Lifting Capacity

Lifting Capacity

A character’s Strength attribute determines how much weight he can lift. Here are some sample weights that can be lifted at various levels of Strength.

The maximum weight listed below indicates how much a person can lift or carry and still maintain some degree of mobility. Olympic records indicate that the upper limits of human strength are much higher than those listed here, but world weightlifting records are not set while running, jumping, crawling, or walking about.

Generally speaking, a character who is trying to simply lift as much weight as possible will be able to lift about three times the listed figure, but only for a limited duration and with severe impairments to his mobility.

 

Table: Lifting Capacity

Level                                                   Maximum Weight

Abysmal                                                               20 lbs.

Poor                                                                       33 lbs.

 

Mediocre	43 lbs.
Fair	58 lbs.
Good	76 lbs.
Great	114 lbs.
Superb	171 lbs.
Wonderful*	256 lbs.
Phenomenal*	385 lbs.
Extraordinary*	578 lbs.
Astonishing*	867 lbs.

 

 

*Note: Normally, you may not have a Strength attribute above Superb. However, certain Gifts and cybernetic enhancements may improve your Lifting capacity to levels of Wonderful, Phenomenal and beyond.

When lifting twice the listed weight, characters suffer a -2 penalty on all physical actions they perform. When lifting three times the listed weight, characters suffer a -3 penalty instead. No character may lift more than three times the listed weight for their given strength level unless he possesses a Gift which increases his lifting capacity.

 

Encumbrance

Many games use a trait called “encumbrance” to show how weighted-down a character is by his gear. We feel that this detracts from the game and adds an unnecessary (and often ignored) level of com- plexity. The above Lifting rules are provided as a guideline for answering the question: “Can I lift that object?” They are not intended to determine how slow your character moves now that he has picked up a new gun.

You will notice that this book does not reference the weight of any particular piece of equipment or gear. This is by design; we don’t want players and GMs to feel that they need to micromanage these things.

Don’t worry about counting up every piece of equipment you have and the possible weight of each; simply assume that the equipment you carry is right for you or you have made the appropriate modifications or accommodations. Use these Lifting guidelines only when attempting to lift heavy objects that you wouldn’t normally carry on your person.