I Fixed D&D's Worst Rule 

“Hey man, can you hold my sword for a sec?” “Sorry dude, I just have too much emotional baggage” “…”

Cairn! CAIRN! CAAAAIIIIRRRRN! Seriously Cairn is so cool because the slot based inventory is also the spell slots. If you fill up on armors and weapons you have less spell slots!. This makes the Wizard running nude and blasting spells an actual mechanic!

I love how the hill you are willing to fight on is about an hour's drive from my house :)

Choices are my secret sauce in all games. I enjoy putting my players in positions where they have to make a variety of choices, simple and difficult. Social interaction choices, what to carry and what to ditch, combat choices, and moral choices.

I've never really had inventory problems, mostly just "the McGuffin is large, it must be dropped to fight." I have had the occasion where I have to pause and say, "You mean to tell me you got into and out of a cab, walked through a AAA rated security area and up to a Renraku security desk, all while brandishing automatics, katanas, and a rocket launcher? No, concealed holsters don't cover anything larger than a pistol and, no, you didn't have them down your pants." Good stuff as always.

"Players' weapons are already drawn when I roll initiative!" Each character has a free item interaction every turn, as per the rules. Item interactions include drawing a weapon, turning a door knob, handing an ally a potion, and other similar simple actions you wouldn't want to spend a whole turn on lol

I like Shadowdarks mechanic for this "You can carry a number of items equal to your Strength stat or 10, whichever is higher" simple.

I was worried you were gonna suggest ditching encumbrance. As an old-school gamer, I've learned these logistical questions are a key part of the exploration narrative. It all falls apart if you just ignore these things...

My response to the "I take the 20 long swords" problem is to just ask how they want to carry them. My problem with slot based systems is that tiny and light items lose their time to shine. I like having the options to solve problems by improvising with mundane stuff. Furthermore, I do like the old D&D design around consumables. In 5th edition, you have so many daily ressources that it does not matter, but if you can use 2 spells per day, scrolls are a non-regenerating source of power that can make the difference between success and failure, but you have to decide if the use is worth the cost.

Mr. Deficient. You've summarized my woes perfectly and the proposed solution has springboarded me to work on implementing the solution to my table. I found out that Post-it notes won't work for long-term games. They're flimsy, glue wares off, they fall off and contents of "pockets" aren't easily transferable between players. As such I took on crafting task to make it better and scale down to more convenient A5 format. Using your template, I've split items to Large and Small. For 1 large item you can fit 4 small items. "Pockets" were reduced to 2 Small slots. I also added Ring/Amulet slots "on corners" and two large slots on bottom that could be available to characters who have Perks/Traits/Skills in hauling, a magic bag or there is an NPC porter hireling dragging their stuff. To make it tangible I procured following things: - ferromagnetic tape (one side with glue) - magnetic tape (one side with glue), - laser cut wooden a5 sheet, - batch of 4,2cm and 2cm laser cut wooden squares (for large and small items). By placing the ferromagnetic tape on the A5 wooden sheet and sticking magnetic tape underneath wooden squares I got a contraption that won't explode into bits when it falls onto ground or when a cat walks over it. The wooden squares are easy to pry off so players can move the items on the sheet or trade with other players. Using a pencil to write the contents on the squares makes them easily reusable, as pencil can be erased. Cheers!

DCC yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!! I like Shadow Dark's system pretty well, which is like 10 slots plus your strength modifier. This works pretty well too.

While I personally despise any system that makes my character worse at basic tasks(like carrying items) than I am, I'm glad people who love that kind of stuff can brew cool new ways to enjoy the game.

D&D 5e is a game where equipment usually doesn't matter enough for encumbrance to be interesting.

A tetris inventory system could work great. Make a much bigger grid, and make pieces with various shapes and sizes in advance for each item, with velcro on the back. Make some generic shapes for if you want to give an item you didn't prepare for and just write the name of the item before you give those out. A bag of holding would be extra grid space.

