Encumbrance Houserules Meanderings

[sheriffharry]

Think I'm going to go the easy route, and firstly be very stingy with item rewards, so it'll rarely come up, and secondly, do spot "what are you carrying and how are you carrying it" inquiries of random players. If they can't explain something, then some random piece(s) of gear will disappear. "You seem to have misplaced that. Wonder where you left it?"

Exactly! You don't find much and if you do you'll have to choose what to take with you.

[TheNobleDrake]

Think I'm going to go the easy route, and firstly be very stingy with item rewards, so it'll rarely come up, and secondly, do spot "what are you carrying and how are you carrying it" inquiries of random players. If they can't explain something, then some random piece(s) of gear will disappear. "You seem to have misplaced that. Wonder where you left it?"

This reminds me of a table rule that I use no matter the game actually being played: If you didn't write it down, you must have left it behind.

Frequently I had groups of players that would go "Oh yeah, we found that potion! Who has it? I want to drink it." and people would check their sheet, not have it, be sure they remember finding it and start bickering about who said they picked it up... and then expect me to remember 6 weeks ago who had it and what the potion even did so that they could drink it now...

Sorry buddy, I don't know what potion you are talking about, not my responsibility to make sure your character remembers his gear. Write it down next time.

The only downside: sometimes I give the party items that they will "need" in order to make a challenge less than impossibly hard (say a cloak of fire resistance) and they don't manage to identify it on first glance so no one knows what it does, just that it is magical... so nobody wants to wear it for fear that it is cursed, and because of that no one ends up writing it down as carried because they got to caught up in not wearing it.

[TheNobleDrake]

My players and I have settled upon our house rules for encumbrance:

Basically, we took the rule from Lamentations of the Flame Princess and tweaked a few things about it.

-The "encumbrance point thresholds" (0-1, 2, 3, 4, and 5+) are encumbrance points beyond any positive Strength modifier you possess.
-Other than armor, shield, and three weapons (two on hip and one on back) the character con only carry 5 "stacks" of items that count against encumbrance.
-Weapons, armor, and shields beyond those mentioned count as at least 1 "stack" of items
-A "stack" of items can be up to a quantity of 10
-Container items (backpack, belt pouch/coin purse/small sack, quiver/bolt case/bullet bag, etc.) count as one of your 5 "stacks" that you can carry, but in turn may hold more "stacks".
-Armor stats no longer include speed adjustment, just an encumbrance value of 1 (armors with d12 fumble die) or 2 (armors with d16 fumble die).

The main motivations: clear limits on what can be carried, strength bonuses aiding carrying capacity without strength penalties being even harsher, and an end to questions like "Why do I want to have a backpack?" from that guy in our group that can't see why he should care about anything that doesn't have mechanics attached to it.

Currently I am thinking that containers will behave in the following ways, but have yet to run it past my players for their input:
Backpack - can hold 15 stacks
Coin purse - can hold 1,000 total coins or gems.
Quiver/bolt case/bullet bag - can hold 10 stacks of appropriate type of ammunition
Large sack - can hold 10 stacks
Small sack/Belt Pouch - can hold 5 stacks

It still lets the character carry way more stuff than a regular person ever could (at least in some cases), but it seems better to us than tracking weight for everything or not tracking at all.

Almost Forgot... the speed penalties are different too: 0-1 points = normal speed; 2 points = -5'; 3 points = -10'; 4 points = -15'; and 5+ points is still 0' tactical speed, though the character would be allowed to make progress hauling that load over turns instead of rounds.

[bitflipr]

Give them a moderate-sized box on their character sheet to write their equipment in and anything they can write in there (that is legible) they can carry.

[TheNobleDrake]

Give them a moderate-sized box on their character sheet to write their equipment in and anything they can write in there (that is legible) they can carry.

That's a patently unfair system - I, and a single player of the 8 at my table, can write legibly in what I would call a 6 point font. Most of my players can write legibly in about a 10 point font... and two of the 8 can barely even write legibly to start with, including sometimes having to get someone other than themselves to try and read their own writing to them!

I'd have anarchy on my hands.

[sheriffharry]

Give them a moderate-sized box on their character sheet to write their equipment in and anything they can write in there (that is legible) they can carry.

That's a patently unfair system - I, and a single player of the 8 at my table, can write legibly in what I would call a 6 point font. Most of my players can write legibly in about a 10 point font... and two of the 8 can barely even write legibly to start with, including sometimes having to get someone other than themselves to try and read their own writing to them!

I'd have anarchy on my hands.

The character of any player that tries to do shenanigans with the "moderate-sized equipment box" is struck by a lightning bolt from Justicia for all-the-dice-on-the-game-table damage (no save). Problem solved.

Seriously, that's how I learned to play by the DM's rules back in the 80s. Is there a class action for that?

[IronWolf]

Encumbrance rules are fun for nobody. It doesn't really matter how simple the mechanic is.

Yeah - I will wing the encumbrance system in games I run. In that I will keep a casual eye on what the characters are carrying and let them know up front that they need to keep it reasonable. Luckily I typically trust my players so such systems work for us.

Even in systems we play that have detailed encumbrance systems, we still tend to use the "trust" and "reasonableness" policy. For times we want this extra layer of bookkeeping then we can play one of those heavier systems. I don't see myself tacking on much to the DCC rules for fear of turning it into the rules heavy systems I am trying to move away from a bit.