Presenting the Only Good Encumbrance System for 5e

Edit: It turns out most people just want the rules and not the editorial - If you don't want to know why you should use encumbrance and will just take my word for it, skip to the last section, or see the printable PDF of the rules here and the new inventory sheet here.

Mundane rules lead to weighty choices

For games to really make you immerse yourself in the world, and to creatively use your tools to "attack" things that don't have statblocks, i.e. problems and obstacles, some semblance of verisimilitude is required.* Even if the mechanical representation of verisimilitude is highly abstracted and streamlined, instead of a 100% accurate simulation, then as long as they make players care about the environment a little bit, the rules are successful.

If characters need to eat each day, for example, they might need to think before charging into the vast desert. They might have to decide whether to hire a ranger, find a certain spell, eat their own mounts... That means thinking about the people, animals etc. of their environment. Do you butcher the trusty steed that has served you for the entire campaign? Do you take all the treasure, or do you carry more food and rope? Do you prepare a non-combat spell for once? Do you negotiate a truce with the monstrous humanoids for a place to eat and rest? Do you discard food or treasure to distract the enemy and escape?

Choices! Choices are the essence of the game. If the players are not making meaningful choices, then they're not playing, they're just chatting and listening to the DM's story. More choices per session means more play is happening. (But note, again, that they have to be MEANINGFUL choices. Anything that is not meaningful can be skipped, condensed, fast-forwarded, dealt with in a montage. If every shop has the same prices and none of the shopkeepers are my character's long lost brother, then I don't need to act out finding a shop and purchasing some lamp oil. Meaningful choices have consequences.)

Of course, the player-invented subgoals that arise from thinking of the environment as a real and organic world may veer the game off the railroad tracks. But, believe it or not, it's actually more fun that way. The game becomes more like a real adventure story with sidetreks and surprises, rather than a string of arena combats.

* 'Verisimilitude' instead of 'realism' so that nobody complains that dragons are not realistic.

Mundane rules unburden the DM

Some people believe that things concerned with verisimilitude are boring, and thus they don't need rules. But in fact, the reason that those things most of all need good rules is to prevent the implementation of verisimilitude from becoming a bore at the table. It is the game designer's job to make the player-facing procedures for tracking time, light, weight, and resources so quick and easy that they will actually use them and not throw them in the trash after ten minutes because it's a chore (and the benefits haven't become apparent yet). If the DM, being equipped with good rules, doesn't have to constantly make on-the-spot rulings about this or that mundane factor, then they are free to make more rulings on exciting and fantastic things. Like jumping onto flying monsters or whatever.

The game designer has to do all the hard up-front work of abstraction, making spreadsheets and playtesting to boil down mundane considerations to their essentials so that they have smooth and balanced procedures later on. The other option is for everyone to just say "fuck it" and not think about such things for a moment, run from combat to combat carrying 20 warhammers, spend limitless time on any task because they never have to eat, and so on. I'm not saying that's badwrongfun. But if the rules do their job, then you have the option of trying something different.

Encumbrance as it exists in 5e

Speaking of playtesting... D&D 5e has optional rules for different levels of encumbrance (PHB p. 176). I'm going to make a claim right now that those rules have never been playtested. Literally no one in the world uses those rules, but I believe that even the creators of the game have never attempted to use them. They're so off-kilter, I don't think anyone has even put them into a spreadsheet to check out how the numbers turn out... But I have done just that. You will be enraptured to know that a Paladin's starting equipment of 127 lbs. puts them well into lightly encumbered status, and at 70% of the way into heavily encumbered. That's a 10' speed reduction, BEFORE picking up any loot. And that's assuming an 18 Strength, which is the highest possible for a starting character. So I'm going to say the numbers were asspulled and never checked, because nobody cared. Which makes you wonder why they bothered to print a "weight" column onto the item list.

Luckily, I have solved this problem by creating actually good rules for encumbrance that are based on abstract slots - one item per slot, most of the time. I even did the spreadsheet calculations for you: using these rules, characters start only 40-70% of the way to lightly encumbered (instead of potentially 140-190% as using the misguided rules from the Player's Handbook). There have been similar slot- or stone-based systems in other games, and some fan-made ones for 5e, but the balance maths on those was rather off and they were still far more detailed than necessary. These rules, however, are complete and perfectly balanced. They are the only encumbrance rules you will ever need for 5e. They take even less time than tracking your spell slots, so you no longer have an excuse to ignore encumbrance, plus they fit on one single page. I even included a ready-made inventory sheet which doubles as a cheat sheet for the rules. You're welcome.

