Character Weight & Height I What's your favourite implementation?

_HERETIC_

ᴇx ɪɢɴᴏʀᴀɴᴛɪᴀ ᴀᴅ ꜱᴀᴘɪᴇɴᴛɪᴀᴍ

• Apr 18, 2024

• #1

It's something I have been thinking about for a bit and I realized that most of the games I have played don't really do anything with these aspects mechanically (namely DND 5e & PF1e/2e) and even in many of the system which I have read its not something which ever really comes up which got me wondering why it's not something which is seen a bit more as it can bring a great deal of depth to a character if it is implemented correctly.

Which brings me to the question, what is your favourite implementation of these aspects within a system?

 

log in or register to remove this ad

W

Wofano Wotanto

Hero

• Apr 18, 2024

• #2

Usually just let the player decide those details, same as their character's hair and eye color, ethnicity, etc. There might be a few games with "lifepath" systems that define some of those randomly. IIRC some of R Talsorian's lifepath results told you your hair color, for ex.

I can only think of a few older systems where there might be mechanical reasons to define hard limits to height and weight. Villains & Vigilantes cared about a PC's weight because it factors into some very important figured stats, but even that one didn't have a system for determining base weight because you were theoretically just playing yourself as a hero, so the player weight = the PC weight before powers factored in. Gaining and losing weight were actually things you could dedicate your solitary training opportunity to each level instead of (say) increasing your Strength by one or something.

 

MGibster

Legend

• Apr 18, 2024

• #3

I just pick something that make sense based on height and species. For the most part, it doesn't make much difference when playing the game. For a game like Call of Cthulhu, I just check the chart to see what height and weight should be based on my character's Size.

 

Jd Smith1

Hero

• Apr 19, 2024

• #4

I let players choose their height, weight, hair color, eye color, hand dominant hand (not Ambi).

Height & weight are used when PCs want to boost one another over/up a wall, crawl through narrow places, drag a comrade, and similar situations. It is not a huge issue, but such things are generally not an issue in RL.

 

Theory of Games

Disaffected Game Warrior

• Apr 19, 2024

• #5

Okay in the superhero rpg Villains & Vigilantes a character's weight impacts their Agility, how much they can lift, how many hit points they have and how fast they recover from injury. It's one of the few rpgs I HAD to have a calculator for during CharGen but it was fun because I got to play the superhero version of ME. Yay!

 

Wolfpack48

Adventurer

• Apr 19, 2024

• #6

I like the BRP SIZ stat. Very useful abstraction for gameplay (actually helps determine HP) and has a good lookup table for the height/weight translation.

 

James Gasik

We don't talk about Pun-Pun

Supporter

• Apr 19, 2024

• #7

I'll second Size as an attribute, as I've played with it in various Chaosium games (Stormbringer, CoC) over the years.

 

W

Wofano Wotanto

Hero

• Apr 19, 2024

• #8

Wolfpack48 said:

(actually helps determine HP)

Click to expand...

Strike rank too, at least in some games/editions. Might be the only time I've seen the reach of a character rather than just the weapon they're using factored in mechanically, even if the execution isn't perfect.