Creator of the first combat wheelchair for Dungeons and Dragons, Sara Thompson, speaks to That GM Alex at UK Games Expo 2021. We find out about Sara’s passion for making TTRPGs more accessible for disabled people, writing for The Witcher, becoming a Cyberpunk Red character, and tips for breaking into the industry when you’re disabled / neurodivergent. Oh, and ableist tears. Watch the video interview.
Hello. I’m here with Sara, who I will let introduce themself.
Hi. I’m Sara Thompson, known on Twitter as @MustangArt. I made the combat wheelchair for the fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons, a homebrew, and I also work for R. Talsorian Games. And I’ve also worked with Paizo and other companies as well, like Mantic games.
How did the pandemic impact your TTRPG writing work?
For me, I was kind of used to working from home as a disabled person anyway. I can’t have what you would call, quote, unquote, a normal job, you know, like I perceived normal job. So, for me, it didn’t change so much. But for others, obviously, it really did.
And people learning to cope with having to be at home all the time, and having to do work and everything from home. I do think, you know, it helped. Some people realise what disabled people go through every day, especially those who are, you know, in the house more often than not, are limited with where they can go.
And in that regard, as well, I think it’s also brought a lot more disabled people into gaming. Because, you know, there are now other people at home who play from home just like them, which means more groups are going around, which means more people playing TTRPGs, and more people join again. So I think it’s, I think it’s kind of, for all the bad that has happened, like in terms of like TTRPGs, there has been more interest, because it helps separate from work.
And like, the stress of everything that was 2020 I know that I use TTRPGs to cope, and it’s affected the industry a little bit. You can’t really see, attend conventions like this is a first convention really TTRPG has come back on. And even then, networking is very limited, because some people haven’t turned up or unable to turn up. So, you know, kind of restricted how much we can do. So, the industry itself has also been affected, I think. But also at the same time, the industry has benefited from it because more people are at home, more people want to put time into a hobby outside of work. And TTRPGs is great, because it’s mostly, you know, accessible when it’s online to a lot of people.
The combat wheelchair you created is currently in its second version?
Yeah, it’s in version 2.1. At the moment, we’re jumping all the way to version three. In August, there’s a big overhaul, there’s going to be a lot of, there’s basically a wheel… I’m not gonna say combat wheelchair subclass, because a lot of the artwork depicts other characters with different disabilities. So I’m going to say like different sub classes that involve disability for all of their classes in D&D, including Matt Mercer’s Blood Hunter, which has been kind enough, you know, to let me do and then there’s also a class I homebrewed that has four sub classes within that. There’s a lot of variety to choose from.
There are some new upgrades, some new tweaking to the rules, because people asked about things how to full damage work when you’re in the chair and things like that. So that’s been taken into consideration. And there has also been like short stories. There’s going to be a section on how DMs and players alike can handle disability in that game and how to roleplay sensitively and how to avoid certain pitfalls. Especially because fantasy’s not always had the best track record with disability, same for sci fi and horror. So just providing alternatives to that and then there’s just some really fun things like the wolfsbane wheelchair and it’s designed to fight vampires and werewolves, and then you’ve got the hellfire engine wheelchairs which are for boulder’s gates you can Mad Max Fury Road it in a wheelchair. You know there’s a lot of fun going on. And it’s been great to write it and I’m really excited for it.
With the different versions, did you know that you were going to keep on expanding it, or has it been a bit more of a response to people?
I kind of knew that I would update it because I was happy with the first release but I wasn’t like, super content with how it turned out. And I knew that there were things that I had left out. And I actively encouraged feedback and paid attention, especially from disabled people giving feedback, because, obviously, their opinion mattered the most to me. So, you know, I got feedback, and I’d be like, ‘Okay, take you back to the drawing board’, not start again, exactly, but work on things that needed fixing, but the things that needed changing. And then as that happened, you know, I was like, ooh, what about this fun idea that I do, like with an upgrade or something? And then my friend was like, oh, what about subclass, I was like, Okay, one subclass, and then that suddenly turned into subclasses, all the classes, and it’s been really, really fun.
