So this might be nitpicky, but… do clothes and containers count as items for encumbrance purposes? I guess I don’t mean for strange cases where you decide to get 20 bags, but just in general.
I ask in part because several of the starting packages would be, for example, just under 7 stone if you don’t count them, but just above 7 stone if you do. Are these packages at all “optimized” to keep characters from crossing an encumbrance threshold, or are they just a decent selection of starting goodies that we might need to pare down to keep from being weighted down?
Mmmm. Worn clothes weight 0 stone. Clothes carried - not worn - weight 1 stone.
As for containers: these add to your encumbrance. you carry them - as do all items that are stored in a container. A container is simply there to be able to carry items around - image your character trying to carry around rations, wineskin, rope, and a thousand other things using just his two arms…
That said. I houserule, that items stored in a backpack count as half encumbrance. They still count full for container capacity. As an example, a backpack hold up to 4 stones, that would be 6x4 = 24 daggers. But these dagger would only encumber the character as if he were carrying twelve (2 stone) of them.
this house rule is no applied to sacks. backbacks distribute the weight more evenly, sacks do not…
To answer your question:
1) Worn clothing does not count for encumbrance purposes.
2) A backpack or belt pouch, being worn, do not count for encumbrance purposes. A sack, being carried, does.
3) The equipment provided in the templates was *NOT* optimized for encumbrance purposes.
To be clear, my backpack, being worn, doesn’t count for encumbrance purposes, but does the stuff in my backpack, being worn, count?
The items in your backpack do count, yes.