Weight/Age

[Bebop]

Although no longer an official unit of measure, the stone remains widely used within the British Isles as a means of expressing human body weight. People in these countries normally describe themselves as weighing, for example, "11 stone 4" (11 stone and 4 pounds), rather than "72 kilograms" in most other countries, or "158 pounds" (the conventional way of expressing the same weight in the United States).

If I'm not mistaken you can only go up to 9 stones as a human or is that a ten-stone?  How much is a ten stone?  I'm sure that the weight of a human warrior big bulky guy would be way more than 120 pounds or something.  I never have any idea exactly how many stones to put in when I make a character.

Also the age seems a little backwards to me.  If you are an elf you can not say... be thirteen, you have to be older for the minimum age.  But if elves are smarter and live longer wouldn't that mean instead of a 15 year old elf or whatever being as smart as a 13 year old human, in reality a 10 year old elf would be as smart as a 15 year old human?  o.O

[Marauder Moe]

9 stone is about 200 pounds I think.

And no, I think your logic about age is backwards.  The assumption is basically that organisms that live longer also mature slower.  Elves live longer than humans, thus mature slower than humans, and thus it takes more time for them to reach the age of maturity.

[Marauder Moe]

That is... if I remember correctly, a stone in the Armageddon char creator is 10kg.

[Ghost]

That is... if I remember correctly, a stone in the Armageddon char creator is 10kg.

Ten stone = 10 kg

It says up to # ten stones, not just stone

[brytta.leofa]

As an American Imperialist, I do this at character creation:
1) Pick my character's weight in pounds--say, 150.
2) Google "150 pounds in kg"; Google replies:
150 pounds = 68.0388555 kilograms
3) Divide 68 by 10 get get ten-stones: 6.8 (round up to 7).
4) Just for kicks: Google for 7*10 => "70 kg in pounds". My character's actual weight in pounds after rounding is:
70 kilograms = 154.323584 pounds

[Marauder Moe]

Right, a ten-stone is 10kg.  My bad.

[mansa]

I wish there was more range in weight for humans.

[brytta.leofa]

I wish there was more range in weight for humans.

And a little more granularity, maybe?  A 22-pound jump (10 kg, but I can't think in kg) is kinda big.

[Bebop]

I wish there was more range in weight for humans.

I don't see why we can't just use pounds.

A  human could be 90-210 pounds for instance.

Then you just enter in 148 or 99 or whatever.

[brytta.leofa]

I don't see why we can't just use pounds.

I <3, but it would disturb the Canadians.

[Dusky]

Metrics would be best, I think - but maybe change the names to make more world-sense?

[Silverfaune]

I don't see why we can't just use pounds.

I <3, but it would disturb the Canadians.

I've yet to meet anyone in Canada who refers to their weight in kilos.  I have no idea (without running to google it) what I weigh in kilos. In fact, if I'm shopping for meat at the grocery store and they put the price as $/kg, I get all annoyed because I have to convert it in my head to lbs.

[brytta.leofa]

I've yet to meet anyone in Canada who refers to their weight in kilos.  I have no idea (without running to google it) what I weigh in kilos. In fact, if I'm shopping for meat at the grocery store and they put the price as $/kg, I get all annoyed because I have to convert it in my head to lbs.

Stop crushing my cultural misconceptions! Besides, y'all should measure your weight in Newtons.

[mansa]

Why can't we have people who are between 70 and 500 pounds?

I mean - aren't there freaks in Armageddon?  Can't someone say they have a big of half-giant blood in them, and now they are gigantic?

Or should these 'gigantic' people be forced to wish up / email in to request to be more than 220 pounds?

[Dusky]

Wishing up seems best. These are averages that we are choosing, right?

[Bebop]

Why can't we have people who are between 70 and 500 pounds?

I mean - aren't there freaks in Armageddon?  Can't someone say they have a big of half-giant blood in them, and now they are gigantic?

Or should these 'gigantic' people be forced to wish up / email in to request to be more than 220 pounds?

*Shrug* That was just an example I don't know currently where the roof is on human poundage.

I say Kadius starts charging more for plus sizes like the do IRL!

