Thoughts on Encumbrance

5E Encumbrance is ridiculous, so much so that I suspect nearly everyone house rules or hand waves it. I've read a few of the variants around the blogsphere and thought I'd post my own.

Encumbrance

Instead of tracking weight, we take bulk into account. Each character can carry a number of items. An item easily held in one hand counts as one item, an item that requires two hands counts as two items. Some rather big items such as plate armor or a backpacks full of stuff might count as 3 or 4. Regarding smaller items, if you could hold 12 arrows in one hand that's one item.

Ones load is divided into categories Lightly Encumbered and Heavily Encumbered.

• Light Load - Carrying a number of items equal to your STR or CON, whichever is lowest. 
• Heavy Load - Carrying a number of items equal to your STR or CON, whichever is highest. In addition to being slower (see below) all skills, saves, and checks are Disadvantaged while Heavily Encumbered.

For example a character with 8 CON and 12 STR. 8 Items or less is lightly Encumbered, 9-12 items is Heavily Encumbered, and 13 items is just too much.

Movement from LoTFP

Load	Movement Turn Exploration	Movement per Round Combat	Movement per Round Running	Miles per day
None	240	80	240	48
Light	180	60	180	36
Heavy	120	40	120	24

Note: for some reason in my notes I had half the values used by LoTFP but both 5E and LoTFP use a 6 second round (at least I think they do) so I'm not sure why. I decided to restore them to LoTFP speeds for now.

Carrying Items

All weight isn't equal. Some items aren't removed, other items are consumed, and of course treasure is added. So loads are generally split into two categories:

• Things you wear - Not just clothes but armor, and weapons on your belt, shield on your arm, etc. This rarely changes much and really, seriously, be kept to the Lightly Encumbered level.
• Things you carry - These are the things you'll dump if forced to run away! Typically includes backpacks, sacks, and satchels. These might even be dropped prior to each and every battle (which allows for a quick escape, but also means losing your gear). Grognards might pay hirelings to carry this stuff on their behalf.

Size Categories

Sizes are useful for comparison sake and because adventurers are likely to end up dragging dead friends around. Creatures come in five basic size categories

1. Small (rats and dogs) (4-12 Items)
2. Medium (Halfling to horse) (12-130 Items)
3. Large (Really big bear, moose) (131-160 Items) 
4. Huge (Rhino, Elephant) (161-250 Items)
5. Massive (Dinosaur) (251-300 Items)

Humanoid size can be approximated by averaging CON and STR, I think.

Other Notes

• Satchels and sacks are easier to drop than backpacks. Players should be encouraged to divide their loads into stuff they are willing to drop and stuff they won't drop except in an emergency.
• Satchels and sacks are easiest to access in a rush. Food and coins can distract pursuit. Oil pots can be lit and thrown. Players should be encouraged to consider this sort of thing lest they be forced to remove a backpack and dig through it during an emergency.
• Beasts of Burden can handle heavier loads. Instead of the highest and lowest between CON and STR a Beast of Burden adds CON and STR together to determine their Heavy Load. Beasts of Burden have no Light Load.
• Where to put all of this stuff while they drink in a tavern is something the GM should consider as well. At some point paying the Silversmith guild in order to use their safe, or finding a Goblin Bank starts to make sense and can drag the characters into the factions of a settlement.
• 1000 gp = 1 item (assumes a sack or small chest). The weight and bulk of 1000 gp worth of coins is roughly the same no matter what denomination of coins comprise the pile. A pile of gold will be small and heavy, a pile of copper coins will be a lot of lighter coins. It mostly evens out.