Weight vs Strength

[NotAnAlt]

Weight never really seems in rpg's other than for how much loot you carry. It seems unless you really kill your strength you'll always be able to carry anything you want and then some. This kind of irritates me as it really devalues what should be one of main appeals of strength as a attribute.

So, a bit like how gold should made a bit more meaningful by having less of it, should weight allowance be equally decreased? Advantages i can think of:

-Abritary strength requirements could be phased out for weapons. It want to wield a giant wacking great sword and wear platemail, then it would be decided by weight allowance, which makes more sence.

-No more wierd 'arcane spell failure' plot devices to determine why wizards can't wear armour. They simply wouldn't have the strength as other attributes (INT etc.) would have been prioritized.

-Having to think about inventory managment rather than just piling everything into your pants.

Thoughts? Discuss!! Etc.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

So... what's your point, really? Because I think you lost yourself there.

 

[Lord Sudaca]

LAME question

 

[spectre]

So, in other words the OP wants to have ridiculous Minimum Strength Requirements for weapons? That's not too bad, but may result in situations from Diablo, where a uber shortsword requires you to be three times as strong than w poor twohander.

I think a good needs a few assumptions:

(o)It's fairly easy to "wield" a weapon and "wear" armor, using it effectively is another matter (intensive training, perks).

(o)Strength is one thing, but you need a combination of Agility and Endurance to be a proficient weapon/armor user. Nimbleness and fatigue shoud be important.

^Because of the two above magic users should want to get anywhere near armor and heavy weapons. They just won't be able to use them well. Also, drop the mana thing and make them use fatigue for spellcasting and there you have it.

(o)Also, fatigue should be crucial for effective fighting as well. You can be the leetest of the leet, but if you're exhausted a trio of goblins wil pick you apart.

(o)Finally, drop the silly 20 spears per person bullshit. You need equipment slots, but not Diablo-esque, rather something more akin to what was used in Brigade E5 series - number of slots and what can you fit in them depends on your backpack, belt, pouch configuration. See newest New Inventory mods for Jagged Alliance.
This, to my knowledge, hasn't been used extensively in fantasy rpgs, but all the tools are right there, various bags, quivers, scabbards.

 

[Zomg]

As far as a simulation of the real world goes, agility and strength are not very orthogonal, particularly strength relative to body weight. A guy that can squat 240 kilos at 80 kilo body weight will have pretty explosive footspeed also, and would probably be a much better gymnast than a guy that squats 100 kilos at 80 with equal training.

You'd need to include body weight as a serious, non-cosmetic variable to do strength and agility with some connection to reality. Once bodyweight is in there weight bearing would follow naturally, since there's not much difference between men of equal strength when one weighs 80 kg naked and one weighs 80 when he's wearing a 5kg backpack. For a CRPG that kind of bookkeeping would be pretty trivial.

You'd have to do equipment slots or encumbrance multipliers or something to fix the infinite bag of bullshit problem, I guess.