Added 9/25/2015
This Strength chart is designed to give a general indication of what a character’s Strength can mean in real-world terms. These weights in English pounds or Metric grams are all approximations, of course, and a very rough conversion. Use these as a guideline, and not as a hard limit. There should be enough distance between each amount for the players and GM to come to consensus about which weight category something falls into. For example, something that weighs exactly 160 lbs. is closer to 200 lbs. than 80 lbs. and should be considered as needing 3 strength to lift and carry without penalty.
Below this chart are some rules on how to use strength to lift, carry or use heavy or large and unwieldy objects.
| Strength Dice | Lift / Carry Challenge | Use as a Weapon (10%) |
| 1 | 40 lbs. (20kg): a small toddler, 1 foot of 18” steal i-beam. | 4 lbs. (2kg): large knife, handgun, broom |
| 2 | 80 lbs. (40kg): a child or very small adult. | 8 lbs. (3-4kg): A sword, rifle, cast-iron skillet, etc. |
| 3 | 200 lbs. (100kg): an adult man. | 20 lbs. (9kg): sledgehammer, rocket-launcher |
| 4 | 500 lbs. (250kg): A motorcycle, 4 meter-long steal i-beam | 50 lbs. (23kgs): a large bag of dog food, a child. |
| 5 | 1000 lbs. (500kg): A load of a small pick-up truck, a telephone pole. | 100 lbs. (45kg): a teenager or small adult. |
| 6 | 1 ton (1 tonne): A very small car, a load of a large pick-up truck, a small helicopter. | 200 lbs.: A grown man |
| 7 | 2.5 tons: A small civilian aircraft, a large van or truck. | 500 lbs.: A motorcycle, 4 meter-long steal i-beam |
| 8 | 5 tons: An African Elephant | 1000 lbs.: A telephone pole. |
| 9 | 10 tons: M-1 Abrams tank, a jet-fighter, a large semi tractor, | 1 ton: A small car |
| 10 | 30 tons: a filled shipping container, the largest helicopters (loaded), an empty freight-train car. | 2.5 tons: A small jet fighter, a large van or truck. |
| 11 | 50 tons: a small house, including foundation. | 5 tons: An African Elephant |
| 12 | 75 tons: a small commercial airplane (loaded) | 7.5 tons: A Tyrannosaurus Rex. |
| 13 | 100 tons: An average train car | 10 tons: M-1 Abrams tank, a jet-fighter. |
| 14 | 150 tons: an average blue whale | 15 tons: A school bus |
| 15 | 200 tons: a large Blue Whale, a locomotive engine. | 20 tons: A dump truck |
| 16 | 300 tons: The Statue of Liberty. | 30 tons: large passenger plane, a filled shipping container, an empty train boxcar |
| 17 | 400 tons: a large commercial airplane | 40 tons: an adult Sperm Whale. |
| 18 | 600 tons: the ‘Goodtime III’ -the 150-foot-long excursion ship on Lake Erie. | 60 tons: a smallish house, a passenger train car. |
| 19 | 800 tons: load capacity of a large modern construction crane. | 80 tons: a small commercial airplane (loaded) |
| 20 | 1000 tons: 10,000 cubic feet of granite. A smallish high-rise bldg. | 100 tons: An average loaded boxcar. |
Lifting / Carrying a Heavy Load.
No roll is needed if you’re carrying something that is at least one step down from your Strength. For example, if your Strength is a 5, you have no trouble lifting or carrying a standard motorcycle. The only time you need to roll your strength is when you want to lift something that is about equal to your Strength ratings Lift / Carry Challenge. The difficulty of the roll is 5*the Strength needed. Lifting something ABOVE your Strength rating puts you at a -2 dice Disadvantage, but can still be tried.
Additionally, your base size can factor into a Strength challenge, too. If the object you wish to lift is bigger than you, you take a -1 die Disadvantage for each dimension (width, height or depth), regardless of how much it weighs. A normal human base size is 1 space. Some powers can give you a different base size. Here’s an example:
Strong Boy wants to lift an M-1 Abrams tank. He has a Strength of 10, so the weight alone would not be an issue because it is rated at a Strength: 9. However, because Strong Boy is a normal sized human and the M-1 tank is larger than he is along ALL THREE dimensions, he has a -3 dice Disadvantage, and so must roll 7 dice against a difficulty of 45 (9*5). This is possible, but difficult.
If Strong Boy’s Strength were only 8 instead of 10, he would have an additional -2 dice Disadvantage for not having enough strength, AND also has the -3 dice size disadvantages. He is only able to roll 3 dice (8-2-3) against the difficulty of 45. This roll is quite impossible without some other assistance (Advantages, Hero points or Drama Tokens).
Using Something as a Weapon
So, you want to grab an i-beam from the construction site and use it as a club. OK! That is totally possible, and might be a great idea! Remember, anything you can pick up can be used as an Advantage for an attack roll, giving you an extra 1 or 2 dice (See ‘Creating an Advantage’ rules).
Generally speaking, you can pick up and use as a weapon anything that weighs less than 10% of your Lift Carry Challenge.
It is possible to use something heavier as a weapon, but this requires a Strength roll before your attack roll. Using something as a weapon requires you to be able to move it around quickly, which requires a lot of Strength.
The difficulty of the strength roll is 5*the strength required to use the item as a weapon. A success allows the attack roll to proceed unaffected. Additional Successes are not counted.
However, if you fail the Strength roll, you suffer a -1 die to the attack roll, OR add +1 Time Unit to the attack (player’s choice).
The strength roll is affected by your base size, just like in the Lift / Carry rules; for each dimension that the object is larger than you, take a -1 die disadvantage to the Strength roll.
Additional Failures (rolls that are 10 less than the difficulty) are counted on the Strength roll and become either 1 less die or 1 more Time Unit on the subsequent attack. For instance, if the difficulty was 45, and our Hero rolls a 22 on the Strength roll, he has the initial failure (for not rolling at least 45), and then 2 more Additional Failures (for not rolling at least 35 and 25, respectively) for a total 3 less dice to the attack OR 3 extra Time Units.
Note that the Hero may still do what he wants (and gain the Advantage), but there is a penalty for swinging a weapon that is really too heavy for him.