1.13.1 Encumbrance

All equipment worn or carried by a character counts towards encumbering him/her. Depending on the total amount of encumbrance, the character will gain a bonus or suffer a penalty on all dice rolls based on his/her CO (representing extent to which speed and balance are affected by encumbrance).

To calculate how heavily encumbered a character is:

First, work out the character's Lift - see lifting and carrying.

Next, work out the character's current weight carried. This is basically the total of the weight of all the items he/she is wearing or carrying. However, there are a few modifiers:

The current weight carried will vary during the course of an adventure, so the player (and referee) may need to monitor this.

Finally, compare the character's current weight carried with his/her encumbrance limit on the following table to determine the bonus or penalty on his/her dice rolls based on CO.

Character's current weight carried

Bonus/Penalty on CO dice rolls Difficulty of dice rolls to avoid tiredness
Light exercise Medium exercise Strenuous exercise
Unencumbered (Up to Lift x 1) +2 1 4 7
Light encumbrance (Up to Lift x 2) +1 2 6 10
Average encumbrance (Up to Lift x 3) +0 4 9 14
Heavy encumbrance (Up to Lift x 4) -2 7 13 19
Very heavy encumbrance (Up to Lift x 5) -4 11 18 Not possible
Extreme encumbrance (Up to Lift x 7)* -6 17 * Not possible Not possible

The last three columns of this table are explained under tiredness (see 1.13.2).

* Under extreme encumbrance, a character can carry up to his/her Lift x 7, but can only stagger around when doing so, and is likely to fall over or drop the weight at the slightest provocation. Dice rolls to avoid tiredness are made every minute rather than every hour.

Rules for encumbrance are modified if the character is swimming.

Effective use of the Martial Arts skill is heavily affected by the ability of the character to move unimpeded. Accordingly, for all dice rolls involving Martial Arts skill and the CO characteristic, the modifier to CO for encumbrance (see above) is doubled.