I'll grab a side topic, Coin weight. Much of this is adapted from
a dragon magazine, and borders on the innane. I thought it a humorous
sideline.
- start innanity
A long time ago, the question was asked, 'How many coins can fit into a
backpack?'.
I won't regenerate the listing here, but according to the
description of gold in the D&D guids, they're around silver dollar size,
and all weigh around .1 of a lb. (Despite the fact that gold is one of the
heavier metals, you'd still have to have a coin around 1.5" diamater and
around 1/10'th of an inch thick - copper coins would be nearly 4.5"
round). As wierd as that is, let's go with .1 lbs, and they are
silver-dollar sized, regardless of material.
Lets take a standard backpack, 16x12x6 (1152 cubic inches) -
capable of holding a solid mass of around 6500 coins - more
reallistically, it would be closer to 5900 hundred or so - we'll take off
10% for 'space between loose coins'.
So you end up with a bit under 6000 coins per backback. Assuming
that your cloth/leather backpack has a 600 lb test weight, and you have a
strength in the mid twenties and don't mind falling over backwards from
time to time.
Of course, if we add multiple coin types, you're going to end up
in any given situation with more copper than anything else (don't believe
me? check your change jar/piggy bank/etc). Here's a situation that came
up recently, assuming the 1 gold = 10 silver = 100 copper ratio. Someone
came upon a room, 20x20, filled to the depth of one foot with copper
coins. Loose, this averages around 2,764,800 coins. The equivilent of
27,648 gold. According to rough guidelines, this is enough to cover the
living expenses of ten 7'th level characters for 4 months; though it
weighs around 138 tons.
Of course, you don't have to go big to prove a point. Say a
common townsperson is carrying around 100 copper. They will look quite
funny as their belt is pulled to the ground from the 10 lb weight centered
in their belt pouch. This brings back stories about the fall of the ruble
- wheelbarrows of paper money to buy a bar of soap.
- end innanity
Practical upshoot - it's inpractical for homeless vagabonds (read
that as 'your average adventurer') to carry around any reasonable value of
coin money. Even cutting the size and weight by another 1/10'th (say a
dime), you're still going to run into problems. Ever try carrying money
in Diablo?
And this doesn't end with just money. Because we have the amazing
20 arm diku man with the magical floating inventory, most games have
characters carrying 3 full sets of equipment, plus a small castle armory.
On the mud I'm on, I inherited the code after weight had been removed. I
re-enabled it, and set a upper limit around 450 lbs - for all characters.
To this date people scream, and thats with 0 weight money, and we have
fractional weights, so most things (especially small items) weigh .1 or
.2 of a lb instead of 1 lb.
The question at the end of this:
How does everyone else out there deal with this reoccuring issue?
Mv modifiers? Fighting modifiers? Item limits? Houses? Eq storage lockers?
Ultra-reality (no more shield, 2 weapons, held item, and a torch at the
same time..and a floating inv)?
PjD
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