Do any of you use fat adventurers?

[Guizonde]

Lastly, 'the Everyman factor'. I don't really like to play the snowflake hero; I much prefer everyday folk pitched into things they don't understand. In a modern-ish setting like Cthulhu, World of Darkness that person may be seriously over the hill, disabled and yes, overweight to the point of obesity. You can even have fun with this at times; like playing a fat old hag who's actually a vampire with enough power to punch people through walls...

this is precisely the reason a lot of times we choose to play "everyman physique" characters: a malnourished junkie, a beefy security guard, a portly medic, a gangly teenager... it feels more "real" instead of being "everyone is beautiful and awesome". whfrp2 even has a table to roll for a distinct feature. it can be a missing nail, crooked teeth, mismatched eyes, odd piercings, or tatoos. we kept that table because having a ruddy-faced priest was too funny to pass up, then came the "curse" of the medic. we have never rolled anything but a nose ring for the designated medic, to the point that it's become mandatory in our universe to wear one as a sign that they heal people.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

In Rolemaster, many spells use the caster's body mass as a measuring unit, so its beneficial to be an enormous mage.

[legomaster00156]

My characters tend to fall into the category of "adventuring is too strenuous to develop a whole lot of body fat".

[John Campbell]

On a related note, I'm making a Pathfinder character, and, on the random height/weight table, rolled that she's 134 pounds... at 4'9". BMI (for what it's worth) of 29 - overweight, just a hair under "obese". For a race that's described as "tall and slender".

I rolled near max for the height, too. I think there's something wrong with the table...

Or maybe the description was written by a dwarf.

[Sir Chuckles]

I have a 3.5 character in my back pocket that I have gotten the opportunity to play for about two PbP posts before the game died.

It was a Halfling Barbarian, using the Substitution Levels for that combination found in Dragon. Combine that with the Obese Flaw from Dragon (double base weight and lose several of the Small size bonuses) with Deformity (Obese) to triple the weight and you end up with an extremely fat Halfling with a decently functional Intimidate.

I wrote him as a former mercenary captain who found himself somewhere between the top and bottom of a tankard and eventually ate through his savings.

[Max_Killjoy]

On a related note, I'm making a Pathfinder character, and, on the random height/weight table, rolled that she's 134 pounds... at 4'9". BMI (for what it's worth) of 29 - overweight, just a hair under "obese". For a race that's described as "tall and slender".

I rolled near max for the height, too. I think there's something wrong with the table...

Or maybe the description was written by a dwarf.

My suggestion -- ignore the damn table and make that decision about the character based on how you picture the character.

[LibraryOgre]

In Rolemaster, many spells use the caster's body mass as a measuring unit, so its beneficial to be an enormous mage.

In Villains and Vigilantes, your HP, Carrying capacity, and all sorts of other things are dependent partially on your weight.

[John Campbell]

My suggestion -- ignore the damn table and make that decision about the character based on how you picture the character.

Two problems with that:

Firstly, I'm bad at judging reasonable weights, especially for women, largely because I'm myself male and have, as mentioned above, an atypical build - densely muscled and unusually broad-shouldered. Basing a character's stats on what I know might be appropriate for a front-line beatstick, but not so much for the weedy wizard or the hacker for whom strenuous exercise is walking to the fridge to get another can of Mountain Dew. Especially if they're female. And I've found reasonable guidelines as to what people of different builds actually weigh to be hard to come by. Especially for women.

Secondly, a lot of characters, especially in fantasy games, aren't human. Those tables are our guidelines for what things that don't exist in the real world are like - and getting everyone in the group on the same page about that. Are elves in this world taller or shorter than humans? It can vary, and the art is often not good at conveying the differences. Check the table! Using fuzzy "picturing the character" methods might result in bringing a Shadowrun elf into an AD&D world, and having everyone ask you if you're a basketball player all the time.

In this case, the character in question is a) female (all-female race), b) an arcane caster with below-average strength, and c) not quite human. So all I've got to go on is the race description and the table, and they don't match... race described as "tall and slender", table produces height numbers in the 4'4"-4'10" range, with weights that are kind of fat at that height.

I ended up adding a foot to the base height, which makes them average to tall for female humans, and leaving the weight alone, which is possibly too thin now.