God damn the editing is so FIRE

In a system I wrote, the rules are basically "Maximum of 2 weapons and 1 piece of armor per character, aside from that only a few potentially useful items and GM can halve your speed or forbid you from taking too much" It's a modern times "fantasy appearee yesterday" kinda system, and I don't wanna simulate modern economy and prices

You are my favourite dnd channel. True hidden gem

It's not a super major difference from sister systems, but I like Pathfinder 2's adjustments to inventory. Instead of weight, items use bulk, which is a more explicit amount that's easier to track and isn't directly tied to weight. 10 light items = 1 bulk, but you otherwise round down for partial bulks (so 2 bulk + 5 light items = 2 bulk. If you can carry 8 bulk, you can technically carry 8 bulk + 9 light items which is funny). There are sorta non-visual 'slots' present still: carried, worn, and stowed. Carried items take up a hand, and are pretty self explanatory. Usually this will be your weapons shields, or items you're about to use like wands or potions. A worn item can be accessed with a single action. You can wear 2 bulk worth of tools on your person (allowing you to use em single handed, like thieves tools or a medical kit). Beyond tools, the only limit to 'worn' items (pockets, bandoliers, etc) is your carrying capacity. (Since drawing an item is a free action, it doesn't run into the issue of constant immediate access that 5e has.) If you have 4 spears and the capacity for it, you can wear all 4, but accessing each one is 1 action. For stowed items, a backpack can carry up to 4 bulk and alleviates 2 bulk worth of weight (can't stack with other packs though). You can drop it if it's weighing you down and you need to move (no action needed), but to get something out usually requires 2 actions. Since it reduces the weight of items inside, you do wanna put stuff in it even if it makes it harder to access. These total values just can't exceed your carrying capacity. Since ease-of-access is explicitly expressed, you get 3 actions per turn to alleviate action costs, and the bulk amounts are manageable rather than based purely on weight, it actually makes it easy to run. As a player I actually have to think about whether it's worth grabbing an extra backup weapon or tool.

I like your inventory sheet a lot. I love Mausritter's system, but so many little chips everywhere is a pain in the butt. I think this could work well for a game like Shadowdark too.

This has inspired me to make a version of this for Worlds Without Number that uses the half sized sticky notes! Players have "readied items" = to 1/2 strength and "stowed items" = strength as per the system. Really easy to take a sticky from the front and smack it on the back to move things around versus constant erasing etc.

Wait! you can even fix the bag of holding in this solution by having it HAVE it's own finite amount of slots and take up a slot

Nice job! These videos are great. Definitely have created an awesome style. I also really dig the actual tips! Keep up the great job

By the title thought it's gonna be about jumping. The rule is so long, specific and inconvinient for such a trivial action it makes me wonder. WHY?

You've just described Cairn.

You made a really good recommendation in another video that I wanted to come back to but I couldn't remember your username. I did, however, remember your attitude so I just searched for "I fixed D&D". Found you straight away.

I wrote a game in the 90's that used a similar system. But it's based more on how well organized and prepared your character is more than anything. I started with the observation that when I personally went anywhere I could pretty much handle my keys and my wallet, but as I started carrying more items around, the odds of my forgetting to bring the item or accidentally leaving it behind increased exponentially. (This was before cell phones became ubiquitous. I've discovered I can just about handle three). So players would make a list of up to ten items they typically carried, in order of importance. For a fighter, their primary weapon is almost always going to be item one, for example. And then whenever they want to use an item on the list, they have to roll higher than the object's ordinal number on 2d6, or else they just don't have it handy. An item could be a backpack or a sack with stuff in it, but then if you don't have it handy, that means you left the entire backpack or sack somewhere, with everything in it. There were character advantages and disadvantages that modified the dice roll, such as being especially conscientious or absent minded. But I didn't worry about weight at all unless the list got silly, which it never did.

As always you're changing the game for the better DM. If only my DM allowed encumbrance in his games. GREG!

I've been superficially tinkering with a similar system, but this visualization is great. Really good design. Will probably adopt this in my games

Love your channel. Great humor with substance and I look forward to the vids each week. If I'm being completely honest, I usually dont worry about this kind of stuff in my games. That said, this looks like an easy way to throw in another layer of challenge to the game. THAT said, I'm not sure its neccessary or even needed to challenge the players. I've always run a rules light kinda game. Got a session zero coming up in a couple weeks so I'll have the guys vote on whether to use this in our next campaign or not. Thanks for the idea!

