Dragging vs. Carrying Helpless Creatures

[SteveModerator @steve]

Hello everyone,

During the event last night there was a bit of a misunderstanding with the strength rules and how they relate to moving helpless creatures.

What happened was a PC went down, and an NPC tried to drag them away from the front line. When this happened, a PC deliberately targeted the fallen PC with an attack and said the NPC had to take it.

This wasn’t accurate, as the rulebook defines dragging and carrying as two separate parts of the strength skill:

Moving Helpless Characters –
A character without Static Strength may use both hands to drag a single person at a slow walk.

At Strength level 1 you may drag two people at a slow walk or carry a person at a regular walk.

At Strength level 2 you may carry two people at a regular walk or a person at a run.

At Strength level 3 and above you may carry two people at a
run.

A character may NEVER carry a person faster than both players are able to move. Strength may not be used to throw characters regardless of Strength level.

You may not use a person as an actual body shield against attacks. If an attack hits a person you are carrying, both you and the person you carry take the effect(s).

Now, it is often hard to differentiate which action someone is doing because in both cases, the player being dragged or carried (whether an NPC or a PC) has to stand up and walk, rather than be pulled along the ground.

Part of the issue also was that the NPC doing the dragging wasn’t aware that as a creature with no strength, it had to use both hands to drag, rather than just one. This is something that, as an event runner, I will do better about explaining to NPCs and will ask other event runners to do the same.

Thanks all,
Steve

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