Loot carrying question to follow.
Dungeon World, p. 76 (retail pdf) says:
Encumbrance
When you make a move while carrying weight you may be encumbered. If your weight carried is:
• Equal to or less than your Load, you suffer no penalty
• Less than or equal to your Load+2, you take -1 ongoing until you lighten your burden
• Greater than your Load+2, you have a choice: drop at least 1 weight and roll at -1, or automatically fail
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No upper limit is given. Assuming 100 coin = 1 load, how much of the dragon’s hoard can one carry away at one time?
Golden opportunity is a limit! (pun not intended)
Let the fiction decide !
You must be a fan of the PCs. So, let them carry whatever they want with makeshift carts, sleds, etc.
“Tell them the consequences or requirements and ask.”
It’s more than you can carry at once–you’ll need multiple trips, or you’ll have to get carts or something.
More to the point, Load+1 is a burden and Load+2 is a huge burden, so I assume there’s no going with Load+3. That’s just my view–don’t remember anything official on this.
With Load+2, you can still fight, albeit with a -1 ongoing. With Load+3 you can only move around and would fail at all your actions. With Load+4, I guess you can only lift it. With Load+5, you’re crushed!
The explanation below the move p76 is quite clear. Unless you want to be able to react and make moves, you can carry as much as it’s humanly possible.
As a guide, many medieval gold coins were between 4 and 7g.
Let say that a 100kg charge over a few hundred meters seems fairly possible for a well built warrior. Let’s take an average 5g gold coin. The result is a 20k gold coins transported.
Edit: Let’s consider 50kg for a normally built wizard. The result is 10k gold coins. My two cents 😉
If you’re willing to fail at every possible thing you do, you’re welcome to carry as much as you like and as much as is fictionally reasonable.
Weight is a bit of an abstraction to begin with. It’s not just the physical pull of gravity, but how bulky, awkward, and unwieldy it is.
That’s why there’s no upper limit on load. It’s there to talk about when you start getting bogged down by all the jagged edges, odd shapes, and physical weight you’re carrying. It’s not about how much you can physically lift—leave that to the fiction.
Also, think about how god-damn annoying it is to carry stuff around. Especially heavy stuff. Like a cardboard box with 40 copies of Dungeon World in it.
I can give you my address if just need to get rid of that box of books… ;D
As a related question, I was just wodering why the Druid as only 6+STR Load, which is less than the wizard. From my AD&D (1st Ed) days, I remember the Druid as a sturdy fellow, able to carry dead boars around, or tree trunks, or whatever heavy stuff you find in Nature. What was the design reason behind such a “frail” (as in 6+CON HP, 6+STR Load and D6 damage) version of the Druid in DW ?
The druid travels light. They don’t need to take stuff with them. They’re self-sufficient and live off the land.
The wizard has to haul their spellbook at the least, probably some potions or light armor if they want to survivie, plus whatever else they collect.