Backpack sheet

[tkdco2]

I admit I've never heard of this idea before, but it's interesting. I may use it someday, although I'm not 100% sold on the idea.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHCmBx3Uqeo

[Deleted]

In the most recent IRL group I was in, we did use these. Not with OD&D but with Lamentations which is B/X adjacent so close enough for government work.

It was an interesting dynamic. I found that the visual representation of what I could carry and having to drop certain items in favor of others or play switcharoo with other people at the table made for a more dynamic and simulationist experience.

After about a week we realized a weak spot, though. We also had saddlebags, a cart and a small boat so we had to make sheets for those, too. Mostly hand drawn.

[linebeck]

May 28, 2020 5:01:08 GMT -6 @ampleframework said:

In the most recent IRL group I was in, we did use these. Not with OD&D but with Lamentations which is B/X adjacent so close enough for government work.

It was an interesting dynamic. I found that the visual representation of what I could carry and having to drop certain items in favor of others or play switcharoo with other people at the table made for a more dynamic and simulationist experience.

After about a week we realized a weak spot, though. We also had saddlebags, a cart and a small boat so we had to make sheets for those, too. Mostly hand drawn.

An interesting thing about using backpack sheets is that they remind you how limited the carrying capacity of backpacks actually are. A backpack only holds 300 GP and 80 of that is going to be taken up by miscellaneous equipment. The result is That it would be very difficult for a character to physically carry more than 1500 GP (and therefore reduce move to 3”).

Consider: Plate mail, shield,helmet, sword, bow and arrows, dagger, and full backpack is 1480 GP with a movement of 6”. I guess you could ditch the shield , sheath the sword, and carry two large sacks in each hand to give you an extra 600 GP carrying capacity. Such a heavily laden character tops out at 1930 GP with a movement of 3” - still under the Theoretical limit of 3000 gold pieces. Such a character Can’t carry a torch, has a 25% chance of dropping one of the sacks if surprised, and would likely move last in the first combat round as he or she would need to put down the sacks and arm themselves before attacking.

Focusing on carrying capacity changes the encumbrance question from how much you can carry to where are you going to carry it. It also suggests that you can simplify the encumbrance rules to base initial movement off of Type of armor worn and only worry about whether movement is further reduced once the characters begin collecting substantial amounts of coinage or other treasure.

This dovetails well with the purpose of the encumbrance rules as I understand them which is to create a dilemma for characters who want to collect massive amounts of treasure and still be able to flee monsters.

[Deleted]

Absolutely. I found in that particular campaign that the visual representation of my gear helped me somewhat. It's a cool innovation. A lot of the OD&D hacks coming out like Knave also do interesting things with gear slots and the like. I lean towards being in favor of a re-interpretation of Encumbrance overall. Historically, the reason many groups have glossed it over somewhat is that it feels cumbersome compared to the rest of the game. When you can make it more visual it becomes more fun and immersive IMO. If you can kill those two birds with one stone - immersion and resource management - I'd say you're on the right track overall.

[Zenopus]

This is something that Gygax was flirting with during the '70s. It can be seen in the pre-gens for Lost Tsojcanth (the convention version), the Encumbrance section in Holmes that Gygax added, and in the Encumbrance section in the DMG, which an appendix added to later printings. In each case, the location of where each item is carried is noted. It didn't catch on, probably because it wasn't emphasized in the AD&D PHB.