Encumberance at a glance

 Calculating the weight of items being carried is annoying. It doesn't matter if its by item weight or their equivalent in gold coins. Its tiresome to figure out on the fly if you loose an item or use up some supplies while adventuring. I think this is why many groups Ive played with tend to hand wave inventory management or encumbrance, which i feel is a component of the game that can be fun. Considering how movement speed is factored by encumbrance, it should be something that is easier to manage. some people have developed more creative ways to include encumbrance tracking in their own games to tackle this problem. The following is my take on inventory slots that are easy to alter on the fly as needed, to make using your inventory resources more engaging. 

DAT, the legend himself

Your Strength score dictates how many slots you have for inventory items. The maximum items you can carry is x3 your Strength score.

 

Up to your STR score or less is not encumbered

Up to X2 of your STR is lightly encumbered

Up to X3 of your STR is Heavily encumbered

For example; If your character's strength is 12, you have 12 inventory slots. The lightly encumbered range is 13-24, and the heavily encumbered range is 25-36 slots. In addition, you can only carry up to your strength on your person without needing bags or sacks. A small sack provides 10 slots, a large sack provides 20 slots.

• 100 coins equal one encumbrance slot. 
• 10 gems equal one encumbrance slot. 
• Wearable jewelry and similar take a single slot.
•  Small weapons take one slot, medium weapons take 2 slots, large weapons take 3 slots
  

Optional: Armor takes up a number of slots equal to the AC bonus (shield is 1, leather is 2, Chain is 4, plate is 6) regardless if its worn or carried.

This system makes it much easier for players and the referee to determine movement speed for overland, dungeon crawling, and combat. Using items or finding new ones may change your movement range and the old ways of managing that has always felt more tedious than needed. This also allows the Referee to potentially allow for fragile items to be damages and destroyed if a player fails a save or gets walloped by an ogre. Items SHOULD break, potions SHOULD be taken care of, those precious oil jars SHOULD be preserved carefully. Otherwise, you might be a soggy (and flammable) mess. And if those goblins are clever enough to trow a torch at you, then you're toast. Being slapped around by an ogre will probably wreck some gear regardless. I also use this to infer if a player fails a save and what equipment might be damaged. For example; If a player is hit by a fireball and fails the save, the referee could ask them to roll a d8 and the top OR bottom items in your inventory are damaged. if players know this, they might start planning out where they place their items in their inventory. or even hire some porters to carry the fragile stuff. I mean, that's why hirelings exist anyways. I know some people might be against that idea, but i think it adds a lot more to the adventuring tension and helps drive more creative role playing. heck, I read in an old issue of dragon magazine that players pay extra for metal flasks for their potions! So I know this used to happen in early games. Regardless, inventory management is easy to do at a glance and should be factored in to your game if the group is interested in a little more emulation in their game