D&D 5E Forced March and Carry Capacity (random thoughts)

[DND_Reborn]

Just something I was thinking about on Christmas Eve (don't ask me why... ):

So, a character with STR 10 can carry 150 lbs all day long, every day, without worry about getting exhaustion, BUT if the same character just wearing clothes dares walk 9 hours in a day instead of 8, they risk exhaustion.

Even if you use the Variant: Encumbrance rules, there is no risk of exhaustion for being heavily encumbered, for instance.

Just seems---strange to me. I know most people probably don't care about it, but it seems to smack of inconsistency in the design.

Have a Happy Holiday season, however you choose to celebrate or not. Cheers!

 

[FarBeyondC]

Clearly, adventurers aren't being exhausted by the physical strain of travel but instead by the mental strain.

 

[tetrasodium]

Just something I was thinking about on Christmas Eve (don't ask me why... ):

View attachment 270550
View attachment 270551

So, a character with STR 10 can carry 150 lbs all day long, every day, without worry about getting exhaustion, BUT if the same character just wearing clothes dares walk 9 hours in a day instead of 8, they risk exhaustion.

Even if you use the Variant: Encumbrance rules, there is no risk of exhaustion for being heavily encumbered, for instance.

Just seems---strange to me. I know most people probably don't care about it, but it seems to smack of inconsistency in the design.

Have a Happy Holiday season, however you choose to celebrate or not. Cheers!

No I think it reeks of perfect consistency in design. One rule is written to ensure that the GM can not possibly create a situation where encumbrance will matter to the party withoyut invoking fiat or seeming adversarial. The second rule is written so the GM won't dare use it to grant themselves the ability to make encumbrance matter without invoking fiat or seeming adversarial.

 

[aco175]

Back in my Army days, the most I ever carried was when we were going to invade Haiti and I had 135lbs of gear. The most I was going to have to run was maybe a 100yards from the front yard of the Presidential Compound to the front gate to keep others out. No way could I carry that much for more than an hour at any pace.

Typically at road march speed of 4 miles per hour we would carry 30 pounds and need to go 12 miles in 4 hours. Not sure how long we would keep that pace. Generally 3 mph would be a constant speed.

I wonder how much that 15lbs per Strength point is just a game limit to allow carrying a pack and armor that a standard pack has.

 

[Reynard]

Back in my Army days, the most I ever carried was when we were going to invade Haiti and I had 135lbs of gear. The most I was going to have to run was maybe a 100yards from the front yard of the Presidential Compound to the front gate to keep others out. No way could I carry that much for more than an hour at any pace.

Typically at road march speed of 4 miles per hour we would carry 30 pounds and need to go 12 miles in 4 hours. Not sure how long we would keep that pace. Generally 3 mph would be a constant speed.

I wonder how much that 15lbs per Strength point is just a game limit to allow carrying a pack and armor that a standard pack has.

As a former infantryman myself, I can concur these numbers are definitely off. My guess is there isn't so much a simulation thing going on, but rather there was some gamist equipment calculation made. That is, there's a combination of armor, weapon, and gear weights that all amount to something that says this mechanics works.

For my part, I prefer the simulation approach. We can easily determine what people can carry over long distances by way of military data. We should base the encumbrance and travel rules around that.

 

[tetrasodium]

Back in my Army days, the most I ever carried was when we were going to invade Haiti and I had 135lbs of gear. The most I was going to have to run was maybe a 100yards from the front yard of the Presidential Compound to the front gate to keep others out. No way could I carry that much for more than an hour at any pace.

Typically at road march speed of 4 miles per hour we would carry 30 pounds and need to go 12 miles in 4 hours. Not sure how long we would keep that pace. Generally 3 mph would be a constant speed.

I wonder how much that 15lbs per Strength point is just a game limit to allow carrying a pack and armor that a standard pack has.

I'd say very little. An 8 strength wizard can carry all of the equipment they start with plus all of the starting wizard gear they did not start with plus the food a six strength kobold fighter who chose the heaviest starting equipment options & they both have room to spare. It's probably more likely that the original rule was str*15 till speed 5 or something terrible and str*5 before eating a 5 or 10 ft speed reduction but those got simplified & streamlined into their current rather pointless state.

 

[Quickleaf]

Clearly, adventurers aren't being exhausted by the physical strain of travel but instead by the mental strain.

"A talkative bard and a moody tiefling warlock. Traveling with these guys, I swear..."

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Just something I was thinking about on Christmas Eve (don't ask me why... ):

View attachment 270550
View attachment 270551

So, a character with STR 10 can carry 150 lbs all day long, every day, without worry about getting exhaustion, BUT if the same character just wearing clothes dares walk 9 hours in a day instead of 8, they risk exhaustion.

Even if you use the Variant: Encumbrance rules, there is no risk of exhaustion for being heavily encumbered, for instance.

Just seems---strange to me. I know most people probably don't care about it, but it seems to smack of inconsistency in the design.

Have a Happy Holiday season, however you choose to celebrate or not. Cheers!

I think this is the product of the seemingly very rushed design of the DM-side rules for 5E.

Yeah, it's inconsistent, but I think it's just a result of trying to throw something together.

Also, the reality is, most group don't use encumbrance in any serious or long-term way (more commonly it's checked in short-term exceptional circumstances like trying to move a big rock or drag a heavy body or something), so making any rules rely on encumbrance would be a bad idea.

Personally I'd say 5E's overland travel rules are generally a bit conservative and anti-heroic, especially for a game based on heroic fantasy fiction. They also lack any real verve in terms of taking quicker ways, and don't cover a ton of situations at all well. Like for example birds, even some very common and unimpressive ones, IRL, can travel dozens to hundreds of miles a day, without huge problems, and sometimes do (sometimes week after week). Yet we're supposed to believe a druid turned into a pigeon (which can travel 600-700 miles per day, and this is incredibly well-recorded for reasons you can probably understand) can only travel like, the same distance as other PCs. Pffft I say!

 

[DND_Reborn]

Like for example birds, even some very common and unimpressive ones, IRL, can travel dozens to hundreds of miles a day, without huge problems, and sometimes do (sometimes week after week).

This is the reason all creatures in my games with a flying speed (not magically) have that speed doubled--it is much more realistic of what birds, for example, are capable of flying.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I fear swallows and coconuts are about to come into the discussion...