Why You Should Use Backpack Sheets - GM Toolbox 

0:28, 3rd backpack sheet. I made this, cool to see it appear in your video!

I'm a teacher in Scotland- started a 'GM' school (even though I'm a novice GM myself -whoops!) because there's a lot of interest in D&D and RPG in general in my school. I have recommended your videos to all my budding GMs, hope that's okay. All of these GM toolbox videos are so insanely helpful. Thank you for all that you do :)

I can imagine a dungeon or cave with awkward shadows being cast on a wall. Curious Goblins are wondering is that a moose, a devil or demon with big horns? No it's a barbarian carrying a canoe with a bunch of stuff on his shoulder. ;)

One of those things that you never think of until you see it.

I never go dungeon delving without my trusty canoe! XD

Not only do I love your channel, but I really appreciate the calm, understanding, and thoughtful tone you present it in. You come across as super non-judgmental and relaxed, and I appreciate that!

Barbarian are going to be like ''I put everything in my canoe and carry it all the way''

I've been looking for something just like this now I might be able to stop my players from becoming walking weapons lockers

Maybe there should be a sheet for saddlebags. You know, for if the players buy or rent a mule or stick stuff on a horse, and need to know how much stuff is on there.

We use "slots" as a generic "can you get to something" quickly. Most characters have, for example, 8 weapon slots. A standard sword takes 1 slot, a shield takes 2, a long bow takes 3 (which includes a quiver), rope takes 3 slots, etc. etc. etc. Anything NOT in a slot takes about 10 minutes to get. Anything in a slot is available immediately. We have slots for weapons (which can hold weapons and rope), we have slots for magic items, and slots for "misc" stuff such as flint and steel, scrolls, candles, make-up, mirror, etc.

Been playing d&d off and on since early 80's and don't think I've ever heard of these, great idea, will absolutely be using.

When I played D&D back in the day, I used to keep careful track of everything my character carried and where they were stored. I just used a list though. Never thought of a backpack sheet.

Gm: So what are you guys going to do to disarm this trap? Me: *looks through backpack section filled with scribbled out words, badly erased items that were used and non-understandable abbrevations*

Really cool idea. I tried drawing my character’s gear and found out that I was carrying a whole troll skeleton (with no skull) somehow, so now I have a more realistic perception of what I can carry and what I cannot.

That pack sheet with 4 sword, crossbow, black Smith tools, and strawberry yogurt, is likely the inventory sheet of a Fallout or Elder Scrolls character.

I ran a GI joe game for awhile and this was an essential thing to do. I had them list what equipment they normally carried when they were all suited up for battle. And where it was on them, like in the backpack, utility belt, what pistol they had in their holster, etc. And I had another section for them in their day to day, more civillian/law enforcement look. Really helped to know when a character was carrying a grenade or pistol. It really made things simpler and help work out what weapons and things they had access to in a pinch.

Uses Case Of Strawberry Yogurt in backpack as primary component in Grease spell.

Interesting idea. I'm running a post-apoc d+d at the moment and I think I'll have to start getting players to list what's where on their transports and bags

Early 1980s, we were teenagers, my buddy had bought a new kind of game, an "arrpeegee". We started playing almost as soon as he had opened the box, with a walk-kill-loot cycle. We skipped most of the rules, like encumbrance, that seemed cumbersome (heh). It made the cycle a lot more streamlined, but at the point where I realized that apart from my gear and weapons and various loot, I was carrying *three tower shields made of solid gold*, I knew that I was in a state of sin. But we had boatloads of fun.

I'm definitely one of those types who wouldn't get any use out of this- it's very much why my first magic item in a campaign is almost always a bag of holding or handy haversack. That said, this is a very cool idea.

That pack has so many pouches Rob Liefeld is jealous.

