Do any of you use fat adventurers?

[CrackedChair]

So after I completed my severely obese Elf Wizard, I was thinking: Do any of you use adventurers tat are obese? And er, why?

[Nifft]

I've seen more than one player choose that a character should be morbidly obese.

It's a role-playing choice -- just like being a robot or an elf. Someone wants to explore what it means to be fat.

[Max_Killjoy]

How fitting it is really depends on the setting.

People who walk a lot, lug around a lot of gear, have to climb obstacles or pits, get into fights, often eat what they can catch, etc, tend to not be morbidly obese.

[CrackedChair]

How fitting it is really depends on the setting.

People who walk a lot, lug around a lot of gear, have to climb obstacles or pits, get into fights, often eat what they can catch, etc, tend to not be morbidly obese.

True, true!

But my character was cursed so she put on a lot of weight, so I planned on seeing if any of my party members catch on that she might be cursed (cause she still does not know it) and removing it just for her to start losing it. Might make for some roleplaying.

[Balyano]

Played a monk who looked like Friar Tuck, built him to specialize in the flying kick. Of course his robes fly up during the kick, revealing all. The last thing you see is 350 lbs. of lard in your face.

[CrackedChair]

Played a monk who looked like Friar Tuck, built him to specialize in the flying kick. Of course his robes fly up during the kick, revealing all. The last thing you see is 350 lbs. of lard in your face.

Oh god, now I want to make one on him.

[LibraryOgre]

Hackmaster, you might wind up as obese based on the roll of the dice... either a high BMI, or the Glutton Flaw.

[Satinavian]

Overweight yes, morbidly obese not yet.

[Recherché]

I've made some that were slightly chubby but not morbidly obese. It's not something I really want to explore myself especially when it does not make that much sense with people who do the intense physical work of adventuring all the time.

[Guizonde]

played one adventurer who was over the hill and had a bit of a gut, more than normal for any middle-aged man who was in top shape in his prime. he shed it by the third month of the campaign, being pretty survival-horror and getting stalked constantly by everything. he went from a barbecue dad to expendables levels of ripped in a 6 in-game month campaign.

in our universe, fat means either old or rich. you tend to listen to someone who has a gut, since either they outlived the competition or they have more smarts than they appear to.

if we used the rules for random height and weight, i think the biggest we'd get is a german barkeep, so door-shaped, basically, about 6'6" for 220lbs. of course, there's the obvious pitfall of getting 5'2" for 220lbs... we tend to have more than a few characters around 5'7" for 160lbs, though. kinda malnourished but pretty fit, but we tweaked those rules to reflect a post-apocalyptic universe.

[Mastikator]

I once had a character that was a bit on the chubby side, but other than that no. No one who would have a hard time sprinting for his life.

[Ninja-Radish]

As someone who spends two hours a day in the gym and laments that I still don't look like Dwayne Johnson, I love playing characters who rock the massive guns and six pack abs. I'm trying to think back but I don't recall ever playing an obese character.

[Knaight]

I've played one. As far as reasons go, there wasn't really any particular reason - I've played a fair few characters and a ridiculous number of NPCs, and they tend to vary in a lot of ways, both psychologically and physically.

[DigoDragon]

Hackmaster, you might wind up as obese based on the roll of the dice... either a high BMI, or the Glutton Flaw.

I've gotten to love playing gluttons. They're usually not fat though due to all the physical activity they do adventuring, but I think if they became sedentary too long on a few weeks downtime they'd gain a few pounds.

[Mr Beer]

I played a fat dwarf once in Warhammer Fantasy, I think I got +1 Toughness for it and he was already super tough.

Also had an overweight but not morbidly obese character in GURPS 3e, he was a Eunuch, with Sadism and High Pain Threshold. He was pallid and chubby, I conceived of him as looking harmless but actually being quite dangerous in a fight and a fairly terrible human being.

[Psikerlord]

I am currently running a human sumo barbarian. It's good fun.

