Character Creation Discussion

[Cairo]

49 minutes ago, Arcticus said:

The maximum number of items you can carry is the same as your strength score...

Can you point me to where it says this, because I'm failing to find this rule?

And to go back to my question, for a strength 8 character is readied/stowed 4/8 items, or items worth 4/8 encumbrance?

[Arcticus]

Ope, sorry my bad, forgot to edit that portion. What I was trying to get across is that the number of Stowed encumbrance equals your strength score. The maximum Encumbrance you can have (which can be any combination of items of varying encumbrance values) is Readied + Stowed = Max Total Encumbrance

So taking your STR 8, you'd have 4 Readied (half your strength) + 8 Stowed (your full strength score) = 12 Encumbrance.

It does not mean you can carry items worth 4/8 encumbrance. To my knowledge most items you can carry easily max out at 3 encumbrance (Assault Rifle is at Enc 4 I think) anything bigger than that will slow you down and have to be dragged. There's a chart on pg 48 that can give you a rough estimate of the size of an item based on it's Encumbrance value.

To further explain, if I wanted to carry 4 magazines (1 ENC) readied on my person, it would take up 4 ENC under Readied. You could still have a radio, smartphone, or anything else with 0 or no ENC as Readied. If you wanted to wear Plated Longcoat, however, it would take up 3 ENC under Readied and you'd only have room for 1 ENC worth of items.

[Rejakor]

So i'm playing a super strong person with 18 str. They've got the following items - Junkyard Armour (enc 3), Foldable Bicycle (enc 5), Riot Gun (enc 2), Flashlight (enc 1), car keys (enc 0), Grenade Belt (1 enc), normal clothes (enc 0), 3 days food (enc 2), a scout drone (the Frisbee) (enc 2), a monowire grappling gun (enc 1), and three magic staffs (each enc 1)

That's a total of 3+5+2+1+0+1+0+2+2+1+1+1+1 for a total of 20. That's under their total encumbrance of 18+9=27, so they can carry it all, but they can only have 9 of that ready to grab at any moment. So they could have their Armour on (3), their Riot Gun slung (5), their grenade belt across their chest (6), their flashlight on their belt (7), and the Frisbee ready to toss at any moment (9), but then if they wanted to have their grappling gun on their hip they'd need to put something they currently have ready in a less accessible location. They can pick up 7 more total enc of stuff without running into issues, so they if they find some Cans of Peaches (enc 1) or Extra Ammo Mags (2) they can grab both of those but if they found a powered-down exo-suit (10) they'd need to drop something or leave it behind or go over encumbrance to take it with.

Is that correct?

[Arcticus]

8 minutes ago, Rejakor said:

So i'm playing a super strong person with 18 str. They've got the following items - Junkyard Armour (enc 3), Foldable Bicycle (enc 5), Riot Gun (enc 2), Flashlight (enc 1), car keys (enc 0), Grenade Belt (1 enc), normal clothes (enc 0), 3 days food (enc 2), a scout drone (the Frisbee) (enc 2), a monowire grappling gun (enc 1), and three magic staffs (each enc 1)

That's a total of 3+5+2+1+0+1+0+2+2+1+1+1+1 for a total of 20. That's under their total encumbrance of 18+9=27, so they can carry it all, but they can only have 9 of that ready to grab at any moment. So they could have their Armour on (3), their Riot Gun slung (5), their grenade belt across their chest (6), their flashlight on their belt (7), and the Frisbee ready to toss at any moment (9), but then if they wanted to have their grappling gun on their hip they'd need to put something they currently have ready in a less accessible location. They can pick up 7 more total enc of stuff without running into issues, so they if they find some Cans of Peaches (enc 1) or Extra Ammo Mags (2) they can grab both of those but if they found a powered-down exo-suit (10) they'd need to drop something or leave it behind or go over encumbrance to take it with.

Is that correct?

That's about the size of it, yes. With the addition of the following info for carrying over your ENC:

from pg. 48...

PCs can haul much heavier objects if necessary. If they push their limits for longer terms, they can carry an additional two Ready and four Stowed items. The first time they do this, their Move speed is cut by 30%, from 10m to 7m. The second time, it’s cut by 50%, from 10m to 5m. More weight than this can’t be practically hauled over significant distances.

You could carry up to an additional 12 items (4 readied, 8 stowed) if you're okay with moving at half speed.

Edited September 22, 2023 by Arcticus (see edit history)

[Cairo]

7 hours ago, Arcticus said:

It does not mean you can carry items worth 4/8 encumbrance. To my knowledge most items you can carry easily max out at 3 encumbrance...

Ah, now it's me who's not being clear 😅 What I meant with items worth 4/8 encumbrance was exactly how you explained it works - the character can carry Readied items worth a total Encumbrance value of 4 (so for example Enc 0+1+2+0+1, even though that's 5 items), and Stowed items worth a total Encumbrance value of 8.

Okay, this interpretation of it makes sense to me. It's just so weird that the rulebook keeps talking about items - like here:

7 hours ago, Arcticus said:

"...they can carry an additional two Ready and four Stowed items."

It really sounds to me like the text is saying a person can push themselves to carry for example four Stowed plated longcoats (each Enc 3, total 12) just as easily as four Stowed ultralight radios (each Enc 0, total 0), in exchange for 30% of their movement speed. But since that makes no sense, I guess what the text means is that it's an additional two Encumbrance value's worth of Readied items, and four Encumbrance value's worth of Stowed items..

