Once you have completed provisioning and outfitting your character, you now need to figure what his encumbrance will be. Since a strict accounting of the character’s equipment and belongings would be tedious and undesirable, and just not very much fun at all, we have therefore come up with the following rules.

Basic Equipment – A character’s Basic Equipment does not count towards encumbrance. Basic equipment is defined as the following:

• 4 Belt Pouches – containing up to their weight limit of not more than 5-10 lbs per pouch.
• Weapons – the character may have 1 large or huge weapon, or 2 medium weapons. 2 Small weapons count as a single Medium weapon. Two Tiny weapons count as a single Small weapon. This includes any weapon belts and/or scabbards and quivers that are associated with the weapon. Please note that the weapon sizes listed here are based upon the sizes given in the Weapons table on p. 38.
• Armor & Clothing – any worn armor and clothing. Some armors have their own penalties associated with wearing them. Those penalties are not considered to be part of encumbrance and are treated separately.

Backpack – A character’s backpack can be encumbering, especially as it starts getting full. If the backpack is at least half full, the character will receive an encumbrance modifier to all rolls based upon Speed and/or Dexterity. This includes skill rolls, stat rolls, and Saving Throws.

This modifier is equal to -3 plus the character’s Strength Stat Bonus. If the backpack is full, the encumbrance modifier is equal to -5 plus the character’s Strength Stat Bonus. The character’s Strength Stat Bonus can never raise the encumbrance modifier to more than zero.

Encumbrance Unit – Outside of a character’s Basic Equipment and Backpack, a character may carry an amount equal to 2 lbs per for each point of their Strength Stat Value. Thus a character with a Strength Stat Value of 15 has an Encumbrance Unit of 30 lbs. Each full Encumbrance Unit gives the character a -2 modifier to all actions. Especially large or bulky items can impose greater modifiers. If the character is carrying more than 2 Encumbrance Units, his Movement Rate is halved, and he will be unable to dodge, or perform any other types of similar actions.