Weight Problems
- Thread starter Sado
- Start date
LostSoul
Adventurer
The old Ghostbusters game used some kind of "hands" system for encumberance. I limited what you could carry based on how many hands it took to carry something.
It would go something like this:
Armour: no problem.
Light weapon, potions, wands: 1/2 hand
Medium weapon, shields: 1 hand
Large weapon: 2 hands
And then there were other things that didn't take up any space. Things that were too small to really matter.
They had a limit to how much you could carry; 3 hands in the backpack, 2 hands (of 1 up to 1 hand each) on the belt, another 4 hands all around the body (of up to 1/2 hand each) or something like that would be decent.
So my elven ranger would look like so:
Longsword, Bow on Belt: 2 hands
Arrows on back: 1 hand
Dagger stuffed in the boot: 1/2 hand
Studded Leather armour: nada
Backpack stuffed with crap: maybe 2 hands.
When you go over the limit, then you can consider yourself moderately encumbered. When you go too far - let's say over double the limit - then you're heavily encumbered.
It would go something like this:
Armour: no problem.
Light weapon, potions, wands: 1/2 hand
Medium weapon, shields: 1 hand
Large weapon: 2 hands
And then there were other things that didn't take up any space. Things that were too small to really matter.
They had a limit to how much you could carry; 3 hands in the backpack, 2 hands (of 1 up to 1 hand each) on the belt, another 4 hands all around the body (of up to 1/2 hand each) or something like that would be decent.
So my elven ranger would look like so:
Longsword, Bow on Belt: 2 hands
Arrows on back: 1 hand
Dagger stuffed in the boot: 1/2 hand
Studded Leather armour: nada
Backpack stuffed with crap: maybe 2 hands.
When you go over the limit, then you can consider yourself moderately encumbered. When you go too far - let's say over double the limit - then you're heavily encumbered.
Herremann the Wise
First Post
It becomes a chore if you are right on a limit, otherwise it's fairly simple. However, even being right on a limit can be managable if you break down your items into two categories, essential and non-essential. Weigh your essential items and take this off of your weight limits. You assume that while you are adventuring, you are always going to be carrying this stuff around. All "useables", money and variable stuff is left over. At least in this way, you will hopefully have a smaller list to take care of. I suppose the trick is not to carry around too much crap you're never going to use. Either that or just make it permanent on your character so you don't have to worry about it.
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
Last edited:
reanjr
First Post
Some ways to go about doing this:
1. Get a bag of holding.
2. Use the suggestion on the core books to only count weapons and armor. Any else is fairly negligible, usually (unless it is intentionally being abused).
3. Get a cart or wagon. Most of my characters either travel light because they don't like the tediousness of being bogged down (even if the rules say you are unencumbered, 50 pounds of gear is annoying) or when they need a bunch of stuff, they buy a wagon, a couple of oxen (best value for pull capacity), and a horse with saddle bags. You can really start ignoring the light items once you've done this.
4. Compartmentalize. Your character probably carries most items in some kind of container, whether it be a backpack, large sack (my preferred method as it can be dropped as a free action), belt pouches (which in turn all are "contained in" a belt), or anything else. Keep similar items together in a single container. Once you have the container's total weight (including contents), you can just keep track of the containers individually. It's also fairly realistic. An adventurer would want to have similar things together so that they can quickly find or get rid of everything related (for instance, once you've left the mountains behind and your poor swimmer character has to cross a big river, you can drop the climbing gear case).
5. If your DM is OK with it, assume all coinage is converted to platinum (or gold). Adding up the number of coins in 3 pp, 87 gp, 25 sp, and 56 cp can be a pain. But if you instead have 12.006 pp, it's easy to add up 1+2+6 (and lighter, so you can usually just ignore the money altogether).
6. Let the barbarian carry all your stuff. He never needs to keep track of that stuff anyway, since he can carry 200 lbs. before being encumbered.
1. Get a bag of holding.
2. Use the suggestion on the core books to only count weapons and armor. Any else is fairly negligible, usually (unless it is intentionally being abused).
3. Get a cart or wagon. Most of my characters either travel light because they don't like the tediousness of being bogged down (even if the rules say you are unencumbered, 50 pounds of gear is annoying) or when they need a bunch of stuff, they buy a wagon, a couple of oxen (best value for pull capacity), and a horse with saddle bags. You can really start ignoring the light items once you've done this.
4. Compartmentalize. Your character probably carries most items in some kind of container, whether it be a backpack, large sack (my preferred method as it can be dropped as a free action), belt pouches (which in turn all are "contained in" a belt), or anything else. Keep similar items together in a single container. Once you have the container's total weight (including contents), you can just keep track of the containers individually. It's also fairly realistic. An adventurer would want to have similar things together so that they can quickly find or get rid of everything related (for instance, once you've left the mountains behind and your poor swimmer character has to cross a big river, you can drop the climbing gear case).
5. If your DM is OK with it, assume all coinage is converted to platinum (or gold). Adding up the number of coins in 3 pp, 87 gp, 25 sp, and 56 cp can be a pain. But if you instead have 12.006 pp, it's easy to add up 1+2+6 (and lighter, so you can usually just ignore the money altogether).
6. Let the barbarian carry all your stuff. He never needs to keep track of that stuff anyway, since he can carry 200 lbs. before being encumbered.
Jeff Wilder
First Post
When I have a low- ro mid-Strength character, and want or need to carry items beyond Light encumbrance, I stick enough weight in a large sack to make the difference between Medium and Light. In a combat situation, or other situation in which quick movement is important, my PC just drops the bag -- free action -- and goes immediately to Light encumbrance.
As folks have said ... the real solution is for every player to simply make certain to load their PCs with a reasonable amount.
As folks have said ... the real solution is for every player to simply make certain to load their PCs with a reasonable amount.
Treebore
First Post
Its called honest realism. Look at the character and if it is carrying too much cut down its movement, etc.. If you want precision then calculate everything out. Otherwise, if you are wearing plate mail and are carrying your fighting buddy, who is also in platemail, than be honest enough to admit your character will lose their race against the snail.
Greylock
First Post
The game's not THAT nit-picky. One arrow is the same as twenty as far as the game is concerned. The items you describe are negligible as weight goes, and I don't tally them up during play. I do take notes, and make corrections after a session.
If the math and all makes you nuts, pick up BlackBarts HeroForge Excel sheet. It does the work for you. The other major Excel sheet, by Richard Taillon, also does this, but I noticed that some the weights were off by enough to matter.
If the math and all makes you nuts, pick up BlackBarts HeroForge Excel sheet. It does the work for you. The other major Excel sheet, by Richard Taillon, also does this, but I noticed that some the weights were off by enough to matter.
