Encumbrance & Concealment

p. 152

About Encumbrance

In general, players and the Game Master won't need to track a character's Encumbrance (how much they're carrying on their person). Occasionally, however, it may play an important part in the story, and a player needs to know if the weight, mass, and collective bulk of the items their character is wearing inhibits their actions.

Encumbrance Values

Most items that can be commonly carried have a value of 0 through 5 — from relatively light objects (such as credit chips or light clothing) to heavier items (like blaster rifles or gaffi sticks). The Encumbrance Value of armor is discussed in more detail later, and is different when it's worn, where the weight is distributed appropriately, and when it's carried, when it's just another item.

Encumbrance doesn't strictly represent weight; it also represents mass, bulk, and how easy items are to carry. A well-fitting suit of armor adds very little Encumbrance, while an armful of fusion lanterns have a high Encumbrance because they're tricky to carry.

Small items such as datapads, most pistols, or electrobinoculars have an Encumbrance Value of 1 or 2. Medium items, such as blaster rifles, a satchel of grenades, or a space suit, have an Encumbrance Value of 3 to 4. Large or heavy items such as cargo crates, repeating blaster rifles, or a field kitchen, are valued at 5 to 6.

Incidental Items

If it becomes critical to the story to have more detail. 10 loosely carried incidental items have an Encumbrance Value of 1. If they are stored in an effective manner (such as bowcaster quarrels in a quiver or crystals in a pouch), then 20 incidental items have an Encumbrance Value of 1. If for some reason the character is unable to manage their gear in such a way, the GM may increase their overall Encumbrance Value by several points to reflect the difficulty in managing and carrying items by less efficient means.

Sentients

Living beings generally have Encumbrance Values of 5 plus their Brawn if carried. A typical human, like a soldier for the Rebel Alliance, has a Brawn of 2, and therefore a total Encumbrance Value of 7. A scholar from Garos IV, with a Brawn of 1, has an Encumbrance Value of 6. This may be modified by specific species' features, such as the extra bulk of a Hutt or the hollow bones of an avian.

Encumbrance Threshold

Characters have an Encumbrance Threshold of 5 plus their Brawn rating, which limits how much they can carry under normal conditions and without penalty.

Over Encumbrance

A total Encumbrance Value over the characters Encumbrance Threshold means the character is Encumbered.

Encumbered characters suffer one to all Agility and Brawn rolls for every point of Encumbrance over their limit. This is cumulative with any dice suffered for strain or other conditions, should any be in play.

Also, if a character is Encumbered by an amount equal to or greater than their Encumbrance Threshold plus Brawn rating, they no longer earn a free maneuver each turn. The character can still perform up to two maneuvers, but each maneuver costs two strain.

With a Brawn of 2, for example, a character does not get a free maneuver each turn if they're carrying 9 or more points of Encumbrance (Threshold 7 [5+2] + 2 Brawn = 9).

Lifting and Carrying Excessive Encumbrance

Characters shouldn't typically carry more than their Encumbrance Threshold. When necessity demands, however, they can do so for a short time (suffering the effects described above).

If a character needs to lift an object greater than their Encumbrance Threshold, such as an ally who has fallen off a gantry or ledge, they must make an Athletics check. The difficulty is Simple (—) if the object's Encumbrance Value is less than or equal to the character's Encumbrance Threshold. Add 1 to the difficulty for every point over, up to a maximum additional Encumbrance of 4 and difficulty of Daunting ().

A freelancer with a Brawn of 2 and a Threshold of 7, for example, tries to lift a rock with an Encumbrance Value of 10. That's 3 over, so the difficulty is Hard ().

Help When Lifting

Additional characters may help, adding their raw Brawn to the total value of the object being lifted. In the example above, a Wookiee with a Brawn of 4 adds +4 to the Encumbrance Threshold for that specific task.

Concealing Gear

Items with an Encumbrance Value of 1 or less can be hidden on a person easily. No roll is required for successful concealment unless a foe inspects the target up close — usually with a physical patdown. In the latter case, the searcher makes an Opposed Perception check against the target's Stealth.

Add to the searcher for every Encumbrance point over 1 of the hidden item. If there are multiple items, use the highest. The Game Master should adjust this based on the situation. An unusually-large species might be able to easily conceal items with an Encumbrance Value of 2, for example.

The same rules can apply to similar situations — such as hiding a blaster rifle (Encumbrance Value 4) in a wagon of scrapped droid parts. The Game Master should decide what value of object can be hidden without notice, and adds for every point over that.

Encumbrance and Vehicles

Ships' cargo holds can house a certain amount of Encumbrance, as well. A standard cargo hold can house a wide variety of Encumbrance, listed in the vehicle's profile.

Smuggling panels have varying limits. These small caches are usually secretly placed around the ship to avoid detection. Most smuggling panels have an Encumbrance limit of 2 to 30 depending on their size and location.