Good thoughts Now my players use the handy haversacks to store their stuff. First time seeing anything like this

An easy way to count encumbrance is to assign weight in integer numbers from 1-6 for items and just have a limited number of lines you can use. So, for example, a player might start out with 40 lines for items and could increase them as they gain more Endurance or bags, a backpack and whatnot. The point is that you no longer have to count, just write in "Sword", put a small dot on the next 3 lines and there you have it - a 4 weight item. Herbs and very small items would be 0, potions and such would be 1, scrolls, wands, etc. 2, short swords 3, larger swords 4, breastplates 5, full armors 6, etc. Of course, if you're playing D&D you'd have to translate their weight system into integers but it shouldn't be too much work. If the work is being done as an item is being equipped, it's fine. The problem with weight counting occurs during the game... then it's annoying and distracts from the game. I invented this system based on the Diablo 2 system, not sure if it exists elsewhere in a better form. Initially I wanted to have items that you could move around, basically a system just like Diablo, but that would require too much set up work. You'd have to create tons of 1-6 square slot paper (or better cardboard) cut outs in which you would later write in items as you acquire them. And you'd need a large 30x30 or something square grid to place them onto. You could even draw more important items instead of just writing in their name. You could attach some small magnets on the bottom of these cardboard cutouts and use a metal sheet or something, I don't know, as I said it's too much work. If you don't mind doing it, it'd be great as you can move around the items, unlike with the line system, in which if you lose an item and erase it's text, you can now only fill it with an item of that size (so if you erase a shortsword of 3 lines, but it was between other lines, you can't really put a 4 sword, even if you have 4 slots available total). In the end though, I prefer the line system, much easier to set up and gives a decent idea of weight and it's fast. And if you want to equip a 4 item but your space is only available as 3 and 1, then tough luck. Just work under the assumption that you can't move items around. I was thinking of making it so that you have a limit on every item weight type, so like you have 20 lines for 1 slot item, 10 for 2, 5 for 3, etc. and that way there wouldn't be a problem of moving things around, but there isn't enough space on a sheet of paper and it forces people to equip 1 of each, instead of using up all their space as potions or only large swords or whatever they want. You know, it limits player agency kind of.

Great idea Seth. I thought about this before, but I like the idea of identitfying what in and outside the pack to say yes you can use the easily accessible stuff quickly, but if it's buried in your pack you need to burn up a combat round to dig it out.

Love it, I use the same concept and it's great to see people searching for Old School concepts they can integrate BACK into all the modern games!

This is the first time I've ever heard of that concept, but it sounds like a really good idea, both for player immersion as well as special circumstances. At least for me personally, I'll use that from now on, thanks. But, depending on the game and the GM, backpacks might be phased out for larger and easier storage (most prominently being Bags of Holding) even relatively early on in a campaign. Especially if the encumbrance rules are very strict and not every character runs around with high strength (or whatever encumbrance might be calculated from in any given game), and having/filling any kind of backpack would lead to the character being permanently heavily encumbered (exception for those systems in which storage simpy adds more carry capacity). So, in the end, what about a sheet like that for the entire body? Funny story for what players consider reasonable in terms of "need to have": A friend of mine had a phase when he would never let his characters travel without at least 50 meters of rope, a shovel, a set of hammers, a crowbar, a few dozen nails of various sizes, a portable anvil (none of his characters could do any smithing, so anybody's best guess what he needed that for), a tent that was too large for the entire group to sleep in, and the list goes on. Which meant that he was always driving a cart full of stuff that he rarely (if ever) needed.

Simple and clever, why I didn't thought about that! The closest thing my group was using was their custom cadillac in post-apocalyptic campaign. That car even got more complex character sheet than the ones my players were using xD

I like this idea for that kind of player you mentioned, the player that carries around several weapons & suits of armor and thousands of coins.

Five Torches Deep has an elegant way around backpack palarva. You have load points (around 6 plus Int modifier) and when you run out of something or your lockpick breaks you just say 'oh my character had the forethought to bring an extra torch, or spare wire for pick locking.' and cross off a load point or two. It cant magic things into your bag you didn't already have, but if you brought rope then you brought enough of it. This cuts out the caring twice as much rope as you ever need or arguing over how many rations to bring.

