Beyond the Veil Draft Pt II: Equipment and Currency

see the last post in this series

see the next post in this series

Encumbrance, Currency and the Value of Things

Money is a motivating force for most people, in most walks of life. It is a useful tool to avoid starvation, waterlogged boots, and acquiring alcohol and tools. Some people even like to turn their money into non-money things; adventurers are those kinds of people. However, there is only so much a person can carry and still expect to dungeoneer, or avoid looking like a fool while courting the upper crust.

How Much is Too Much

You can only carry so much at any given time. There are eleven areas you can wear something:

• Head (1 Slot) (He)

• Neck (1 Slot) (N)

• Torso (4 Slots) (T)

• Left and Right Arm (1 Slot each) (A)

• Left and Right Hand (1 Slot each) (H)

• Left and Right Leg (2 Slots each) (L)

• Left and Right Foot (1 Slot each) (F)

Rings don't take up any Slots, but are limited to five per hand. The below graphic shows this information again in diagram form.

Original Graphic from FreeVector

Taxonomy of Encumbrance

Most things take up space, and there are a lot of places they can go on your person. In order to keep that information as succinct as possible, it is abbreviated with the number of Slots and the location(s) the Slot it occupies first letter. For example, a pair of shoes would be described as "Shoes (1F)" and a cuirass would be "Cuirass (3T)".

Some items take up multiple locations, and get both designations (ie. "Long-sleeved leather jerkin (1T1A)" to show it occupies the arms and the torso). Conversely, some items cannot be worn, but still take up space in say, a backpack. Such items are designated with their size and an "X", such as "Tinderbox (1X)".

Speaking of backpacks and other storage articles, they take up a certain amount of space and in return give more back. A "Backpack (2T4S)" takes up two spaces on your torso, but gives 4 Slots of additional Storage. Belts act similarly, but can only hold items that are size 1 or less.

Items of size 0 can be bundled in groups of 50 to count as size one; things like arrows, jewels, small branches, or forks and spoons are good examples. Coins are size 0, individually, and a coin purse holds different amounts of each. A full, size one coin purse holds 25 Plates, 50 Chips, 50 Flakes or 300 Bits.

Items held in your hands do not count as encumbering your hands, so you don't have to choose between wearing gloves and holding your walking stick.

Some other items are too large for size 0, but too small for size 1. These items are kept in bundles of 5. Torches and rations are good examples.

Offsetting Encumbrance

Adventurers are prone to trying to take more than they can carry with them when they find something valuable, or want to wear a half-dozen weapons and full plate mail. Attempting to do so will impart points of Encumbrance equal to the difference between the Slot maximum and the total amount worn on that area's value, which is generally bad and will be covered when I talk about Statuses at a later point. In brief, Encumbrance makes your life harder, especially when trying to be physically active. Encumbrance is tracked per Slot area.

Some people have stronger backs than others, though. You may reduce your points of Encumbrance by up to your character's Aspect bonus.

Lifting, Pushing, Pulling, and You

If you have ever had a player character in a situation where they needed to shoulder a door open, lift a log off your leg, or raise anchor on a ship, you may be interested in knowing how much they can push, pull and lift. Fortunately, these sorts of things can be handled somewhat automatically!

• A character can lift up to (Health/2)-Encumbrance Points size worth of object overheard with little issue.
• A character can pull and push  3*((Health/2)-Encumbrance Points) size worth of objects on flat ground.

For perspective, a horse is around size 8 on average, if  I had to rule it. A human child would be size 3.

Outside of this, use reason to determine if it would be feasible to lift or move something. The idea is that someone with 5 Health is damn strong, but not superhuman.

 

Currency and all its Uselessness

This game is meant to be as setting agnostic as possible, but I of course have to include my own currency breakdown. Ultimately, you can choose to substitute it out, so long as you take character advancement into mind; I will get more into that in the next post. The short version is that this system uses Currency as XP, and your journey from level 0 to level 1 takes the equivalent of half a year's salary for a modest person: In this case, the Plate. Here's a table with descriptions and conversions.

Currency	Description	Conversion to Plate
The Silver Plate	Square of silver, 2 inches on a side and a quarter inch thick, emblazoned with the heraldry of whoever is currently in power	1 Plate = 1 Plate
The Bronze Chip	Square of bronze, one half-inch on a side and a quarter inch thick. A circular hole is drilled through the center.	1 Plate = 100 Chips
The Iron Flake	Circular coin one half-inch across made of pig-iron and imprinted with a rose on each side.	1 Chip = 3 Flakes
The Leaden Bit	Simple leaden balls the size of peas. This is the standard unit of mass in trade.	1 Flake = 60 Bits

This means that 1 Plate = 100 Chips = 300 Flakes = 18000 Bits

Example Price Table

One can maintain a modest standard of living for two Flakes a day, or 600 Flakes a year. A Plate can buy you a workhorse. Two Plates gets you a small, one-room cottage. 100 Bits gets you a watered-down beer. Here's a table of sample prices that is by no means exhaustive nor set in stone. Just something real quick to showcase everything we've talked about here.

Item	Cost
Pint of beer, watered	100 bits
Cottage, single room	2 Plates
Horse, work	1 Plate
A day’s meals	1 Flake
Night’s stay, modest inn	1 Flake
Night’s stay, spot on floor by hearth	50 Bits
Night’s Stay, private room	2 Flakes
Wagon, wainwright (8X)	8 Chips
Oilskin tent, 1 person (2X)	3 Flakes
50 arrows (1X)	150 Bits
Letter, per mile	10 Bits
Travel cloak, canvas (1N1T)	400 Bits
Full Plate Set	3 Plates
Longbow (2H) or (1T)	1 Chip
Longsword (1H) or (2H)	1 Chip
Torch Bundle, 5 (1X)	125 Bits
Crowbar (1H)	300 Bits

What's Next?

Next time I will be talking about character advancement and Status effects. I have been taking lots of influence from things like the GLOG and putting my own spin on things.