[mansa]

Wishing up seems best. These are averages that we are choosing, right?

The current weight for humans is 6 - 9 tenstones.

I think that we should change the character application to say this:

The average humans in Zalanthas are between 6 to 9 tenstone (132 to 198 pounds) due to the harshness and lack of bountiful resources on the desert planet.
You can choose to be as low as 4 tenstone (88 pounds) and as high as 18 tenstone (396 pounds), but we recommend to be within 6 to 9 tenstones.

Choosing a lower weight than 6 tenstones significantly affects the physical strength and carrying capacity of your character negatively, but gives a minor bonus to agility.  Choosing a weight higher than 9 tenstones significantly affects your agility and dexterity negatively, and gives a minor bonus to your strength, as well as weight ranges higher than 15 tenstones (330 pounds) gives a minor penalty to endurance.


I think those changes are pretty good.  I would give a gradual penality of -3 to strength for those people who are 4 tenstones, and a gradual penality of -3 to agility for those higher than 9 tenstones, and then a penality of -1 to endurance for those bigger than 15 tenstones.  With these changes, I wouldn't want any modifications for people who choose to be 6 or 9 tenstones.

People who are bigger than 15 tenstones would most likely be nobility or those who can afford to be that fat.


Consider the current version of Armageddon.  When you see a big beefy Bynner, do you imagine them to be 8 tenstone?  Because I bet 1/2 of them to be less than 185 pounds - coded.  But when you imagine who these characters are using your real world imagination, they are imagined to be bigger than that in your brain.  You imagine them to be a big bear of a dude weighing over 250 pounds.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

BANG!

You have been endorsed, mansa.

[path]

mansa: that would be awesome. I've long felt frustrated by the weight system. The only way I justify my mdesc and my character's actual height/weight is by pretending a stronger gravitational force or absolutely no fat, all muscle...which weighs more, but still doesn't fit with some of my mdescs.

If I were a character on arm, I'd be 5 tenstone and 68 inches. So when I make a character that's a shorty, she's by rights a definite porker. A major porker. It's fair to assume all the short human chicks you meet in game are little chubbers, despite the supposed struggle for survival.

I wonder what this hearkens back to? I suspect it's men who primarily designed the original game and didn't think about weight coming in girlie ranges.

[flurry]

I agree the weights are a little restrictive.  I always found it funny that heights go up by the inch and weights go up by the ten-stone.  With humans, you only have four possible weights: 6, 7, 8, or 9 ten-stones.

Assuming all short characters are also chubby is a stretch, I think.  We pick the height and weight that fit the character as best we can, and as long as people are doing that, msdesc should be the guide.  Having said that, I agree with expanding the range.  (On a side note, I'd also suggest a look at the bonuses/penalties for height and weight.  I'd love to see a tradeoff no matter what you pick, especially at the extremes on either end.)

[Mood]

Personally, I'd like to see the penalties to stats for age disappear, or, at the very least, get toned down. I know I'm probably the minority, but I'd like to be able to play a younger character without getting boned in the stat department.

[a strange shadow]

Personally, I'd like to see the penalties to stats for age disappear, or, at the very least, get toned down. I know I'm probably the minority, but I'd like to be able to play a younger character without getting boned in the stat department.

Especially when you play that character into maturity and never see an improvement, which has happened to me twice now.

[Dalmeth]

mansa: that would be awesome. I've long felt frustrated by the weight system. The only way I justify my mdesc and my character's actual height/weight is by pretending a stronger gravitational force or absolutely no fat, all muscle...which weighs more, but still doesn't fit with some of my mdescs.

Men in real life typically weigh more than women because of generally higher muscle mass and bone density.  It's odd that we have genders fall within the same weight range in the game, and yet still have the same figures as real life.  However, it's an oddity I feel I can live with.  With lower weight ranges specifically for different genders, it would be odd for them not to have slightly lower strength and endurance values.

And it doesn't end there, weight is a factor in certain skills, like bash.  So, an overall narrow weight range between the races actually reduces the effect that picking the extremes of weight for your race would have on coded skills.  I wouldn't mind weight being reduced in importance solely for the fact that fat, slow characters might have better combat ability than a highly trained warrior.

