Re: Human Average and Superlative

Brian Gleichman:

  Warren is perhaps (big perhaps) the best resource here for
  that sort of thing as he's typically the most concerned
  about matching reality. But he wasn't posting often before
  and may not be posting now.

I haven't been checking the newsgroup every day, as the traffic has
gotten so light, but I still check it.  Discussion here is still more
intelligent than on most web fora.

I have an old 1982 Reader's Digest Almanac which provides a lot of
Olympic winner statistics which I used.  The number is the sum of the
clean & jerk and the snatch, both of which are lifts to the overhead
position.  Historically, generally the winning numbers are between 4
and 5 times the person's own weight (or the maximum for the weight
category, which people will get as close to as they can without going
over).

My own system has a maximum carrying capacity a little over 3 times
own weight for characters of maximum strength and dexterity; this is
higher but does not involve an overhead lift.  It's to be noted that
people rarely get close to maximum carrying capacity as the penalties
to what you can do are too severe.  I have a "****ter" skill that
reduces the dependency on dexterity.

I have to admit that I spent less time fine tuning lifts and carrying
capacity than I did movement speeds, where there are both more data
and a stronger effect on game results.