Your character can be burdened by the fatigue of the adventuring life, as well as literal burdens they happen to be carrying. Since the effects of either of these are very similar, they are referred to as degrees of encumbrance. Regardless of their source, degrees of encumbrance have the following effects:

    Fatigue is an important consideration in adventuring, particularly in combat and other fast-paced challenges. Rushed movements, as well as many Abilities, inflict fatigue. Fatigue is a short-term limitation, unlike the longer-term effects of exhaustion. Some species (such as humans) are poor at resisting fatigue, but excellent at resisting exhaustion. Other species may be able to take an enormous amount of fatigue in a single incident, but are less resistant to the long-term exhaustion of many battles.

    All characters have a fatigue factor. For all playable species, an initial fatigue factor is given in their species entry; add this number to the amount of starting stat points you allocated to bSTR and bSPD, if any (see Species). This is because the anaerobic exercise that often builds greater strength or speed assists in building short-term stamina. Certain Athletics Abilities focused on these stats can further increase your fatigue factor, or even focus on it as a main goal.

    Non-playable creatures will have their fatigue factor listed.

    Whenever you take fatigue, simply compare your old fatigue total to your new amount, and see how many multiples of your fatigue factor the number has met or surpassed. For every multiple, you gain one degree of encumbrance. Likewise, whenever you reduce fatigue, you remove one degree of encumbrance for every multiple passed below.
    Your character sheet has a row of spaces listed after your fatigue factor; simply fill these in with the multiples of your fatigue factor, to make it easier to remember when you need to gain/remove degrees of encumbrance.

    In combat, degrees of fatigue and encumbrance are "updated" at the end of your turn, or at the end of the movement phase. That is, when you perform an action that causes enough fatigue to gain another degree, you may resolve that action and the rest of your turn before adding the effects of the degree. If you gain a degree during another character's turn, your degree's effects arrive at the end of their turn. Degrees gained during a movement phase have their effects arrive at the end of the phase.

    Non-organic characters (such as techs, revenants, and liches) still use fatigue unless otherwise specified; this may represent more mechanical concerns such as wear & tear on parts and exhausted capacitors, but uses the same rules for simplicity's sake. There is one exception: instead of gaining one degree of encumbrance per multiple of fatigue factor, non-organics gain 1 degree at 3 multiples, and 2 more degrees at 4 and 5 multiples. Therefore, non-organics generally take longer to be affected by their "fatigue," even if their fatigue factor is no higher than a comparable organic.

    You may simply take a quick rest to relieve fatigue. Whenever your character is able to take any rest of at least 2 minutes, you remove all current fatigue. However, for every 4 fatigue removed, your exhaustion (see below) is increased by 1. For example, 1-3 fatigue would be removed with no consequences, 4-7 fatigue would raise your exhaustion by 1, 8-11 would raise it by 2, and so forth.

    Your maximum fatigue is equal 5 times your fatigue factor (that is, the exact amount required to give you 5 degrees of encumbrance from fatigue alone). However, you can exceed this maximum for a very short time (perhaps due to an external source forcibly fatiguing you, or fatigue factor suddenly decreasing). At the beginning of your turn, remove all fatigue over your maximum; if the removed amount is at least equal to than your fatigue factor, you take an amount of damage equal to your injury factor, and 1 degree of Core Injury. If the removed amount was at least equal to twice your fatigue factor, you take enough damage for 2 degrees of Core Injury, and so forth.

Exhaustion     Whereas fatigue represents the short-term effects of strenuous activity, exhaustion represents more persistent, long-term effects. A heavily fatigued character may have just completed a lengthy sprint, but could very well be ready for another one once they can rest for a moment. A heavily exhausted character, however, is so thoroughly drained that only a rest of hours or more will restore them. Such a character may have gained their exhaustion by repeatedly fatiguing themselves or continuously moving for a long time, or they may have been exhausted by the effects of artificial healing or other external influences.
Exhaustion Factor     All characters have an exhaustion factor equal to 2 times their CON. Certain Athletics Abilities can increase exhaustion factor above this amount.

    The most important effects of exhaustion are similar to those of fatigue: one degree of encumbrance for every multiple of exhaustion factor met or exceeded by your amount of exhaustion. 