I absolutely love slot-based inventory systems, and the d6 to grab/drop items is a brilliant idea. I'm definitely going to use this next time I run a game.

Your sheet is awesome, plus I love the idea of giving players sticky notes to fill it in!

Loving your videos man!

The problem with slots is that it's more narrative based. If a piece of paper takes up 1 inventory slot and a book takes up 1, and 2 pieces of paper would take up 2? Why? What if the bag is less a bag and more a quick access storage? What if I'm doing 3.5 and have a +7 Strength modifier? How am I going to make that work with a dice roll? Slot is very abstract and really only works best in a narrative sense. Which is the problem here, as d&d is more immersion based than narrative based. So the styles don't really match up. I mean you can make slot work for immersion, but at that point, it's just bulk under a different name.

My only problem with this is that there are some inherit mechanics tied to races and classes that would need to be adapted as well in order for it to work. On the other hand... I kinda like the idea of a hybrid system. I mean... Having something like a belt, for you to carry down items that you can use immediately on a pinch, like potions, weapons, and stuff like that, and having other things that would require longer for you to grab (at least 1 minute searching into your bag, or in the best case scenario a whole action, against the usual object interaction on the belt). You could just call it Belt and Bag. I mean... Could be easy to homebrew into DND as well. Oh yeah, and if you don't have a belt and/or a bag? You can only carry what you can hold on your hands or arms.

Awesome solution. This is exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks!

OSR was doing similar about two decades ago. One issue to overcome is that tracking enc is a limitation on players, players don't like limitations, so they'd rather not do it. But that argument isn't sound, so they act like tracking enc is laborious, and that they're whining about THAT aspect of it. So of course there are times when the DM needs to impose a rule because it's necessary for a worthwhile game. EDIT: Remember too that encumbrance is intended to be a puzzle and challenge for low-level PCs, which slowly eases until it's not really an issue at high level. Like with light, food, shelter, these low-level challenges go away to make way for mid-level challenges like fast overland movement, elevation change, extreme heat and cold, and underwater adventure, which later become trivial and make way for high-level challenges like plane travel. Encumbrance goes away as you get magic armor which weighs less, replace common adventuring gear with magical replacements that weigh almost nothing, eschew heavy treasure like gold in favor of high-grading out just the gems, jewelry, and platinum (and magic), increase the STR of various party members, acquire special mounts and henchmen, and even get extradimensional luggage like Bags of Holding and Portable Holes. Until then, encumbrance is a logistical concern involving porters and donkeys, else you have insufficient capacity and must be selective about gear and treasure. If you just ignore encumbrance, and probably various other difficulties like supplies, ammo, etc. then you probably just don't like low-level gameplay. Start the campaign at level 5 or 6 instead.

This inventory sheet is a good use for my Dragon Shield player companion character sheet pocket that until now I had no use for. Really awesome idea, you've more than earned this sub friend

Wow, thank you so much. I rarely get to play in person with people, but when I do I go all out for handouts and little interactive physical items because that is what makes it special. Begin a kindred spirit on the inventory management though process I love this design. Post notes were always something I loved using and the layout of this is perfect, plus the idea of rolling to retrieve something is just incredible. Will be purchasing this because it's worth it.

I run mork borg and what I do is a player can carry 2 weapons, a shield and a set of armour maximum + 2 other items, or if they have a backpack then that can carry an additional 7 items (weapons and armour excluded), a sack can carry 10 extra items but needs to be held in your hands making you unable to participate in combat unlese you drop all your stuff. Alternatively a cart or donkey can carry anything you want as long as it's reasonable. Obviously this leads to some DM fiat however it cuts down on complicated rules on volume and weight while forcing the players to make choices on what to take with them and what to leave behind

My group does use encumbrance rules but we have apps that make everything easy to calculate and see at a glance. When calculations are easy and seamless, it works out pretty fine

I dig it. Shadowdark does the inventory system in a less complicated fashion. I really like the design of your sheet.

