Encumbrance and Load

Version 0.12 · not yet playtested

Jon Mayo. PUBLIC DOMAIN (CC0-1.0)

Encumbrance and Load

The base pack is deliberately light: ten slots plus your Might, and you only feel it when you cram a slot deep (see Characters). That is enough for most tables. This rung is for the ones where hauling is part of the game: a vault of treasure you cannot all carry out, a trek where every kilo is a choice, a heist where the loot is the whole problem. It replaces the base’s deepest-stack rule with a fuller model of bulk and load. Use one or the other, not both.

It adds no new dice. Load, when it bites, simply drops dice off strenuous rolls, the same currency as any other disadvantage.

1 Capacity

A character carries 10 + Might slots (or the setting’s unit: kilos, cargo). That is their capacity. What counts against it is everything they bear, worn armor and a wielded weapon included, which is where this layer is heavier than the base: the plate on your back is weight you are carrying, not a free tag on the sheet.

2 Bulk

Not everything is one slot.

Negligible (a coin, a key, a vial, a data-chit): uncounted; pocket as many as is reasonable.

Ordinary (a weapon, a tool, a book, a lantern, a day’s rations): 1 slot.

Bulky (a suit of armor, a heavy weapon, a full waterskin-and-bedroll load, a bound prisoner): 2 slots, and it wants a hand or a strap.

Cumbersome (a chest, an idol, a crate, an unconscious ally, a coil of chain): 3+ slots, needs both hands or two carriers, and you cannot fight or climb while you bear it. Set it down to do anything else.

Coin and loose valuables have bulk in quantity: a purse is negligible, a hoard is cumbersome. Getting the treasure out is the second half of the delve.

3 Load Bands

Add up the slots you are bearing and compare to your capacity:

Load | You are carrying | Effect
Light | up to capacity | no penalty
Laden | up to half again capacity | drop a die on strenuous rolls and on the journey roll
Overladen | up to double capacity | drop two dice on strenuous rolls; you cannot run; each travel leg costs a stress
Immovable | beyond double | you can only shuffle a pace, or set it down

Strenuous covers fighting, climbing, running, swimming, forcing something, and moving unseen (a laden body is a loud one). It does not touch talking, noticing, casting, or tinkering, unless the fiction plainly says the load is in the way.

4 Dropping the Load

Dropping your pack is free and instant; picking it back up is a moment’s work. This is the decision the whole rung exists for: a laden party caught in a fight can fight at its true weight by abandoning the haul, and getting it back, or getting it out at all, is the problem. What you carry that is worn or in hand stays with you when you drop the pack; that is your fighting load.

5 Carrying Together

Load is a party problem. Pool capacity across bodies and the treasure conversation, who carries the idol, who takes the wounded, what gets left on the floor, is the game. Mounts, porters, carts, and drones add capacity and cover a travel leg for less strain; each is also a thing to lose (see Travel), and losing the mule at the worst moment is how a hoard becomes a choice.

6 On the Road and In a Fight

Travel (see that supplement): Laden is a die worse on every journey roll, Overladen costs a stress a leg besides. A party that loots heavy travels slow and frayed, and arrives worse than it left.

A fight: the strenuous penalty applies to attacks, maneuvers, and flight while you bear the load; drop the pack (free) to fight unladen. Heavy worn armor is worth its slots because it turns a wound aside, but its weight is real, and a character in full harness is Laden before they pick up anything else.

7 For Authors

A setting fits this rung by naming the capacity unit (slots, kilos, cargo), the bulk of its signature gear (what is Bulky, what is Cumbersome), and whether it counts worn gear (this rung does; a gentler setting may not). Keep it to bulk plus the four load bands, and let dropping the pack always be free.