Brand new to the game, first session as GM in about a week. Ive been working up my game files and the first few scenarios for a month or so now, heres one area Im concerned about.

A typical character has an encumbrance threshold of 5 plus their Brawn, so lets say an average guy then gets 7.

Lets make him a soldier - Blaster Rifle (Enc 4), Blaser Pistol (Enc1), two Frags (Enc 1+1) OOPS hit the limit but now

a combat knife (Enc1), Medpac (Enc 1), Binoculars (Enc1), and we can be kind and call some extra powerpacks for his blaster, and some ration bars and personal goodies incidentals but we should probably also include a canteen (Enc1) a poncho or cloak of some kind (Enc 1 not worn) and then...

I could go on but my point is that this guy doesn't appear to be carrying a terrible load but according to the rules is WAY over his threshold and subject to restrictions. I didn't include armor either. (I know you subtract 3 from the ENC of armor when worn but the heavier stuff would still impact him and perhaps justifiably so I left it out of the example.)

Are the encumbrance rules a bit strict in your opinions? Do you GMs give a little leeway in these cases, not instituting a penalty until the perceived load appears to be a burden aside from the math?

Thanks in advance

Right now, your guy is trying to carry all that in his hands. So yes, he's reached his Encumbrance limit.

What your character is not taking advantage of is storage pieces, like backpacks and utility belts, which increase your character's Encumbrance Limit. Go check em out and you'll find you have enough for all that with one backpack and a military harness or utility belt.

Even so, I tend to go fast and lose with Encumbrance unless someone with a Brawn of 1 is trying to carry a bunch of rifles...

That's what utility belts and backpacks are for. Backpacks don't have to be "backpacks" but can represent vests, knapsacks, even "fanny pack" like things. I know, Han Solo didn't run around with a backpack...but he didn't have the items you listed on hand, either.

I don't think the encumbrance rules are strict at all. I think they're rather "simple yet elegant," personally. But that's me...YMMV, of course.

I think it helps to keep things somewhat faithful to the movies, too. Luke, Leia and Han were never hauling around a lot of gear; instead they tended to only go places with their primary weapons, or kept useful tools on utility belts.

Same character then decides to grab a backpack (+4 ET), strap on a utility belt (+1 ET) and put a sling on his/her rifle (now only 3 enc.) and and is totally fine carrying everything.

Or just hand wave it unless people are getting ridiculous.

If you want to be a walking arsenal then you need to have the right equipment to do so, as already noted. Utility belts, load-bearing gear, backpacks, etc. must be utilized if you want to carry a lot of stuff.

2nd paragraph Encumbrance section, p. 152 EoE.

"In general, players and the Game Master won't need

Make Encumbrance an issue when it needs to be an issue, but don't get bogged down in nit picky bookkeeping and minutiae every session. I do agree you need to be wearing a belt/harness/bandoleer of some type. Given an appropriate accessory for carrying stuff and/or some thought paid to it for the load you describe, I wouldn't trouble myself with a bunch of arithmetic for the sake of it imo.

I sort of agree with this. On the one hand, unless players are doing something ridiculous, I won't bother to constantly harp on about their limit. There's no need to constantly remind them they're carrying more than they need to when, say, they're on a shopping trip and are heading back to their ship afterwards, or if they're just in a cantina getting a mission, or whatever.

HOWEVER, I will point out to players that they've exceeded their limit, and I will apply the penalties to Agility and Brawn roles for being over that limit, and I will apply the penalties to manoeuvres for being over their limit + brawn. The reason I do this is that a) it makes my players actually think about what gear they are going to need for any particular mission (i.e. it prevents my soldier from simply carrying around ALL OF THE GUNS instead of thinking about whether the sniper rifle or the shotgun is more useful, and it prevents my scout from carrying ALL OF THE SURVIVAL GEAR instead of thinking about where the mission is headed, etc.), and b) it prevents players from ridiculous looting sprees. In short - having an encumbrance limit forces players to make choices, which makes things interesting.

In response to the OP, I would say that, as long as you make use of backpacks, utility belts, tracker vests, smuggler's coats and the various other items that exist to increase a player's encumbrance threshold, I've found the limit to be about right.

(As a completely unrelated sidenote: lack of realistic encumbrance/looting restrictions is one of my biggest pet peeves with computer/console RPGs. Something like Skyrim would have been much harder, and more interesting, if instead of being able to strip several bodies of steel armour I could only carry a couple of items. Would really add some thought to the art of looting, rather than making it an automatic "take all". But I digress).

