
thejeff |
As a PLAYER, I always keep track of my encumbrance, but not always my coin weight (i used to).
As a GM, I don't particularly care unless it comes down to hauling out loot, in which case I have to ask the group how they're gonna carry that 1/2 a ton of copper coins (50,000) that shadow dragon was sleeping on back to town.
And ZugZug hits it on the head as far as video games are concerned.
As I've said before, when it comes to hoards with 50000 copper pieces, unless you're low level and your GM is being a jerk, leave it there. It's not worth carrying. By the time you're high enough level to take a shadow dragon, 500gp isn't worth the hassle of dealing with a half a ton of copper. Poke through it to make sure there's nothing good mixed in. Take the gold and the magic and move on.
Why are you wasting your time?
thejeff |
500GP can still be handy depending on the campaign.
Sure. If you can shovel it all into your portable hole and convert it into real cash without too much effort, haul it along.
If you have to put any extra effort into it, it really isn't worth it. Hiking back to civilization encumbered. Bringing wagons and horses and servants with you - likely just to be killed while you're adventuring anyway.
Buying extra magic bags that cost more than the copper pieces you can carry in them.

Vod Canockers |

archmagi1 wrote:As a PLAYER, I always keep track of my encumbrance, but not always my coin weight (i used to).
As a GM, I don't particularly care unless it comes down to hauling out loot, in which case I have to ask the group how they're gonna carry that 1/2 a ton of copper coins (50,000) that shadow dragon was sleeping on back to town.
And ZugZug hits it on the head as far as video games are concerned.
As I've said before, when it comes to hoards with 50000 copper pieces, unless you're low level and your GM is being a jerk, leave it there. It's not worth carrying. By the time you're high enough level to take a shadow dragon, 500gp isn't worth the hassle of dealing with a half a ton of copper. Poke through it to make sure there's nothing good mixed in. Take the gold and the magic and move on.
Why are you wasting your time?
We call those piles of copper, roofing materials.

ZugZug |

15% of VRPGs include an "Encumbrance" System and counting those 39% have a "Carrying Capacity" System last time a Respectable Video Game Magazine figured it up (November 2012). The other CRPGs don't have them.
Now MMORPG and CRPGs are at 47% (counting the ones that overlap with the 39% amount).
Interesting numbers, still, not "Exceptions" even at 15%. 1 in 7 is more than an Exception here and there.
What Top MMO out there doesn't have a Carrying Capacity? I'm asking because I am curious. EQ, EQ2, WoW, Star Trek Online, DDO, LotRO, City of Heroes and Eve all did (just the ones I've played), so I'm wondering which ones did I miss that don't have it.
If we're talking about games under 50,000 players vs games with over 1,000,000, then I suppose they could easily balance out to those numbers, but specifically it doesn't seem to add up. Especially where several of those games "sell bag space" in the FTP setup these days.

ZugZug |

The number was all MMOs not just the top MMOs. The Top ones do for the most part do have some form of Bag Space.
K, then I'll go back to my statement of
Actually, I feel the opposite way about it. Baldur's Gate & Everquest were some of the places I felt most needing to make sure my Weight Limit was watched the most.
OOps, I picked up armor, do I have room in one of my 100% weight reduction bags, or do I need to transfer something into my 80% weight reduction bags.......Hey, I'm moving slowly, lets dump 3,000cp so I can move more normal again and keep farming GP/PP instead of taking the time to go to a bank to convert that around.
Nothing makes you pay more attention to your weight limit than a video game because you will notice it when you hit it if you weren't paying attention to it. When its pen/paper, you're likely not to pay attention to it, and go "oh, I'm over and have been over for awhile now....oh well".
It's more Video-Gamy to me to keep track of every ounce carried. And with most major games doing something (weight and/or bag space) like it, it feels that way.
Again, I am likely to keep track of "How Much Weight" my character can carry (for me, it's not much work). What I am likely to not keep track of though, is whether the amount of weight can fit in the space provided (Cubic Foot Space in bags, backpacks, etc). Which should be an equal problem.

ZugZug |

IIRC, encumbrance in D&D/PF already includes an abstraction of space. Not sure though.
A Backpack can hold 2 cubic feet of material (CFoM)
A Sack can hold 4 CFoMA Beltpouch can hold 100-200 coins or 2 Apples
A Bag of Holding can hold 30, 70, 150 or 250 CFoM
A Handy Haversack can hold 2 + 2 + 8 CFoM (each pouch has its own limit)
A Portable Hole is 6' Diameter & 10' Deep or 1,131 CFoM
I pulled those out of the CRB & UE. Sounds like a definitive amount of space.
Unless we're carrying something obviously too big, our GM doesn't worry about Space (nor do I when I run), but technically, there are rules/limits on it. They might not "slow you down" like pure weight, but strictly speaking, they should be followed as well (and again, I say that without doing it myself).

