19 thoughts on “How much Load to carry someone?”

  2. I’d probably go with 5 weight. Maybe 6. It should be enough that a high-load (12-15) character will notice and probably have to give up some gear, and a low-load (7-9) basically can’t do it.

    Looking at the gear list for comparisons isn’t be much help, because the weight of items and the load of transport are all on a pretty inconsistent scale. (E.g. Two swords burden you as much as a keg of dwarven stout. A warhorse would collapse under the weight of a fully-loaded paladin or fighter. )

  4. I’d go with “automatically at max load”.

    Is not a matter of weight, it’s more about the ability to do stuff without being encumbered by what you’re carrying… A person is as big as a person (duh), so you’re carrying a volume that encumbers all of you.

  6. I think Mattia Bulgarelli has it right. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty damn encumbered if I was humping around a legless dwarf, even if I was a hulking Barbarian with mighty thews.

  8. Mattia Bulgarelli Yeh, but that begs the question of what about your current Load. Wearing armour means you can’t give piggy backs? DW doesn’t sound like that sort of game.

    I mean, if we get down to a willing halfling (with legs to hold on with) what then?

    Do we start with 6?

    * -1 for missing limbs

    * +1 for unwilling

    * +1 for willing

    * -1 for small

    * +1 for large

    * +1 for drunk

  9. I don’t think DW needs all that math and details… It’s not D&D, and Load is not “weight carried”.

    In fact, carrying a person missing a limb may be even more complex, they can’t hold on to you (or you hold them) as good as with full-bodied one.

    My logic is: in all cases, you are encumbered enough to make most physical actions very complex.

    Jump a fence, swing a sword, climb a ladder… Try that while carrying a (cooperating) 15 years old person on your back. Or don’t, it’s dangerous. Don’t sue me after trying, too. XD

    Then mentally add these factors: they are unconscious, they carry a backpack of their stuff, and you’re in an hostile environment (possibly trying to be stealthy not to attract a monster, for example).

    No matter how strong you are, it’s insanely difficult to do any of these things without taking a lot of time. :/

  14. Chris Stone-Bush​: in hi-fantasy games, a dragon chopping off a leg with a bite is to be expected, I guess. It’s also a non-permanent problem in most settings, with healing magic that powerful.

    Not nice to see, if course, but one can get better. ^^;

  16. Definitely. That opens the whole chapter about players having cruel PCs, why, etc.

    In my experience, there’s a factor of ‘it’s not real, I can do stuff I’d never do in real life, let me vent’. I’m a different kind of player, but I’ve seen a few.

  17. Mattia Bulgarelli I don’t agree with, “in all cases, you are encumbered enough to make most physical actions very complex.”

    The whole reason I asked is that at the table it caused a bit of a discussion that was immediately shut down by my saying “5 Load”. That was it – the game moved on. I wanted to know what other people would have done.

    Had I taken your route, they would have started hacking off more limbs so that this magical scenario of carrying anyone encumbering you would be nullified.

    When you create a mechanical penalty in a game the player must ask, “how can I get rid of this penalty?”

    Your solution is, “don’t carry anyone.” To which the next question is, “what do I have to do to them to make them not qualify as someone?”

  18. I guess my personal, in no way official, and very debatable answer is: “I think that you have to kill him, chop him into pieces in a lengthy and messy process that will leave whoever does that covered in blood and other smelly, sticky and unpleasant fluids… You sure you wanna do that?”

    I’m not a doctor, but I think that, unless the PCs have access to absurdly sharp tools (or magical equivalent), amputations and dismemberments are a REALLY messy and complex thing. You can ask a butcher, for example, and they work on dead animals, in prepared environments, and with modern tools.

    It depends a lot on your setting’s technology/magic. 

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