Read the full rules below or in a printable one-page PDF here. See the PDF of the inventory sheet/cheat sheet here.

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Variant rules for 5e: Slot-based encumbrance

You can carry up to 10 + your Strength score in item slots without penalty. Above that limit, you are lightly encumbered, and your speed becomes 20’. While encumbered, racial speed modifiers have no effect, and you cannot benefit from any passive bonus to speed such as Unarmored Movement, although you can still benefit from temporary effects such as spells.

If carrying more than 20 + their Strength score, you are heavily encumbered, decreasing your speed further to 10’, and giving you disadvantage on attack rolls, Dexterity and Strength saving throws, and all physical ability checks.

If you are carrying more than 30 + your Strength score, you are over-encumbered, and your speed becomes 0'.

The first 10 item slots in your list, plus up to 100 coins or gems, are considered to be on your belt, pockets, or otherwise easily available. The rest are in your backpack, and cannot be retrieved without using an action to dig through the backpack.

• Normal items take up one slot: one-handed weapons, shields, arcane foci, lanterns, waterskins, flasks of oil, bedrolls, hunting traps, quivers (with up to 20 ammunition), etc.

• Light items can be bundled up to 5 items in one slot: torches, rations, small vials, daggers, light hammers, handaxes.

• Coins and gems can be bundled up to 100 in one slot.

• Heavy items take up two slots: weapons with the heavy property, as well as tents, chests and ladders.

• Medium armor takes up 2 slots, and heavy armor 4 slots.

• Tiny items such as paper, quills, and anything that can be fit in your palm does not count towards encumbrance, nor do empty bags, nor does worn clothing, light armor or jewelry.

For races with the Powerful Build racial trait, all encumbrance thresholds increase by 10 slots. For larger creatures, encumbrance thresholds increase by 10 slots for each size category above Medium. For a creature pulling a vehicle, its load counts as 10 slots less per each axle of the vehicle.

Slots threshold	Speed category	Speed		Disadvantage on physical rolls
-	Normal	Normal*		-
Strength score + 11	Lightly encumbered	20’		-
Strength score + 21	Heavily encumbered	10’		Yes
Strength score + 31	Over-encumbered	0’		Yes

*Normal speed depends on your race, as well as passive speed bonuses. Race and passive speed bonuses have no effect on speed while encumbered.

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Death rules for OSR games: Three Critical Conditions

I was inspired to adapt Eric Diaz at Methods & Madness's nice idea for a death mechanic to 5e. Here a version for OSR games. I think it could be a nice system that's relatively simpler than some of the other ones out there that use chits, dice pools etc.

This version is somewhat more deadly, to be more in tune with the typical OSR baseline and playstyle. Though I reckon it's less deadly than, say, LotFP's default death rules, which, in turn, are less deadly than the original "dead at 0 HP, period" rules.

Death saving throws have been replaced here with rolls under Constitution. Perhaps you prefer using saves vs. Death, or a straight 50% chance, instead.

The Weakened condition raises you from e.g. lightly encumbered to heavily encumbered, and since in LotFP chases you roll 1d20+speed, it might lead to some interesting choices.

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Variant death rule: Critical Conditions

There are no negative hit points. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you suffer one of the following critical conditions of your choice that you are not already suffering from: Bleeding Out, Weakened, or Knocked Out. If you take any damage while at 0 hit points, you suffer another critical condition.

Bleeding Out. Each round, roll under Constitution or suffer another critical condition.

Weakened. You have -4 penalty on all d20 rolls and -1 penalty on all d6 skills. You count as one tier of encumbrance higher. If you cast a spell, roll under Constitution or suffer another critical condition.

Knocked Out. You are unconscious. If left alone, this condition ends after 1 hour.

Death. If you have all three critical conditions at the same time, you die. You also die instantly if excess damage at 0 hit points equals or exceeds your hit point maximum.

Healing at 0 hit points. If an effect would restore hit points to you, you instead remove one critical condition with the following priority: first remove Bleeding Out, then Weakened, and lastly Knocked Out. You cannot gain hit points until all critical conditions have been removed.

