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

[Warpiglet-7]

Like I said, even with my realism-hat on I have no problem with a magic tricked-out wheelchair that can compensate for a some aspects of disability or even overcompensate to provide better abilities in some areas than non-disabled people. I am reminded of "Dalek", an episode in the first season of the rebooted Doctor Who series, where the eponymous Dalek is chasing some people, and they take to the stairs to escape... futilely as it turns out, as the Dalek starts screaming "ELEVATE!" and flies after them.

The issue, to whatever degree I have one, is with essentially making a wheelchair a cosmetic choice without any effect on your abilities at all – particularly a non-magical one.

As someone who is not himself disabled and as such might not be the best judge, I would look to Avatar: the Last Airbender for a good example of a character who is disabled and yet exceedingly competent: Toph Beifong. Toph is blind. However, she is also a very powerful earthbender, and she can use her earthbending as a very precise version of what D&D would call Tremorsense. This negates a lot of the disadvantages of being blind, but not all of them. She has no sense of color, she can't perceive things in the distance or things that fly (or much of anything if she herself doesn't have contact with the ground), and a light person moving softly can evade her senses. But on the other hand, she can sense things that are normally hidden, and she's just as able to move around in the dark as in light.

I think this makes sense. Things can have some weight. I count arrows for God’s sake.

But I would see what the table wants. If someone at the table is in a wheelchair and does not want to face what they do on the daily but still look like themselves in some way, I would make it happen.

If they were down town problem solving it as part of the game even cooler.

 

[Incenjucar]

Sometimes you want to simulate, sometimes you want cosmetic. Both are valid.

 

[Umbran]

It's a great sentiment, and hard to disagree with in principle. The only difficulty I have with it is that you are essentially condemning everyone who isn't an activist.

Well, nobody can be particularly activist about everything. There are many issues in the world, and only so many hours in the day, and any activism has to be in the context of each person's (often complicated, difficult) life.

Thus the old adage - "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." You shouldn't be required to be activist, but anyone can try to avoid being an impediment.

Also, "activism" doesn't mean making something your life's work. It means actively doing things that should help make the world better. Simply trying to educate yourself a bit, and trying to adjust your own behaviors when they turn up to be less-than-great, is being an active part of a solution, and setting an example for others.

 

[Dire Bare]

The more minis we have like this, the more chances we'll have of something that satisfies a given taste coming out.

Good point. Even if you are totally down with fantasy wheelchair minis . . . if these two don't make you happy, hopefully some future ones will. And WizKids isn't the only game in town, if you are interested in fantasy wheelchair minis . . . not that there are tons out there, but they are other companies making these also.

 

[Clint_L]

e.g this badass!

Jester Humanoid NPC Wheelchair Resin Miniature Dnd Miniatures Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Pathfinder Miniatures RPG 5E - Etsy Canada

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Edit: or these!

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Representation is good and a wheelchair mini is fine. My only thing is, like another poster said, the ones on these minis look too modern, like they rolled out of a 19th century hospital. Also, where is the wheelchair-bound Warforged mini?

 

[MGibster]

In the Zombicide: Undead or Alive expansion Steampunk Extras, they included Lord Forsaken who is an engineer with a steam powered chair. No doubt this was modeled off of Kennth Branagh's depiction of Miguelito Lovelace from 1999's Wild, Wild West. (There are also Marty McFly and Doc Brown miniatures in the set.)

 

[Autumnal]

Civilizations like ancient Egypt and the Inca used ramps a lot. And it would make sense to do that with dungeons anywhere you don’t have really tight constraints on width: harness up beasts or zombies or whatever and let them haul away with much less risk of things falling over. Same dungeon-building tools, just used a little differently.

And for operating underground with really bad terrain, get funky. How about a set of four or six extensible rods that can support a lot of weight and end in pads maybe a foot square, that can tilt foreward, back, up, and down like oars in oarlocks? (The Hands of Dr. Oarlock! (That was a really nerdy joke.)) Push them out to the sides of a corridor. Then retract one on each side (not directly opposite if I’m visualizing this right) and reposition them, then lock them and move the next pair. It’d be kind of spider-crab-y.

For wider spaces you could try bracing on ceiling and floor depending on how extensible the poles are, or if you’re bringing a little wagon of extras along. That’s what teamwork is for.

And none of that is any more ridiculous than, say, many, many dungeon traps. As for why handy max widths and heights exist…maybe the dungeon designer also used a wheelchair!

Accessibility should be license to get wild.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Civilizations like ancient Egypt and the Inca used ramps a lot. And it would make sense to do that with dungeons anywhere you don’t have really tight constraints on width: harness up beasts or zombies or whatever and let them haul away with much less risk of things falling over. Same dungeon-building tools, just used a little differently.

With the exception of the main shaft (which was an elevator system), notice something about this real life dungeon? Ramps. Not stairs.

Why would anyone put stairs in a dungeon when you have to haul out all of that material?

 

[Clint_L]

With the exception of the main shaft (which was an elevator system), notice something about this real life dungeon? Ramps. Not stairs.

Why would anyone put stairs in a dungeon when you have to haul out all of that material?

View attachment 297822

Agreed…but who cares, anyway? If necessary, just ask the player to invent a reason their wheelchair can handle stairs. It’s a fantasy game. I don’t think a wheelchair that can handle dungeons is the biggest leap of imagination players will be asked to make. I am perfectly willing to just let a player be in a wheelchair and not worry about movement at all unless it is part of their character fantasy.