I typically start each new adventure with a, "What are you bringing with you on this journey?" I also tend to run games in smaller settings like cities, and I always give the players a homebase. This has worked so far for me, cus it helps ease my players into character every few sessions. I definitely think adding a slot based inventory is a great addition to this!

Man, I about just pissed myself laughing at “seasonal depression.”

I think slot based inventory AND a bag of holding is the big brain GM move. Just imagine separating the party with a surprise wall trap. No damage, just separate the party and ask slowly and quietly, "Who is carrying the bag of holding?"

Use blank playing cards in a card display sheet for inventory. That's so easy. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. Edit: Something like (building off the video): 2 hands (weapon(s), shield, etc) 7 slots for other gear (examples: helm, pauldrons, mail, gloves, pants, boots, side-arm, important larger tools/quest items) 3 Pack/Pocket slots can carry up to 5 items no bigger than their hand. Jewelry goes here. +1 slot for each STR modifier point +1 slot rewarded throughout the story as some sort of quest reward This makes for a total of 18, which fits the 9-pocket card sleeve pages.

Once again you’re a genius!!!! Love the ideas ❤

I'm doing a squared pocket system with the RE4 method of item size, where above the pocket is open air for large items to stick out (And fall out/snag on things) and as you go deeper it becomes increasingly difficult to pull out an item in a single turn.

Hell yeah Have been doing that ever since I saw what a mess the inventory of mine and my players would turn into, but the solution to that was found in a game that I have been passionate about for almost 17 years. Warcraft 3. Warcraft 3 - an RTS - has the 6 slot inventory system for heroes that I have been using ever since. Makes perfect sence* since u can only attune to three items and having a sea of consumables just increases the time spent over thinking what to chug, what to yeet or what to read. * - unless you're an artificer, who understandably gets an improvement in the area. Thanks a lot for this and all other videos. A true breath of fresh air! More importantly, this six-shooter-backpack is actually a very good instrument of lightening players' gold pouches since they'd need to restock more frequently >:3 After all, there aren't that many things to spend the gold on, so might as well make purchases more frequent. P.S. BTW, there's a very easy way to make haggling over a price an easy minigame. As all of you probably know, the prices of the items in 5e have a suspiciously strange price range. Which seems okay, until u realize that there's a hidden mechanic behind the price. Each price range is a dice roll. 50 to 100 gold? My dears, it is (1d6+4) * 10. 101-500 gp? Easy: 5d10*10. Here's a list: 50-100 = (1d6+4)*10 101-500 = (5d10)*10 501-5000 = (5d10)*100 5001-50000 = (5d10)*1000 50001 is just easier to make beyond a price list Whenever it is a consumable - just cut the price in two. Want to avoid "even" and "clean numbers"? Add a roll of d100 to round up the price (234 instead of dry 200, but that's just flavoring). So, the idea is that whenever players want to stockpile on their supplies, refer to Deficient Master's table of reaction. If a merchant is "tightfisted", roll the price with advantage. If he's generous - or made generous - then roll at a disadvantage. Thus it will make huggling: a) viable b) fast c) roll based, thus honestly ruled. I usually base my haggling on either charisma (understandably) or Intelligence (knowing market pricing and so on). Hope it helps whoever finds it! :)

This channel needs more views. Its hurts me you aren't getting them yet!!!!

Love the sheet!

I like the humor of this video! Nive way of making interesting vids!

I love all deficient master videos

This is perfect! I have been trying to get my fellow players to adopt some sort of slot-based encumbrance system. Your video is not only more entertaining than me, but your system easily to understand and flexible enough that it will probably be more appealing to them!

I tend to gloss over a lot of encumbrance rules and just wing it with common sense. Bags of holding are indeed handy. Remember that a lot of those utility items and spells were created by early players to solve practical problems of dungeoneering. Id say check in with your players to see what they like. If a rule makes something less fun, don't do it. I think my hack-n-slash table would panic at the slot based system, but it may work well for your crew. For those that like the crunch of teaching everything from food and water to torches, could someone remind me of the weight of a sword in coins? Love the videos, superb presentation, and yes, I read the wall of text - your efforts are not in vain. BTW, how many slots does a box of 9mm take up?