I actually really enjoy making anything to do with the combat wheelchair. It’s a real passion project. And it’s not so much about D&D for me as it is about like, enabling disabled players to really represent themselves. And with a disability like they do in real life through games, and seeing, especially here at UKGE (UK Games Expo), getting to talk to people about it who said that, you know, that it really means a lot to them, but as disabled people, so they can play someone who is like them, because they’ve got something to relate to, is great. Like, just knowing that it’s helped people really, really does mean a lot.
The combat wheelchair now has a miniature out. How did that come about? And how involved in it all are you?
Yeah, so it’s the first time I posted the wheelchair back in August 2020. It was not long afterwards [we developed the miniature]. Some of the response from the community was not great. And I was feeling a bit, you know, ‘Oh, great’.
Did you get your mug with ‘ableist tears’ on it in the end? At one stage, you’re joking about a mug with….
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I have got a mug that says ‘ableist tears’ on it. And that that came from that came from Nix’s @MC_Etching. They’re great. They are so funny. They sent me that and I couldn’t stop laughing. But yeah, Strata [@strataminis – a miniature making company] reached out about a couple of days after I first posted the wheelchair, and they were like, hey, the community’s not treating you, right? We want to help normalise it. We think we can do that by making miniatures for you, you know, putting and putting in an effort to really like make detailed, right representation through miniatures.
And then wave one came out with four of them. And a lot of people were really excited about it, because it’s the first time that miniatures represented disabled people really in mainstream kind of D&D stuff. And then wave two came out, and then literally the other day wave three came out. So, we now have one for every class and it’s really been a lot of work on listening to the community. Because everyone wanted something from every class.
We’re also planning on doing different ancestries as well, because I think we’re still missing Goliath, Tabaxi and Aarakocra. But there are plans to kind of address that. We also want to show different disabilities as well beyond just wheelchairs. It’s kind of really grown. And this was Strata’s first, putting themselves out there, because before they called themselves a company that works behind the lines, they would make prototypes for people’s Kickstarters, things like that and sculpt. And then this is what they this is what they wanted to step forward with, and really go forward with in terms of business.
So that opened up the Dungeons and Diversity line, which is a whole combat wheelchair stuff, and 25% of the profits goes towards charity, goes to the EDS Support UK. And then the rest of it goes to literally just like funding into the process of making the miniatures and making sure people get paid. So, yeah, it’s been like a real passion project, especially from Strata and they send me sketch-ups, some mock-ups, then ask me what my opinion is.
They’ve also taken it upon themselves to, like, when the archer was being designed, they spoke to one of the Paralympians from Team GB and asked how does the wheelchair work for that and so we’ve raised the seat so that the bow doesn’t catch on the ground. Just smooth things like that, making sure that that that these chairs are correct and do reflect wheelchair usage. They’ve they’ve been great and are always willing to listen to what you know feedback and people. They’re a great company to be working with.
You’ve also done some expansions for The Witcher RPG on top of what you do in your day job, was that another passion project?
It was a passion project. Like, last year I think I posted something to do with just Witcher prosthetics and a couple of major prosthetics and how they would work. And as I got more confident writing for The Witcher because obviously I was doing it professionally. I was like, Okay, I can really like go with this now I think I know the rules well enough that I could really you know, go with it. And then Medicine On The Path: A Disability Supplement For The Witcher Pen & Paper happened and like it kind of expanded from prosthetics to wheelchairs to acromegaly, gigantism and all the way to things like allergies like severe allergies and talking about chronic pain and chronic fatigue, and autoimmune diseases and stuff like that. And even now that’s version 1.0.It was a passion project. Like, last year I think I posted something to do with just Witcher prosthetics and a couple of major prosthetics and how they would work. And as I got more confident writing for The Witcher because obviously I was doing it professionally. I was like, Okay, I can really like go with this now I think I know the rules well enough that I could really you know, go with it. And then Medicine On The Path: A Disability Supplement For The Witcher Pen & Paper happened and like it kind of expanded from prosthetics to wheelchairs to acromegaly, gigantism and all the way to things like allergies like severe allergies and talking about chronic pain and chronic fatigue, and autoimmune diseases and stuff like that. And even now that’s version 1.0.
