The Broken Hourglass Status Update
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It turned out that we had made Carrying so incredibly valuable that it was virtually impossible to build a first-level character who could carry much more than a spare pair of socks without suffering an encumbrance penalty. Even if we pumped all of the first-level points into Strength (a Sir-Bludgeons-To-Death character concept), a canonical "fighter build" of modest armor, sword, and shield was out of the question. Even putting all of the first-level points into Carrying was pushing the boundaries.
So we were left with a question of design, intent, and conventions. Internally, there was nothing "wrong" with our system--in a point-buy system where improvement comes on a fairly steady slope, it could be perfectly reasonable to say that only a more experienced, developed character can use such martial tools as swords and armor. And we knew all along that the heaviest armors in the game would in fact be a privilege, not a right. But it was not our original intention to keep players from equipping anything at all in the first stages of the game, and we knew full well that people have an expectation--a generic fighter should be able to pick up "sword and board" without penalty, while a finesse sneak-attacker or archer should be able to at least manage one weapon and perhaps a light layer of protection. Without a compelling reason to break this model, we knew we had to go back to the basic assumptions of the weight and Carrying system and make some changes which would permit canonical fighters to do something more than run around shaking their fists.