I use Str Score = amount of things they can carry. Since I play my own game, which is an utterly simplified D&D, almost zero edition-like, they can hardly ever carry more than 13 or 14 things with them at once.

Ah yes sorcerer of the shoreline, sanitar

I use a slot system with the amount of slots being hit die + strength modifier, making a barbarian with +4 str have 16 slots and a wizard with -1 str have only five

1:04. I handwaive all of the really minor items in the game, and I run bolt, so that wizard could carry 11 longswords and 1 spellbook. You can carry a number of items equal to your strength score. Things like clothing food water are all handwaived, you can carry 12 important items with 12 strength. This ruling has changed constantly over the years, this is it's current iteration. But the current iteration means, that's all you've got, 11 longswords no potions or magic items or shit.

I like most have been working on my Own RPG system for couple years now and also like the Slot system and agree the less slots will make it more interesting, what will you carry and what will you have to leave. ... your Inventory hand out is cool, Maybe Cut the post it in Half and Make all the Spots for Half size, so you can fit the parts off edges on to the page (and save post its at the same time). OR just laminate it with all on one page so they can dry ease on it. ... I DO like this, First Thumbs up

I also made a more complex version of the slot based inventory. Works like a charm. But I should limit it a bit more. 6 slots +/- strength is a lot.

My system is kinda simple. You get inventory slots equal to 6 + STR score, with the first six being your “on person” slots accessible with a free item interaction, and a number of the slots past that equal to your DEX mod that are turned into “quick access slots” which can be accessed with a bonus action. Each slot holds a singular succinct item. Items can be bundled together if reasonable, though a player must keep track if multiple distinct items are being kept together in a kit or toolbox. If not, I will default to the contents ordinarily kept in the kit. Consumables and ammunition have a 3 pip system, where at certain points you mark “usage”. Using a potion, after a fight where you used your ranged weapon, etc.

I went extra abstract with my solution to D&D’s encumbrance system. “This is heroic fantasy; we only have a couple of hours to get this story in, and I’d like to spend precisely none of it on inventory management simulator. Your characters are experienced adventurers; if it’s basic gear, you have it. If it’s specialized, we’ll talk. As for how much can you carry out? Don’t care; whatever feels reasonable goes. Grab a bag of holding along the way, and I’ll get real fast and loose with what I consider reasonable for you to carry.” Your mileage may vary, and that working is fairly contingent on the specific genre and tropes I’m looking to evoke, but if you’re looking to run a high action/adventure game, chucking the system entirely *is* an option.

I think this is great for in-person games. I think online, the regular encumbrance rules work fine since the math can be automatically calculated.

The problem with the current system is you can carry 60 longswords by weight. The problem with this system is that you can’t fit more than 6 water bottles in your backpack. The best way to truly solve encumbrance would be if every item in the game had both a weight score and a volume score, and you become encumbered if you pass either threshold. Then, it would also need to be incorporated into a VTT or DnD Beyond because frankly, I’m not doing all that math on paper every time I pick something up.

Seasonal depression takes 2 slots

Ever since playing PF2e my preference has really become slot-based encumbrance. I also use the optional rules for that in Old School Essentials when I run it.

A better system for D&D in particular is to have separate "weight" and "encumbrance" values. A sword might weigh 3 lbs but it's weigh more difficult to carry than say 3 lb of lead. So the 'encumbrance' of large items should be significant based on that difficulty. One 50 lb statue might be encumbering enough that it's all one person can carry, and takes up both hands and maybe even blocks sight. Other games might benefit from slots, but D&D is also about hauling treasure back home! Gotta leave room for that.