Oh that's really cool! Especially since people usually just forget about all the stuff they have that could help them in different situations. Very neat idea! I'll suggest it to my players :)

In the groups I have run with we often use the Wagon method. It can be an actual wagon pulled by a mule/horse for fantasy settings to a Van in more modern settings. The Video game DaggerFall uses a varient to great effect. How It works is that the Wagon is is given basically unlimited carry capacity. And its assumed that the anything not on the characters sheets will be stowed on the wagon. The Character sheet is for the combat Load-out of the player, and its assumed that things like Tents, additional ammo will be stowed on the wagon prior to combat, or dropped on the ground in case of an ambush. This works out pretty great as it introduces a new element to combat, Is one of the players driving the wagon, or is it a being driven by an NPC. how fast is it, if its slower then the players it becomes a hindrance. If they have to run do they try to save the wagon or burn it. Does a player disengage from combat to resupply, or grab additional healing pots

Despite not being big on the nitty-gritty, these backpack sheets are fantastic for visualization purposes. They're even adaptable enough for systems that only care about what you're carrying at the moment of necessity, like Blades in the Dark.

I just looked up a bunch of container sheets (wagons, backpack, bag of holding and others) This is such a simple but awesome idea

In the early days when you had followers i used to joke that higher level character's wold have caddies - who would carry a big golf bag of swords /staves and wands

This is fun! I would use them for some systems, but not the ones I usually run, where some or all gear are more or less abstract. Currently I run The One Ring, a system that has one of my favourite takes on equipment and encumbrance. You mainly get encumbrance from "war gear", that is weapons and armour, head gear and shields. They all add up to form your fatigue number. When your endurance(basically hp) goes under your fatigue, you are weary. That way, there are valid reasons for having the best armour or none at all, it validates the player’s choces like that, unlike many systems. All other gear your character has goes under "travel gear". This is everything else and it is very abstract, it has an encumbrance of 0 up until you start failing your fatigue checks with your travel rolls and add travel fatigue(very fitting for a Tolkien-based game). I like this abstraction, it makes sense for the hobbit to always be able to say they have an extra pack of pipe-weed, some cheese or a frying pan in a fitting situation. Edit: actually, this is so fun, I might make som for my players and they can fill them out on the spot, for flavour and fun of it.

So simple, so good! It really helps the players visualize their characters too. Thank you bunches for this!

Damned good idea! I do encourage players to make note of what they're carrying and where, but the notes tend to be pretty inconsistent. Some sort of backpack sheet or load-out sheet that holds all that information would be great. It could easily expand to a character outline showing where weapons are carried or noting pouches/pockets/belt items etc and the contents thereof.

I'd never thought of a backpack sheet, I think I'll try it out. I usually have my players track encumberance by number of items instead of weight: if they fill up all the blanks in a specified "gear" box, then they can't carry anything more. It's not a great way of doing encumberance, but my players tend to prefer it because it means less bothering about specific weight. A backpack sheet will make this a lot more elegant.

Nice, can't say that I've ever come across a dedicated backpack sheet before. Thanks for the head's up.

This is a great idea. I'm starting a new campaign that could use such a sheet. Thanks for posting the drive link. Love the videos as always sir.

I’m about to Start my first game as a gm and all the advices that i found on this channel are super helpfull you are the best !!! I’m gonna run warhammer frp (i know it’not a great choice for a beginner but i love the system and the universe ). If Anyone as an advice feel free to tell me . Ps : sorry for my English it’s not my native language .

An excellent idea! There could also be a separat sheet for pockets in your heavy trenchcoat if you're playing, for example, Cyberpunk.

For a recent D&D 5E setting/campaign I've been working on, Jazz era/1930's vibe but with magical prohibition rather than alcoholic, I made the character sheet with slots for Items on their person (an interaction to get out) in their bag/case (an action to get out) in their vehicle (leave the scene for 1-5 minutes) or left at home (not available without travelling.) One item per slot, worrying about calculating weight just switches my brain completely off, with progressively more slots for how long it takes to get to. I did consider doing a backpack sheet, but with the variety of bags, cases and pockets that folks had in that era it was a lot easier to abstract it to slots instead. Plus made it a hell of a lot easier to make an editable PDF version for my paperless players. Not seen how it plays out yet, but I'll let folks know if this works if anybody is interested.

