Tuesday, April 23, 2013

the Running Craze and GURPS

Running is a very basic and very well understood athletic activity now more than ever. Right now the country is experiencing a running phase and I'm somewhat caught in it because of my wife.

Basically I'd rather know the results of a per hour or hours instead of making a roll for every minute.

Paced Running Rules - Half Move in yds/s (m/s)
Rolling per 10 minutes is -3 to running checks with every margin of failure is an additional  FP lost.
Rolling per 30 minutes is -5 to running checks with every margin of failure is an additional 2 FP lost.
Rolling per 60 minutes is -6 to running checks with every margin of failure is an additional 3 FP lost.
Rolling per 120 minutes is -9 running checks with every margin of failure an additional 4FP lost.
Rolling per 180 minutes is -11 running checks with every margin of failure an additional 5FP lost.
Very Fit Cuts the loss to half (rounded to worse)
You cannot use an increment where the penalties will bring a skill below 8.
just add time of rest to time performance so if the total cost of travel over all is 20fp 1FP is 10 minutes of rest.
every level of encumbrance adds one to the loss.

Disclaimer - Forgot my probabilities lessons.
I assumed running-18 and took the probabilities in anydice.com and checked how many rolls it takes for the number to come up. Using the frequency i compared it to Skill-18, and tried to make a penalty to reflect the frequency in one roll. The FP loss is a guess. 

So a character with Running 14 (HT12, Fit, Move 5) can attempt to run  hour at -6. If he fails by 2 he would on average lose 4FP ever hour.
A character with Running 18 (Move 8, HT14, Very Fit) can run a marathon in 3 hours and finish it at 5-6 FP loss.

now imagine this with encumbrance penalties
0.6 (med) * 3yrds/s = 6.4kph travelling 3 hours at (ST11 carrying 72lbs, HT12+1 from fit, Fit) means the character can only take the 30-min increment (-5). Assuming average roll of 10, he loses 1+2FP x2 for a total of 6FP per 30 minute run. He has a pace of 3.24kph since He rests ever after 30min, for 30mins recovering  for a 30min covering 3.2km per hour and losing up to 3FP.

IF the character takes a meal and 4 liters of water, he can recover 1FP faster per hour (1L per hour) which translates to 5minutes saved or translates to an 8.3% increase of pace to 3.5kph. 3 hours a day about 10.5 km carrying 72lbs. Able to sustain 4 hours every day. Excess hours per day is about 1hp of damage per day.

Sustained Pace Ad-Hoc ruling HT or Running -9 in hours per day. Negative means the number of days needed to rest to an HT of 8 is at negative 1 probably 1h every other day. If HT 8 person runs for about 2 hours he would have taken 1hp damage. This reflects shin splints and stress fractures on the legs.

This also helps make GURPS health goals for RL. I want to be ST11, HT12, Fit, and Running HT+2 [8]. After the Zombie Run I realize the importance of Sprinting vs Long Distance running I want to be able to run in an emergency with a load while having the strength to sprint and evade.

I "killed myself" mid run because I couldnt take the increased heart rate of being overly alert to my wife's disappointment LOL. Prior to the Run I was only able to go 3km on the tredmill and after the run with follow up sprints I can now reach 4.8km in 30mins (non-sustainably) Go Science!

My personal goal is to be able to travel 30km in a day with about 60lbs kit (because there is a possibility of having to carry my son).  The distance of 30km is enough to leave the city of metro manila. Its such a simple physical feat in GURPS terms but it can spell survival or death in RL.

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