[Lacco]

"When the fat will get thin, the thin will get cold (dead)." Werich (very poor translation)

[AMFV]

"When the fat will get thin, the thin will get cold (dead)." Werich (very poor translation)

I don't think that's necessarily accurate. The thin will be a lot more likely to be able to catch food, and will be used to surviving on lesser amounts of food. So while a fat person might have stores, they aren't going to be able to survive as well unless it's just a straight up complete deprivation situation. Also a larger person burns a LOT more calories doing even simple things.

A 250 lb person walking 26.2 miles (a marathon and a reasonable length for a route march for 1 day, actually a little short) will burn approximately 4,168 calories. a 160 lb person walking the same distance will burn approximately 2,667 calories. So the disparity in the amount of food that a larger person would need to maintain themselves as larger is pretty significant in terms of a survival situation.

Also a larger person is less likely to be able to move quickly and therefore are more likely to have issues surviving the hazards in an adventuring environment than a smaller person. Unless they are extremely genetically gifted or their body composition tends towards less fat. Although that's not really something that we're discussing here.

[Lacco]

I don't think that's necessarily accurate.

I don't either. It's a quote by a rather burly comic. And as a overweight person, I agree with your analysis even though it's in a thread with sumo barbarians, fat dwarves and obese elf wizards

I would start playing an obese adventurer (RoS has a flaw of it, which basically makes you automatically encumbered) and expect to lose it during play as in Guizonde's case - he would either shape up, or get eaten by something.

[AMFV]

I don't either. It's a quote by a rather burly comic. And as a overweight person, I agree with your analysis even though itI would start playing an obese adventurer (RoS has a flaw of it, which basically makes you automatically encumbered) and expect to lose it during play as in Guizonde's case - he would either shape up, or get eaten by something.

Well I think it depends on realism and what-not. I can tell you that as somebody who has had to do combaty things weighing both 160 lbs and 255 lbs, there are definite advantages to both bulk and being leaner. When I was leaner I could move a lot faster and for a lot longer (although when I weighed almost 260 I was more focusing on being strong than moving fast, so it's possible that I might have gone the other way with training).

Now as a 255 lb person, combat load is nothing for me. It's a lot less weight than it would be for a skinny person. Like I could a 240, full kit and all the trimmings and not really get slower, whereas a 120 lb person is probably carrying more than their bodyweight at that point, and that's likely to lead to them moving slower and getting injured.

If you look at historical physiques, they tend to vary a lot based around roles because of this. So I think that a slightly overweight knight is probably sensible, they do a lot of riding rather than walking and they have to be big to carry heavy armor all the time. Whereas a smaller leaner ranger would be more likely. So I think that's probably the split you'd see.

[Lacco]

Well I think it depends on realism and what-not. I can tell you that as somebody who has had to do combaty things weighing both 160 lbs and 255 lbs, there are definite advantages to both bulk and being leaner. When I was leaner I could move a lot faster and for a lot longer (although when I weighed almost 260 I was more focusing on being strong than moving fast, so it's possible that I might have gone the other way with training).

Now as a 255 lb person, combat load is nothing for me. It's a lot less weight than it would be for a skinny person. Like I could a 240, full kit and all the trimmings and not really get slower, whereas a 120 lb person is probably carrying more than their bodyweight at that point, and that's likely to lead to them moving slower and getting injured.

If you look at historical physiques, they tend to vary a lot based around roles because of this. So I think that a slightly overweight knight is probably sensible, they do a lot of riding rather than walking and they have to be big to carry heavy armor all the time. Whereas a smaller leaner ranger would be more likely. So I think that's probably the split you'd see.

I can agree with this even more: when I used to dance, we had a 5-hour practices with only small breaks and while I was all sweaty, I could go on without trouble. I weighted 130 lb at 6' at that point and could not put on any weight. On the other hand, my upper body strength was quite low when compared to my current state (same height, almost 200 lb).

So the "fat" adventurer would be possible if he mostly rode horse/wagon at relaxed pace, had hearty meals and sometimes sticked pointy end of sword into a goblin. However, if he had to fight 2-3 times per day, move without horse with a backpack full of supplies and explore dungeons, I think he would radically lose weight...