*cough* infinite backpacks!*cough*

Other systems tend to handwave encumbrance. This one doesn't. It seems hard on the PCs, until you realise that pulp heroes usually don't carry tons of gear. Indiana Jones or Han Solo travelled pretty light, huh? So the usual vidyagame thing of carrying around dozens of guns won't work here. I've found it actually focuses the players on what they really NEED to carry.

If you must lug around tons of gear you can always stock the spare stuff in a vehicle or a ship (but they don't have limitless space either).

My basic approach is someone of a standard human sized race wearing a belt and cross slung bandoleers for example, tells me they wanna carry a pistol, a knife, resonably sized long gun, a comm, binoculars, a couple few stim packs, a grenade and chewing gum, I am not going to bother myself with adding up Encumbrance.

You start getting into 2 pistols, 3 grenades, a scanner, a medpack, a bottle of whisky as well, and we are likely doing some math if they aren't wearing a pack. If they have a pack, we are going to decide what is in the pack and reasonable volume will play as big, if not bigger part, in what ends up being allowed as much as the math total on Encumbrance. Anything beyond that is bookkeeping and I don't have CPAs around my table...

A character can reasonably increase his encumbrance threshold by 10 with load-bearing gear (fancy military type vest), backpack, and a utility belt. If you want to go further, there is the archeologist bag styled like a messenger bag, as well as spacer duffels. However there is only so much kne can strap over their shoulder.

A typical character has an encumbrance threshold of 5 plus their Brawn, so lets say an average guy then gets 7.

Lets make him a soldier - Blaster Rifle (Enc 4), Blaser Pistol (Enc1), two Frags (Enc 1+1) OOPS hit the limit but now

a combat knife (Enc1), Medpac (Enc 1), Binoculars (Enc1), and we can be kind and call some extra powerpacks for his blaster, and some ration bars and personal goodies incidentals but we should probably also include a canteen (Enc1) a poncho or cloak of some kind (Enc 1 not worn) and then...

1) As others have said: Get Enc increasing gear. A military backback and load bearing gear will make that ET 7 into ET 16, so that'll allow you to carry a lot more.

2) Be a little more discriminating. A rifle and a pistol? Why not just one that he takes care of? A medpack? If he's not the squad medic why not just a few stimpacks?

3) The actual capacity of that Enc increasing gear is unstated for a reason, so the player can manage it.

So in the case of your Solider, he'll carry on his person and in his load bearing gear: Rifle, Pistol?, 2 Frags, knife, extra reloads (1), stimpacks (0), comlink (0) for a total of 9 Enc out of his ET of 10. So he's able to carry an additional mission specific object or two as well (light, breathmask, ect).

In that military backpack he tosses Medpack, Binos, Tent, Datapad, climbing gear, entrenching tool, food, water, ect.

The Enc rules don't say you freeze in place when overloaded (this ain't Skyrim) you just suffer penalties on checks and have to spend 2 Strain to maneuver. So.... you load up on all reasonable gear you need for the mission. When you're just walking around, it's unchecked and out of initiative, so no strain, no dice. When you know combat is coming, drop the pack, and go in only with what you need. If you get ambushed, use 2 Strain and your first maneuver to drop the pack.

The only time a Soldier type should really be worried about encumbrance and gear is when he's got to do something to get from DZ to Objective.

Even then there's solutions. Say you have to climb a cliff. You dump the pack, climb to the top, dump your personal items, then use the ropes in the climbing gear to hoist all your other gear up using assists.

I had to break my players of thinking a Star Wars adventure is like a dungeon expedition. The go walking into town loaded with everything they have. When Luke went to find R2, he had binoculars and that long gun thing but he kept them in his speeder (which is what any normal non-RPG-player would do).

I also like that the Encumbrance limit makes players think twice about simply looting every blaster rifle and pistol that they can see on the bodies of their foes. Very unfitting for the setting, in my opinion.

Speaking of Encumbrance, has anyone made equipment cards for this game? Something that shows weapon stats and has a nice big number for how much it weighs.