I subscribed to you just for sharing the backpack contents of one of your players; it was super funny and I'm an O/C list-maker. I especially love funny lists, like the "do not accept checks from" on Apu's Kwikee Mart cash register.

I'm a sorta, kinda casual EDC(EveryDayCarry) guy. Just a little more attentive to details than your typical "spectacles, testicles, wallet & watch" person & this definitely got me to perk up and pay closer attention.

This reminds me of the DM of the Rings strip where Aragorn takes 50lbs of swords from Edoras to sell in the next town. Neat thing though! I’ll be doing this in the future.

Once again as always, seth has delivered unto us a diamond of role playing tips.

thanks for making these videos. even if some of the things don't work with my particular group of players, you always provide good stuff for me to think about and improve in my home games

Each player has some form of inventory sheet anyway. Just note behind each item where it is located, e.g. where on the person or where in/on a backpack or similar container. Or you note it like a folder structure on a computer: - Belt (worn around waist) - scabbard with sword (worn on the left side) - Pouch 1 (worn on the left side) - 23 Silver Coins - Pouch 2 (worn on the right side) - 1 Ruby( worth 2 gold) - 2 emeralds( worth 1 gold each) - Backpack (worn on back) - Side Pocket Left - Wetstone - Sidepocket Right - Handaxe - Main Pocket - Fresh underwear - etc. But it sure is nice to have a graphical representation of your backpack.

Holy cow! I thought I was the only one who did this! And there's a whole treasure trove of dedicated sheets for this!?

Nice one. I had made a similar system where i list off al lairs of clothing (function aswell as "scinns") this whay my charakters uppearence became a lot more reachable aswell. In the end i had a list of bodyparts/clothing lairs that reminds of the Falout 4 geardesign.

I used these! I even had the players keep track of what went where for accessibility so they could immediately use anything on their belt or certain pockets on the bag. They actually seemed to really enjoy it and we had some great moments because they were remembering to check their belts for things they could take out and use in a fight. The druid had prayer beads that cast an armor spell and they were used in every major combat encounter. Compare to another group given the same tools they put it in a bag and forgot they had it even when I asked for it.

The game Im making uses slots. Players can carry more than the slots they have, but only their slots are accesable easily, like you describe with the outer pouches. I find this works well, because it makes sense while being simple enough to use in a game without slowing things down. All items have a size, which is how many slots they take up, and certain clothes and equipment can expand slots, like a bandolier if you need more potions.

Well it was nice when one day I opened Firefox and had your video next to: Brian Baker (Bad Religion / Minor Threat) Plays His Favorite Riffs . Those thumbnails get me thinking which channel is the rightone.

You are great! Thanks a lot for the idea and for share your file!

I've been working on a homebrew game and was pondering if anyone else had considered designing a backpack sheet. Call me pleasantly surprised! 😁 I like the format of yours and visualisation of regularly-used gear, rather than just a list. It feels more immersive and has more personality to me, like seeing the inventory in a Monkey Island game. Thanks for the other examples too. I'll check those out. 😉

Not even a mention of a cart and horse inventories? I expect that to be the next video!

Aaaand you SOLVED encumbrance! As a young gamer (GURPS 3rd) it was the one rule that lured me irrevocably into the hobby with its Promise of Wonderfully Detailed Immersivity. And of course it's the one rule that's always forgotten because in practice it's Colossally Boring. Thank you for this grand tip.

Great video! My players can be a bit...forgetful...when it comes to their inventory so this is useful stuff.

Seth thats what i love about your videos,i believe that as a GM there is always something new to learn and you are always creative about stuff you talk about so this helps a lot. :)

Can't be expected to adventure without that case of yogurt (strawberry) to keep you going!

Wow, thanks a lot! :) This also helps when determining weight stuff. I dont want to calculate how heavy all this stuff is, instead I could print out the things, and if it can fit into "slots" it is possible to carry it.

Modern/sci-fi settings especially need this for combat oriented pcs. A MOLLE system would make accounting for ammo easier and whether they slipped the empties (partially empties too) into a dump pouch. Keeping track of what's in your pockets would help too.

