I once bought 2cm thick hemp rope for reenactment purposes (can’t recommend, it’s worse than nylon and costs more and maintaining it sucks).
I don’t have any spare, but I chucked some on a scale, and it seems to be about 250 grams per meter, for about 8.5lbs per 50ft.
So D&D rope is even thicker, or its tarred (which you absolutely should do if you dislike drying rope).
Off topic, but imperial instruments always crack me up, with the fractional displays.
That’s insane. Is eigths the minimal resolution, or can it do stuff like “15 and 76/89ths of a pound”?
Usually it is by powers of 2 and only up to 64ths at most (least?). So you might see 3/8, 7/16, 15/32, or 37/64, but never 5/7 or 23/24. Also, usually the fraction is reduced, so the numerator will always be odd (1/4 and not 2/8).
If I’m being honest, I ignore the weight values for items unless it specifically comes up or if a player starts hoarding things aggressively.
Yup. Same goes for temp/hunger/thirst. Unless the environment creates a situation that directly challenges that, like arctic conditions, desert, underwater, extended covert ops etc., these things do not serve the story and get in the way.
Plus, a bag of holding neatly side-steps a lot of encumbrance problems and I firmly believe that’s why it’s been a part of D&D lore since at least 2nd ed.
Meanwhile, if the table wants to go deep simulation on all this, the rules are there for that. But I wish everyone good luck with fighting monsters up close in a cave where weapons bigger than daggers are too large to swing, and heavy armor too bulky to be practical.
I do enjoy the tactical side of inventory management, but that’s only for a specific kind of game, and even then, slot-based inventory works so much smoother.
Yeah, encumbrance, rations, and even sleep can be too crunchy to deal with all the time. We’re making so little progress as it is! But they can be nice as occasional plot points.
My assumption is they meant a much thicker rope, but yeah, definitely not as heavy as they say.
Yeah I wouldn’t even call that rope. Cord, perhaps, but it seems too thin to be called rope.
Modern climbing ropes are still less than 10lbs at four times the length. Not sure how the density compares, but it’s not 4 times denser either.
Modern climbing ropes are rated for much heavier than 800lb as well. Iirc the ones I used in school were rated for a couple thousand pounds.
Nylon is a hell of a drug
Thicker rope would presumably have a higher test value though, and it seems that most people interpret the hempen rope in 5e as being under 800-test.
- Braided, not twisted.
- Manila not hemp.
- Go ahead and try to climb that rope with bare hands.
Kids do it literally every day in gym class, and sometimes on the way back down they do learn some valuable lessons about abrasion and doing things you’ve seen on TV.
I do think there’s an unspoken assumption for adventurers that they wear gloves for this and many more reasons.
Those types people climb are much larger in diameter. The thinner the rope the more difficult to hold onto it.
This is going to surprise you, but the ropes adventurers would use and gym ropes aren’t the same thing either other than their ability to rip the skin off your hands.
Is this the exact kind they would use?
No, but it’s close enough to point out the weights listed for gear are basically arbitrary.
