Inventory slots & Bulk

Inventory management can be tricky to track, therefore, we've got alternative rules for managing this. This should help keep the management easier to track, while at the same time keeping things realistic.

Active inventory

The right gear at the right time can make all the difference between life and death. But how do you keep track of what you're carrying?

• Slots & Bulk

An active inventory manages items using inventory slots (storage capacity) and object bulk (carrying effort).

• Inventory Slots

Inventory slots describe storage capacity—how much can a thing carry without being overwhelmed? One slot holds one small object—a potion bottle, a dagger, a loaf, etc. Anything that can hold, carry, or contain objects make use of inventory slots
for example:

• Creatures use slots to describe how much they can carry before they're encumbered.
• Containers use slots to describe how much they can store before they're full.
• Buildings use slots to describe how much free space they have in their rooms.
• Vehicles use slots to describe how much they can transport before they can't move.

Bulk

Objects use bulk to describe how many inventory slots they fill—the bulkier the object, the more slots occupied. Bulk represents the effort needed by a medium-sized creature to carry an object based on its size, weight, and shape—the more awkward or uncomfortable it is to hold an object, the higher its bulk.

Your Inventory

Your inventory capacity depends on your creature size and strength OR constitution modifier—the bigger and stronger you are, the more inventory slots you have. As your size increases, so too does your bulk—a larger creature takes more effort to carry. Your bulk equals the larger of either:

1. your minimum bulk or
2. the total bulk of everything in your inventory.

Basic Supplies

In addition to inventory slots, you can freely carry a limited number of basic supplies—one ration box, one waterskin, and one purse.

• Ration box: Stores up to five basic food rations.
• Waterskin: Holds enough liquid for five drink rations.
• Purse: Holds up to 100 assorted coins.

These three basic supply containers don't occupy any inventory slots, but they can still be affected by NPCs and monsters in some fashion—stolen, damaged, destroyed, etc. You can carry additional supplies (more rations, waterskins, purses, etc) by adding them into your inventory space as normal.

MAXIMUM CAPACITY

You can't exceed your inventory capacity by more than half your maximum inventory slots (rounded down).

Dragging Objects

When you drag or pull an object, that object can still affect your inventory. Halve the bulk value of any object that you are dragging or pulling (rounding down). Heaped Objects: If you're pulling a pile of objects, halve the total amount of bulk—not the individual items. Rolling Transport: If you're pulling an object that is designed to travel easily (a cart, a wagon, a sled), you may quarter that object's bulk value.

Carrying Objects

When you hold or carry an object, you add it to your inventory. Fill a number of inventory slots according to the object's bulk—the bulkier the object, the more inventory slots you must fill.

• Extremely Small Objects: Some items are especially small and easy to pack together—pins, coins, paperclips, etc. It takes 100 of these items to fill one inventory slot.
• Extremely Large Objects: If you need to assign a bulk rating to an extremely large object, use a multiple of 18 for your bulk rating—18/36/54/72, etc

Bulk rating

Bulk ratings assume the perspective of a medium-sized creature by default. Use larger bulk ratings to reflect larger-than-normal items (giant-forged swords, ogre armor, etc), and smaller ratings for smaller-than-normal items (gnome rock-hammers, pixie armor, etc).

Magical Containers

On your adventures, you may find magical containers that can change their storage capacity far beyond the normal. For example: Bag of Holding: This magical bag (1 bulk) can hold many more items than its size would suggest. A Bag of Holding has 6 inventory slots. Portable Hole: This magical object (1 bulk) can be folded out into a container with 9 inventory slots. Handy Haversack: This magical haversack (2 bulk) has 12 inventory slots.