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Death's door part 5: Three Strikes And You’re Dead

Go to Part 4

Six months since I last wrestled with the death & dying rules in D&D 5e, having played some 5e and some LotFP in the meantime, the time has come to start yet another 5e campaign. Which means I am once again wrestling in my mind with the death & dying rules, probably my least favourite part of 5e.

My previous attempts to solve the problem are unsatisfactory, and that is even more clear looking back at them through the separation of time. To be totally honest, none of the rule variants have been playtested. Part of the reason for founding this blog was to have a place to write down these ideas for potential solutions to problems, in a cleanly edited format. This allows getting them off my mind, taking a step back to judge them and possibly getting some external feedback, and only then iterate, playtest, and iterate.

The problems with the variants that I can see are complexity, and difficulty of balancing. A good rule shouldn’t take a dozen or more bullet points to lay out. And the knockout table, while tense and fun, is impossible to balance. A random table with not only many different kinds of consequences with variable probabilities, but also with a dynamic probability that scales with the amount of damage taken? That is an equation with far too many variables.

So while I think those ideas did solve the problems I set out to solve, they didn’t satisfy the criteria of simplicity and balance. And thus, I’m attempting to solve the same problem once again. I was inspired by this post by Eric Diaz at Methods & Madness. He suggests a system where you have three boxes to tick representing three different status effects, ticking one at a time, and a character being dead when all three boxes are ticked. However, the rules presented are undeveloped. I present my own adaptation of the idea for 5e below.

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Variant death rules for 5e: Three Strikes

When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you fall prone, lose concentration, and you must make a death saving throw (10+ is a success, 1 and 20 are not special). On a failure, you suffer one of the following conditions of your choice that you are not already suffering from: bleeding out, weakened, or knocked out. If you take any damage while at 0 hit points, you automatically suffer the effects of a failed death saving throw.

Bleeding out. You must make a death saving throw at the start of each of your turns.

Weakened. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. If you cast a spell, you must make a death saving throw after casting it.

Knocked out. You are unconscious (see PHB p. 292). This condition ends after 1 hour.

Death. If you have all three conditions at the same time, you die. You also die instantly if excess damage at 0 hit points equals or exceeds your hit point maximum.

Healing at 0 hit points. If an effect would heal you or otherwise stabilize you, remove one of these conditions at a time with the following priority: first bleeding out, then weakened, then knocked out. You cannot gain hit points until all of these conditions have been removed.

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Rationale

You will notice the rules are relatively lenient. You get a save at 0 HP before suffering any conditions, and you only suffer one failure from taking a hit, even critical hits. This is intended, in order to solve one of the original problems in 5e: you’re unconscious a lot (not fun), but you almost never die (not tense). Here, those probabilities are pushed in the opposite directions.

Although you're less likely to become unconscious or start dying, it is far more difficult to stop the process in the middle of battle: instead of a single heal getting you up and running as usual, each heal now just removes one failure-tick. Emergency room-style situations where you're racing with death to resuscitate someone should happen more often now. Even after removing all ticks and bringing you to consciousness, you are at 0 hit points, so taking damage means an automatic death save failure. After all, one of the goals with these houserules was to make retreats more of a consideration, instead of every battle being one to the bitter end. Thus, these rules are more fitting for a sandboxy campaign where getting out of there and going somewhere else instead is an option. If you are playing a plot-based railroad where every encounter is mandatory, these may not work for you.

The element of player choice introduces some strategy. Do you take a hit to your combat capability and attempt to flee? Do you grit your teeth and keep fighting at full strength through the pain, but risk dying - going down in a blaze of glory to save your comrades? Or do you fall unconscious on the ground? Well, the last one of these is clearly the worst option. However, consider that different enemies behave differently. Some intelligent foes may always prioritize the greatest threat, thus leaving you alone when you’re lying motionless. Some, like zombies, may keep clawing at the closest fleshy thing. And some animals looking for a meal may just try to drag you back to their lair and avoid the other threats. A good DM should always roleplay the enemy’s tactics, and you should take that into consideration when choosing how you go down.

These houserules have not been playtested, but will be in the coming weeks. If it is found that they are too lenient and no one ever (almost) dies, the difficulty will be tuned upwards by making automatic failures more common, or by increasing the target number of death saves, or adding critical death save failures. Or maybe it would be fun if dashing while weakened would cause you to fall prone at the end of your move - a bit of risk-and-reward for chase situations? We shall see.