And I do intend on returning to it and adding more things. The community has been great and giving feedback on it and being like, Oh, you could include this disability or change this rule. You know, even if it’s just something says, hey, you spelt something wrong on page, you know, like, it’s all useful. And it’s great to hear back from them and the Witcher community has been just great, like, genuinely so positive, so welcoming. I mean, I didn’t expect anything less from R. Talsorian Games. They really brought together like a nice community from both Cyberpunk and Witcher. So yeah, it was it was really great to work on that. And, you know, everybody knows from following my Twitter that I love the Witcher.
I wasn’t gonna bring it up.
Oh yeah, they can’t see us but I’m currently wearing a Witcher shirt and a Witcher medallion.
So, you were a fan of The Witcher first, how did you end up writing that?
I was like a big fan of The Witcher and I tweet about it a lot. And then I found out that was a tabletop game. I got bought that by my parents for my birthday. Super loved it. And it was like really, really wanted to play a game in it. But like nobody I knew knew of the TTRPG and didn’t want to learn it. They didn’t want to, like run it or anything, which was gutting. And I tweeted about it and I think it was WanderingDM Simon was like hey, I’m running a charity game where I’m playing the Witcher game would you like to join? And I was like, Oh hell yeah, that’d be great. Turns out that that charity game involved Doug Cockle and Kelly Butler [voice actors], of all people, and I was like oh my god, are you sure like and I got to play with them and it was the first time I ever played The Witcher was with them it was amazing and like I really fell in love with the game.
I kept in contact with R. Talsorian Games because they were really interested in the work I was doing. And yeah, like we kind of like you know formed a bond between that and then in July they reached out like hey, we’re going to be looking for writers we thought we’d let you know that you know if you submit a little adventure we’ll consider your writing along with a bunch of other people. So I submitted a short adventure and I got the place and I was so excited. And I got to write like my first proper adventure for them A Book of Tales which comes out in August I can’t I don’t know if we’ve got a specific date. I think they just said August 2021 at this point No, that was literally the other day they said August 2021 but they didn’t give a specific day and yeah so it’s been it’s been really exciting and like I’ve been working for them over a year now.
I=it’s just been great like I like I thought that I would only get to work on Book Of Tales and then they would like came back and they’re like hey we’d like you to write like the single adventure that’s in total chaos and then they came back again okay we’d like you to write this you know, and I ended up doing some stuff with cyberpunk red as well and yeah like R. Talsorian Games have been great to work with. I said it on Twitter before but I cannot sing their praises enough. They are so supportive of the community – writers homebrewers, everything. They just a real nice group of people to work for.
Tell us about The Witcher TTRPG….
The Witcher TTRPG, it is a, it’s very much a TTRPG where it is what you make of it and what you want of it. Yes, there are crunchy rules. And it can seem very daunting at first. But you actually realise you can be as light on the rules as you want, and kind of go off the rails and like just use the bits and pieces that you really like. It’s so flexible, like you can play around with the canons and like you can match events. As it happened in your own video game that you play through. You can just do the book and see what you want to, you could play it through the TV show universe instead. Like it’s completely limitless, and the fact that there is brand new content coming out with all the refined rules, and now is the best time like more than ever to get into the Witcher TTRPG. Like it’s really coming into its own unlike from having worked on it like I’m not even being biased by with how much I love the Witcher It is such a good TTRPG. With how clean cyberpunk red was and how well-received that was, the Witcher is, I guarantee it’s gonna be just as well received. The rules are so refined, the artwork is spectacular. There are adventures in there, not just my own and but that there are amazing adventures and I’m so excited to like, you know, get to read and play them with my friends. And for people who are like on the fence and are like, oh, but there’s not much content and I don’t know what to do. Like I said, August Book of Tales comes out. It’s a bunch of short stories that you can play through with your friends. And you can even compile them all together as a campaign and do an overarching story. It works really well that way. Yeah, so like I really highly recommend it.
You mentioned you got to work on Cyberpunk Red. Can you tell us anything about that?
It’s actually already out on the Cyberpunk PDF it got updated into it. It’s the cyber chairs from Rocklin Augmentics. So one has like the spider legs for a cyber chair. And the other is an actual wheelchair, which was we made it a design and incorporated it into a murderball team that exists within the universe. Like they have a murderball team now representing the city. And yeah, it’s really great and I was extremely flattered when I realised that when they were making artwork of a character to be in the wheelchair, they use my likeness. Which is bizarre because I’m like I’m a canon character in Cyberpunk now. My character’s name is Nix Phosphate because I went on to play her and I had to play them in a in a TTRPG stream which was called Out On A Limb which was by Syrinscape, and I showcased the cyber chair there and it was a lot of fun. Yeah, like just everything about Cyberpunk Red is really fun as well like it’s just like another good like solid system.