How have I never thought of this before? I hate encumbrance tracking, but I love this idea!

This sort of thing is exactly why my Ranger has a second belt that basically just serves as a bandolier of belt pouches for all kinds of handy stuff. Coins/gems, potions/vials, snacks, chalk and whetstone, sling bullets, all right there so I don't have to worry about my silverware being buried under a spare change of clothes.

I tend to ere on "just keep it reasonable" also but I think im going to look at using some sort of equipment slots in my next game as theres bits of tracking encumberance I really like, - Yes theres a lot of number crunching and looking up weights if you do it properly that suuuuucks ... but if you hand wave it totally you cut out some of those tricky decisions... do i want to travel light or am i ok with my first action in surprise combat to be "i drop my pack". Thinking about how your charachter is actually carrying all this is something i highly recomend regardless... solidifies the picture of them in your mind... my 5e fighter carries a halberd... and what a burden that weapon has to be for him on the march where he has to have it in his hands the whole time. Its long reach has saved his skin more than once though so i have this picture of a real love hate relationship.

Why haven't I thought looking up something like this? This is incredibly useful

I love this layout. I have been kicking around a Homebrew inventory system and really like this concept for displaying it.

I gave my players a bag of holding on the 3rd session because I needed a way to both explain how a kobold had managed to carry a whole bunch of stuff on his own, and a way for them to transport said stuff back to town. In retrospect, I probably should have waited a bit longer to give it to them, but it's mostly fine. Our fighter keeps the inventory list (and usually carries the bag). Players decided everything could just go in the bag though, ignoring encumbrance issues entirely, and sort of turning them into magpies, and allowing them to stop worrying about storage locations...until one day the rogue, who was alone scouting ahead, tried to use an item, and I asked "where were you storing that?" She replied "in the bag of holding." "But Brarran (the fighter) has the bag. He's not with you." "Um. Oh" Now they pay attention to inventory location and posession. They're still magpies though. They found a rock in the pocket of a dead minotaur and kept it as a souvenir.

I love backpack sheets. My favorite ones also have places for belt pouches as well. After all I'm not always wearing my pack, but I never leave home without my utility belt.

I remember playing Resident Evil 1 and at first being really frustrated with the briefcase inventory system. By the time I finished the game, I had incorporated it into my D&D game. To this day, it is the way I do inventory. I don't care how much it weighs, I only care if it fits.

Thanks Seth! This was an amazing idea! We’re starting a new campaign on Monday and I sent this video to our DM. Thank you! Cheers

Love these things. Sadly, I'm almost always a DM anymore, so I haven't gotten to use them in a while.

my first character usually didn't carry enough to warrant this. my second however, had about 5 or 7 portable holes so I had a list of what was in each. and kept the tradition since, nothing fancy just a sheet of paper with a list but still. and and character that ends up with those neat extradimensional space holders I'll do the same

Thanks Seth.

Such a cool idea! Never would have thought of it. Thanks.

How much strawberry yoghurt can fit in a standard canoe? 🤔

I'm the player that exchanges the starting gear for money and then spends the next two hours painstakingly picking out my own stuff and obsessing over how many candles I can afford

I'm planning a new campaing using basic D&D, in which using regular, mundane itens is crucial, so I must find a way to make inventory managing interesting and fun. The fun part is a must, cause if the players feel like it's just boring book keeping the entire concept of the campaing will flop.

I really like backpack sheets. There has been a sort of sub-genre of D&D-like games I call Inventory based, games where the equipment on your sheet is the most valuable thing you can have. You don't get many class or race abilities (if any), instead relying on gear, and magic items to carry play forward. Torchbearer, Troika!, Knave, these are all great examples, going from more simulationist, to more abstract. I love this sort of thing though.

Pouches!!! You must have been channelling Rob Leifeld. He's the creator of Deadpool and iconic for his addition of tons of pouches to his characters, especially Cable.

I saw a game made by a buddy of mine that had its own inventory sheet/screen which is pretty cool because they did a bunch of neat stuff with it. If you ever get the chance you should take a look at it.