Gracias, este sistema me será muy útil, también usare tus hojas, saludos

Love the “nope” over warlock 😂

Interesting ideas. Personally, I use the Alexandrian's encumbrance by stone

Personally I would add Backpack slot or something, to carry your backstory items and instruments. It could give you 3 sloots like +1,+2 and +3 str modifier score slots what can hold up to 2 items each, but backpack itself take a slot and you might need roll d6 to use it, or not lose it! Also it might be hard to fight with you backpack on so you need to unpack it. More tense, MORE SWEAT!

cool inventory system

Have you heard of Five Torches Deep? It does something pretty interesting with inventory. It abstracts weight and size both into a resource called "load", and you also have "supply". You spend supply to REFILL consumables, assuming the DM allows it. 5 supply take 1 load, and you have supply equal to your Int score and load equal to your str score. Instead of listing every item and how heavy it is, the book gives some vague guidelines on how much load an item should be, and how much supply it should take to replenish. Things like a torch are 1 load and 1 supply (which you can conceptualize as you having a bundle of torches instead of just 1, and spending your supply is removing one from the bundle).

As a warlock main, I was shot in the heart by that red X

I like this one. I have spent more hours than I'd have liked to, to explain why you cannot carry 5 empty treasure chests not because of their weight but because of their handlling.

Hey, you'll laugh. But this is the system I used for my Stars Wars-flavored ttrpg, I took the one from Troika. Which is pretty much as described, you have 12 locations and when you're in a combat situation, you roll 2d6. For my part, I've added the Force/PTSD powers of my young padawans. I think this system is really brilliant and I thank you for talking about it here!

FWIW, the bag of holding ALSO has a weight limit (It's 500 pounds), can't hold objects too large to fit into the bag's mouth, it's risky to put sharp objects inside it, and only ONE person has really easy access to the contents of the bag. IME, though, yes, it's largely used to simply handwave the encumbrance rules. There's also actually the second dimension (literally) that you didn't touch on, which is what you can carry in D&D is limited by both weight _and volume,_ which is supposed to be why, RAW, you need things like pouches and backpacks and barrels and chests and whatnot, and can't carry 15 longswords on your person despite them only weighing 45 pounds. The problem is, this is ill-defined in game. How much space does a longsword take up? A suit of armor? A sack of flour? AFAIK, the game offers no guidance on this front.

I made one identical to yours but I've simply cut 3x5 notecards in half because sticky notes bug me. I'm testing it out next session.

The Honored one? More like the unmissing one

Personally I don't mind encumbrance as long as it's abstracted. I don't want to calculate every gram/pound of gear. So I am fine with the way PF2E handles it : Item either weighs nothing,, is light or takes up a bulk. 10L=1B. And as for what is close enough to use and what is in the bag and therefore unreachable quickly? Simple : normal bag has 4 bulk capacity, 2 of which doesn't count. But I admit the slot system has more choices then "Can I carry this and not go slow"

I literaly told my players I will not keep track of encumbrance so long, as they don't try to carry anything absurdly heavy. With them also having horses, there wasn't an issue. That is until one player realized that his Heward's Handy Haversack has a weight limit and decided to keep track of his own encumbrance. He then discovered he and his horse were overnecumbered, even with his Haversack being full. I did not actually wan't him to keep track of the haversack's weight limit. Just of what he is putting in there for cases of transdimensional magic interference.

5e couldve got rid of this whole problem by categorizing not with numbered weights but words like light, medium, heavy and very heavy. By having weight carried work similar to spell slots. Having 0 strength allows 4 medium and 1 heavy item on top of 5 equipped items. Light items like arrows are discounted until you hit 500 of them, then they count as a medium weight or you can fit up to 1000 in a heavy slot, gold would count as a light weight also, if youre carrying 1500 gold it might be worth converting that into precious jewellery which is easier to carry. +1 str = 5m 2h +2 str = 6m 3h etc. This way stronger characters are able to carry heavy things and weaker characters need to think harder about whats essential. Some extreme weights could be classified as 2h or higher in case someone wants to carry a gravestone or giants weapon but having most items be either light or medium would simplify things a lot including spells like mage hand where players often need to look up the weight of things before deciding if this is possible.

When a ran a game I didnt bother with encumbarance and just noted down all the loot the party as a whole had in discord channel they could glance through.

