Handling inventory and encumbrance is one of the harder game management triangles when it comes to realism, drama, and avoiding tedium. In this week’s post I look at some of the more popular methods of dealing with inventory and my own thoughts on the options.
Inventory By Weight
One of the more common methods of inventory management, especially in more classic fantasy games, is for player character to have a list of every piece of inventory they (or their retainer(s), animals, etc.) carries, each item with an assigned weight. Encumbrance modifiers are then assigned based solely on that weight. While this does mean that drama can be created by not having a specific piece of equipment, the list-keeping properties and constant weight-checking can become tedious. Many Game Masters avoid weight checks to reduce some of the list management, but inventory tracking can still become a chore. This system also frequently neglects fragility of items, storage placement, and unwieldiness of certain items. Many adventurers in classic fantasy carry 10’s poles indoors without regard to their height or terrain. Despite some of the overall issues, having a complete inventory list does avoid table chatter/argument of what a character might have—and can lead to some dramatic or humorous scenes when an inventory item is missing or broken.
Inventory By Slots
The “inventory slots” management system was more recently applied by Starfinder. While players are still expected to catalogue their equipment, items are assigned general scores based on general weight and girth. This helps accommodate for lighter, but bulkier, items still being a potential burden and allows easier and faster math to determine a character’s level of hindrance from their inventory. This methodology still shares many of the weight-based inventory pros and cons and introduces potentially weird situations in which items listed as “negligible” or with a score of 0 can be potentially purchased and carried at an absurd level within the rules of the system. A billiard ball, for example, may have a zero score, but from experience I can assure you that they do fill up a backpack and one can feel a backpack’s worth of weight for said spheres. (To be fair, some rule books do note that an item “stack” can increase its inventory score.)
Abstract Inventory
A more character-focused, lighter-rules approach has been to asks players for a list of some general items their characters would carry and to solve inventory needs on the fly. In systems like Fate Core a character might have an aspect of “Loaded for Bear” or “I’ve Got It, I Just Need To Find It,” implying the character has a large amount of inventory on their person. While this does avoid list-keeping and stressing about what something might weigh, it only does so on the surface level. As games continue, presidents for what a character carries are set and if one were to look back over a campaign of what the character has on their person, it may seem like they were saddled with quite a great deal of inventory. The lack of a specific list of items also means any drama or puzzle-solving based on not having the right item at the right time is either lost or becomes a table-wide trade of “story points.”
Ammunition
A subset of character inventory is their weapon ammunition. I’ve only known a handful of GMs in may decades of gaming who have asked characters to track ammunition. Again, it’s a difficult line to gauge drama and the need for improvisation against list-keeping and player agency. In abstracted systems it may be that players are not required to track the number of shots taken. With the more conceptual inventory systems a GM can announce to a player that their ammo is running low and a player may choose when they can no longer take a shot, but in my experience that seems to be a rarity. For more detailed systems tracking bullets or arrows can become a tedious chore. Recoverable ammunition like arrows or bolts can potentially slow down post-combat, as well, as player characters search bodies for loot and attempt to refill their ammo from the fallen (this typically requires a roll for each projectile fired to determine reusability).
No Easy Answers
I’ve yet to find an style of inventory system that I absolutely love that works for every game. I don’t expect the perfect universal methodology exists, given that different RPGs have a different focus between tactics and story-telling. However, I’ve yet to even find an inventory management style in a specific game that seems to avoid problems. In theory, there may be a solution in technology. Apps moving tabletop gaming inventory towards a more CRPG-style of inventory management would allow for faster list-taking combined with weight and slot management. This could be combined with a story point system to give players the option (with GM approval) of adding to their inventory on the fly.
However, the idea of an app that fixes the issue is purely hypothetical and could lead to problems when it comes to odder inventory items. Additionally, many GMs try to avoid allowing electronics at the table as they can be a distraction for even the most dedicated player.
I read through a number of forums when writing this post and there are no easy answers to handling character equipment and encumbrance. GMs do what’s best suited for their table and style of gameplay, but no one seems particularly satisfied. Personally, I typically take the abstract inventory approach in order to focus on the rest of the action, but there are times when it has gotten in the way of a puzzle or trap.
How does your table typically handle inventory?
Recent Comments