[Recherché]

If you're going for someone who's not athletic BMI isn't the worst reference in the world. For someone kind of weedy from a race that tends towards slender for their height I'd go with something in the bmi range 17-20. It'd be about the same build as most American celebrities and slightly heavier than most supermodels.

[AMFV]

Two problems with that:

Secondly, a lot of characters, especially in fantasy games, aren't human. Those tables are our guidelines for what things that don't exist in the real world are like - and getting everyone in the group on the same page about that. Are elves in this world taller or shorter than humans? It can vary, and the art is often not good at conveying the differences. Check the table! Using fuzzy "picturing the character" methods might result in bringing a Shadowrun elf into an AD&D world, and having everyone ask you if you're a basketball player all the time.

It's worth noting that different races may have very different compositions which can affect weight substantially. There are plenty of examples of animals of similar sizes that do not possess similar weight. So I would argue that there's no reason to suspect that human weightings would apply to say Elves in a particular setting. We also don't have much discussion in fantasy regarding weight, so there's a reasonable degree of options there.

[kraftcheese]

I made a half-orc Oghma cleric called Durak Blackhand; he was kind of chubby since he hung around libraries copying manuscripts (in ink; hence the black hand) all day.

[Roderick_BR]

I've done characters in a variety of body types, including fat, yes. In D&D 3.5 you could use traits and flaws (stout and overweight respectively). Makes for interesting roleplay prompts (and adventuring prompts, just like my skinny and feeble gnome wizard that cant pass any athletics check).

[Guizonde]

It's worth noting that different races may have very different compositions which can affect weight substantially. There are plenty of examples of animals of similar sizes that do not possess similar weight. So I would argue that there's no reason to suspect that human weightings would apply to say Elves in a particular setting. We also don't have much discussion in fantasy regarding weight, so there's a reasonable degree of options there.

i used to play a chameleon skink in a party of a wood elf butt-monkey, a brawny irate human fisherman, and an ogre surgeon. weight of the party differed from 35lbs to 550lbs... all were in the "average weight category".


warhammer rp, gotta love it.

[Yanecky]

One of my most beloved PCs was a fat scorpion courtier in a L5R 4ed. He was immensely fun to roleplay. He couldn't fight (or run ;) and stairs were his biggest enemy, but when he spoke... ;)

[goto124]

Despite the context given, I cannot imagine anything other than a literal fat scorpion.

[Ashes]

One of the players in my Deadlands campaign is Obese, as per the hindrance.
He has a lower pace than the rest, and has caused the posse problems several times, when he had to jump a pit and when they had to pull him out of said pit, after he failed to cross it.

He's a rifleman and he rides a small carriage rather than a horse.
He also spends a lot of money on whisky and jerky.

[Mastikator]

Despite the context given, I cannot imagine anything other than a literal fat scorpion.

...Is that even physically possible?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

My Pathfinder character for a Rise of the Runelords campaign I'm in, Eostre Roldheim, is a fat dwarf girl who practices wizardry and studies archaeology. In addition to being new to the adventuring lifestyle, meaning she was pretty sedentary for much of her life, she is a greedy young woman, appreciating the fine things in life like good food and jewelry.

Another character I have is Wymond Dwerryhouse, a human farm-boy turned paladin with a sizeable gut that hides his six-pack. He's a paladin of the god of farming and hunting, and his animal companion is a wise pig (that's actually his guardian angel in disguise). He's got what TV Tropes likes to call "Stout Strength," since he enjoys cooking for family and friends when he's not smiting evil with his hefty bardiche.

[hamishspence]

...Is that even physically possible?

Well, there's a fat-tailed scorpion ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fattail_scorpion

And the Emperor Scorpion has extremely chunky claws:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_scorpion

It's not too hard to imagine a scorpion that bulges everywhere, even if realistically they'd only have one part of their body be fat, depending on their speciality - stinging or clawing.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

♪My mother-in-law is a scorpion, I said she was fat, she paralyzed my legs!♫

[Coidzor]

I had one fat character once, because it was part of his conceptualization as an academic who had no business out adventuring in the first place.

[Jormengand]

One of my characters was a fat anthrotoad who had to be carried everywhere, mainly because I felt like playing a Slann Mage-Priest in D&D.

[Shamash]

Do video games count?

