Inventory management

Two orcs

Officially better than you, according to PoN
During my next rules overhaul I'll make inventory management more complicated, with the main goal of making the world seem more physical and real and the minor goal of upping the logistical challenges presented to the players. This will be in conjunction with switching to a VTT with easier inventory management, items can be dragged and dropped from a menu instead of typed onto the sheet.

Basic ACKS encumbrance: 1 items = 1 stone ~10lbs or 1 long object, breakpoints for movement speed at 5, 7 and 10 stones (max 20 modified by strength).

My additions:
You can have 1 belt (4 items), 1 harness (4 items, though plate wearers can't use a harness) and 1 backpack/satchel (up to 4 stones) without your gear hampering you during combat by flopping around (if you insist slinging 4 shoulder bags over your back you are vulnerable, that is enemies get +2 to hit and may backstab you). In addition to this sacks, chests, barrels etc. may be carried in one of two hands. Getting an item from your belt or harness ready is a minor action, getting something from a backpack or sack is a movement action, if there are more than 6 distinct objects loose in a pack you might not find it in 1 round with increasing risk the more stuff you have in there (# of objects - 6 = risk in 6 that you don't find it). By packing things in subcontainers you can get things out more reliably. Long stuff of course can be stowed in a pack or belt at all, with the exception of the composite bow which may be holstered as 1 item.
 

The1True

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
Good luck! I've tried all sorts of stuff over the years to get encumbrance to not suck, including drawing up placement diagrams with item slots. It always falls by the wayside and only gets brought back up when truly outrageous acts of greed force a character-sheet audit (a drag (ha?) for all concerned).

Two things I'd like to work out just once as a DM. I'd like the party to run out of a critical resource; preferably torches or water; and really have to sweat it for a while without handwaving the problem with magic. The cleric has been wrecking my foraging mechanic in their Irradiated Paradox playtest with a daily Create Food/Water... AND I'd like to see the party overencumbered and fighting like hell to get their huge payday out of the dungeon and back to the safety of civilization without having to be a heavy-handed autocrat looking through their character sheets and comparing them to the treasure list. I've been diligent about book-keeping and worked hard to keep bags of holding out of party hands, but best laid plans rarely survive contact with the players.
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Truer words have not been spoken.

Although I/we have played through the problem of "you can't possibly carry all that treasure...what are you going to do now?" many times. Strength-increasing items become loved for more than just the to-hit/damage bonus...with humorous results when suddenly negated. This is one area where computers could facilitate a game by doing instantaneous encumbrance book keeping. That's the kind of drudgery that the machines were originally made for. I dream of drag-and-dropping an item out of the room description onto a character sheet that displays two copies: one for the DM, and a redacted one for the player?

Until the next utilitarian revolution arrives...we'll just have to continue to use computers solely in their current capability: primarily to authenticate access to corporate data we have already publicly divulged and no one wants to steal. Anyone up for four-factor authentication? I hear it's all the rage with secret agents and insider-traders! It just requires a unique 128-digit password, 2 character references (who are not family members), a pint of blood, and an external centrifuge to log in.
 
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The1True

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
This is one area where computers could facilitate a game by doing instantaneous encumbrance book keeping.
Always my favourite/most hated thing about Baldur's Gate/Neverending Nights etc. and really all CRPG's. Weed and inventory management do NOT mix!
But yeah. I mean, I guess there's a ton of digital record sheets out there, some built right into the VTT, but they fall apart fast under the weight of a million small modifications.

Anyone up for four-factor authentication?
Dude, seriously! I worked a contract for a studio last year that involved the software manufacturer texting my personal phone to authenticate my access to the remote desktop in Ireland. Fucking invasive.
 

Two orcs

Officially better than you, according to PoN
Running on a VTT has worked well keeping things realistic, it calculates movement rates automatically so the players audit their own characters if one is suddenly slower than the rest. And when they count up the treasure we check that they were actually entered onto the sheets. This mechanic is mostly to ground the place of the objects in the world even more to make them feel physically present, and a little bit of gear porn when they have to decide if a potion is at the ready or stowed in the pack.

Continual Light was an early goal for my players and they have not had to worry about torches since (except when they suddenly need fire and forgot to pack any torches!). In my next game I'll simply remove that spell and make permanent magic light either a rare find or inferior to torches in strength. To stick closer to medieval reality lanterns can burn for a long time, many hours on a small amount of oil, but they don't shed more light than a candle would. Torches burn fast but bright. The storm lantern was a modern invention!

The most fondly remember inventory system I ran was a grid-slot system we did on paper. But that was becuase my players were artists and got to draw their equipment in miniature. A paperdoll style drawing on the character sheet would also be excellent, but clunky running online.
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Dude, seriously! I worked a contract for a studio last year that involved the software manufacturer texting my personal phone to authenticate my access to the remote desktop in Ireland. Fucking invasive.
<rant>I estimate that I spend 10% of the workday fighting with authenication. It's a hidden tax. These so-called IT Security Experts are just copying what they read out of the latest journals and hearsay. There are still massive security holes...but they are wasting their time harassing legit users. With a 6-character-all-lower-case-letters password there are 308915776 combinations and more than 87,151 6-letter words in the dictionary (+158,390 words with five-letters, +149,165 with four-letters, etc.). There is no way anyone is hacking that out in 5-attempts-then-lock-out. The only way to brute-force hack passwords is to steal the hash-database that's on the company's server---that's what they should be protecting! They have no metrics, no data to base things on---more is always better. It's just ignorant stupidity and the illusion of security. Two-factor is bullsh*t. </rant>

Running on a VTT has worked well keeping things realistic, it calculates movement rates automatically so the players audit their own characters if one is suddenly slower than the rest. And when they count up the treasure we check that they were actually entered onto the sheets. This mechanic is mostly to ground the place of the objects in the world even more to make them feel physically present, and a little bit of gear porn when they have to decide if a potion is at the ready or stowed in the pack.