...damn, why don't we have a weight-loss programme of this kind...???

[AMFV]

I can agree with this even more: when I used to dance, we had a 5-hour practices with only small breaks and while I was all sweaty, I could go on without trouble. I weighted 130 lb at 6' at that point and could not put on any weight. On the other hand, my upper body strength was quite low when compared to my current state (same height, almost 200 lb).

Well a lot of it has to do with what kind of activity you're pursuing; the human body is incredibly good at adapting to different circumstances. Which is why you see a lot of different builds for people in different types of professions. I think that it would make sense to have adventurer's have builds that matched whatever particular sort of adventuring they were doing. And what exactly they were doing in their adventures.

So the "fat" adventurer would be possible if he mostly rode horse/wagon at relaxed pace, had hearty meals and sometimes sticked pointy end of sword into a goblin. However, if he had to fight 2-3 times per day, move without horse with a backpack full of supplies and explore dungeons, I think he would radically lose weight...

Well I think that a knight type would probably be big even if they were fighting 2-3 times a day. And probably even if they had to walk. They'd have to be to lug that amount of armor around. So they would probably just eat enough calories to compensate for that. Since they were rich nobles that was definitely something that they would be able to manage. And also for some adventurers as well. So again you'd have to consider what their role in combat was.

But yes, hiking with full kit will cause rapid weight loss.

...damn, why don't we have a weight-loss programme of this kind...???

Hiking? We have that. If you really want to do that you could do one or two big hikes a week and you'd lose a ton, the problem is largely that it's time consuming, like that 2-5k calorie burning hike, that's an all day affair.

[Knaight]

On fat adventurers - I'm just going to point out that there are games that aren't in a fantasy setting that still have adventurers. Driving a jeep around the wilderness doesn't exactly burn off a lot of fat, and that's without getting into space ships and the like.

Hiking? We have that. If you really want to do that you could do one or two big hikes a week and you'd lose a ton, the problem is largely that it's time consuming, like that 2-5k calorie burning hike, that's an all day affair.

Some of us have that. Then there are those unfortunate people who don't live by the mountains.

[Winter_Wolf]

So after I completed my severely obese Elf Wizard, I was thinking: Do any of you use adventurers tat are obese? And er, why?

No, I don't. I'm already entirely too fat in real life despite constant struggles to get down to a more desired physique; why the hell would I want to mimic being fat in escapist fantasy? My characters might be overweight, in that a five foot five inch person weighing 300 pounds with zero body fat is overweight but not over-fat. Mostly they range from wiry to brawny.

If I'm playing around with npcs then that goes out the window--there are corpulent npcs from time to time. But as a player, never.

[AMFV]

On fat adventurers - I'm just going to point out that there are games that aren't in a fantasy setting that still have adventurers. Driving a jeep around the wilderness doesn't exactly burn off a lot of fat, and that's without getting into space ships and the like.

True, and as we've mentioned there are certain types of fantasy adventurers who are likely to still be relatively bulky or even deliberately try to maintain a larger bulk than a person who wasn't attempting to would in their situation. I mean riding a horse probably burns some but not that much, and presumably knights would want some degree of bulk, vikings who have to do physical labor on a ship would probably want to be big enough to move things around rather than the reverse. (I mean if you look at people who do heavy labor on ships they tend to be larger rather than just skinny). And one side effect of eating to maintain bulk is that you tend to maintain some fat as well as the other kinds of bulk.

I mean even in the military you could compare the difference in physical shape between say an 11B or 0300 (Infantry) and a 13B or 0800. One of them largely hikes for long distances and the other one loads 200 lb munitions all day. There's a definite disparity there particularly when they've been doing those jobs for long enough. And you see the same probable disparity in adventurers.

