Hello and thanks for the reply the parts of the rules that got me thinking are conventions of imperium and as you described that when using one arm the str char is halved and further on in the weapons and equipment section it mentions that a chars encumbrance valve is based on the characters str characteristic x 2 so therefore i presume a char with only one arm would have a reduced encumbrance value am i wrong?

richardjcowen <richardjcowen@...> wrote:

--- In imperium_40k@..., "wayne summers" <hondocit@y...>
wrote:
> Hello i`m seeking some guidance in regards to a game i`m running at
> the moment.  One of the player has lost an arm due to combat and now
> reading the rules for encumbrance it would read to me that since he
> has lost an arm his str should also be halved and therefore so should
> the amount of equip and weapons he can carry until he gains a new arm
> via bionics am i reading this correctly?
>
> regards

Hmm...

The arm crippling injuries charts say nothing about halving your
Strength, just that characteristics are halved when taking
characteristic tests that rely on using both hands (e.g. Strength 50
counts as Strength 25 for that test, but doesn't actually change).
There are also several characteristic penalties for the duration of
the injury's recovery time, but none of these apply to Strength.

I can't find anything in the Armour, Equipment and Encumbrance chapter
about Strength reductions when arms are disabled/lost.

However, the description of the Strength characteristic in the
Conventions of Imperium chapter mentions that Strength is a
character's total physical strength, and that it should be halved when
measuring the small-s strength in one arm.

Encumbrance isn't about carrying stuff in one hand or another, it's
about carrying stuff over the whole body: The lasgun in your hands,
the binoculars round your neck, the knife on your hip, the helmet on
your head and the pack upon your back, so Encumbrance shouldn't be
affected at all by losing an arm.

It's up to the GM to decide whether something's too unwieldy to be
carried in one hand - Encumbrance is an abstract value, after all,
based on the size, shape and mass of an object. Someone with one arm
might be strong enough to carry a bedstead, but they'd be clumsy as
hell, and one end would be trailing on the ground.

(Weapons already have their penalties for being used by someone too
weak to withstand the recoil or swing/stab with them effectively).


Anyway, that's my reading of the rules.

Could I just ask which specific bits got you wondering about halving
Carrying Capacity following a lost arm?