Encumbrance

Thinking about sidearms reminded me of something that has failed in many game rule sets.

The encumbrance rules almost always just track the weight or mass of what the character is carrying and not the bulk.

The first time it came to a head was when I tried to railroad a player's character into being captured via their weapon, an M16A2, jamming in Twilight: 2000.

This gambit failed because they had enough encumbrance to have been lugging FOUR M16A2'a around with them.

I've carried four of those things around before, and you're not going to be very tactical while doing so.

Even slinging three of them across your back doesn't really get them out of the way.

There's nothing in GURPS that reflects the tanglefoot contraption that is a Stewart saber hanger.

This doesn't interfere while mounted, but even then you're supposed to unclip it from the chaff and attach it to the saddle in front of your left knee.

But even clipping the sword higher doesn't keep the bottom of the scabbard off the ground.

The rules don't account for this and a GM would have to do what I did and try to walk around wearing one to see what's wrong.

The rules also don't account for about 1/3 of those rounds being really hard to reach and half of them can't be reached unless you change hands.

Encumbrance does not GURPS.