Level Up (A5E) The Combat Wheelchair - Leveled Up?

[VanguardHero]

So recently the creator of the popular Combat Wheelchair homebrew mentioned some grievances with WotC about her work being pointedly ignored despite its popularity, and the unlikeliness of it ever being officially supported and it got me thinking. It's obviously too late in the game for it to be in Core, but what are the possibilities of Level Up working with her to get the Combat Wheelchair in the game not just through homebrew backwards compatibility, but as official content in a later book?

I'm very much looking forward to Level Up for mechanical reasons, but active visible effort towards stronger inclusivity and representation seems like it could help catch more peoples attention that "More Advanced 5e" might not inherently interest, or scare away. I haven't seen anything about that being an explicit goal of LU, at least not yet, but given the care given to Heritages and the diversity of the Team, I feel confident it could be done right and not just as a PR move.

 

[Morrus]

So recently the creator of the popular Combat Wheelchair homebrew mentioned some grievances with WotC about her work being pointedly ignored despite its popularity, and the unlikeliness of it ever being officially supported and it got me thinking. It's obviously too late in the game for it to be in Core, but what are the possibilities of Level Up working with her to get the Combat Wheelchair in the game not just through homebrew backwards compatibility, but as official content in a later book?

I'm very much looking forward to Level Up for mechanical reasons, but active visible effort towards stronger inclusivity and representation seems like it could help catch more peoples attention that "More Advanced 5e" might not inherently interest, or scare away. I haven't seen anything about that being an explicit goal of LU, at least not yet, but given the care given to Heritages and the diversity of the Team, I feel confident it could be done right and not just as a PR move.

We reached out when we were building our team, but I suspect she was super busy at the time with offers from a range of publishers. We have other content of our own in the book, because we too want disabled gamers (and adventurers!) to be represented; we'd have loved to include the combat wheelchair, but we can't use it without permission, and to my knowledge it's not open gaming content (but would still love to include it!) I think the equipment chapter is finished editing now, so we may be able to share some previews of that chapter soon; there is also content elsewhere throughout the book.

Inclusivity and representation is one of the primary goals of Level Up, one of the reasons the project even exists, and why we recruited a diverse team of 5E designers with a wide range of voices to make it (and which is why the origins chapter looks so great!) Those voices have made this game so good!

Team — Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

www.levelup5e.com

 

[VanguardHero]

Oh that's amazing to hear That makes sense, there was a whirlwind of popularity she probably wasn't expecting, but knowing that you reached out to her is fantastic. That has me very excited

I had definitely picked up on it being a thing, and it's part of why I'm excited for LU, but didn't want to overstate it. Knowing that it is such a core focus from the outset is incredibly encouraging. Thank you for such a thorough response, I haven't posted here much, I mostly just lurk, but I am very much looking forward to LU and trying to convert as many people as possible.

 

[Timespike]

One of the things that I've noticed for a while now: a lot of things that are primarily out there to improve inclusivity wind up improving the games they're added to in other ways as a knock-on effect. You usually wind up with an increased number of compelling options in character creation.

It also often just makes sense. Combat injuries are definitely a way people become disabled in real life, and a world with magic, someone would probably come up with magical prosthetics at a minimum in short order. You really just need a wizard with medical training and experience making golems to lose a limb to a monster at some point for that to make sense. "What if I made a new leg? One with icy spikes on it so I can kick that damn fire dragon to death with it!"

In fact, with magic being what it is, you could easily create a "saberpunk" setting where magical body modification is popular among adventurers, military folks and so on as a way to stay competitive.