If so, yes:

[Velaryon]

I once played a wizard in 3.5 who was physically modeled on Jon Lovitz who, while not obese, is not exactly the image that comes to mind when one thinks of a typical adventurer.

The idea was for my character to look like (and be able to pass himself off as) a regular everyman, maybe a scholar. Until you saw the fireball leap from his hand, you would have no idea he was capable of casting so much as a cantrip. At least, that was the idea.

I was playing with a DM known to put players in difficult positions where they didn't have access to their resources (fighters captured and separated from gear, wizards getting their spellbooks or components taken, or bound and gagged so that they couldn't use any verbal or somatic gestures). So I wanted a character that could always cast something. He had Still Spell, Silent Spell, Eschew Materials, and was just picking up Spell Mastery when the game ended suddently thanks to school pressures.

Naturally, I ended up with a cursed Staff of the Magi that started draining and corrupting me whenever I used it. It turned me pale, changed my eye color, caused me to become skeletally thin... I imagine it would have turned me into a lich or something if I'd held onto it long enough.

[daniel_ream]

I had one fat character once, because it was part of his conceptualization as an academic who had no business out adventuring in the first place.

My current Monster of the Week character (the Expert) is a fifty-ish academic occult librarian who is short, rotund and bespectacled. His natural inclination any time a fight breaks out is to huff and puff his way behind the nearest large, heavy and immobile object and stay there.

It's pure niche protection. MotW doesn't do a good job at that, so despite the fact that by the numbers he's only slightly less good at Kicking Some Ass than the party's Wronged, I play him as largely useless in a fight to clear the field for the players who aren't.

[shadowkat678]

One word: Sumo.

But really. There's some pretty freaking good athletes who are overweight. I will say there's something about creating overweight characters as jokes that really irks me, though. Especially when they make their personality ****ty, because that's a stereotype that's used a lot.


Same with mental illnesses and disabilities. I used to be overweight due to lack of food options, a inability to cook myself, and having both parental figures in positions they regularly couldn't take care of me. I know people who have obesity that diet and exercise more than most people I know. Just seems really messed up. If it were my campaign and the player was doing this solely as a joke I'd flat out tell a player no.

[Tinkerer]

One word: Sumo.

But really. There's some pretty freaking good athletes who are overweight. I will say there's something about creating overweight characters as jokes that really irks me, though. Especially when they make their personality ****ty, because that's a stereotype that's used a lot.


Same with mental illnesses and disabilities. I used to be overweight due to lack of food options, a inability to cook myself, and having both parental figures in positions they regularly couldn't take care of me. I know people who have obesity that diet and exercise more than most people I know. Just seems really messed up. If it were my campaign and the player was doing this solely as a joke I'd flat out tell a player no.

I don't know if I'd say no but yeah it pisses me off as well. One of my friends is overweight enough that she counts as obese but she runs regular marathons, engages in gymnastics (starting to lose the ability to do that due to joint wear), and eats healthier than anyone I know. Also has a demanding job which necessitates moving at high speed for 10-12 hours at a stretch. It's kinda funny people saying that overweight characters have no place adventuring and are immersion breaking when I've seen so many people play twigs that they expect us to believe are operating at peak levels of strength.

[shadowkat678]

I don't know if I'd say no but yeah it pisses me off as well. One of my friends is overweight enough that she counts as obese but she runs regular marathons, engages in gymnastics (starting to lose the ability to do that due to joint wear), and eats healthier than anyone I know. Also has a demanding job which necessitates moving at high speed for 10-12 hours at a stretch. It's kinda funny people saying that overweight characters have no place adventuring and are immersion breaking when I've seen so many people play twigs that they expect us to believe are operating at peak levels of strength.

Exactly! That's what I think!

[Mikemical]

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.

Spoiler: I beg to differ

Show

I once made a half-orc monk exactly like that. Though to be fair, it's not like monks carry a lot of gear.

[Cealocanth]

I had a player play a very obese, bubbly and happy priest of the god of mead, named Un. He had a thick Swedish accent and his god allowed him to summon food and drink on a whim. The character was a lot of fun to play with. His familiar was an extremely fat bee named Bumbo. When the priest was given the option to tell the story of the party's latest exploits, the hero of the story was Bumbo the Brave.