[Castles and Crusades] The Encumbrance System has to Go.

[Melan]

Pretty much in agreement. Encumberance systems never work well in RPGs, and are antithetical to the rules light goal of C&C. Axe it, I say, and leave it to the dreaded "DM fiat".

 

[VorpalBunny]

Encumberance systems never work well in RPGs, and are antithetical to the rules light goal of C&C. Axe it, I say, and leave it to the dreaded "DM fiat".

I dunno. While I agree some encumbrance systems are a pain, I wouldn't go as far as to say "they never work." I'm also loathe to use GM fiat, mainly because with an established system the players know how much they can carry right off the bat - without me having to constantly remind them as they get more and more stuff (also I'm not anxious to keep track of that for them).

The C&C ENC system can work, it just requires a bit of tweaking s'all...

 

[rogueattorney]

My favorite encumbrance system is from the Moldvay version of Basic D&D. Armor, Weapons, and treasure have encumbrance value. All equipment is ruled to be a constant value (80 coins). It's quite easy to add things up quickly. Generally, anybody in metal armor will be slowed down significantly. It's up to the DM to make sure the players don't have an impossible amount of stuff in their backpacks. Simple, dirty, it works.

R.A.

 

[Treebore]

I also think an encumbrance system is needed. I also agree that the C&C version needs a good bit of tweaking. I also think Akrasia's basis will help a lot in fixing it.

You want to know something I think is wierd. I used to hate all the house rules I had back in 1e and 2e days. I still have a good 18 to 20 for 3E D&D, but for some freaky reason I am having fun with all the house ruling going on with C&C.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Amazingly enough, I haven't used encumbrance in any game in almost 30 years of gaming, and I'm still going strong.

 

[Plane Sailing]

RuneQuest2 had an excellent encumberance system, and it sounds as if C&C has something which approximates it, but has perhaps set the limit too low?

D&D is crying out for an abstract encumberance system; that plus temperature are the obvious outliers in the D&D world of abstractions, and they needn't be.

Cheers

 

[JamesDJarvis]

I'm with the Strength score should be the value to use. Why have any more calculations in the game then needed? Strong knights can manage to be strong knights and pathetic wimps are pathetic wimps.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Amazingly enough, I haven't used encumbrance in any game in almost 30 years of gaming, and I'm still going strong.

Preach on, brother.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Preach on, brother.

And lo, common sense on what a character can and can't carry ruled the game.

And it was good.

 

[jgbrowning]

Amazingly enough, I haven't used encumbrance in any game in almost 30 years of gaming, and I'm still going strong.

Yep. Have always hated them.

joe b.