How to PCs carry all their stuff?

[cthulhu_duck]

Low levels: backpack, horses, mules.

Mid levels: backpack, bags of holding, handy haversack, cohorts, horses, mules.

High levels: bags of holding, handy haversack, cohorts, followers, mounts, strongholds.

While none of my gaming groups has had anyone who really cared about encumbrance, we also tend to be sensible about things and not look to carry stupid amounts of gear/loot/junk.

 

[Stalker0]

I think encumbrance is one of those thigns that should kick in at extrememes, low str characters or a ridiculous amount of stuff.

So in general I dont' care what players are carrying or how they carry it. That said, some players do get utterly ridiculous with bags of holding, litterally putting everything and the kitchen sink in one of them.

 

[Greylock]

The first rule of encumbrance is... you don't talk about encumbrance.

At our table it's one of those things - much like mundane ammunition, rations and the ability to start a fire - that we stop worrying about after 3rd-4th level.

Thank you.

I've been bugging one of my fellow players for monthes now to let go of his worries in this regard. Arrows, ounces over weight totals, killing rabbits. Now, we don't let the heavily armored great-axe cleave char just prance about light on his feet, but some of this really does interfere with the fun.

 

[Uder]

Thank you.

I've been bugging one of my fellow players for monthes now to let go of his worries in this regard. Arrows, ounces over weight totals, killing rabbits. Now, we don't let the heavily armored great-axe cleave char just prance about light on his feet, but some of this really does interfere with the fun.

...

You have a player that worries about rations and encumbrance?

 

[Greylock]

...

You have a player that worries about rations and encumbrance?

As odd as it might seem, yes. I think I'll direct him to this thread.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I've had multiple instances in multiple games of people saying that I can't carry all my gear and be able to move, so I started drawing diagrams with both front and back veiw of my characters with all their gear, you'd be surprise how many throwing knives you can accually carry on your body and it even gives you a spiff scale mail look if you have enough

IMC I made a magical suit of leather armor with 8 integrated dagger sheaths and matching blades. The enhancement bonuses and special abilities of the armor and weapons increases or decreases with the number of blades you possess.

The party also relies on bandoliers to carry potions (1oz is a relatively small volume) and wands.

 

[Bront]

I think mules are only 8gp solely so low-Str low-level characters can carry all of their gear (having just outfitted an 8 Str 1st-level Archivist for a PBP game -- she's carrying percisely 26 lbs of stuff on her in weapons, armor, and spellcasting equipment).

You would have liked my strength 5 character

Haversacks are a godsend.

Unfortunately, I think most people don't pay any attention to this stuff.

On the other hand, I've also played in systems that penalize you unless you're a body-builder who wears a loin-cloth. Those I tend to keep less meticiously track of things. (No, I'm not kidding. One system I know has you penalized for carrying as little as 5 pounds of stuff if your strength is less than 18 (on a scale of 5-25, 10-15 being human average)

 

[Nomad4life]

Man, back in 2E we used to be rabid-psycho-meticulous about encumbrance. Every coin was accounted for. Heck, we stopped a game once to weigh a small stone garden statue to settle an argument over how much a small stone idol in-game would weigh. Even after encumbrance was calculated, the GM would sometimes want to know EXACTLY where each individual item was kept! (Was that sword hanging at your hip? Slung on the back? Where are these healing potions kept? Etc...)

All of which, of course, did nothing for the game other than slow it down and make it a lot less fun.

These days, nobody even mentions encumbrance, let alone bothers to calculate it, as long as the character’s gear “seems reasonable.”

 

[doghead]

Used to bother me too when I was DM'ing. I would call players on it, until I realized there was very little gain in slowing down gameplay to pester people about how they're carrying their stuff.

Yeah, pretty much the same here. Occasionally the odd item bugs me - longspears have come up a couple of times, as has the whole strung longbow slung across the back.

For some reason, the handy Haversacks really stomp on my suspension of disbelief. So far I have avoided having one. The closest I got was an Efficient Quiver for a bard 10.

thotd

 

[hopeless]

Reg: Encumberance

My current character has the smallest version of a bag of holding there's at least 3 I know of in the party and he secured his and kept quiet even though he was LN.
In his case he had been aged to over 80 years of age and made sure he could put all of his stuff in the bag to avoid being encumbered unfortunately the aging reduced his str from 16 to 10 and just wearing his suit of full plate meant he was encumbered.
There was also a magical ring he picked up and at the time I pointed out to the Dm I was keepin quiet about it since a new member of the party had nabbed most of the new items taken off some bad guys we fought.
He ignored my request and gave the player a full list of the items even though he had been looking for an enchanted mirror the Dm then said was broek whilst I secured the two items.
We later were at odds when he tried to walk off with the ring and I pointed out I had been carrying i ever since and he should never have had it listed but it wasn't the first nor last time the DM ignored what was said if he could put his foot in to quash any ideas from those he didn't care for.
I'm still surprised I got away with the bag of holding!