Encumbrance

I keep coming back to the question of encumbrance in #RedHack. It's a hard thing to streamline, because the input consists of numerous very different items, from loose coins to plate armour, and the output is some point at which the PC slows down to some degree, and another point at which the PC cannot move, ideally mediated by some combination of STR and CON. (I like CON as a measure of how much you can carry, as opposed to how much you can lift.)

But items move around a lot, so it all has to be recalculated anytime something is dropped, picked up or traded.

I started with “one item slot per STR point”, tried a container-based system, a push-your-luck version where you had to roll 1d6 per six items under your CON to move at normal speed , and one which simply counted multiples of six.

Sandra shared her very well thought-out approaches: A block method, which seeks to minimise recalculation by fencing off ‘settled’ areas of the inventory, her 5e sheet, which uses a size-based system, and the sheetless version, as well as pointing me back to page B20 of B/X, which de-emphasises equipment and provisions, tracking armour and treasure as the things that are most likely to slow PCs down.

This is good from a gameplay perspective because it's a meaningful decision – trading speed for either protection or rewards.

I also want to streamline, but I'm leaning toward the opposite direction. Weight of armour and weapons feels less important to me – wearing heavy armour might tire you out over time, but it isn't going to render you immobile. Objects held in hands are less urgent to track because there's already a limited supply of hands.

What matters most from a weight perspective is provisions and treasure.

So, this where I am now:

Each PC can carry a small number of burdens. A burden is-

Most PCs can carry 2 burdens before suffering penalties, and become immobile once they exceed 6. High CON or low CON adds or subtracts 1 from the amount that can be carried without penalty. High or low STR modifies the maximum burden limit by 2.

Held items don't normally count toward burdens. Some items can only be held (or carried on carts) such as halberds or 15' poles. If the item held is a table or something, it may be a burden in itself.

Worn items – armour, weapons in scabbards, magic jewelry, a shield across the back – don't count either. If you're wearing six swords and three cloaks the DM may rule you have an extra burden.

(Alternatively, worn/held items could be limited to 20 items weight total before a burden is incurred.)

Heavier armour makes you more likely to suffer exhaustion when exhaustion is rolled on the dungeon die. (DM Rolls d20 when the result occurs; any PC with lower CON than the roll gains exhaustion. Any PC with equal or more levels of armour than the roll (3 for leather, 7 for plate etc.) also gains exhaustion.)

A backpack.

A pack holds 20 items and usually counts as a burden. A sack holds 10, perhaps? And can be carried in a hand if you want to trade a free hand for more capacity.

The threshold for an item is about 2lbs. Half-items exist but I'll try to minimise them to make counting faster. Items under 1lb are counted as 0 unless you have a lot of them (a shipment of compasses obviously weighs something, but 2 compasses aren't going to add anything to your load.)

A stack of coins is an item. I'm not sure how big a stack. Black Hack uses 250/item. Since switching to the silver standard – and thus dividing most published hoards by 10 – I've been using 100/item. With the revised figures and AD&D weights it's looking more like 20/item. Amethyst disagrees and says this is far too heavy. Looking at the weights of two iconic 'treasure' coins, doubloons and pieces of 8, we'd get 134 and 33 per item respectively, which points to a figure of 100 or 50.

With the Gem Table we devised recently unappraised gems are homogenous and could also be stacked, at perhaps 50 or 20/item .