Quote from: Jaeger on June 22, 2024, 02:15:12 PMLo, the Combat wheelchair:

Is it my imagination, or did the artist use Stephen Hawking as the model for the combat wheelchair driver?

Quote from: jeff37923 on June 22, 2024, 07:54:40 PM

Quote from: Jaeger on June 22, 2024, 02:15:12 PMLo, the Combat wheelchair:

Is it my imagination, or did the artist use Stephen Hawking as the model for the combat wheelchair driver?

I think you're just saying all wheelchair people look alike without saying all wheelchair people look alike.

Quote from: Jaeger on June 22, 2024, 02:15:12 PMAnd it all came true.

Lo, the Combat wheelchair:

Wait a minute!  Didn't some posters here tell us that the combat wheelchair wasn't an official part of D&D, and that we were all wrong for assuming that WotC would ever make wheelchairs a part of official D&D?  Hmmm, wonder what they have to say now? (Actually, I don't.  This was a rhetorical question, as I already know what the dissembling 'tards will say..)

Quote from: HappyDaze on June 22, 2024, 08:22:43 PMI think you're just saying all wheelchair people look alike without saying all wheelchair people look alike.

They do.  They all look like people that can't walk...

Quote from: Eirikrautha on June 22, 2024, 08:24:34 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on June 22, 2024, 08:22:43 PMI think you're just saying all wheelchair people look alike without saying all wheelchair people look alike.

They do.  They all look like people that can't walk...

Hey! Their eyes are up... Oh, nevermind.

Quote from: Eirikrautha on June 22, 2024, 08:22:59 PM

Quote from: Jaeger on June 22, 2024, 02:15:12 PMAnd it all came true.

Lo, the Combat wheelchair:

Wait a minute!  Didn't some posters here tell us that the combat wheelchair wasn't an official part of D&D, and that we were all wrong for assuming that WotC would ever make wheelchairs a part of official D&D?  Hmmm, wonder what they have to say now? (Actually, I don't.  This was a rhetorical question, as I already know what the dissembling 'tards will say..)

Those characters do appear to come from a much more modern setting than is typical for D&D (e.g., FR or Greyhawk). The pistol and clothing are the prime giveaways, but yes, that's definitely a wheelchair you've found there. I don't know that it's a "combat wheelchair" with special stats or anything, but that's certainly possible.

So I guess this means that WOTC has eliminated all powerful healing magic from the game. How do they reconcile wheelchair bound characters with spells such as greater restoration otherwise?

Quote from: Jaeger on June 22, 2024, 02:15:12 PMAnd it all came true.

Lo, the Combat wheelchair:


They Literally put an elven chick in it and made her gay...


Dwarven sodomites:


So much for conspiracy theories and phantom narratives...

The physically weak looking character in the wheelchair, is the only one in that photo that looks "whitish".

Quote from: jeff37923 on June 22, 2024, 07:54:40 PMIs it my imagination, or did the artist use Stephen Hawking as the model for the combat wheelchair driver?

Also the 1920s guy looks like was lifted from one of the Shadowrun art pieces mixed with an old Shang Chi pose.

Quote from: Eirikrautha on June 22, 2024, 08:22:59 PMWait a minute!  Didn't some posters here tell us that the combat wheelchair wasn't an official part of D&D, and that we were all wrong for assuming that WotC would ever make wheelchairs a part of official D&D?  Hmmm, wonder what they have to say now? (Actually, I don't.  This was a rhetorical question, as I already know what the dissembling 'tards will say..)

I'm pretty sure that's a reference to me. To clarify, three years ago, Pundit claimed,

Quote from: RPGPundit on September 03, 2021, 04:35:00 PMThe wheelchair is in Candlekeep, and EVERY dungeon for official D&D from Candlekeep onwards has been wheelchair-accessible. Also, every D&D product from candlekeep onward has featured the wheelchair in art.

