HYPERBOREA / Table 79: Calculated Encumbrance, Recalculated

**Posted by DMPrata** 3/13/2021 9:13 pm

My players and I have determined that the values in TABLE 79 don’t hold up to the rigours of active adventuring. A thief of average strength with studded armour and typical adventuring gear is encumbered before he leaves his front door. A fighter with ST 15 had to choose betwixt chain mail and rations. Even something as basic as the fireman’s carry is unavailable to all but the strongest characters. To give adventurers just a little more capacity whilst also better reflecting reality, I propose the following modifications. (Note that I’ve also adjusted the breakpoints to accord with the attribute modifiers in TABLES 1–3.)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m24kolvau7yzrkp/Table%2079.png?dl=0

Last edited by DMPrata (3/13/2021 9:16 pm)

**Posted by BlackKnight** 3/14/2021 1:14 pm

Hey Dave,
I typically apply a different setup for some things so weight carried vs worn bases itself more in reality. Warn armor I put at 1/3 the actual weight listed. When you wearing it does not feel like your wearing its weight till you get into the Metal armors. And yes I've worn several types of Real Armor personally, so from experience. As for the metal armors, Well fitted will feel like 1/3rd the weight, but unfitted like 1/2 the weight. For Belt attached Items, 1/2 weight, Backpack the same. but if in a large sack carried over the shoulder I'd put full weight.
So and Example: Paladin wearing fitted full plate (1/3 weight), wearing 2 belt pouches and a backpack, could carry in those bags (at 1/2 weight) up to his encumbrance. Which would more than double his listed encumbrance rating (Double weight for the bags/pack, 2/3 for the armor). That said, finding a set of Armor on a monster and trying to carry it around should apply its full weight. Finding Non-Magical armor and trying to wear it unless the player rolls a 10% chance will be at 1/2 weight till it's brought to an Armorer to get it fitted. Magical armor I have autofitted to any that try it on.

Bob

Last edited by BlackKnight (3/14/2021 1:15 pm)

**Posted by Ghul** 3/14/2021 2:37 pm

I make it no secret that I'm not a fan of encumbrance systems, but I do realize it's important to a lot of fellow gamers. I prefer to hand-wave it. If your character, per my judgement, appears to be overloaded for their size and strength, then I impose appropriate penalties. I'm just not fond of the accounting involved, and I think it is the antithesis of fun. That being said, one of the more interesting systems I saw about 12 or 13 years ago was done by one of the Castles & Crusades guys. What it did was take the weight of an item and reapportion it if it was stored in a backpack. So, that 2-lb. silk rope? It's effective weight is reduced when placed in a backpack, because that weight is distributed about the shoulders and core. It's still way too granular for my tastes, personally, but I thought it was interesting. I'll check out the doc, Dave!

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 3/14/2021 2:43 pm

I kinda hand wave encumbrance, too.

It definitely is towards the anti-fun end of the spectrum.

I do appreciate DMPrata's tweaks and such.

**Posted by francisca** 3/19/2021 9:03 pm

Ghul wrote:
I'm just not fond of the accounting involved, and I think it is the antithesis of fun.

Boardgames do a better job of resource management-style gaming than RPGs. If I want to worry about that kind of crap, uh, nevermind, I don't.

My biggest concern in not encumbering my stomach with too many pretzels, thereby limiting my beer intake.

**Posted by rhialto** 3/20/2021 6:32 am

francisca wrote:
Ghul wrote:
I'm just not fond of the accounting involved, and I think it is the antithesis of fun.
Boardgames do a better job of resource management-style gaming than RPGs. If I want to worry about that kind of crap, uh, nevermind, I don't.

My biggest concern in not encumbering my stomach with too many pretzels, thereby limiting my beer intake.

Now that would be an intuitive system: "your PC will burn 1000 calories carrying this gear all day (the equivalent of 5 - 6 beers)".

**Posted by quade** 6/09/2021 9:12 pm

Ghul wrote:
I That being said, one of the more interesting systems I saw about 12 or 13 years ago was done by one of the Castles & Crusades guys. What it did was take the weight of an item and reapportion it if it was stored in a backpack. So, that 2-lb. silk rope? It's effective weight is reduced when placed in a backpack, because that weight is distributed about the shoulders and core. It's still way too granular for my tastes, personally, but I thought it was interesting. I'll check out the doc, Dave!

I too like the C&C approach. In general, I think slot based encumbrance systems is a good middle ground. They provide resource management without the needed of a spreadsheet. Not the most accurate, but a step up from just hand waving.

I use the following house rule for encumbrance. Armor is not included as it's effect on movement is already covered by Table 46: Armour.

Encumbrance is measured as the number of items a player has on their possession not including clothing and armor. A characters maximum encumbrance is equal to twice their strength attribute. If a character exceeds this limit, they are encumbered. If a character exceeds more than twice this limit they are heavily encumbered. Penalties for encumbered characters are define in Table 79: Calculated Encumbrance.

Items stored inside a container that has a maximum capacity only counts as 1 item. For example, a quiver that has a maximum capacity of 12 arrows only counts as 2 items when it contains arrows (i.e., 1 for the quiver + 1 for the arrows). The capacity for such containers cannot be exceeded.

Small items such as coins, gems, rings, etc. count as 1/100 of an item if they are stored in a container such as a backpack, pouch, or sack.

**Posted by Ghul** 6/10/2021 9:28 am

That's an interesting approach, quade. How have your players responded? Oh, and welcome to the forums!

**Posted by quade** 6/10/2021 7:54 pm

Ghul wrote:
That's an interesting approach, quade. How have your players responded? Oh, and welcome to the forums!

Thanks for the welcome.

In practice my players, are never keen on accounting of any kind. No surprise. However, I think this approach is simple enough to allow a referee to make a quick and consistent judgement on a player's encumbrance.

Things I Worked On · **Posted by Ynas Midgard** 6/14/2021 6:21 am

I quite like the revised table!

Ever since we switched to digital character sheets, we've had no problems with all sorts of granular subsystems (encumbrance included); Excel is able to calculate a lot of stuff on the fly for us (although it helps that I find it enjoyable to endlessly tweak my collection of semi-automated character sheets).