Speaking of Encumbrance, has anyone made equipment cards for this game? Something that shows weapon stats and has a nice big number for how much it weighs.

yes. They are listed in the pinned resources thread

Encumbrance is also part of the character's history. My character, a Sentinel with Shadow and Shein Expert Specs, carries a lot of gear because was trained as an SpecOps Infiltrator for Incom Corporate Security. He needs the gear to complete his mission, so he has a utility belt, modular back pack, load bearing gear, and a military pouch. Every piece of gear he has is carefully inventoried and placed logically. Things that are encumbrance 1 or less go on the belt or load bearing gear. Binders go into the pouch as I view it as a handcuff case. Everything else goes into the backpack, except for the physicians kit as that is strapped to the outside of the backpack.

His entire role within the group is infiltrator, slicer, computer, droid, and ship expert outside of combat. He gets there by sneaking into places where he shouldn't belong. In combat, he can either use stealth to attack from or just straight up do combat with his lightsabers. Our group is likely the exception to the rule when it comes to playing. We pack to be prepared for everything and play a well defined military role because of the background of the majority of the characters.

Encumbrance is an important part of how the system balances Combat by keeping the PCs from carrying all the things. So I use it in my games and I don't recommend handwaving it, instead I stay flexible and not nitpick, because it's a tool I can use if I have to build tension and force hard choices when telling the story. A lot of people don't like the micromanagement feel of Encumbrance but I find as a GM all I really need to do is say we're using it so please keep track of it and unless I notice something during play it generally doesn't come up (which is what the RAW basically says). When it does though it has meaning and becomes a part of the challenge.

~From the Infinite Backpacks thread~

Story stuff aside it's important to understand what Encumbrance means in the context of this system. It's stated that:

*cough* infinite backpacks!*cough*

Other systems tend to handwave encumbrance. This one doesn't. It seems hard on the PCs, until you realise that pulp heroes usually don't carry tons of gear. Indiana Jones or Han Solo travelled pretty light, huh? So the usual vidyagame thing of carrying around dozens of guns won't work here. I've found it actually focuses the players on what they really NEED to carry.

If you must lug around tons of gear you can always stock the spare stuff in a vehicle or a ship (but they don't have limitless space either).

Absolutely. I constantly think about my PC's and mentally compare them to characters in the movies, specifically in terms of encumbrance. With large citiy-planets like Coruscant, thousands of spaceports, and the ability of having your base of operations not too far from you at any one point (ship), not taking "stuff" with you is should'nt be a problem. But like Maelora said, referencing video games (or Hedgehobbit and dungeon expeditions), players still seemingly tend to pick up and carry/prepare for prolonged expeditions away from civilization. Which is fine...if they take a backpack or are willing to be weighed down.

It's the droid version of Nodwick.

I never think about encumbrance and my players never carry around a huge amount of gear... Great combination!

Speaking of Encumbrance, has anyone made equipment cards for this game? Something that shows weapon stats and has a nice big number for how much it weighs.

https://sites.google.com/site/sturnsstuff/starwars/equipment-cards

If you use them be careful what you print. It's a work in progress (some cards aren't finished, but they are noted with yellow highlights) and there are some personal house rules/tweaks integrated. If you don't like something and prefer to revert back to RAW I have the original Word versions you can edit yourself.

Bello, I'm sorry because I'm ver y new un the gane. The last friday i started muy first parte. I hace a Mechanic with 2 talentos (mechanic-hacker). Un the talento i saw a Belt with cost 15. I need to spent 1 destinity point forma doing something, bit, what is something?

I post my PJ forma help un creating a good fam.

Human.

The DJ told me about characteristics (strong,...) 2 points in all.

PE start un 100.

+ 10 PE more gift.

+ 15 forma obligation Family 15.

Gift me 2 habilities too.

I want to creating a new arm for me, if i'm Inventor i could do it? For exemple : eléctric pen with low damage. Bit forma me will be good doing little arms forma criticals moments.

I spent 30 PE forma add two technic (mechanic clandestin and hacker)

I dont know where i could waste PE. In talents, characteristics, abilities,

I want a good PJ forma open doors, crack computers and systems, and creating/repair items/arms. The DJ told me that Inventor no is good, because i need buying or stolen a lot of material for doing something...

Today i going again to the party. If someone could tell about the potencial of Belt talent and how i could doing a good mechanic-hacker.

Thanks a lot.

Sorry for my english. I have a spanish corrector and i dont remeber a lot of words toó.

Hey, i saw belt talent is something max. rank 4. Without material.

@Axelicus:

Josep Maria is a native Spanish speaker and he's very fluent in English.

If he's still around, maybe he could help?