I've been playing around with the idea of using Deus Ex / Immersive Sim style grid inventory. You could also call it Resident Evil 4, Diablo inventory if those games are more familiar to you.

This can be fun. I can see a player having fun in an urban monster-hunting game by drawing an inventory sheet that looks like a car trunk. But! honestly, I am likely to never institute this into any of the games I run. I won't use it for all of the same reasons that I don't use emcumbrance rules. When I think about it, these backpack sheets are emcumbrance rules but swapping a visual reference for weight or volume numbers. Handwaving just works better when we're grappling with limited game time, a more precious resource than backspace space.

Back when I was playing D&D over IRC and using spreadsheets for character sheets instead of using something like Roll20, one of the things I did was make backpacks a separate section that was weighed separately. This was because any sane medium encumbered character (with a backpack on) is going to drop their pack when the fight starts. (Presuming they have all their important-for-battle stuff somewhere on their belt.) Most of the time, the backpack was for either food and camping supplies or else for hauling back loot, neither of which was important in battle. This of course doesn't even get started on a bag of holding. One of the problems with Roll20's system (which I pick on because I play Roll20, not because I think it is worse than any other virtual tabletop) is that you can either mark yourself as always wearing that equipment on your body, or you don't mark it as having any weight at all. This makes it really, really hard to use things like bags of holding or handy haversacks "properly". I only get 100 lbs, and I know that all my basic camping crap like a tent and bed roll and cooking pot takes up like 60 lbs, but they all have to be set to 0 lbs because they're in the handy haversack, so what am I gonna do? (Generally, just cast Floating Disk and use that as an extra excuse for not even bothering to keep track of it all...)

like you said, we have always used the reasonable amount of equipment rule. my groups have a tendency to find portable holes and bags of holding to that help make this less of a problem. That's after they have a few levels under there belt.

This is an excellent suggestion, Seth. Thanks! 😊

Quality Seth content as always

Back in the 80s when we had those classic fake parchment character sheets, one of my players had his filled out indicating that on his left side was carried his heavy war horse. That was a running joke for many many years.

there is a character sheet i had seen from some italian website/company that actually has a space set out for the inventory in a pack and where it is located and where on your person certain weapons are. it also has a field for encumberance and push/pull/drag numbers which i thought was a intuitive design and inclusion for the sheet...

If I use a backpack sheet, I prefer to use the grid method from Diablo. A backpack holds around 35 grid slots, and each item takes up a certain number of grid slots in a specific pattern. a longsword, for instance takes up a 3x2 grid slot (6 grid slots in total). Figuring out where each item goes and how they each fit is easier that way, in my opinion.

Nice! I’ll be using this in my next game!

I organize my digital CS inventory like that haha. Backpack, belt, body, other.

"This is what 15yo me was doing when he should have been taking notes in class!" Honestly it looks like that worked out pretty well for you! xD Great tips thanks! :D

I like this idea! I'ma definitely run try it with my players. And thanks for the resource!

Until next time Seth, have a great day!

This is the best dnd chanel.

Nice Video! Thank you for sharing with us. Can't wait to see more 👍

this reminds me of something I ended up doing in skyrim and fallout new vegas with mods in skyrim I have the bandoleer satchels mod so I can carry around an extra few hundred pounds of gear and the drawven luggage mod that I se as a traveling cart or wagon /bulk storage I don't normally keep my inventory stocked to the max mostly I just have the added inventory for holding stuff between depositing it in the luggage/selling it off in new vegas there's a companion mod for a pack bramin you can use to carry I think 300 pounds of gear so its nice for when you want to carry multiple suits of armor or like your heavy gear. just having a sheet or atleast a loose idea of what you absolutely need to keep on you as you go vs what you can keep in the wagon/cart for special occasions or just carrying loot. otherwise I'd end up carrying around like pounds of meat junk food scrap armor and weapons, weapon mods, random items I grabbed when i was looting stuff. having something like this in mind just helps keep things reasonable

Done this for decades. Also do it for belt pouches/pockets and any other container I carry.