Crazy Jerome
First Post
Well technically, early "weights" in D&D were supposed to include bulk, even if they were listed in "coin weights" or "pounds". That is one reasons why the weapons, especially the big ones, had such inflated "weights". (This led to a whole bunch of gamers not understanding weapon weights, including some of the people, apparently, who wrote later versions, but that's another story.
)That nitpick aside, I agree that something like the RQ system would be preferable to what we typically get. However, given that people selectively ignore encumbrance sometimes, I'd really like to see it be staged. Instead of all or nothing encumbrance, you'd do something like this:
Stage 1: Eyeball everything.
Stage 2: Armor is heavy, as are big weapons. Eyeball everything else.
Stage 3: (Default) You explicitly track armor, weapons (except ammo), and any other major weight (e.g. a bag full of gold coins). Everything else is done by containers. That is, if you've got a bag that holds "10 small items", then you don't worry about the individual weight. You give the bag an average encumbrance, and if 10 flasks of oil weigh more than 10 potion vials, no big deal. That's why you don't care about ammo. You are already tracking the quiver or bag.
Stage 4: Track ammo and other small consumables because you are into managing these resources. You might still use the stage 3 method for temporary things, like a bag full of small art objects. A key thing here is using up what you take into the danger area, so that you can fill up the empty space with what you want to take out.
Then if equipment is rated appropriately, everyone can use whatever stage they want, when they want, with no other changes to the game. All those little items have individual encumbrance values, but unless you are using stage 4, you don't care.
