Tying Stuff to Your Backpack

[flyingwombat]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

That sounds like a packing skill roll to exceed the limitations of the cargo space. Failed roll or no skill stuff-ties onto the pack, looks sketchy. Maybe a critical failure causes the rope rigging to come undone or the pack to tear open. Probably causes a -1 to stealth rolls. Maybe more dramatic if the pack is badly overloaded.

I experienced the critical failure in real life. When I was going through the ITS section of Marine Boot Camp, we were hiking with backpacks. I screwed up and a lot of my gear streamed out behind me when we started running. My Drill Instructors were not happy.

[flyingwombat]

Skills that apply to the subject:
Hiking
Soldier
Packing - I know it's for pack animals, but men can carry a lot on their backs.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by flyingwombat

Packing - I know it's for pack animals, but men can carry a lot on their backs.

I'd say Paking only if you're loading another person in such a manner that they cannot easily don or doff the load.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

Or the low tech versions : paracord...

Paracord is now considered "low tech". Definitely getting to be time to revise the GURPS TL scale :)

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Paracord is now considered "low tech". Definitely getting to be time to revise the GURPS TL scale :)

Lower tech, rather :)

[The Colonel]

A big problem with strapping stuff to the outside of your bergen is that it gets caught in … well, everything - foliage, obstacles, transport, other bergens in a stash...

[Fred Brackin]

This situation probably runs into my "You're carrying too much gear!" rule. This usually takes the form of having a very large monster try to kill the PC who suddenly needs to Dodge much more than he needs a frying pan.

Is needing to Dodge monsters actually that much more common than the hazards of not having a frying pan in my games? Yes.

I do sometimes do detailed and extensive equipments lists even as a player but the last time I did the party bought 3 camels to load all the stuff onto.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I do sometimes do detailed and extensive equipments lists even as a player but the last time I did the party bought 3 camels to load all the stuff onto.

In my case my Character explicitly hired someone to carry his extraneous stuff.

And being a hireling, I didn't care if they couldn't Dodge or not... /DFclassismintensifies.gif

[Anthony]

A separate issue: is the reason for packing stuff on the outside lack of space inside, or something else? You might pack something in a different location for accessibility reasons, or because it has particular properties that aren't very compatible with being in with the mass of stuff in the pack (many backpacks have extra small pockets for that type of thing, but your particular pack might not, particularly at lower tech).

[Hide]

Hey there,

I would focus on 3 points:

(1) You will always have penalties because of encumbrance (if weight exceeds your limit).
(2) What to roll?
(3) What happens after your roll?

That said, I agree with Celjabba. I believe soldier, packing, IQ, knock-tying or even survival might help to successfully resolve tying stuff to your bag-pack.

Failure means you have issues such as the ones listed by Celjabba. On a critical failure (depending on bag/item’s quality) either something breaks immediately, the bag breaks and spills your stuff in the middle of action, the bag breaks next time you tie something to it, etc. A critical success might prevent you from having certain encumbrance penalties when doing certain activities (maybe because you balanced the weight and you can waive the encumbrance of a few extra pounds), or save you time pulling the stuff you need (fast-draw).

As an interesting fact, some bags-packs have manuals/flyers with the tension limits of its anchor points and joints. The stuff I carry is heavy and the weight impacts the life-time of my bag-packs, so it is important checking these. I also agree that bag-quality, strings, locks and specially designed anchor points give you bonuses to resolve successfully tying items.

Originally Posted by evileeyore

(...) Stealth: If things are strapped to the outside double Stealth penalties. (...) Double all times to retrieve items from overloaded packs.

As part of my job, 90% of the time I move/walk with a bag-pack loaded with gear, and I have experience tying stuff to it. Emergency situations are not regular, but it’s commonplace having your most-used items/tools at strategic positions in your bag.

I would not double stealth penalties or double the time for taking stuff out of the bag just because you tie something to it; however, I do agree that if the bag pack is over-stuffed it might incur in some penalties regarding time for taking certain things out and encumbrance. But, as I said, if you have experience it is commonplace having your key items at positions that won’t mess with you on emergency. The rest of the stuff can be taken out during down-time (which I believe, won’t matter as much as it would during stressful situations)

That said, I happen to have fastened pans/other gear to my backpack (enough to share some thoughts about it). Some pans have 2 handles or (perhaps one handle and a little one on the opposite side). If you are going to tie a pan (or anything else) to your bag, you do not want it to be flying (because it hits you or it hits other stuff as you walk, etc. this means it might hurt you or that you may damage the item); so, you tie your gear close to the main body of the bag (which also aids in balancing weight).

In a modern bag (such as the Tectonic PFT 17) you could tie said pan to the upper handle of the bag, and run a string to tie it to the 2 lower main straps. This way, the pan is not going to make noise. And it won’t impede you from taking (most) stuff outside your bag-pack because it has two zippers. Lower-tech bags, designed for carrying stuff, could be as effective as modern ones.