post. How often do you see wheelchairs in fantasy RPGs? Not often. This disabled blogger once tried to commission a series of illustrations of “disabled heroes”, and the project fell apart as a succession of artists struggled to make it work.
Now, Sara Thompson, a writer for R. Talsorian Games, @mustangsart on Twitter, who specialises in disability and chronic illness representation has gone one step forward and created stats and rules for the combat wheelchair.
Starting with the note that anyone can be an adventure, the D&D-designed combat wheelchair grants the user with proficiency with Land Vehicles and Tinker’s Tools.
The chair itself is actually presented as eight pieces of equipment; including gloves, tough terrain tyres and seatbelts.
This combat wheelchair is a high magic one, with a Sensory Stone in each armrest so that the user can guide it by touch, rather than always use the wheel rims.
Players and the DM should, of course, discuss in advance what sort of game they want to play and a session 0 to set the tone is a common recommendation. It might be that you don’t feel as if a combat wheelchair is a good fit for the game you hope to run. There’s no suggestion that it becomes compulsory. It might also be that many talented players prefer inclusive, flexible and friendly gaming sessions and love the idea of the chair.
Sara’s content is freely available in this Google Drive account, with a plain text option, an audio file (v1 of the chair only) as well as the D&D-themed version which Geek Native has embedded below.
Sara is able to produce content like this thanks to their Patreon.
Producing content every month, the Patreon has three tiers. The first, at £2 a month (plus VAT) is enough to have your name added to the thank you section in Sara’s future works. £5 gives you early access to Sara’s disability supplements and essays as well as a shoutout while £10 unlocks behind-the-scenes content.
Views on disability in the RPG space are slowly changing. WotC has made edits to the text of Curse of Strahd on D&D Beyond to remove mentions of NPC being ashamed of her disability.
Update: 10th August, 2020 – Changed the Embed and Google Drive link to v2 of the wheelchair.
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Definitely not pandering to autists who fantasize about not having legs or anything…
Definitely not. What a crazy thing to suggest, what part of your subconscious did that idea come from? The combat wheelchair is content created by the disabled community, not fetishists.
That’s like saying mounted combat rules pander to people who want to be horse riders. Have you considered that variety makes things more interesting?
Wow….. 🙄
What next, gay taverns and more than 2 genders?
Just leave it as it is. It work’s!
Its a made up world, if people want to put racists in there world… They can, if they want to put paraplegic people in they can. Let the DM make up the rules for a combat wheelchair. Its a fantasy game… Make anything up🙄
Soon all the snowflakes will make roleplay not fun as you all have to play gender neutral non combatants who give out hugs.
Or: let someone with experience in game design make up rules for a combat wheelchair. Like Sara.
Nobody is forcing you to use this. Like you said, it’s a fantasy game, and this is made up.
Yeah it’s a fantasy game where if it has enough magic to make this ridiculous thing it also has the magic to cure the underlying condition.
Curing major wounds is an expensive and high-level magic, tho. If I was a lord of the lands, and I trained up a host of low-level wizards to help defend those lands, and none of the wizards needed to be able to jump about to take part in defence of towns, patrolling the walls, then I would absolutely have wheelchairs. I think it’s ridiculous that wheelchairs aren’t more common in settings in which people have magic.
So dont even use a rulebook or a GM guide or anything. Let the DM make it up. Make up anything.
Your hobby is enjoyed by more than just able bodied straight white males, people who would also like to be represented. How does inclusion possibly effect YOU in anyway.
My guy I bet you were super pissed when you read about Corellon Larethian and the canon elf lore lmao
They’re gonna be even more pissed when they discover that in human biology there are more than two genders :)
In a world where death is a minor inconvenience to an adventurer where resurrection and restoration spells are a thing you’ve got to want this.
The tantrums these little boys will throw at the suggestion that anyone not like them is enjoying the game maybe slightly different than they are are just pitiful. Gods forebid anyone but cishet, able bodied white guys want to see themselves represented in a fantasy world with motherf**king dragons and magic. Just don’t use the thing. All this whining is embarrassing.
Just use a mount, it’s cheaper, allow for RP since it’s a pet, some classes can buff it, and it prevents being helpless in combat since it can dodge. It also removes the problem with mud, stairs, and, overall, everything that is not flat hard terrain. There are still many obstacles hard to overcome for such a character, but teamwork is a thing. That is what I did when one of my characters lost one of his legs, and had no way to get it regenerated. Started with a poney, ended with a gryffin,definitely a great experience. This ? This… Read more »
I like the idea, but this is LUDICROUSLY overpowered…. Once you buy razor rims, your wheelchair does as much damage as a greatsword, but you’re automatically proficient with it, can use it with Dexterity, and you can use it with Two-Weapon Fighting, meaning you have more ways to do more weapon damage than anyone else – no other Rogue can Sneak Attack with a greatsword AND STILL HAVE AN OFFHAND ATTACK. Then once you buy Armoured Plates, you have more AC than anyone else, and you can just buy Agile Suspension and Suppression Tyres to counteract the downside. You ignore… Read more »
The wheelchair is waaay overpowered. Every character would use this if avalible, even if the character could walk.
Well I think this sums it up nicely :- https://twitter.com/GPrime85/status/1291391867540705280/photo/3
Yeah, a magic chair is a pretty weird thing to get outraged about if you play D&D.
I loved that!
Is there a way to get permission to translate this document into other languages? It would be amazing to be able to adapt to the D&D version released here in Brazil.
I would contact Sara Thompson, the designer.