Another Hack at Encumbrance Rules

The best version of encumbrance rules that I've yet seen come from the "Lamentations of the Flame Princess" retroclone. They're pretty damn simple, but they also provide the difficult choices I'm looking for. They're also reasonably adaptable to other systems.

They're also a variant of my "minor, major, conditional" split for items that I've mentioned before... or rather, my version is a variant of those rules.

Firstly, count up the number of encumbrance points your character is carrying, as follows:

• If your character is wearing Medium armour: +1
• If your character is wearing Heavy armour: +2
• For every 'oversized' item your character is carrying: +1
• For every 5 other different things your character is carrying (round down): +1

An 'oversized' item is any two-handed or great weapon, anything that requires two hands to carry, or anything taller in height than your character. A sack full of loot counts as an oversized item in addition to the weight of the treasure itself.

As noted above, several small, similar items count as a single 'thing' - that is, a pouch of iron spikes, several torches or flasks of oil, several potions, several scrolls. A pouch of up to 100 coins counts as a 'thing'. Any single weapon counts as a 'thing'. Four bunches of ammunition (arrows, bolts, sling stones, throwing knives, plus the appropriate quiver or other holder) counts as a 'thing'. Food and water for three days counts as a 'thing'.

Worn items, excluding armour, do not count. Likewise, assorted treasure items carried in a sack don't count, as these are part of the sack's value. A backpack, when worn, does not count towards encumbrance. If a backpack is being lifted but not worn, perhaps by a strap, it is considered an oversized item.

A character is considered unencumbered if he is carrying a number of encumbrance points less than 3 + Str Mod (minimum 2). A character is considered encumbered if he is carrying more than that and less than 5 + Str Mod (minimum 3). And a character is considered heavily encumbered if he is carrying more than that less than 7 + Str Mod (minimum 4) encumbrance points. A character carrying 7 + Str Mod or more encumbrance points cannot move and falls prone in his space.

In addition to those items a character can reasonably wear, each character has 6 arbitrary "quick access" spaces about his person, each of which can contain a weapon or a single small item (a pouch of coin or gems, a single potion or scroll, concealed thieves' tools, or whatever). Any of these items can be accessed using a swift/minor/bonus action.

The remainder of the character's adventuring gear must be stored in a backpack, haversack, or similar container. Items stored in a pack of this sort can be accessed only with a full minute spent readying them. (Effectively, this means they cannot be accessed while in combat - so pick your 6 quick accesses carefully!) A normal backpack can carry 10 'things', a small backpack can carry 6, and a masterwork backpack can carry 15 (10 for a masterwork small backpack!).

Treasure items must be carried in a sack or similar container. Items stored in a sack can be accessed only with a full minute spent readying the item. A normal sack can carry 10 'things', a small sack can carry 6, and a masterwork sack 15.

A sack can be dropped as a swift/minor/bonus item, and picked up in the same way. A worn pack can likewise be dropped as a swift/minor/bonus item, and can be donned as a standard action. Furthermore, a character can only drop/don a backpack if his hands are empty. (A backpack that is merely held in-hand is equivalent to a sack.)

And that's about it. The rules are, hopefully, simple enough to allow for quick recalculations where needed (though that shouldn't be too often anyway), while the "difficult choice" aspect lies in choosing which items need to go in those 6 quick access slots and which for the backpack, and also in whether to drop the pack at start of combat (and have to therefore spend time readying weapons) or to fight on while encumbered.