Carrying capacity of equines & vehicles

[harlandski]

In Men & Magic there are various animals which could be used as beasts of burden, as well as a cart, a wagon, and various kinds of boat.

The book gives pretty clear guidance about bags carried by people, but not about these.

Having ridden a bike with panniers, I suppose I would put a pair of saddlebags at about the same as a large sack / back pack (capacity: 300).

An OD&D human weights 1750. An average real adult human apparently weighs 137 pounds. So 100 GP is about 12 pounds.

Apparently horses can carry about 30% of their weight, with 250-300 pounds being reasonable.

So... A horse can carry about 3000 - 3600. That seems rather little considering humans in D&D can carry up to 3000 and still move. Maybe this figure should be unencumbered?

If we take this as some sort of midpoint, and assume that horses can carry about twice as much as people (?), we could have:

0-1499 normal move
1500-2999 80% move
3000-4499 60% move
4500-5999 40% move
6000 maximum 20% move

Anyone got any wisdom on this, either from the real world or from your own games? As with several of my recent posts, I'm working on an OD&D character spreadsheet, and the devil is in the detail!

There's also the question of vehicles, but there my mind boggles for now.

[gemini476]

The carrying capacities of horses and mules are in Monsters & Treasure, page 20 in my copy.

To summarize Maximum Loads in Gold Pieces Weight:

	Max Load
Light Horse	3,000
Medium Horse	3,750
Heavy Horse	4,500
Draft Horse	4,500
Mule	3,500
Man (M&M p.15)	3,000

It's worth noting that this seems to be entirely based on game balance, much like the default system. Note, for instance, how the 1,750cn weight of a Man is enough to put you into slowest movement by itself, disallows carrying two bodies per person, and is just beyond what you could carry if both had plate armor on. Similarly, a Mule (the only one you can bring in the dungeon) is just barely stronger than a man - but can carry exactly two bodies!

Similarly, note the encumbrance of armor and how, if you include a sword, shield and miscellaneous equipment, Men can generally get a bit less than a full sack before pushing into the next movement category. It's very gamey. (Note also how the Example Employing Encumbrance is exactly 300cn from half movement!)

[gemini476]

Also, as for boats, at minimum they would have:

	Crew	Weight of Crew, if Unencumbered	Weight of Crew, if Maximum Load
Large Galley	170	297,500	807,500
Small Galley	80	140,000	460,000
Longship	75	131,250	356,250
Large Merchant	20	35,000	95,000
Small Merchant	15	26,250	71,250
Sailed Warship	45-80	78,750-140,000	213,750-460,000

Note, however, that it's seemingly assumed that boarding won't be much of an issue, and that pirate treasure can go up to 30,140cn in weight (averages 10,552cn). Also, some of those ships have catapults and presumably also ammunition etc.

[harlandski]

Mar 20, 2019 7:05:01 GMT -6 gemini476 said:

The carrying capacities of horses and mules are in Monsters & Treasure, page 20 in my copy.

To summarize Maximum Loads in Gold Pieces Weight:

	Max Load
Light Horse	3,000
Medium Horse	3,750
Heavy Horse	4,500
Draft Horse	4,500
Mule	3,500
Man (M&M p.15)	3,000

It's worth noting that this seems to be entirely based on game balance, much like the default system. Note, for instance, how the 1,750cn weight of a Man is enough to put you into slowest movement by itself, disallows carrying two bodies per person, and is just beyond what you could carry if both had plate armor on. Similarly, a Mule (the only one you can bring in the dungeon) is just barely stronger than a man - but can carry exactly two bodies!

Similarly, note the encumbrance of armor and how, if you include a sword, shield and miscellaneous equipment, Men can generally get a bit less than a full sack before pushing into the next movement category. It's very gamey. (Note also how the Example Employing Encumbrance is exactly 300cn from half movement!)

I did look in M&T, but somehow I missed that table, thanks! I agree that the motivation seems to be gamey rather than realistic.