So, over the past 5 years or so, I've become increasingly aware that how you carry your gear is important.

I don't think most role playing games really get into details on how you carry the gear, and yet these details are extremely important for realism, character development, and even being able to get into the mind of your character. Most groups just don't spend the time thinking about gear, how it's carried, and so forth, and yet how can we say we want to mentally imagine or realize our characters without having some mental idea of this?

Furthermore, the more gear you can carry while still having agility and stamina is directly proportional to how masculine and cool you are. Lots of people can walk a brisk mile and then climb up a hill on a desert in 110 degree weather. But your masculine-and-cool ratio begins a linear progression based on how much gear you can carry and still do the same. If you can do it with a liter of water and a peanut butter sandwich, that's kind of bleh. If you can do it with your AR, 210 rounds of ammo in magazines, a gallon of water, a trauma kit, a sleeping bag, a layer of extra clothing, sidearm with ammunition and magazines, and food for 2 days, then you're more masculine and cool than if you could only do that with the liter and the sandwich.

Actually, masculinity jokes aside, I really feel like there is a lot to explore and learn about in terms of how you carry your gear. As you start to experiment with longer and longer treks in the desert with gear, you notice what you like and don't like about particular vests, packs, web gear, and so on. Which particular brands and configurations are comfortable after you've been carrying the load for X miles? Which ones allow you best access to items you'll want to reach, such as your compass or weapon or water?

It's not just a matter of commercialism and springing for all the new expensive tacticool stuff. Personally, I've found that I actually really like the old ALICE gear. That being said, there are lots of fine products on the market to help you carry and access all your gear and you can go to a speciality store and spend lots of time trying it all on.

As much fun as all this stuff is in real life, though, I really don't see people playing enough attention to carry gear at the gaming table, even with a game like Shadowrun, when you'd think you could really model all the mag pouches and so on with contemporary gear.

I remember how back in the day, the people I played with just used to write all their standard gear (everyone always running with the APDS ammo and the Ares Predator and the Combat Jacket, yawn) on the back of their sheet, and then were like, "My guy always carries all this crap all the time".

And the only thing the official rules gave you to try and make people really imagine their gear and character instead of everyone having a bag of holding sequestered up their ass was some simplistic encumberance rules based strictly on weight as opposed to volume, and then some contrived social rules whereby if you had visible armor or weapons you were supposed to be socially penalized, but then the rules turned around and had a sourcebook full of socially acceptable armor, so you're like what the hell.

But the thing is, if you've ever experimented with getting in and out of vehicles and going on long hikes with lots of real gear on your person, you'll kind of see how that approach is basically lazy and unimaginative, because there's all sorts of things that would come up if you always went everywhere armed to the teeth with all the gear.

Any sort of canteens or pouches on my back I either have to take off before I sit in a vehicle, or else they'll kind of bite uncomfortably into the small of my back.

I've noticed that those modern MOLLE universal mag pouches you can get now that attach to your belt actually have pretty sharp plastic corners. If you get in and out of a vehicle quickly they can actually slice the hell out of the upholstery.

I like classic weapons so all my longarms are full-length. I pretty much have to stow my longarms in the trunk or back seat of a normal vehicle. I don't think I can sit in a car, drive, and also have a slung full length AR across my torso at the same time. In your games, though, think about how many times a character jumped in a car and drove away without having to take an extra combat turn or two to stash his longarm in the trunk or back seat?

Sometimes if I get into a small commuter car with a trauma kit attached to my thigh, I have trouble closing the door which can bounce off the trauma kit, LOL.

And I'm just talking about getting in and out of the car, not even thinking about the social stuff. Like you park at some secluded spot on the docks to meet Mr. J, and as he watches you get out of your Americar, RIIIP, your universal mag pouch just makes a big ass gash in your upholstery. It would be like comedy theater at your expense.

Then you've got your sidearm and all these mag pouches and a water on your belt, and since you've just been sitting down slouched hips forward to accomidate your mag pouches on your back, you have to kind of pull your pants up and tighten your belt right after you get out.

Or you're leaving and he watches you carefully unroll the seatbelt to the full "ultra fat person" width and carefully click it in so that you can wrap it around all the bulging gear on your belt.

All the gear your tote around affects what your character looks like, what kind of clothes he/she wears, and all kinds of things. Surely just writing a list of useful gear on a sheet of paper isn't really sufficient, really imaginative, or really interesting.

Why do we have sourcebooks telling us about fashionable armor clothing, but we don't have an awesome harcore LBE sourcebook, complete with paper doll diagrams to help us configure character gear in individual detail??

Hell, once you started working with that, and if you also had a system for hit locations, you could also start working out hits to gear. Then people would *really* need to start carrying sidearms!

And the flip side of it is that if your GM calls BS on you, you can always show up to the next session wearing your ALICE gear and show him that it is possible to be carrying all the items you say your character is carrying with him all the time.

Your gaming group could have a player character LBE demonstration day, where everyone has to actually wear all the gear they say their character has, and then do windsprints or an obstacle course or something while wearing it all.

Neat post. Stuff to think about, and ideas for my own campaign. Ten internets to you, sir.

I actually do tend to pay attention to that stuff, at least in a rudimentary manner. Then again, when D&D 3E was new - before the MM came out, even - the game I joined, I ended up playing "Party Quartermaster", and enjoyed the heck out of it (IC, we formed a corporation of sorts - the "group fund" got a full share of treasure, and managed things like "food and water, rooms at the inn, blankets and tents, general resupply of mundane arrows/bolets/etc, uncursing/raising/etc" ... that sort of thing). I went and thought out where and how everything was loaded, stored, and so on. And got out of having to afford my own ridign horse, as I then wound up driving the cart.

Good times, good times.