I suspect Crawford has simply not had the space to explain this more clearly in more words, so he's had to keep referring to "items" when he really means "items' Encumbrance value".

Anyway, thanks for the clarification!

[Arcticus]

10 hours ago, Cairo said:

Ah, now it's me who's not being clear 😅 What I meant with items worth 4/8 encumbrance was exactly how you explained it works - the character can carry Readied items worth a total Encumbrance value of 4 (so for example Enc 0+1+2+0+1, even though that's 5 items), and Stowed items worth a total Encumbrance value of 8.

Okay, this interpretation of it makes sense to me. It's just so weird that the rulebook keeps talking about items - like here:

It really sounds to me like the text is saying a person can push themselves to carry for example four Stowed plated longcoats (each Enc 3, total 12) just as easily as four Stowed ultralight radios (each Enc 0, total 0), in exchange for 30% of their movement speed. But since that makes no sense, I guess what the text means is that it's an additional two Encumbrance value's worth of Readied items, and four Encumbrance value's worth of Stowed items..

I suspect Crawford has simply not had the space to explain this more clearly in more words, so he's had to keep referring to "items" when he really means "items' Encumbrance value".

Anyway, thanks for the clarification!

Ah yeah. The Encumbrance system has been largely the same since the original Stars Without Number, so I suspect there may be some assumptions on his part that may be lost in translation.

[Arcticus]

So by my count I have 3 more apps that need to be reviewed for mechanics. If there's anyone else whose character is ready, ping me or put the "ready for review" tag on your character thread.

Also, friendly reminder, there's 1 week left before the ad closes. If you haven't finished your character app yet, please make sure that you go.

[Rejakor]

The mechanics are complete on my app as far as I can tell. Except designating which people know are formal-C Contacts. I've added the tag thing to it.

[Tecmes]

Hi there!

Name's Tony, I live in Canada, and I've been, ah, trying to enjoy Shadowrun ever since SR1. Ever wonky rules, dysfunctional setting where you're kick-ass 'runners but can't make a living, specks of dust for the corps, yet somehow start with 400KY of gear. Yet I GMed SR1, SR2 and even SR5, and to be honest we had fun throughout.

I didn't know Without Numbers but I've checked it thoroughly and the prospect of a reasonable ruleset AND game play is very appealing!

I've RPGed nonstop since forever, currently on Roll20, 'cause of VITAS.

Also I've played/hosted quite a lot of PBeM/PBF a few years back and I'm longing for it. I'm a dependable poster and thrive to make characters with palpable attitude, and every post interesting, though to be clear I like action more than lengthy discussion.

 

Character-wise, I have ideas for an ork techie/poor-man's rigger (meaning rigger investment would depend on the importance of driving in the game...) with room to grow. But really I'm ready and very willing to fill up any role in a team as needed.

Hope to make the team and in any case, thanks for getting me to know MW and WN!

 

[Arcticus]

1 hour ago, Tecmes said:

Hi there!

Name's Tony, I live in Canada, and I've been, ah, trying to enjoy Shadowrun ever since SR1. Ever wonky rules, dysfunctional setting where you're kick-ass 'runners but can't make a living, specks of dust for the corps, yet somehow start with 400KY of gear. Yet I GMed SR1, SR2 and even SR5, and to be honest we had fun throughout.

I didn't know Without Numbers but I've checked it thoroughly and the prospect of a reasonable ruleset AND game play is very appealing!

I've RPGed nonstop since forever, currently on Roll20, 'cause of VITAS.

Also I've played/hosted quite a lot of PBeM/PBF a few years back and I'm longing for it. I'm a dependable poster and thrive to make characters with palpable attitude, and every post interesting, though to be clear I like action more than lengthy discussion.

 

Character-wise, I have ideas for an ork techie/poor-man's rigger (meaning rigger investment would depend on the importance of driving in the game...) with room to grow. But really I'm ready and very willing to fill up any role in a team as needed.

Hope to make the team and in any case, thanks for getting me to know MW and WN!

 

Hi Tony/@Tecmes ! Welcome to the Weave :) Since you're new to the Weave, here's a run-down of how things typically work and what you can expect.

Most games will advertise for a certain amount of time (till Oct 1 in this game's case). During this ad/recruitment period, prospective players will create a character based on the GM/DMs guidelines. At the end of the recruitment period, the GM will select players from those who applied (typically 4-5 though can be more or less depending on what they're looking for).

If you have questions or need help, please feel free to ask me here!

[Tecmes]

Hey,

I think I must confirm that my PC's write-up is done. It is done. The full sheet is in, well, the Sheets thing here on MW (I think you can access it - at least it's marked as public). Hasn't all the spaces for Cities WN, and I certainlly wouldn't be using that sheet to play if it comes to be, but it's a handy reference...

[Lonewalker]

Getting down to the wire, but I believe my character submission is ready for review. If there are any mechanical errors, please let me know. Thank you!

[Arcticus]

The ad/recruitment period closes on Sunday, everyone, so make sure you finish your apps before then! For those of you who are awaiting mechanics reviews, I'll be getting to them over the next couple of days.

[Cairo]

That's a sizeable pool of candidates! Good luck everyone 👍

[Neopopulas]

As a DM this is the part that is hardest for me, especially with such a list of candidates. I do not envy it.