Come, lay down your fears, and step away from strife.
All are welcome here: seek what brings you life.
Then, in time, take up your bags once more,
And find perhaps they are not so heavy as before.
Last time, we looked at death, and the concept of value add — the ways in which a game mechanic improves things. I used encumbrance as an example of a mechanic that failed to add value. It is frequently cited as a mechanic that does not work well, and can never work well. Unfortunately, I do not know when to give up, so we are going to fix it.
Pack your bags — this is going to be a long journey. We have to discuss some background to the problems and solutions first, then the mechanics that drive the solution, before finally getting to the homebrew rules so that you can use them. The mechanics will be designed for 5e, but the subsystem should be fairly transferable, especially if you work through the same process of reasoning. We will be touching on a lot of ideas, so this is going to take several articles.
Baggage from the Past
Previous attempts to deal with encumbrance have failed to be effective and satisfying. Before leaping to a new solution, it is worth asking why others have failed — failing to do so dooms us to repeat their errors.
Three Woes
So, what went wrong?
Versimilitude
The first woe is verisimilitude, or believably. Verisimilitude is important — even essential — but it is only a means to an end. A game that consistently enforces the rules of the fiction makes player buy-in much easier. That is the purpose verisimilitude serves — establishing and enforcing rules like causality make it possible for players to engage in the game. Where verisimilitude goes wrong is when we turn it into an end, rather than a means. The goal of a TTRPG is not to perfectly resemble reality, but to be an engaging and enjoyable game.
An encumbrance system that focuses first on making carrying capacity believable fails to make the game more engaging or enjoyable. What is more, most encumbrance systems will fail to add to believably anyway! Most of us do not have a clear concept for how much we can carry, let alone our characters, nor a good idea of how much fantasy gear might actually weigh. As such, the rules will always seem arbitrary, even if they perfectly capture the constrains of weight and bulk.
Realistic and believable encumbrance rules do not add value to the game, and are an unattainable goal anyway.
Limitations
Encumbrance rules are normally framed as a limitation on player options. They prevent you carrying things rather than enabling it. This can lead to frustrating scenarios where a PC is unable to do a simple task because they are not explicitly carrying a tinderbox or other basic item. While it may seem reasonable to simply assume that PCs have this basic kit, that breaks encumbrance rules that try to track everything, so is a failure of such a system.
A good encumbrance system must avoid adding arbitrary limitations. In fact, it would be preferable for it to only create opportunities.
Bookkeeping
Encumbrance systems often involve a lot of bookkeeping. The weight, value, and storage location of every last item must be tracked. Every meal must be recorded, and every piece of firewood justified. While this is satisfying for some players (including myself!) it is frustrating for others. Inevitably, it starts to slip, leaving the DM with the choice of enforcing it for those who track it — effectively punishing them for following the rules — or of ignoring the rules, defeating the point of having them.
An encumbrance system must not require an unreasonable amount of bookkeeping.
Three Wins
Now to start being positive. What good things do we want an encumbrance system to do?
Engage with the World
One of the defining characteristics of TTRPGs is that they let players interact with the world as if it were real. Picking up and keeping an item they find is among the most tangible parts of this experience. The item is not just a set decoration — it is a real thing!
When dealing with encumbrance, we need to make sure players can have this experience. Our system must be flexible, but not so abstract as to hide this detail.
Enable New Action
The reason we have specialised tools is so we can do things we could not do otherwise. There is nothing exciting or fun about having an entire game component dedicated to merely having enough gear to operate normally — tools should make PCs more powerful.
Consumables are an example of this. The PCs stock up on health potions to improve survivability by enabling a healing option. It is a desirable item because of the options it provides. However, 5e implements consumables poorly. Rare potions are too valuable, so players are reluctant to use them in case it is a waste. Common potions are relatively easy to stockpile, easing adventures over the course of a campaign, until they run out and suddenly everything is much harder.
By way of clarification, there is nothing wrong with players using their resources to ease the game — that is what this system should support. The problem with stockpiling potions is that balancing encounters becomes difficult. If the PCs have more potions than they need, combat will be less challenging, so may feel less satisfying, but without the adrenaline high of an action-orientated boost, like a +2 weapon. Anecdotally, I also expect something akin to hedonic adaptation to occur, where players come to expect a certain difficulty based on their experiences while well-resourced, so are unpleasantly surprised when they face an encounter while undersupplied and it is harder than the have come to expect is fair. We want the PCs to become more powerful in ways that are exciting, while making encounter balancing easier for DMs and adventure writers who do not know if the party is under- or over-stocked.
Our solution must create options for players that they can freely and comfortably utilise, but without disrupting game balance too significantly.
Fun!
As I mentioned, I enjoy bookkeeping. It helps me ground myself in the game and get into the mind of my character. However, I accept that this is not for everyone, and I want the mechanics of this system to be fun for everyone, not just me.
To that end, I want a mix of mechanics: some bookkeeping, but not too much; space for some precise detail, but not at the expense of suitable abstraction; and space for customisation and upgrades so players can get excited about how to spend treasure.
System Architecture
This is a lot for one system to do. In fact, it is too much — as you may have noted, a solution cannot be both highly detailed and highly abstracted. So how do I plan to meet all these requirements?
My trick is to use several different systems for different things. I will introduce them here, the break them down in detail in future articles. I did warn you this would take several articles — for now, you can get excited about the details to come.
Encumbrance
My carrying capacity framework is the scaffolding to which everything else attaches. It must be abstract enough to be usable, and flexible enough to support everything else I want to do. However, the modularity of this system means it does not need to do anything more.
Treasure
D&D is a game about killing monsters and taking their stuff. As the PCs collect bounties, rob graves, and capture dragon hordes, they will stockpile treasure. A system of gear must connect itself with treasure so that the PCs can spend money.
Consumables
Potions, rations, and limited use items need a mechanic for being used up, and a way to be refreshed. I also want them to have scaling and upgrade mechanics, and to function as an easy way to introduce new Magic Items™.
Kit
All adventurers have basic kit. This stuff is primarily for flavour, and is an acknowledgement of all the little bits and pieces that PCs should have access to, but we do not generally want to get bogged down with. It has variable levels of abstraction, and has the primary purpose of inspiring players.
Tools
Tools are equipment that brings a mechanical benefit. This includes weapons and armour, but also textbooks, maps, lockpicks, and other tools that give bonuses on skill checks or to other mechanics.
Assets
PCs have some resources that do not fit into the normal definition of equipment. Boats, fortresses, armies, and spy networks are the last thing to build into this system. They are almost wholly adjacent, but still involve an investment of treasure, so close enough that we can address them here.