Continual Light was an early goal for my players and they have not had to worry about torches since (except when they suddenly need fire and forgot to pack any torches!). In my next game I'll simply remove that spell and make permanent magic light either a rare find or inferior to torches in strength. To stick closer to medieval reality lanterns can burn for a long time, many hours on a small amount of oil, but they don't shed more light than a candle would. Torches burn fast but bright. The storm lantern was a modern invention!

The most fondly remember inventory system I ran was a grid-slot system we did on paper. But that was because my players were artists and got to draw their equipment in miniature. A paperdoll style drawing on the character sheet would also be excellent, but clunky running online.
Sounds nice. Have I mentioned my new monster : "Ethereal Moths". They are attracted from the ethereal plane by magical light sources and lay their eggs in them. The larvae both digest the spell and go on to infest local fauna and sometimes people too. That's one big reason cities don't use continual light spells for mundane purposes. The moths themselves can be a pest in dungeons too, if your unlucky to stumble upon a swarm of them.

Checks and balances. :devilish:
 
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Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
Which VTT are you using? Custom character sheet?
I use MapTools, which also includes a movement mechanic, and allows the DM to place "movement blocking" areas on the map so players aren't accidentally moving through walls, and difficult terrain which can have an impact on movement rate.

It is user built and maintained and there is a decent community preparing plugins - for instance one I use adds an encumbrance system. If you can code at all I recommend it. I mean, I can't code at all, but I can muddle through enough with the macro wiki to tweak things; for instance I changed the encumbrance calculations in the plugin I mentioned.
 

The1True

My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
Continual Light
Sure, sure, but a certain percent of all magic weapons also cast light in just about every version of the game... We barely even use continual light after 2nd or 3rd level...

Have I mentioned my new monster : "Ethereal Moths".
This is actually very very good... <yoink>

I keep bringing this up with the other DM in our group because it looks so good (plus FREE). Our sticking points are:
  • We're too invested in Roll20 at this point (not monetarily, but learning-curve-wise), plus no one wants to move their campaign over.
  • We're all pretty geographically separated (I in particular) and the admittedly clunky built-in video chat is much appreciated by all. We're aware of things like Discord and Google Meet etc. but It's a pain in the ass laying out a mosaic of windows to play the bloody game.
 

Beoric

8, 8, I forget what is for
  • We're all pretty geographically separated (I in particular) and the admittedly clunky built-in video chat is much appreciated by all. We're aware of things like Discord and Google Meet etc. but It's a pain in the ass laying out a mosaic of windows to play the bloody game.
Yeah, MT doesn't have videochat, although it does help with window arrangement that you can undock the MT windows and arrange them wherever you want, including on a different screen. Not familiar enough with Roll20 to know if you can do the same thing.

You should just download it, grab a 3e or PF framework from the forums or discord, and start playing around.
 

PrinceofNothing

High Executarch
Staff member
I use a spreadsheet to auto-calc the sum and its effect on movement, which renders discrete encumbrance (egads! the bookkeeping nightmare!) possible, otherwise going for some sort of Lotfp/ACKS/Stars abstracted encumberance is the only way to fly. It really should be implemented as exploration speed is fundamentally tied in with the amount of random encounters you suffer on your way.

I recall an often forgotten table in Rules Cyclopedia? Basic fantasy? that gave us the ultimate, average weights for general categories of treasure. Crucial. Absolutely Crucial!
 

PrinceofNothing

High Executarch
Staff member
Sure, sure, but a certain percent of all magic weapons also cast light in just about every version of the game... We barely even use continual light after 2nd or 3rd level...
The illumination of magic swords is not as high as that of torches or lanterns going by AD&D (and supposedly other rulesets). It IS helpful to always have a fallback though.

Sounds nice. Have I mentioned my new monster : "Ethereal Moths". They are attracted from the ethereal plane by magical light sources and lay their eggs in them. The larvae both digest the spell and go on to infest local fauna and sometimes people too. That's one big reason cities don't use continual light spells for mundane purposes. The moths themselves can be a pest in dungeons too, if your unlucky to stumble upon a swarm of them.
Glimmerheim used to be the brightest star in the Polar Sea, its eternal festivities lit by everburning lamps during the month long polar nights. But hungry eyes were watching. Now on cold winter nights, you can see, in the distance, the lambent glow of its rotting parlours, and sailors avert their eyes and make the warding sign against evil at the fate of these poor wretches.
 

squeen

8, 8, I forget what is for
Glimmerheim used to be the brightest star in the Polar Sea, its eternal festivities lit by everburning lamps during the month long polar nights. But hungry eyes were watching. Now on cold winter nights, you can see, in the distance, the lambent glow of its rotting parlours, and sailors avert their eyes and make the warding sign against evil at the fate of these poor wretches.
Reading this make me want to play D&D far more than all the rules-theories blog-posts combined.

Evocative.
 
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