Homemade tabletop RPG problem concerning bulk vs strength.

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Stark
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Homemade tabletop RPG problem concerning bulk vs strength.

Post by Stark »

Anyone seen any good implementations of an encumberance rule? Ideally, it would use a formula instead of a table (i hate solid break-points that tables make)and be wildly scaleable (from teeny little dudes to unicron). The only decent system I've ever seen is the Milleniums End system, where you were penalised on what proportion of your mass you were carrying; the flaw there is that I'm using it for combat penalties, and big, light things mess up your flexibility as much as small, heavy things...
I've been trying to get my head around this for a few days... let me know if there's a better way out there :)
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Post by JodoForce »

encumberance=size+weight or size*weight?
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Post by Stark »

encumberance being a largely subjective combination. I'm only using stats for combat, so agility is 'combat' agility, and encumberance reduces that based on how your str compares to your loadout... I can't get the math straight. GAH! :D
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Re: Homemade tabletop RPG problem concerning bulk vs strengt

Post by weemadando »

GMs discretion works best I've found...

"So, you want to carry the two assault rifles, an SMG, four large caliber pistols, multiple reloads for each AND a goddamn MANPADS - HOW ABOUT NO!"
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Stark
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Post by Stark »

I'm afraid most GMs suck ass. But then, so do most players... I'm looking for a minimalist set of rules. I should just go the percentile path I guess... *sigh*
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Re: Homemade tabletop RPG problem concerning bulk vs strengt

Post by Eleas »

Stark wrote:Anyone seen any good implementations of an encumberance rule? Ideally, it would use a formula instead of a table (i hate solid break-points that tables make)and be wildly scaleable (from teeny little dudes to unicron). The only decent system I've ever seen is the Milleniums End system, where you were penalised on what proportion of your mass you were carrying; the flaw there is that I'm using it for combat penalties, and big, light things mess up your flexibility as much as small, heavy things...
I've been trying to get my head around this for a few days... let me know if there's a better way out there :)
Far too complex, I feel. You just need a unit of encumberance, combining mass and unweildliness, and this will lead to a reduced granularity, as it will be somewhat arbitrary anyhow. Thus there is no need for complex number-crunching. Keep It Simple.
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JodoForce
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Post by JodoForce »

Stark wrote:encumberance being a largely subjective combination. I'm only using stats for combat, so agility is 'combat' agility, and encumberance reduces that based on how your str compares to your loadout... I can't get the math straight. GAH! :D
Just let combat agility = strength / weight, where weight = body weight + loadout. Simple enough and quite realistic according to one set of definitions for strength and weight (i.e. strength = force applicable on body joints in newtons and weight = number of kilos)

As for big light objects encumbering as much as small heavy objects, well, just flub the numbers a bit for the big light objects and make them big heavy objects :D
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JodoForce
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Post by JodoForce »

Keep it simple
No kidding--I still can't wrap my mind around playing board RPG games and throwing dice and doing math for every turn no matter how simple the calculations are! :D
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Post by Stark »

Thats a good idea, Jodoforce, but I'm using agility not as 'DEX' but as kinda as initative as well... I'll have to test the scalability. Thanks :)
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