Human Average and Superlative

[Nicole Massey]

I'm working on a percentile based game, and I need some information.

What is the average amount a normal average human being is expected to lift?
I'm looking for expectations for lifting to the chest, lifting over head,
and bench pressing, and possibly a leg lift total. I'd also like to know the
levels of these things required for admission into the Olympics, the
standard I've set for the 100th percentile in the system. (Yes, I know
people perform better than that, but scores over 100 are possible in the
system)

I could also use thoughts on the average and superlative agility markers.

[gleichman]

Post by Nicole Massey
What is the average amount a normal average human being is expected to lift?
I'm looking for expectations for lifting to the chest, lifting over head,
and bench pressing, and possibly a leg lift total. I'd also like to know the
levels of these things required for admission into the Olympics, the
standard I've set for the 100th percentile in the system. (Yes, I know
people perform better than that, but scores over 100 are possible in the
system)
I could also use thoughts on the average and superlative agility markers.

It would be interesting to get a hold of such information, but in the
past I've found it difficult to find and of questionable value due to
differences by nation (even region), age group, sex, use of
'enchancement', and date (later two are heavy influences on Olympic
information).

Agility is even worse than strength as it much harder to measure.

Even so, such things attempts to measure values like this are made, a
trip to one of the better college libraries should turn something up.
I would think a health club would have strength information available
to allow them to bench mark training results.

Is this information for a rpg design or something else? If the former,
I'd suggest that it would be a very rare case indeed that much in the
way of specific information would be required.

[Nicole Massey]

Post by gleichman

Post by Nicole Massey
What is the average amount a normal average human being is expected to lift?
I'm looking for expectations for lifting to the chest, lifting over head,
and bench pressing, and possibly a leg lift total. I'd also like to know the
levels of these things required for admission into the Olympics, the
standard I've set for the 100th percentile in the system. (Yes, I know
people perform better than that, but scores over 100 are possible in the
system)
I could also use thoughts on the average and superlative agility markers.

It would be interesting to get a hold of such information, but in the
past I've found it difficult to find and of questionable value due to
differences by nation (even region), age group, sex, use of
'enchancement', and date (later two are heavy influences on Olympic
information).
Agility is even worse than strength as it much harder to measure.
Even so, such things attempts to measure values like this are made, a
trip to one of the better college libraries should turn something up.
I would think a health club would have strength information available
to allow them to bench mark training results.
Is this information for a rpg design or something else? If the former,
I'd suggest that it would be a very rare case indeed that much in the
way of specific information would be required.

Yes, it's for a RPG environment, and in this case, that information is
useful for lots of things, including weapon weights, bow pull weight
requirements, etc.

[gleichman]

Post by Nicole Massey
Yes, it's for a RPG environment, and in this case, that information is
useful for lots of things, including weapon weights, bow pull weight
requirements, etc.

Ok.

Warren is perhaps (big perhaps) the best resource here for that sort
of thing as he's typically the most concerned about matching reality.
But he wasn't posting often before and may not be posting now.

I used to have some links that would be of interest, but web rot has
taken most of them. They were also only general information with a few
data points to baseline from. My own design interest runs more to the
how the game plays while not overwhelming conflicting with reality
instead attempting a detailed match to it.

[Nicole Massey]

Post by gleichman

Post by Nicole Massey
Yes, it's for a RPG environment, and in this case, that information is
useful for lots of things, including weapon weights, bow pull weight
requirements, etc.

Ok.
Warren is perhaps (big perhaps) the best resource here for that sort
of thing as he's typically the most concerned about matching reality.
But he wasn't posting often before and may not be posting now.
I used to have some links that would be of interest, but web rot has
taken most of them. They were also only general information with a few
data points to baseline from. My own design interest runs more to the
how the game plays while not overwhelming conflicting with reality
instead attempting a detailed match to it.

The key in this system is to get certain aspects as close to a realistic
match as possible to minimize learning curve.

What I'm basically doing is using statistics to create the charts by
matching how the average person performs compared to how someone who is at
the top of their game performs. I've already done it with speed, and I'm
hoping to use it for the other combat related stats as well.

I'm thinking that a physical therapist also might be good for some baseline
numbers.

[Richard Vickery]

Post by Nicole Massey
What I'm basically doing is using statistics to create the charts by

matching how the average person performs compared to how someone who is at the
top of their game performs. I've already done it with speed, and I'm hoping to
use it for the other combat related stats as well.

Post by Nicole Massey
I'm thinking that a physical therapist also might be good for some baseline

numbers.

The Guiness Book of Records is a good resource. Has Olympic records plus
records for all sorts of useless stuff. If your bar is admission to the
Olympics you could probably fudge that as within 10% of the record. For
ordinary person data point, if all else fails you can go to a gym yourself, or
lift some big sacks at the grocery store ;0

Good luck

RichardV

[psychohist]

Brian Gleichman:

Warren is perhaps (big perhaps) the best resource here for
that sort of thing as he's typically the most concerned
about matching reality. But he wasn't posting often before
and may not be posting now.

I haven't been checking the newsgroup every day, as the traffic has
gotten so light, but I still check it. Discussion here is still more
intelligent than on most web fora.

I have an old 1982 Reader's Digest Almanac which provides a lot of
Olympic winner statistics which I used. The number is the sum of the
clean & jerk and the snatch, both of which are lifts to the overhead
position. Historically, generally the winning numbers are between 4
and 5 times the person's own weight (or the maximum for the weight
category, which people will get as close to as they can without going
over).

My own system has a maximum carrying capacity a little over 3 times
own weight for characters of maximum strength and dexterity; this is
higher but does not involve an overhead lift. It's to be noted that
people rarely get close to maximum carrying capacity as the penalties
to what you can do are too severe. I have a "porter" skill that
reduces the dependency on dexterity.

I have to admit that I spent less time fine tuning lifts and carrying
capacity than I did movement speeds, where there are both more data
and a stronger effect on game results.

[gleichman]

Post by psychohist
My own system has a maximum carrying capacity a little over 3 times
own weight for characters of maximum strength and dexterity; this is
higher but does not involve an overhead lift. It's to be noted that
people rarely get close to maximum carrying capacity as the penalties
to what you can do are too severe.

Not too dissimilar to the approach I took. A lot of guesswork applies to
these types of things, as you're really using non-matching data as your
baseline in the first place (unless you're making a Olympics RPG). The only
workable goal IMO is a more educated guess as any real match to reality is
impossible.