How do PC's hold all that equipment?

[Zhentarim]

I was equipping a character with lots of kits and items...and I thought, while none of this stuff is very heavy, it would be difficult to tote everything around at once. Is there an in-game reference to how this is handled?

[legomaster00156]

Well, I mean, our group just ignores encumbrance, anyway. If it needs justification, we get extradimensional space.

[Raxxius]

Bags of holding

[Crake]

Do you have a backpack? Usually stuff goes in there. I usually denote where objects would be stored on my character sheet in mythweavers, and rarely have I had a circumstance where there was an egregious amount of things on my person, at least not before we got some kind of extradimensional space.

Can you give an example of an equipment list that you think wouldn't fit on a character? Or are you talking about something like "We just looted 30 longswords, 15 longbows, 500 arrows, and 60 daggers, how are we carrying all of that back to town to sell"?

[BWR]

I was equipping a character with lots of kits and items...and I thought, while none of this stuff is very heavy, it would be difficult to tote everything around at once. Is there an in-game reference to how this is handled?

Which system?

Some games like D&D have encumbrance systems, Others, like L5R, just assume you aren't an idiot who's going to carry more than seems reasonable.

[Zhentarim]

Do you have a backpack? Usually stuff goes in there. I usually denote where objects would be stored on my character sheet in mythweavers, and rarely have I had a circumstance where there was an egregious amount of things on my person, at least not before we got some kind of extradimensional space.

Can you give an example of an equipment list that you think wouldn't fit on a character? Or are you talking about something like "We just looted 30 longswords, 15 longbows, 500 arrows, and 60 daggers, how are we carrying all of that back to town to sell"?

several changes of clothing, extra weapons, 200 doses of cologne, a disguise kit, and a surgeon kit.

[MesiDoomstalker]

several changes of clothing, extra weapons, 200 doses of cologne, a disguise kit, and a surgeon kit.

Depending on how many articles of clothing and the type of material, the changes of clothes could take very little to a whole lot of volume. "Extra weapons" is ridiculously nebulous but the majority should be in a sheath that is easily accessible, say at your hip. Both the kits should fit into what is basically a duffel bag, while the cologne would be literally just one bottle of cologne. Possibly not even a full bottle. "Just a dab will do you."

[Random Sanity]

[Insert obligatory joke about limes here.]

[Crake]

Depending on how many articles of clothing and the type of material, the changes of clothes could take very little to a whole lot of volume. "Extra weapons" is ridiculously nebulous but the majority should be in a sheath that is easily accessible, say at your hip. Both the kits should fit into what is basically a duffel bag, while the cologne would be literally just one bottle of cologne. Possibly not even a full bottle. "Just a dab will do you."

Yeah, if extra weapons means a backup melee and ranged weapon, that's a bow and some throwing daggers, one which is slung over your shoulder, the others tucked into your belt, a sword on your belt, change of clothes in your backpack, you can fit at least 3-5 changes of clothing in a backpack, depending on what kind of clothing we're talking about, a disguise kit is pretty tiny honestly, it's basically a makeup kit with a few extras, though the surgeon kit, i'm not sure exactly what that covers, so I couldn't say.

[Elkad]

In your pack.

No, not that little bookbag. A giant pack you can fit a couple Labrador Retrievers in.
The issue Large Alice Pack the US Army used for many years is 62 liters in the main pocket. Plus outside pockets, and stuff strapped to the top and sides.

Plus a harness with stuff draped all over it.

And for combat (including a dungeon crawl), you leave behind stuff you don't need. Like spare clothes. Just stink it up or beg the Wizard for a Prestidigitation. You need one blanket, and spare socks.
Weight for clothes is weight that isn't water, ammo, commo, lights, first aid, etc.

[Calthropstu]

[Insert obligatory joke about limes here.]

Everyone knows you put the lime in the coconut.

[venturer]

usually in backpacks and their pack mules. As well bags of holding, efficient quivers and other extra dimensional spaces

[Celestia]

Adventures are born with a mysterious organ known as an "inventory." No one knows quite what it is or how it works, but it allows them to hold an incredible number of large and bulky items without even using their hands. It is surely one of life's greatest of mysteries.

[unseenmage]

I pass my extra gear off to my Construct minions.

Equipped with Muleback Cords and Heavyload Belt even sm Aninated Objects can haul quite a bit.
Use their their CP for flight and/or Burrow speeds and it is easy enough for them to ferry your stuff about.

[emoryss1]

Lots of magic bags.

[Pugwampy]

When you say items , are you referring to the 100 000 000 gold coins you can store in your mundane belt pouch ?

[Alcore]

When you say items , are you referring to the 100 000 000 gold coins you can store in your mundane belt pouch ?

