Micro-managing penalties

[jonesy]

Let's see, the battering ram. That one is probably not an issue as it is actually a portable battering ram, designed to be carried by a paerson. (wether you allow the existence of a "portable battering ram" is a seperate issue)

If that's the case then you can pretty much ignore what I said.

 

[Ion]

For most of that kind of stuff, its cooler to let them do it than it is to force penalties down their throat, so I say go nuts, unless its not adding fun. If the players want to know where each item they have is, and what not, because that sort of realism is cool for them, I say by all means go for it.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I'm in the "as long as it's not getting ludicrous, go knock yourself out" and/or encourage them to get HHH's, bags of holding and portable holes (and often I give them stuff like that as an award). This is about fun, not about reality. I don't want them to keep track on how much food they have (down to the gramme). If you go that way, you'll soon find yourself rolling on charts for stool consistency or something...

 

[barsoomcore]

I strive to make my games full of cool stuff, and I encourage my players to do likewise.

Tracking each and every item every PC is carrying is not super cool, in my book.

Abusing that flexibility so that you can have all sorts of unlikely stuff because the DM forgets about it is ALSO not super cool.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I think the answer to this question depends on the type of campaign you're running. A lot of players and DMs have no interest in the minutia of equipment and encumbrance. On the other hand, if the PCs are getting carried away or abusing it, I think it would be quite funny to see the archer spider climb to the ceiling and reach for an arrow just as all his quivers empty out to the floor below. Very funny indeed. And that would lead to the archer taking into consideration how to adjust his gear to prevent the problem in the future; something that can lead to good character development and in-game thinking.

But again, YMMV.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

How do you rule on these things? Like how many arrows can an archer carry? Does a backpack full of loose coins hinder a rogue's stealth? Does swimming across a river ruin an adventurer's gear? Does carrying a 10' pole give penalties in combat? How many potions can you have easily accessable? Etc.

My simple rule of thumb is, if I can come up with a plausible description of it, then it's just fine. For example:

How many arrrows can an archer carry? I can imagine a good three quivers strapped to an archer's back. Or special-made quivers that can carry more than 20 arrows. So I leave it at 3 quivers. Certainly an archer can also have extras strapped to his horse, in a Bag of Holding, etc.

Does a backpack full of loose coins hinder a rogue's stealth? I'd imagine that adventurers with serious coinage would convert it to gemstones when traveling. That 3000gp is probably a single high-quality sapphire. No hindrance to stealth at all.

Does swimming across a river ruin an adventurer's gear? Adventurers are the ultimate outdoorsmen. I can't imagine that all of their gear wouldn't be waterproof. So no, no damage.

Does carrying a 10' pole give penalties in combat? No. I'd imagine the PC just drops the pole at the start of combat (free action) and picks it up afterward to continue onward. Same with the battering ram.

How many potions can you have easily accessible? Tons. I remember there being a picture of Mialee somewhere where she has a gazillion spell component pouches sewn all over here clothing. I can easily imagine a fighter having something similar, to store a dozen potions within easy reach.

Really, it's harder to come up with something I can't see a way to accomplish, so as a DM I'm pretty lenient with regards to this stuff. And as someone else mentioned, my groups usually aren't interested in micromanaging that sort of stuff anyway.

 

[Serps]

I break out the 3" x 5" index cards. Every item they have 'on-hand' has a separate card, with its name, weight and cost. Anything that's a container has its contents written on the card instead. That way it's easy to add up weight by flipping through cards, and crossing off potions & arrows is easy. It's also very useful when PCs swap equipment around: if one PC wants to throw his potion belt to another PC, he just finds the card and hands it to her.

(plus, it feels good to hand out pre-written cards instead of saying "You find a fine rapier in the troll's hoard.")