If I'm being honest, I ignore the weight values for items unless it specifically comes up or if a player starts hoarding things aggressively.
this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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Yup. Same goes for temp/hunger/thirst. Unless the environment creates a situation that directly challenges that, like arctic conditions, desert, underwater, extended covert ops etc., these things do not serve the story and get in the way.
Plus, a bag of holding neatly side-steps a lot of encumbrance problems and I firmly believe that's why it's been a part of D&D lore since at least 2nd ed.
Meanwhile, if the table wants to go deep simulation on all this, the rules are there for that. But I wish everyone good luck with fighting monsters up close in a cave where weapons bigger than daggers are too large to swing, and heavy armor too bulky to be practical.
Exactly. Want to haul the locked chest back to town? Then its size matters. Want to pick up a dagger and some coins? Who cares, we're trying to have fun here not micromanage inventory.
Yeah, encumbrance, rations, and even sleep can be too crunchy to deal with all the time. We're making so little progress as it is! But they can be nice as occasional plot points.
I do enjoy the tactical side of inventory management, but that's only for a specific kind of game, and even then, slot-based inventory works so much smoother.
Off topic, but imperial instruments always crack me up, with the fractional displays.
That's insane. Is eigths the minimal resolution, or can it do stuff like "15 and 76/89ths of a pound"?
Usually it is by powers of 2 and only up to 64ths at most (least?). So you might see 3/8, 7/16, 15/32, or 37/64, but never 5/7 or 23/24. Also, usually the fraction is reduced, so the numerator will always be odd (1/4 and not 2/8).
Well that's reassuring... slowly backs away hope .. hope they stay odd, get the great fractions of the empire! They are,,, certainly something, wow.. yeah .. i gotta go but
I wish it was all metric; no defense of it here.
Yeah come on 76/89ths would be silly because 89 is prime and 76 is even, it would obviously be rounded to 55/64ths
Drug dealers need to know it's an 1/8th?
I imagine that D&D uses a similar encumbrance system to project zomboid. Those values don't only represent weight, but the actual "encumbrance" of the item which sort of takes into account weight but then the volume of the object and how awkward it is to hold.
But even then it feels too heavy for rope
I once bought 2cm thick hemp rope for reenactment purposes (can't recommend, it's worse than nylon and costs more and maintaining it sucks).
I don't have any spare, but I chucked some on a scale, and it seems to be about 250 grams per meter, for about 8.5lbs per 50ft.
So D&D rope is even thicker, or its tarred (which you absolutely should do if you dislike drying rope).
Oh come on everyone loves maintaining their ropes, it's a classic hobby. Wake up, churn your butter, maintain your rope, then it's time to roast some chicory for your morning coffee.
That's an afternoon coffee lmao
My cats agree with you. Having musty, wet hemp ropes laying around is apparently the best thing ever.
The numbers are so weird man
It's fantasy system, not metric system 🧌
Alexander could easily cut through that bullshit. /s
My assumption is they meant a much thicker rope, but yeah, definitely not as heavy as they say.
Yeah I wouldn't even call that rope. Cord, perhaps, but it seems too thin to be called rope.
Modern climbing ropes are still less than 10lbs at four times the length. Not sure how the density compares, but it's not 4 times denser either.
Modern climbing ropes are rated for much heavier than 800lb as well. Iirc the ones I used in school were rated for a couple thousand pounds.
Nylon is a hell of a drug
Nylon isn’t even the best polymer we have for rope making :p
Oh my comment had 0 research put into it but if you have fun chemistry/climbing facts feel free to sound off
Thicker rope would presumably have a higher test value though, and it seems that most people interpret the hempen rope in 5e as being under 800-test.
- Braided, not twisted.
- Manila not hemp.
- Go ahead and try to climb that rope with bare hands.
Kids do it literally every day in gym class, and sometimes on the way back down they do learn some valuable lessons about abrasion and doing things you've seen on TV.
I do think there's an unspoken assumption for adventurers that they wear gloves for this and many more reasons.
Those types people climb are much larger in diameter. The thinner the rope the more difficult to hold onto it.
This is going to surprise you, but the ropes adventurers would use and gym ropes aren't the same thing other than their ability to rip the skin off your hands.
Is this the exact kind they would use?
No, but it's close enough to point out the weights listed for gear are basically arbitrary.
Are the adventurers in the room with us now? Can they tell us what rope they use on their adventures?
That you think this is a clever response says a lot.
Who thinks that? Are these the same voices or is this another
Those rope is unlikely to be able to support a fully kitted adventurer though. Ropes rated for the kinds of weights adventurers often deal with will be at least in the neighborhood of the listed weight, accordang to a similar thread a while back. IIRC one comparable rope weighed something like 4.4 pounds at 50 feet.
That's why you go with Traveller's displacement Tons rule.