Meatheads: Weight & Movement

 Meatheads

Mikhail Vrubel, Bogatyr, 1898

One must assume a Meat Head to be joyful in their bulk. An average man in OD&D weighs 1,750 pieces in gold (175lbs.), but for the purposes and enjoyment of this game we will consider all Meat Heads to be worth their weight in 2,500 gold pieces.

A Meat Head moves as per their armor but are able to hold more weight than the typical character.

Movement Type                        Movement Rate    Slow/Mapping    Fast/Running  

Light Foot (in Leather)                   (12")                     240'                   480'                

Heavy Foot (in Chain)                      (9")                     180'                   360'                
Armored Foot (in Plate)                   (6")                     120'                   240'                

Weight carried over 2,000 GP incurs a half-speed penalty, while 3,000 GP being the maximum load a typical Meat Head can casually carry. Being able to carry more gold without becoming so easily encumbered, a Meat Head might collect more gold and therefore more XP at a faster rate than a typical OD&D character. Meat Heads are nothing if not brazen.

The example Meat Head equips herself with the following:
Item   Weight in GP**
Plate                  750

Helmet                50

Mace                   50

2H-Sword           150
Shield                150

Misc                    80
Jewel Ring          20

TOTAL            1,250

In plate, she would move as Armored Foot and could carry sum of 750 gold pieces worth of treasure and incur no movement penalty. An equipment weight over 2,000 would incur a half-speed penalty to her movement.

**Refer to OD&D Section 4 for list of weight in Gold Piece for standard items. Otherwise, to guess the GP weight value of an item, times the item's weight (in lbs) by 10. As such, a 20 lb. gold idol might have a GP weight value of 200 in a character's equipment.

Load in Gold Pieces Equal to Light Foot movement = 1,000 GP in Weight
Load in Gold Pieces Equal to Heavy Foot movement = 1,500 GP in Weight
Load in Gold Pieces Equal to Armored Foot movement = 2,000 GP in Weight
These may prove useful or not but I don't want to delete them just yet.

 

Traps that trigger by weight might have a better chance when Meat Heads are mucking about. For such devices, a Meat Head has a 3in6 chance of triggering the trap.