    In addition, exhaustion may interact with other rules - for example, many elixirs do not work if a character is too exhausted. These rules may refer to degrees of exhaustion. You have 1 degree of exhaustion for each multiple of exhaustion factor met or surpassed by your amount of exhaustion. In other words, your degrees of exhaustion are equal to the number of degrees of encumbrance called for by your exhaustion.

    Unless otherwise indicated, non-organic characters are immune to exhaustion, and do not track it nor exhaustion factor. Whenever the rules would call for a non-organic to gain exhaustion (for example, a technological resting off fatigue), the exhaustion is simply ignored.

    Like fatigue, exhaustion rules are "updated" at the end of your combat turn or movement phase.

    Whenever your CON changes, so will your exhaustion factor, and this will not alter your current amount of exhaustion. Therefore, you must consider the above process again whenever your CON changes; compare the number of exhaustion factor multiples met or surpassed to your previous total.

     Your maximum exhaustion is equal to 6 times your exhaustion factor. If you reach this maximum value, you will die; characters who die from exhaustion cannot be revived by any means. This can occur not only from a character taking exhaustion, but from anything that lowers exhaustion factor, rendering one's existing exhaustion lethal.

    There is no known way to artificially remove exhaustion. The body must be allowed to recover via its own natural processes (although these can be enhanced by sedating elixirs or luxurious rest). Only a rest of at least 4 hours can reduce exhaustion (see Rest).

    Starvation and disease rules can cause minimum exhaustion. Your exhaustion cannot be lower than your minimum exhaustion; add together all sources of minimum exhaustion if you have more than one. When the minimum is removed, it does not immediately take the matching exhaustion with it; it must be removed normally.

    Your character is presumed to have a carrying rig - a catch-all term for the many pouches, small backpacks, sword belts, quivers, and baldrics that an adventurer typically uses to carry their gear. It is not necessary to track the details or weight of this equipment, and it is not considered socially inappropriate to wear except during formal events. Rules mentioning the carrying rig can be safely ignored unless special circumstances have separated your character from their rig.

    Your character has a weight factor equal to 7 times their STR. This represents the amount of carried weight at which you may begin to suffer negative effects.

    For every time that your carried weight meets or exceeds a multiple of your weight factor, you suffer one degree of encumbrance. For example, if your weight factor is 35, you have 1 degree of encumbrance from weight if you carry 35-69 lbs, 2 degrees if you carry 70-104, and so forth. If you do not have your carrying rig, you take 2 degrees for each multiple instead.

    Carry slots are an abstract measure of how awkward an object is to carry, weight considerations excluded. For example, a long spear might only weigh 4 pounds, but it is significantly more awkward to pack around than a small 4-pound rock. Carry slots can be thought of as how much space an object takes up in your carrying rig. Many compact, easily-carried objects occupy 0 slots, in which case there is no difficulty in carrying them aside from their weight. Larger items might require you to plan your inventory carefully.

    All rules pertaining to carry slots are a completely separate consideration from rules about weight. An item might be difficult to carry under both areas, or it might only be a problem for one.

    If an item lists a pound weight but not carry slots, it occupies 0 carry slots.

    Your carry factor is equal to 4 plus 50% of your WGT. This is the number of slots that exceeds the comfortable capacity of your carrying rig. Large creatures use their AWGT instead of their WGT. The rules are a bit more limiting than those for weight factor: no single item's slots may meet or exceed your carry factor, meeting or exceeding carry factor will give you 1 degree of encumbrance, and you cannot pack double your carry factor at all. If you do not have your carrying rig, your carry factor is reduced to 50% for the purposes of the rules in this paragraph (not the rules below).

    Any item you are carrying in your hand(s) does not count carry slots against your carry factor. The primary meaning of carry slots is their impact on your carrying rig. For example, you could easily carry a polearm in your hands that would never fit in your rig. However, the extremes are limited even for hand-carried items: you cannot pick up any item which has carry slots exceeding 4 times your carry factor. 

    You cannot ignore the carry slots of more than 2 items (1 per hand), and you may not carry more than 1 item per hand for the purposes of any rule. Even if you want to narrate your character carrying more than 2 items in their arms at once, the extra hassle is equivalent to just putting the extra items away into your inventory.