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Since most equipment doesn't list its dimensions, just its weight, it would be difficult for any GM to definitively declare any PC's gear goes over-space, except in egregiously silly cases.
What I find immersion-breaking, is the abstraction that all weapons can be drawn as a move action (and after BAB+1, as a move action while on the move, ie, effectively free), and is eligible for Quick Draw, or other class abilities which allow free or swift draw and full attack.
While anything not designated a weapon must always require a move action.
So that spare oversized Greataxe can be whipped from your back, despite its size, ridiculous jaggy 'Chaos Spiky Bits', and the player declaring it has ALWAYS been strapped up tightly, to prevent being dropped or stolen.
But try to walk along the corridor, whie sliding a short, smooth stick, out of a bandolier or wrist sheath, and you're breaking the game?

cyrus1677 |

My thought on the subject of coinage and expensive loot that adventurers find is to utilize a banking system so they can horde their wealth and not carry around all this money. I usually run the PF campaigns and there is usually a major city large enough for a temple of Abadar in them. Those temples have banks in them and the players can deposit their haul from their excursions and get letter of credit from the bank. They put those letters either in a safe in their base of operations or carry them in warded scroll tubes. Its basically a legit way of saying they have all this wealth and not have to carry it around on them all the time. When they go shopping for magic items and gear they just go to the temple to make a withdraw.

Lab_Rat |

I actually found that Ultimate Equipment solves the issue of wealth based encumbrance.
Ultimate Equipment Apendix:
"Gems and jewelry can be bought or sold at their total value, and are sometimes used as currency. For simplicity's sake, assume that 50 gems weigh 1 pound."
So any poor sap can convert their 20,000 gp into a few super nice gems and then convert it all back when they need it. Repeat as needed. I think even the lowest Str caster can afford to carry a pound or less of gems.

Ilja |

Lab_Rat: Sorry.
Azaelas: Here's a list link.
Gems: Although you can assign any value to a gemstone, some are inherently more valuable than others. Use the value categories below (and their associated gemstones) as guidelines when assigning values to gemstones.
Low-Quality Gems (10 gp): agates; azurite; blue quartz; hematite; lapis lazuli; malachite; obsidian; rhodochrosite; tigereye; turquoise; freshwater (irregular) pearl
Semi-Precious Gems (50 gp): bloodstone; carnelian; chalcedony; chrysoprase; citrine; jasper; moonstone; onyx; peridot; rock crystal (clear quartz); sard; sardonyx; rose, smoky, or star rose quartz; zircon
Medium Quality Gemstones (100 gp): amber; amethyst; chrysoberyl; coral; red or brown-green garnet; jade; jet; white, golden, pink, or silver pearl; red, red-brown, or deep green spinel; tourmaline
High Quality Gemstones (500 gp): alexandrite; aquamarine; violet garnet; black pearl; deep blue spinel; golden yellow topaz
Jewels (1,000 gp): emerald; white, black, or fire opal; blue sapphire; fiery yellow or rich purple corundum; blue or black star sapphire
Grand Jewels (5,000 gp or more): clearest bright green emerald; diamond; jacinth; ruby
We treat it as the price for a half-ounce cut gem of that type. Every halfounce added doubles value (so a 3 ounce aquamarine is worth 16k), but that is a houserule mostly for flavor.

Ilja |

Why that video? & how did you do the time stamp?
& I wasn't sure since UE has their value randomized... Though I guess that could be covered as randomly found or specialty gems while these are generic Wealth Gems... Does that make sense?
The first line of the lyrics. But I guess it was a failed joke.
Yes, agree. These are just generic and can be modified a lot. :)

Azaelas Fayth |

Ok now I see you meant the Ninja line not the "I need your protection line"... My bad...
& now I want to have it to where my players can trade certain Gems to different races for different values. Sort of like the Currency Exchange on a Military Base*.
*IIRC if you know the exchange rates you can almost double your money in one of those.

Lab_Rat |

The tables from the gamemastering book are not that important for a character converting gold into gems for the purpose of currency. All that is important is that you can buy gems and sell them for the same exact price (thanks to the Ultimate Equipment book), thus there is no need for hagling and appraise checks to get all you money back out of the gem.
Example:
I have 20,000 gp
As gold: 400 pounds of weight
As platinum: 40 pounds of weight
As gems (4x5000gp gems): 0.08 pounds of weight
As you can see this is the best way to store wealth.

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Banks are also a good idea (mentioned upthread). In many CS's there is a god devoted to such (Abadar in Golarion, The Banker Dragonmarked House in Eberron), and I can imagine folks having letters of credit that they could use in the large cities that recognized the banks.
Also, a wyrmling shadow dragon isn't a bad enemy for a low level party, provided they have something to remove shadows. The 500 gp of copper coins that it uses as the bulk of its horde would be attractive to the level 3-4 party who just won a difficult battle and don't want to sell the 1d2 weapons and 1d4 minor wondrous items also in the horde.