Did you know;


The dragonomicon breaks it down to help you understand how small most dragon hoards are in comparison to their owners.

Spoiler

Show

As the Player’s Handbook states, a typical coin weighs aboutone-third of an ounce (50 per pound). But how much space do coins take up, and how big a pile do they make when gathered into a hoard? And do dragons really sleep on beds of coins?

A typical coin measures slightly more than an inch in diam-eter and is approximately one-tenth of an inch thick. A cubicfoot (a volume 1 foot on each side) holds around 12,000 loosely stacked coins.

Of course, coins aren’t usually stacked in cubic feet—they’re scattered about in piles. A cubic foot of coins fills an area roughly 5 feet on a side to a depth of about 1/2 inch, or 3 feet on a side to a depth of 1 inch or so. That’s enoughspace for a Small dragon to wallow around on, and even a Medium dragon can derive enjoyment from reclining onsuch a pile.

But larger dragons need an extraordinary number of coins tocreate a pile large enough to sleep on. A Large dragon needs at least 50,000 coins to create a “bed,” while a Huge dragon needs 100,000 or more. Gargantuan or Colossal dragons might require piles of a half million or more coins in order to create a true “bed.” And even then, this isn’t an enormous pile but little more than a relatively thin layer of coins. For this reason, most dragons don’t actually have beds com-posed entirely of coins (though some collect copper pieces forexactly this reason). Still, it’s nice to dream. . . .

at 50 per pound most characters are too heavy to walk.

[DataNinja]

They carry it by the simple well-known fact that if you forget (or 'forget') you have something, it ceases to exist until you remember it.

[Pugwampy]

The dragonomicon breaks it down to help you understand how small most dragon hoards are in comparison to their owners.

I dont recall reading that when i did a 5 min skim through on the draconomicon 10 yrs ago .

I was equipping a character with lots of kits and items...and I thought, while none of this stuff is very heavy, it would be difficult to tote everything around at once. Is there an in-game reference to how this is handled?

This falls under the "ITS JUST A GAME DUDE " section of the PHB .

i tried being fancy once . I had grumpy players only lug around 150 coins which i thought was pushing it a bit while the rest of the loot was in a bank and they had "letters or credit" instead . Naturally i enforced bank charges too . One poor harrasssed player was doing the Captain John Silver thing and burying his chest of gold to escape bank charges . Letters of credit and bank charges kill the mood .
Imagine that . You are a cool dragon slaying hero and the noob tyrant DM is moaning about your chequebook and getting excited over the logistics of transporting a few thousand gold coins to the bank.

Even if you could explain everything you carrying , you certainly not carrying all that while bashing goblin skulls and yet players will never discuss or spend time properly storing backpacks and equipment before a big fight nor will they run back to those backpacks to retrieve a crucial item in the middle of combat. Everything is in arms reach .

DM can fight a player who is boasting about carrying 20 fullplate armours and thats more about volume not weight . You want to save alot of head scratching give each of your players a cart and mule at the start of your campaign .

[Mordaedil]

A thing I've found interesting is how detailed in depicting equipment western artists tend to get compared to anything from the east, given any type of anime.

Contrast per example this art from one of the rulebooks depicting an elf deciding between using a bow or a sword:


To this of Lina Inverse from Slayers:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...9c88d3a93b.jpg
(Leaving as URL due to size)

You might think I cherrypick here, but most art I see depicts characters with far much thought to gear they are carrying in the western art, while most like Lina seem to have infinite bags of holding in her cloak, rather than drawing where she keeps her waterflasks etc.

Pay attention to art and the details therein and try to think up for yourself how you want your character to come across and you will cross the divide between looking like a western RPG character and an anime character.

[Krazzman]

The encumbrance rules are quite close to realistic. For game simplicity / streamlining the developers /writes most likely thought that bringing slots into it would be too clunky and as such just made you track weight and in some cases volume (in bag of holdings for example).

[Zanos]

Liefelden Pouches.

[Pex]

Some DMs are sticklers for realism and details. They have a point in that encumbrance rules are part of the game, but for my personal taste too much realism detracts from the fun of the game. I can easily accept the obvious that you can't easily carry around a hoard of looted weapons and armor, but to have to define how much weight you're carrying to the ounce and exactly where everything you own is is minutiae bookkeeping that feels like doing homework. It's not the point of the game.

[Elkad]

I divide my gear into 2 piles on my sheet.
Stuff in/on my pack, and stuff elsewhere on my body.

So I can dump my pack in combat and get back to light load.

Knowing whether my potion of healing is in my shirt pocket or my trouser pocket? No way.

[BearonVonMu]

It also seems a common fashion to draw characters with several extra belts, yes?
Just like Final Fantasy characters, using 20 belts in the place of a pair of pants.
So the answer is clearly "attach the gear to your plethora of belts".