Since Fred sent out an email on this...

Message:

I'll copy/paste my email response here.

I have no problems with that.

Do I think it's a bit silly to "make a big deal out" of publishing a supplement with an ADA compliant dungeon? Yeah. Only as I'm sure other gamers have dealt with this sort of things in games before, and I think the AD&D development of covering every damn possibility with an "official" rule kinda goes against the spirit of making things up, but, hey... After 46 years you have to keep making up new things to justify publishing more and more new books to stay in business. Guess WotC can't keep revamping Ravenloft forever, right? I don't need to look at someone else's design for a combat wheelchair. If such arises in one of my games, the player and I can work it out. But, hey, if someone else need hand-holding because they can't "make shit up," well, that's more-or-less what ALL supplements are about.

Charles Xavier is in a wheelchair. If converted to D&D stats he's a high-level psionic, and, yes, he's gone into battle with his chair. Brandon Sanderson's first fantasy novel has a protagonist who is wheelchair bound for much of the story. Bran Stark in Song of Ice and Fire is paralyzed from the waist down. Sure, lots of his plot was being dragged around by others, but he became a powerful seer and got the throne!. Barbara Gordon in Batman comics, sure, she became Oracle after getting paralyzed, but Oracle still ends up in fights and kicks ass from her chair. Tony Flynn had a Cutlass Character with two peg-legs, two hook hands and an eye-patch... Still active till the end of the campaign. In the "How to Train your Dragon" movies, Toothless the dragon has an injured wing/tail and cannot fly correctly without being hooked up with Hiccup - his rider. Toothless requires a mechanical prosthesis. Hiccup is missing half a leg. His custom peg-leg interfaces with Toothless's gear. Point being, there's precedent in heroic literature for disabled characters.

As far as I'm concerned, if you have enough fighters to navigate that encumbrance load up the stairs, you're good to go. It's not something I've actively thought about before, but a cleric, mage or psychic in a wheelchair could be a fin and interesting character to have in the group. As a thief I'd argue you needed a high STR to "Climb Walls" without legs. If a fast retreat happened going uphill or upstairs, well... That's an obstacle... But, that's also part of the storytelling. I have a bag of holding with two 12-foot lengths of 1x6. Portable ramp! We'll freestyle it. Someone make a Tinker roll to get the chair up/down the stairs. No? How about Prospector/Sapper? In Cutlass we'll just rule that the wheelchair guy can't learn Effective Spurning. That's fair.

But, honestly, I think some sort of rules set for dealing with disability in a game world is a lot less stupid that other innovations in the D&D game - like making a fricking Dreamlands CAT from the H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos a playable character race in 5e. Really? You're playing a CAT? A CAT! In the Dreamlands you're all sentient and magical, anywhere else you're... a cat. Are... Are we playing the whole campaign in the Dreamlands? OMFG there are FOUR "races" of "Dreamland's Cat!" Adventurer in a wheelchair is a whole lot more interesting than picking your cat.

Play a cat. I dare ya! I'll throw you at a 1st level monster. Your claw/claw/bite has a better than even chance of killing a 1st level monster. You can protect the stores from rats. You get no gold, you have no thumbs. The dude in the wheelchair can carry the gold. We'll attach a cart to the wheelchair and give the dude in the chair a Strength potion and he can guard the loot!

Look at it this way. Make a nice oaken wheelchair, and, in games where facing rules are applied you automatically have shield coverage on all attacks from behind!

Except in Delvers, where the Wheelchair guy is Rear Guard and Dead Man, and can't get out of those positions until he's dead. Cuz Delvers is harsh.

That's my quarter's worth. Two cents of buying power after adjusted for inflation.

Yours,