Man, I love deficient master! 🔥🔥🔥

Encumbrance and inventory systems are great for old school dungeon crawls or games more focused on survival / exploration. The problem is that the vast majority of D&D games played nowadays are more about story / combat. The choices you make are more abstract and narrative. Players nowadays prefer to run games focused more in their characters’ and villains narrative arcs, rather than running games about gritty survival / exploration / dungeon crawling. And if that’s the focus of your game, encumbrance just gets in the way. It’s not an objective good thing to have. It really depends on what the focus of your game is.

Weight limits can be fun, but they'd be good for a low magic campaign where every choice becomes more meaningful.

I do something similar to this, but I definitely feel like you need at least 10 inventory slots. I mean, the low-number of inventory slots is great for OSR games, but for heroic fantasy like 5E, I can't think of a character that could even function with so little space, especially if there's hexcrawling. Like maybe a sword and shield battlemaster fighter? But even that's like 3 slots to sword, shield, and armor. Maybe a tool and a potion for some extra uses if you use strength, but utility items like pitons are just out of the question; they're too niche when comparing the opportunity cost of a potion with it and only room for one. Heck, even with 15 slots and bundleable items, my player told me that the starting pack had more items than he could carry. That even included handwaving tents, waterskins, sleepingbags, etc. But I feel like half of that kit is worthless anyway, so it's fine by me. XD Definitely better than "by the book" method of wackidoodle pounds or being able to carry an entire dragon's hoard in your pockets. An interesting thing that Fabula Ultima does is they have "inventory points". You do have slots for main hand and off hand and armor, blahblahblah. But for your consumable items, it just assumes you bought the right one in town and it uses inventory points to get you the desired effect. The more expensive ones that are presumably heavier, cost more IP. Pretty simple. Like curing status conditions, a magic tent to long rest safely, healing potion, mana potion, or even little explosives. That way you keep inventory down and can't just do take anything, but you also don't feel like you need to have foresight to know what to bring with you. The game assumes your characters are smart enough to plan ahead. Also speeds up shopping a ton because you just buy IP in town and move on. Permanent items are usually expensive enough that you save up a few adventures for them, so shopping is really open and close. Some classes focus on IP as well which is fun.

Slots are king. I like your random rolls associated with it as well very cool. B)

Thought: Simple equivalency of strength score to slots (for Medium creatures, halve for Small and double for Large) i.e score of 8 = 8 slots 10 = 10 slots 12 = 12 slots Any item you can reasonably carry or fight with in 1 hand takes up a slot, 2-handed items would take up 2. Half of a creature’s Constitution/equivalent score would be how many hours it can carry a full inventory before needing a short rest.

I think this is where VTTs really shine when it comes to tracking PCs. I also really like the variant rule where you lose 10 movement at every third. It means that pretty much everyone is only carrying stuff that's actually required and the burden gets shared between the characters. It does however make heavy armour really not worth it.

Sorcerer's of the shoreline 🤣🤣🤣

This is great! To clarify does every character get 6 slots and the strength bonus adds the ones that hang of the side? Or start with 3 and each strength bonus adds 1 slot?

weirdly enough I think a pure slot based inventory system works best when Items aren't a focus of your system. Cause if you have a diverse set of useful items and supplies you'd need a large number of slots to make it viable. (ps I don't understand dropping items on getting downed/dying. Either reviving lost teammates is easy in which case they just pick up their items and move on, or reviving is hard or near impossible where the character is already dead so why bother having them only drop some of their items since the team is just gonna have to loot their stuff anyway.)

If weight is abstracted to inventory slots, how do you determine what a character can lift? If I wanted to lift an NPC or party member or even a boulder, how would that be accounted for? 2 slots? 3 slots?

"Dungeon Crawl Classics" ... if it don't have the Caves of Chaos, we've got a problem, mister.

Dude just discovered gear slot systems like Cairn and SHADOWDARK! 🤬

All great ideas....but how to do something like this on a VTT?

Feel bad for the sword

I give my players backpack sheets which solves like 90% of the problem.

Hmmmm… Very cool… But oh god my poor already clutterd table…