Post by countingwizard on Jan 29, 2020 9:06:33 GMT -6
I think it's safe to say most of us gloss over the weight rules for the LBBs. The argument is they are cumbersome, tedious to track, etc. etc. Most of us come up with a house rule, a rule of thumb, or just eyeball it as to what the effect of weight actually is going to be when it comes up. Well have I got an argument for you!
We only care about weight in this game for 2 reasons (3 if you are a player, 4 if you are a grognard):
Well, the D&D weight system can actually answer all those questions. And it's not as cumbersome as you think. Players don't need to know the movement charts by heart or the weight thresholds; and we don't need to track the weight of each and every piece of equipment. In fact that is not what the original rules intended if you look at the examples given in M&M.
The only thing a player needs to do is write down at the bottom of their character sheet under inventory:
(note the below paragraph assumes the easier method of using a group treasure pool, and then splitting it up once back to town)
From that, before the group enters the dungeon, the referee can note each character's standard move rate. If the character picks up a new piece of armor or weapon, take the character sheet, update the total and see if it changes the move rate. Thats it. When the players decide to grab treasure, eyeball whether that amount is large enough to possibly have an effect on the move speed of the party. If so, total up the group's capacity to carry weight and still move at 60' and also at 30', and see whether there is enough treasure to exceed that. If there is, notify the group so they can make a choice and start figuring out if they have enough bags to carry it all. If the group is trying to get out of the dungeon and they are burdened, the amount of treasure they need to drop to escape should be clear.
You see, not painful. You don't have to track the weight of every individual item. And once calculated you just adjust it when circumstances change. Players can clearly see which of their weight categories they need to try and lose weight from. They can ask what weight threshold they need to reach to achieve their movement goal. This is a number to inform you, not cause you pain.
Now for you Grognards. I've had many discussions in real-life and online about what we think the AC each of the categories of troops should be. My argument in the past has been that it's clearly a term used to indicate armor coverage and weight of that armor, completely ignoring shields. So I've always assumed that Light Troops were unarmored or armored in leather, Heavy Troops were armored in chainmail, Armored Troops were armored in platemail, Light Horse were unarmored or armored in leather, Medium Horse were armored in chainmail, and Heavy Horse were armored in platemail. Well, the rules D&D provides can't tell you what those troops are exactly wearing, but they can tell you how fast a person with a set of equipment moves, and from that you can kinda start seeing what those troops might be wearing.
Behold, my equipment weight analysis! I carefully outfitted 40 adventures with the highest quality medieval equipment, and then calculated what the weight and AC of each of those configurations might be:
As you can see, all AC 6 adventurers were traveling around like they were light foot! And surprisingly, five of the eight AC 5 adventurers were travelling around as light foot as well! The rest of the chainmail wearers were considered heavy foot. What is more surprising is that five of the eight AC 3 adventurers traveled as heavy foot! With the remaining platemail wearers travelling as armored foot.
This analysis shows that we are often greatly overestimating the weight of armor when we use a rule of thumb or try to abstract the weight of equipment.
I've got one last tidbit however that may be useful to that crowd who remains unconvinced to use the D&D weight method. From that prior analysis I took the most overburdened adventurers from each AC category, and built a chart to tell you how much weight a character can carry (at worst), based on their Armor Class:
I hope you enjoyed my TED talk, and that at least one of these things was useful to you in some way.
Edit: My biggest assumption was that a character will not be able to carry and use both a shield and a large or extra large weapon. Although after actual play I was able to see it was possible for mounted troops to have a lance and shield, and foot troops using a spear and shield.
We only care about weight in this game for 2 reasons (3 if you are a player, 4 if you are a grognard):
- How fast can a character move?
- How much treasure can a character (or party) carry?
- (Players) What do I need to drop in order to escape the monsters?
- (Grognards) What AC should Light Foot, Heavy Foot, Armored Foot, Light Horse, Medium Horse, and Heavy Horse be?
Well, the D&D weight system can actually answer all those questions. And it's not as cumbersome as you think. Players don't need to know the movement charts by heart or the weight thresholds; and we don't need to track the weight of each and every piece of equipment. In fact that is not what the original rules intended if you look at the examples given in M&M.
The only thing a player needs to do is write down at the bottom of their character sheet under inventory:
- Total Weight of Weaponry: ...
- Total Weight of Armor (helm/shield/armor): ...
- Total Misc Weight: 80. It's always 80. Unless you literally only have weapons and armor on you.
- Total Treasure: (only if they are bringing it into the dungeon with them).
- Total Weight: ...
(note the below paragraph assumes the easier method of using a group treasure pool, and then splitting it up once back to town)
From that, before the group enters the dungeon, the referee can note each character's standard move rate. If the character picks up a new piece of armor or weapon, take the character sheet, update the total and see if it changes the move rate. Thats it. When the players decide to grab treasure, eyeball whether that amount is large enough to possibly have an effect on the move speed of the party. If so, total up the group's capacity to carry weight and still move at 60' and also at 30', and see whether there is enough treasure to exceed that. If there is, notify the group so they can make a choice and start figuring out if they have enough bags to carry it all. If the group is trying to get out of the dungeon and they are burdened, the amount of treasure they need to drop to escape should be clear.
You see, not painful. You don't have to track the weight of every individual item. And once calculated you just adjust it when circumstances change. Players can clearly see which of their weight categories they need to try and lose weight from. They can ask what weight threshold they need to reach to achieve their movement goal. This is a number to inform you, not cause you pain.
Now for you Grognards. I've had many discussions in real-life and online about what we think the AC each of the categories of troops should be. My argument in the past has been that it's clearly a term used to indicate armor coverage and weight of that armor, completely ignoring shields. So I've always assumed that Light Troops were unarmored or armored in leather, Heavy Troops were armored in chainmail, Armored Troops were armored in platemail, Light Horse were unarmored or armored in leather, Medium Horse were armored in chainmail, and Heavy Horse were armored in platemail. Well, the rules D&D provides can't tell you what those troops are exactly wearing, but they can tell you how fast a person with a set of equipment moves, and from that you can kinda start seeing what those troops might be wearing.
Behold, my equipment weight analysis! I carefully outfitted 40 adventures with the highest quality medieval equipment, and then calculated what the weight and AC of each of those configurations might be:
As you can see, all AC 6 adventurers were traveling around like they were light foot! And surprisingly, five of the eight AC 5 adventurers were travelling around as light foot as well! The rest of the chainmail wearers were considered heavy foot. What is more surprising is that five of the eight AC 3 adventurers traveled as heavy foot! With the remaining platemail wearers travelling as armored foot.
This analysis shows that we are often greatly overestimating the weight of armor when we use a rule of thumb or try to abstract the weight of equipment.
I've got one last tidbit however that may be useful to that crowd who remains unconvinced to use the D&D weight method. From that prior analysis I took the most overburdened adventurers from each AC category, and built a chart to tell you how much weight a character can carry (at worst), based on their Armor Class:
I hope you enjoyed my TED talk, and that at least one of these things was useful to you in some way.
Edit: My biggest assumption was that a character will not be able to carry and use both a shield and a large or extra large weapon. Although after actual play I was able to see it was possible for mounted troops to have a lance and shield, and foot troops using a spear and shield.