[Barzalene]

Why not use stone rather than ten stone?

[John]

I wish there was more range in weight for humans.

I don't see why we can't just use pounds.

A  human could be 90-210 pounds for instance.

Then you just enter in 148 or 99 or whatever.

I don't see why we can't just use kilograms. A human could be 40-95 kg.

Pounds are confusing 

[Troicha]

I wish there was more range in weight for humans.

I don't see why we can't just use pounds.

A  human could be 90-210 pounds for instance.

Then you just enter in 148 or 99 or whatever.

I don't see why we can't just use kilograms. A human could be 40-95 kg.

Pounds are confusing 

I know. Let's use hundredgrains.

[Rindan]

Pounds are confusing 

What the hell are you talking about.  Imperial units make perfect sense.

It goes like this:

14 pounds to a stone.

16 onces to a pound.

16 drachm to an ounce

7000 grains to a pound.

Finally, my favorite, 112 pounds to a hundredweight.

Another good one (though admittedly a unit of area) is the ever popular acre, which is 1 furling X 1 rod.

Speaking as a chemical engineer who had to do work in both imperial and metric units, let me be the first to say that imperial units are so fucked up I can't even put words to it.  Pity the poor bastard who has to start mixing units of force, mass, heat, and distance.  Nothing like a unit of 1 (btu)(lbm)/(lbf).  That is pound-force and pound-mass for the curious.  The real unit you are using when you measure yourself in pounds is actually pounds-mass which is very different from pounds-force.

[jhunter]

I wish we could just use lbs for weight.

[FuSoYa]

I wish we could just use lbs for weight.

[Grey Area]

I wish we could just use lbs for weight.

Hell no. I barely even know what lbs are. At least stones and ten-stones make a certain kind of sense.

[brytta.leofa]

I wish we could use slugs for mass.

[path]

I don't care if we use puppies as our units of weight measurement. I just want the range to more accurately reflect realistic weight/height ratio.

[Adiadochokinesis]

I wish we could use slugs for mass.

What is the acceleration due to gravity on Zalanthas?

[Cutthroat]

9.81 height of the Shield Wall/second squared. 

[Qzzrbl]

I like it as it is. If you keep in mind that one ten-stone=around 22lbs, you should be fine.

::Edit:: Though there definitely needs to be more range. If my current character looks like he weighs at least 12 ten-stone easy.

[Barzalene]

Right, 22 pounds is a huge varience. Stone rather than ten-stone would be perfect.

[Cutthroat]

I wouldn't mind picking my weight in stones, or a not-whole number of ten-stones, as long as there's some kind of legend on-hand during character creation for players to make the connection between pounds, kilos, and stones.

[Barzalene]

There is. Google.

[Cutthroat]

True, and I use that too, but I'm just saying it would be handy for new players and such. Something like how 'help time' is set up, since weight is only documented in the general information.

[Bebop]

Personally, I'd like to see the penalties to stats for age disappear, or, at the very least, get toned down. I know I'm probably the minority, but I'd like to be able to play a younger character without getting boned in the stat department.

Especially when you play that character into maturity and never see an improvement, which has happened to me twice now.

Agreed!

[My 2 sids]

There is. Google.

Google How many pounds in a ten-stone?

[X-D]

Especially when you play that character into maturity and never see an improvement, which has happened to me twice now.

Sadly, currently you have to be logged in AT the time of the birthday when changing age ranks to see any change. Something I've managed to do exactly ONE time even though I've had MANY PCs long enough to change  age ranks.

Though, normaly, if you mail/request on the subject staff is happy to do it if you missed it.

Thats actually something I think should just be done the next time you log in automaticly though.

[Adiadochokinesis]

Especially when you play that character into maturity and never see an improvement, which has happened to me twice now.

Sadly, currently you have to be logged in AT the time of the birthday when changing age ranks to see any change. Something I've managed to do exactly ONE time even though I've had MANY PCs long enough to change  age ranks.

Though, normaly, if you mail/request on the subject staff is happy to do it if you missed it.

Thats actually something I think should just be done the next time you log in automaticly though.

That's been changed. It does it automatically now.