    Other items might have their carry slots ignored even when you are not holding them in your hands. Most notably, you do not count the slots of armor and clothing if you are wearing them (see Armor). You can also use rucksacks (see below) to modify carry slot rules.

    Unless otherwise indicated, carry slots are never considered when determining what a vehicle can carry; vehicles only have weight maximums.

    If it is too difficult to pick something up, you can drag it instead. Dragging an item reduces your SPD to 25%. If done in combat, you must take a major action to begin or continue dragging an item, and this gives you 2 degrees of melee disadvantage against all enemies for 1 round (or longer, if you continue dragging it on your next turn). When dragging an object, you must still count 25% of its weight against your weight factor, but its carry slots are disregarded. Depending on the environment and the friction of the item and the ground, the GM may adjust the weight percentage. If you drag an object with only one hand, you must count twice as much weight; proper dragging requires either two free hands or several minutes spent to tie the object to the dragging creature.

    As mentioned before, your carrying rig may include backpacks of various kinds. If you wish, you may specify that you are carrying an easily removable backpack. The advantage of this is that such a pack can be quickly shrugged off prior to combat or other intense activities, so as to remove excess weight or carry slots; it functions as one item for the purpose of inventory actions. The downside is that you cannot retrieve items from such a backpack while you are wearing it. Therefore, a common practice amongst adventurers is to store their food, water, camping equipment, and other non-combat supplies in the removable pack.

    Once the backpack is taken off, retrieving an item from it (or putting one in) is always a slowing major action. You may add or remove items from a backpack worn by another character by following the Giving Items combat rules, except with major actions rather than minor actions.

    Rucksacks are specialized packs designed to easily transport bulky items. They are optional additions to your carrying rig. A rucksack inflicts weight and carry slots of its own, but it can contain certain sizes of items; any eligible item that you put in the rucksack has its own carry slots ignored, inflicting only weight. The (possible) downside is that all above rules for removable backpacks apply also to rucksacks.

    Rucksacks cost only 1 coin per carry slot; the size of a rucksack is determined by how many carry slots it occupies. Rucksacks weigh 1 pound for each of their carry slots. The maximum size of item that can be put in a rucksack is always equal to the rucksack's own carry slots. For example, a rucksack that takes up 4 carry slots weighs 4 pounds, and can carry items of 4 carry slots or less (as many as you can endure the weight of).

    All rules for rucksacks apply equally to animals; on a quadrupedal creature they are called saddlebags, but function identically. It is common practice to add saddlebags to a mount, or to devote an entire pack animal to a large set of saddlebags. You can add or remove an item from the saddlebags of a cooperative animal (including a mount) without removing the saddlebags; this is a major action for both you and the animal, as above for backpacks.

    All animals intended for use as mounts should be equipped with a saddle. Saddles typically cost 15 coins, and are available in all cities and large villages. Without a saddle, you cannot use the Mounted Competency Abilities from the Studies of Close Combat or Marksmanship, you must roll a d6 on DEX to mount the animal, and you take 1 exhaustion for every 30 minutes spent riding. Automounts always function as if saddled.

    Saddles weigh 30 pounds, but reduce the total carry slots taken up by the rider (including the rider's inventory) to 75%. They are adequate for all WGTs of playable species.

Howdahs

    Animals of at least 140 AWGT may be fitted with a howdah, enabling multiple characters to fight and ride comfortably on their back. Howdahs provide all the benefits of saddles, and apply the 75% slot reduction to all characters in them. They can contain as many characters as the animal's weight and carry factors allow. At the beginning of the movement phase, one riding character must be designated as the primary rider; this is the only character who can direct the mount, use Mounted Defense (Close Combat), provide useful Ability effects to the mount, or benefit from the mount's Charging Attack. Only the primary rider needs to use one hand to control the mount. All other characters function as riders for the purposes of all other rules, and can make attacks and otherwise participate in combat.

    Howdahs have a pound weight equal to the animal's AWGT, and a coin price 1/3 of this amount. They can only be fitted to animals which are possible normal mounts.

    Some items (particularly ammunition) have fractional weights or slots less than 1 (but greater than 0). Whenever this is the case, add up all fractional values when calculating your carried weight or occupied slots, and round down only at the end.