RPGnet Columns
06-05-2005, 07:56 PM
Post originally by Spike at 2005-06-05 18:56:02
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I think that you make a good, if unintentional point with this column. Too many game designers and fluff writers don't spend enough time thinking things through and doing a little basic research.
Maybe I'm too much of a systemic, logic kind of guy, but reading game worlds that are 'richly detailed' and whatnot, or just some of the novels that come out that have to fill in the blanks on what life is like, really rub me the wrong way.
On that note, have you ever noticed just HOW MUCH stuff a reasonably strong guy can actually carry? I have a D&D Elf with a 16 strength that, by the book, can lug twice his bodyweight all day long, and push ten times it. That's pretty damn impressive, right up there with dwarves building huge cathedral like cities underground. I don't know about you, but pushing my own bodyweight in a wheelbarrow, which should make things easier than using straight muscle power, isn't exactly easy. I can't imagine pushing a half ton anything anywhere.
As for being Heroic, I can't think of the last time I saw/read a heroic fantasy character having to lug around huge amounts of gear or push a half ton object. Okay, that last bit is a lie, Conan did it, but I think it's still not exactly a feature of Heroic fiction.
My two cents.
Converted from Phorums BB System
I think that you make a good, if unintentional point with this column. Too many game designers and fluff writers don't spend enough time thinking things through and doing a little basic research.
Maybe I'm too much of a systemic, logic kind of guy, but reading game worlds that are 'richly detailed' and whatnot, or just some of the novels that come out that have to fill in the blanks on what life is like, really rub me the wrong way.
On that note, have you ever noticed just HOW MUCH stuff a reasonably strong guy can actually carry? I have a D&D Elf with a 16 strength that, by the book, can lug twice his bodyweight all day long, and push ten times it. That's pretty damn impressive, right up there with dwarves building huge cathedral like cities underground. I don't know about you, but pushing my own bodyweight in a wheelbarrow, which should make things easier than using straight muscle power, isn't exactly easy. I can't imagine pushing a half ton anything anywhere.
As for being Heroic, I can't think of the last time I saw/read a heroic fantasy character having to lug around huge amounts of gear or push a half ton object. Okay, that last bit is a lie, Conan did it, but I think it's still not exactly a feature of Heroic fiction.
My two cents.