I mean a wizard is likely to be thin if they're making lots of walking, but not bulky since they probably don't do as much physical labor and training as many of their counterparts. A cleric or fighter might be quite bulky because they need to be able to carry armor, and for carrying things being bigger helps, a lot. And barbarians would probably be massive from going to the gym at 4 AM to do bicep curls before Jessie "the Body" Ventura used the gym.

Some of us have that. Then there are those unfortunate people who don't live by the mountains.

You can still put on a 60-100 lb pack and hike for 30 miles, you'd definitely dump weight even on flat ground at a 30 mile hike. I mean 30 miles in a day isn't really tenable if you're hiking up rough terrain and mountains, I mean maybe if you're really pushing, but that would be really pushing.

[Max_Killjoy]

"Working bulk" has little to do with morbid obesity.

[Lacco]

Well a lot of it has to do with what kind of activity you're pursuing; the human body is incredibly good at adapting to different circumstances. Which is why you see a lot of different builds for people in different types of professions. I think that it would make sense to have adventurer's have builds that matched whatever particular sort of adventuring they were doing. And what exactly they were doing in their adventures.

So, thin & small thieves, burly fighters and frail mages are not only cliché, but make sense due to their "workouts"... huh.

Well I think that a knight type would probably be big even if they were fighting 2-3 times a day. And probably even if they had to walk. They'd have to be to lug that amount of armor around. So they would probably just eat enough calories to compensate for that. Since they were rich nobles that was definitely something that they would be able to manage. And also for some adventurers as well. So again you'd have to consider what their role in combat was.

But yes, hiking with full kit will cause rapid weight loss.

Yeah, most knights would go adventuring with a squire, few servants, maybe even men-at-arms I assume, and enjoy their meal in pavilion tent...

...at least once I'd love to have a player who buys the damn pavilion tent

Hiking? We have that. If you really want to do that you could do one or two big hikes a week and you'd lose a ton, the problem is largely that it's time consuming, like that 2-5k calorie burning hike, that's an all day affair.

Yeah. Can't afford it with my current work/personal life schedule - but my colleagues are always bugging me to go with them.

But I meant including the goblin-fighting, dungeon delving and pavilion tents!

Some of us have that. Then there are those unfortunate people who don't live by the mountains.

/takes a look out of the window... hills, mountains, even a castle nearby.../

One less excuste not to do any hiking for me...

[Knaight]

You can still put on a 60-100 lb pack and hike for 30 miles, you'd definitely dump weight even on flat ground at a 30 mile hike. I mean 30 miles in a day isn't really tenable if you're hiking up rough terrain and mountains, I mean maybe if you're really pushing, but that would be really pushing.

I'm mostly just throwing shade at the inferior hiking trails flatlanders have access to, while living next to a mountain range.

[Jerrykhor]

No, I don't. I don't like fat people. Why would I want to be fat when I can be anything I want? Not to demean obese people, but I don't like them because being obese comes with many problems that affect other people.

For example, your character might have trouble going through doors and dungeon entrances, takes up 3 seats in a caravan meant for 6 people when you're in a party of 5 or 6, being too heavy for a Carpet of Flying or Broom of Flying to lift, having to pay for all the beds and chairs you broke.... Why are you a wizard when your body slam do more damage than your fireball? And we haven't even get to the fitness problems that obese people usually have, like joint pains, shortness of breath etc. Luckily you're a wizard so you can use magic to solve those problems, right?

I just can't see a standard adventuring party allowing a morbidly obese person to travel with them. Adventurers have standards too you know. A bit plump and rotund is fine, but obese? I think I'd rather not have them in the party.

[comicshorse]

On fat adventurers - I'm just going to point out that there are games that aren't in a fantasy setting that still have adventurers. Driving a jeep around the wilderness doesn't exactly burn off a lot of fat, and that's without getting into space ships and the like.

Indeed. I'm playing in a Serenity game where my P.C. is distinctly overweight because I had the image of a Falstaff-like trader, making deals over too many drinks and cigars ( and getting the best prices out of sozzled customers).
Fighting is handled by pistols (which don't require much effort)or by gesturing for the 6'5, bare knuckle boxer on the crew (which requires even less)