Even for personal gear, I tend to think of at least a general location, like "left forearm", "bandolier", "nape of neck", "strapped to pack, left side", and so on. Not as detailed as I'd plan it for real life, and perhaps not as actually practical in terms of moving around with it all. But I did and do enjoy figuring out "where do I put all of this stuff?"

...

For Shadowrun, in HeroLab, I enjoy designating "item X is in container Y". Especially for smartpacks and the like. (And for "I keep THIs list of stuff in the trunk of my car", too.)

I also like to take the time to have more than one outfit to wear - depending on social circumstances.

...

For example, one build I've worked up is a rather youngish Adept (as in, all of fourteen, maybe fifteen), a gang brat trying to branch out into the shadows a bit early.

Armor?

He owns Armor Clothing (Carbon-Boron; Color changing), a form-fitting shirt (the +3/+0 one), a chain shirt (nonconductive +4, thermal wrist-guards, post-apoc accessories), a ballistic mask (color changing), and a leather jacket (just for aesthetics).

"On the job", or in bad neighborhoods, it's FF, chain shirt, and jacket - maybe mask too. He'll look like hwat he is: a young ganger punk, probably looking for trouble.

Strolling around in a mall, or a nicer neighborhood? FF and armor clothing. He'll look like a fairly typical middle-school kid.

...

Meanwhile, for his gear? he's got a fanny-pack to carry anything that isn't suitable for "stick it in a pocket" like a commlink would be - and I wouldn't assume he has everything he owns with him at all times, either. For example, he owns 10 grenades, mostly "escape aids" like Slick Grenades and such. I would generally expect him to have some of those, evenif just a single Slick grenade. But all 10? No way in heck.



Hahahaha. ^_^

Honestly, I don't find it interesting to micromanage stuff like that to the smallest detail. RPGs are not supposed to accurately model reality, but allow for an exploration of ideas. I don't like having to count every arrow shot, every round fired etc. It's not interesting that in a tight fight against Red Samurai involving carefully being on the move, ducking behind cover etc that I spent 37 Stick'n'Shock bullets and 16 APDS ones while buying time for my team to escape. It's the actions taken, the outcome of it, the motivations behind my staying behind to allow my chummers to escape. Details like what wood the stack of crates I used for cover in round 3 were made of, or whether or not I carried my extra clips on my right side, simply aren't interesting.

Just out of curiosity, and I mean absolutely no disrespect by asking this, but I am curious if you have ever personally managed your own tactical and/or survival and/or camping gear on long hikes, wilderness stays, or tactical lessons.

I ask because I think this stuff got more interesting to me after I started fooling around with it in real life. Maybe it's something that starts to become interesting if you've started to get into it in your physical activities and hobbies.

"Gee, wouldn't it be great if I had this item, and this item, and this item. Wait, I have to carry all this stuff on foot while navigating uphill for 10 miles? Oh hell no."

I think that in my case, the very, ahem, memorable experience of actually carrying a longarm, ammo, emergency medical stuff, water, and camping gear around in the desert gave these kinds of questions a lot of mental flavor for me.

This discussion reminds me of the "everything on, everything off" drills I went through back when I was younger. It is pretty amazing how fast and smoothly you can get all that gear on. Or how fast a section of guys in full combat gear can pile into an armored vehicle and be fast asleep before the driver puts the vehicle into gear and move off. No kidding, I had guys snoring by the time I gave the all clear to move out.

I don't have problems imaging my character getting into and out of vehicles with weapon, gear and ammo. Sorry but mounting up a vehicle and dismounting for assault is kind of an ingrained skill to me. And if a skinny asian guy like me can do it, I can't imagine anyone else would have problems. It just takes some getting used to.

It gets more complicated once you factor in things like trolls, or cybered people with either augmented strength or augmented stamina.

I haven't, and you might be correct that I view things otherwise if I had. My point remains that I prefer the action and decisions behind it, rather than micromanaging every aspect of a plan. I like a layer of abstraction in my games, where I can let "my character would probably know that" be good enough, even if I personally don't, or forget about it.

@Blade

No, it does not. I mean whats in practice different?
Yeah, the troll may carry "bigger" things but that does not really change anything about the mechanics...

@Wounded Ronin
The major problem with realism is, that a lot of players do not like it. They feel cheated or worse.
It is the why can't I effect...

By the rules, Troll weapons are not bigger than those used by Elves, dwarves, etc. Only the grips and handles change. Thus, Item X shoudl be less bulky for a troll, than it is for a typical human.

Which IMO is pure bollocks, but, there it is nonetheless.

I like the idea, but it really does have to be optional, and extremely quick to play. There's a reason I love bullet scarcity in Fallout, but 100 bullets = infinite bullets when I'm GMing Shadowrun.

I do recall some talk on the SR3R forum about replacing the weight for equipment with 'tote', which was a hybrid of weight and general bulkiness. I think it would be quite easy (and fun) to buy something like a tactical vest, with space for 6 'tote 1' items, 2 'tote 2' items, and still have space for a large object on a bandalier. It's not mentally taxing, but still a fun challenge, for a player to chop down his equipment list to his ten most important things. And it's great to be able to give the PC a bonus when climbing through the ventaliation shafts, and the Red Samurai chasing after with his assault rifle keeps getting stuck or tangled. Plus the bonus would justify handguns enough that we could bring them back to sane damage codes.

@_Pax._
Correct. But you have to do it anyway for humans. So reduce the bulkiness for trolls is just an addition. You don't need new rules for it. (Or even make it depend on Body/Strength.)


@nezumi
The bullet thing has more to do with the fact, that every shot is one roll. And the number of rolls is restricted due to the restriction on playing time given by the real life.
If the first player drops face first on the table, you should think about calling it a night and get some sleep...