Weight Carried, Weight Limit, Sneak Penalty and Maximum Speed

This little box is where you should record the net weight of all of the gear and supplies your character is hauling around the wasteland with them, and the effects of that weight on their movement speed and ability to sneak about. A character’s maximum carrying capacity is 100 + (STRx10) units of weight. The limit on what they can pull or drag is five times that amount. If a character ever ends up carrying a load above their weight limit, it reduces their move speed by 5 feet per action for every 10 units of weight over limit they are (round up). There is a space to record the new movement speed or their current movement speed penalty provided. Remember that characters overburdened cannot fly, teleport, or dig at speeds above their reduced base movement speed.

The sneak penalty due to the weight of a character’s equipment is only relevant if your character is carrying more than 50 pounds of gear. Starting at 50, for every 10 units of weight beyond 50 (rounded up) characters take a -5 penalty to sneak.

Taint (Slider)

Taint is nasty, nasty business. Enough exposure to taint won’t necessarily kill you, but in 99% of the population it will make you wish you were dead. The other 1% may actually receive positive mutations from taint, but if I were you I wouldn’t count on being in that very small percentile when it comes to risking exposure. This slider represents the level of taint present in your character’s body, generally considered in this system as a percentage of the absolutely-lethal dose. Don’t forget, wastelanders: taint is in the water supply. If your GM lets you, you can check out the information on taint and what it can do to characters provided in the GM’s Guide to the Equestrian Wastes, at the tail end of this book.

Experience and Next Level

If your game group and GM choose to keep track of experience to determine when characters increase in level, this area is provided to help do just that. The experience box is a great place to mark down how much experience a character has accrued over their life time in play, and the “Next Level at:” box is perfect for keeping track of precisely how much experience they’ll need to advance. Experience is discussed in depth in the beginning of the Leveling Up Your Character section on page 105.

Occupation

This seemingly unimportant and unassuming little corner box is actually quite valuable as a role-playing tool. The space provided allows players to record what their characters think their occupation is – or just as frequently, what others assume their occupation is based on their dress and behavior.

This little tidbit can speak volumes about the psyche of a character – how they view their own impact on their world. Are they an unassuming ex-stable dweller, a dependable toaster-repair pony, or an incredible, unstoppable bringer of light? Are they the star-maiden, bearer of a great and powerful curse, or are they security, making Equestria a better place by imposing justice on a violent wasteland?

Even casting those extravagant literary examples aside, it’s worth pointing out that any mare who goes around the wasteland helping people out in exchange for goods and services could just as easily consider themself a rough, ruthless and ready mercenary as they could a helpful wasteland adventurer and explorer. Don’t forget that how your character wants to act and how they view themselves within the wasteland affects how the wasteland and its inhabitants will view them in return.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1051