Personal Encumbrance

The deleterious effects of carrying about great masses of weapons, armor and equipment are obvious to anyone who has ever done any backpacking or even serious hiking. The extra weight and cumbersome additions to the body to support that weight make dexterous and strenuous activities (such as Combat) considerably more difficult. Accounting for this requires that each character total the weight of all equipment being carried on the person. This includes, but is not limited to, arms and armor, backpacks full of equipment and provisions, etc. It may be more convenient to keep a couple of such totals on your character reference sheet. One for "combat ready" and another for "travelling" for instance.

The maximum total weight that a character may lift is expressed by the Carrying Capacity Attribute. Lifting such weight would require the entire attention of the character, and leave him quite fatigued afterwards - depending on the duration of such activity. It is possible to exceed this maximum for very short periods of time, though at some risk of injury.

Calculate the Encumbrance level by dividing the total amount of weight carried by the Carrying Capacity and multiply by 100 for a percentile value. The following table summarizes the effects of various encumbrance levels on physical skills tests, combat percentages and Fatigue/Stamina.

Encumbrance Tests By Character Tests Against Character Attack % By Character Attack % Against Character Combat Fatigue* Travel
0-10% - - +5% - 0.5 / turn 1 / hr.
11-40% - - - - 1 / turn 2 / hr.
41-75% -1 (attrib) -1D -5% +10% 2 / turn 3 / hr.
76-90% +1D -2D -15% +25% 3 / turn 4 / hr.
90+% +2D -2D -25% +50% 5 / turn 1 / min.
Tests By Character
When a skill test is required by the encumbered character against the character's Combat, Stealth, Dexterity or Strength modify the test as indicated for the encumbrance percentage.
Tests Against Character
When a skill test is required by an opponent where difficulty is predicated by the encumbered character's Combat, Stealth, Dexterity or Strength modify the test as indicated for the encumbrance percentage.
Attack % By Character
All "Attack" combat tactics attempted by the encumbered character have their percentages modified as indicated for encumbrance.
Attack % Against Character
All "Attack" combat tactics attempted against the encumbered character have their percentages modified as indicated for encumbrance.
Travel
This is the rate at which Fatigue/Stamina points are lost while hiking at a regular, strong pace. Casual walking would consume approximately 1/2 this. Running increases the value by 5x. Wearing an armoured hauberk, surcoat or mail hose would also double the Fatigue/Stamina loss.
Combat Fatigue
Characters may participate in continuous combat without fatigue penalty for Constitution/3 turns. This table indicates the required Fatigue/Stamina expenditure for each additional turn.
 

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updated on:   11 Feb 1999