Is there much crossover between The Witcher and Cyberpunk Red games?
Initially no but then the Witcher and Cyberpunk Red they both now run on the same system. So like the rules are very like interchangeable, or like you can kind of mimic certain rules from like one game and to the other. And it means that if you play a lot of Cyberpunk, you can just easily slide into the Witcher or vice versa. So yeah, it’s pretty easy D10s and D6s and that’s kind of all you need. In fact, you need one D10 and like four D sixes at most. You kind of just yeah, go with it. It’s a really fun game. Both of them are. I highly recommend them.
Any new things from you being released soon?
Um, none that I can think of. I mean I dropped that you know that the combat which is getting its big update in August Be on the lookout for that I’ll be posting tweets following up to its release with all of the artists and like little sneak peeks of the art that’s going to appear in. We’re really fortunate in that I managed to get everyone who’s working in it on art direction they are all disabled, chronically ill, or neurodivergent so it’s just one big you know, project all made by the disabled community, so that’s really exciting because I’ve always wanted to do that. Yeah, so pretty much that’s it but super excited.
When is your Witcher podcast coming? [Sara’s joked about this on Twitter due to their encyclopaedical knowledge of it.]
Yeah, I I’ve been asked to come on some Witcher podcasts in the future. So like, fingers crossed. I get to just talk about it more than I have talked about it on some of the podcasts. Unfortunately, I can’t say it could be episodes aren’t out and I’m under an NDA, because they’re fun. But yeah, like, I mean, you know if you if you want to learn stuff about the Witcher, I mean, follow my Follow my Twitter check out Medicine On The Path, which is a supplement because it just goes into random Witcher law at points and how it affects the character. Yeah, so I definitely you know, if you’re into Witcher, I recommend it.
You developed sign language for the Witcher?
Yes, I made I made up three different sign languages Common Sign Language, which was based on American Sign Language then there is Witchers’ Cant which was based on German sign language and its derivative which is Polish sign language and then there Mages’ Patter which was based on French Sign Language, so each one was based on a real sign language and inside the PDF there are sheets on how to sign certain common phrases. Because we wanted to get rid of that element where people are like my character signs this and then just does random gestures and it’s like that’s not how sign language works. It’s kind of insulting especially when a deaf person sees that it’s like, you know, just say that you’re going to sign something and don’t use your hands. But the sheets are there to provide at least like something so that you can say ‘I’m looking for a witcher’ and at least sign the word Witcher you know, so you know that there’s that element in that PDF as well and quite a lot of people really liked it. So, you’re excited to expand upon it hopefully in the future maybe in future versions.
What advice would you give a disabled or neurodiverse person trying to get into the TTRPG industry?
It can be really daunting and it can kind of like be really hard at first in terms of like you know, you’ll post something and only got like a few likes or things like that. And like it can really make you feel like it’s not worth your time. But it is like you have an experience that’s unique to you. And you know, you should be sharing you should be sharing it with people if you want to. And if you do so through games, you know, keep at it because the thing is like no one has that experience but you everyone’s experience is so unique to them, you have a unique voice you add to the current discussion that we’re having on disability chronic illness and neurodivergent in tabletop, you know, you’re absolutely valid. And you know, your opinion matters, your work really does matter. And without it, you know that the TTRPG scene is lacking even if it only makes one other person happy. But still one person that like you’ve changed games for you know, and what I’d highly recommend is that if you really, really want to get into like straight into like really getting into the industry is really put yourself out there if you can, network. I know it’s really difficult and it can be terrifying at times to talk to people, especially if those people are like very big, you know important people in the community. But you know, network, put yourself out there. Be confident because if you’re confident in the thing that you’re pitching other people will be confident in it too. But yeah, you matter, your voice matters. your content matters. Don’t let anybody like make you think otherwise.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai – due to the noise from the busy UK Games Expo event, the transcript may not be verbatim.
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