I got Candlekeep Mysteries and reported the there were no wheelchairs in it (combat or otherwise, text or illustration), and the dungeons in that module were not wheelchair-accessible, even the specific mini-adventure cited ("The Canopic Being").

1) I didn't make that claim about all D&D products. I don't have all D&D products, so I couldn't confirm that. I certainly couldn't make the claim about future D&D products.

2) This isn't the same as a combat wheelchair PC option, but I know of two prior wheelchair-using NPCs in D&D products. The first is 7th level fighter (retired) Lord Weathermay in Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill (1986). The second is the detective Alanik Ray (stats for "Spy") in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (2021). There may well be others in addition to the illustration cited for 2024. It would be at least the third.

The illustration has a character in suit-and-tie and the person in the wheelchair has glasses and a pistol, so it looks like it is from a more modern setting - like Gothic Earth or Ravenloft.

EDITED TO ADD: I think the figure pictured is Alanik Ray from Ravenloft, so it's not a new case. So maybe they're including some references to the Ravenloft setting and NPCs in the Player's Handbook?

To paraphrase Alex Jones. "They're turning the freaking orcs gay."

Body positive, gay, Mexican orcs. Gotta say, I wasn't expecting that one!

Quote from: jhkim on June 23, 2024, 12:55:34 AMThe illustration has a character in suit-and-tie and the person in the wheelchair has glasses and a pistol, so it looks like it is from a more modern setting - like Gothic Earth or Ravenloft.

Its not from Masque of the Red Death. the 2 and 3e versions were all BW art.

Might be one of the odd areas of Domains of Dread but it is not from the 2e sets.

Makes me think Urban Arcana. Ir a long shot like Dark*Matter.

So, is this a product that will actually sell, or have they made it to rake in ESG money as a safe bet to profit? The tone of this art is, to put it mildly, more in line with depicting a generic liberal US city, with the only fantasy part being swapping humans for various disney-fied races. It looks like a complete joke, but maybe there is a real market among the young progressives?

Quote from: Omega on June 23, 2024, 03:40:00 AM

Quote from: jhkim on June 23, 2024, 12:55:34 AMThe illustration has a character in suit-and-tie and the person in the wheelchair has glasses and a pistol, so it looks like it is from a more modern setting - like Gothic Earth or Ravenloft.

Its not from Masque of the Red Death. the 2 and 3e versions were all BW art.

Might be one of the odd areas of Domains of Dread but it is not from the 2e sets.

Makes me think Urban Arcana. Ir a long shot like Dark*Matter.

I believe @jhkim was trying to say that this recent colour illustration of four characters looks like it belongs to a more modern setting than default D&D, not that it's copied from Masque of the Red Death.

D&D has always been rather anachronistic - that haunted house in Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is not a medieval or even a Tudor manor, and I don't think there was much on the continent like that - it really fits more of the US stereotype of a 19th century New England town, which is what they were playing to.

But the anachronism has been growing, not just in social classes & relations but in all the rest of the setting details. Firearms were optional in the original 5e DMG but since the Artificer was added they're perceived as official, at least for that class. Clothing & gear is all so renfaire; the guy on the right looks Edwardian, and the punk haircut in the back is ... probably ahistorical?

This current fad of playstyle feels divorced from historicity, which is something that _matters_ to me. I don't want to call it postmodern, like some of the commenters on here are probably eager to, because

Quotea late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.

What I see is an ignorance of earlier styles & conventions, and an excess of theory.

Quote from: daft on June 23, 2024, 04:35:26 AMSo, is this a product that will actually sell, or have they made it to rake in ESG money as a safe bet to profit? The tone of this art is, to put it mildly, more in line with depicting a generic liberal US city, with the only fantasy part being swapping humans for various disney-fied races. It looks like a complete joke, but maybe there is a real market among the young progressives?

Could the art be a deliberate joke to try and get rage clicks? WotC wanting to piss off normal people who are not the target audience and the art won't show up in the final product?