I'm sure Jennifer and I are the only ones who can fully appreciate this, but treasure check-in takes a LONG time. Some folks come into play with three or four sheets of treasure, very little of which ever gets used.
To solve this, there is a two-part solution on the table, one that folks will dislike, and the other which will make it easier to swallow.
The first part is inventory limits. Characters are only allowed to keep 10 items in their inventory at a time. A character's stash is still unlimited, so characters can own as much treasure as they like, but they can only bring 10 tags into play.
The second part is bags. Carried treasure (consumables and resources) will be able to be grouped into bags. This will look much like a charged magic item; instead of 6 Healing Potions, 3 Potions of Revival, and 2 Charms of Escape, you might have a single bag that lists out Healing Potion, Potion of Revival, and Charm of Escape as separate properties with 6, 3, and 2 charges, respectively. As these things are used, you mark off uses instead of crossing out or ripping up individual tags.
Thus, players can bring as many items as they want into play, but no more than 10 tags. Carried treasure may be grouped into bags or left as individual tags, but count against the 10-item limit either way.
This solves three problems. First, with fewer tags to check in, logistics gets much easier (fewer pages of treasure to print before a game, and fewer tags to check in afterward).
Second, PC treasure becomes better organized and easy to read; instead of reading through all of your tags and counting out how many of something you have, you can see it spelled out on the bag.
Third, if PCs want to distribute treasure or sell items, they still can by separating items out into individual tags. They're limited in how much they can bring into play, but they still have that option. This helps ensure that commerce still happens with our snazzy new coinage system.
What do you guys think? I realize a lot of this is biased toward making logistics easier, so let me hear about your concerns from the other side of the fence.
I might consider a number slightly higher than 10, but a limited number with lumped "like items" is a good thing in terms of our check-in/check-out system.
While it's not a huge deal now, as we have players (and potentially a new crafting system). Without looking at the treasure for anyone, and breaking bags down into offensive(poppets, rockets, bombs, and poisons) and defensive consumables (potions, salves, charms, etc) you have two spots taken. I don't see "equipment" being dropped into a bag so easily. People that have 1 emblem, typically have 2 or 3, then you have magic armors, rings, bracers, weaapons, boots, belts, cloaks, and the like.
10 should be a solid number for most people, but I'd expand it slightly to 15 just for the reasons that Jenifer mentioned - as a character gets older and more experienced and has more cool toys (story action effect items), he's going to wish that he was able to bring those other things that he was limited to just based on the things that he normally wears. Other than that, I'm totally on board. Until you're a fully decked out adventurer, I doubt anyone is going to have to worry about needing more than 10 items with the new bagged treasure system.
Equipment would still take up one tag apiece because of its complex nature. This system would exist strictly for simple treasure (i.e., resources and consumables) that has, at most, one property and is otherwise interchangeable. One potion of revival is as good as another, for example, but one cloak isn't necessarily the same as another. That's the basic difference between simple and templates treasure in the existing system, and templates treasure would always be its own thing.
The exact amount of treasure that can be stored in a character's inventory is up for negotiation. My goal is to make it fit onto one printed sheet, and I'm sure 10 would do the trick. More may be possible, depending on how the tags change next season. With the game growing like it is, though, the need to simplify things like this has never been more urgent.
I like the bag idea and agree that the limit should be raised. Currently I dont see it as much of an issue, but eventually the more crap you accumulate will go above the limit. I think it should be organized in the bags as stated, but someone who has enchanted full armor (think doran here) and a couple of weapons would go over the limit quickly. To help with this I think allowing rings and jewelry type items (necklaces/emblems etc.) should be able to place them in a bag, as they are small enough to actually go into a bag of some sort.
Due to the complicated nature of rings/emblems/fetishes and whatnot (they're already a "bag" so to speak) I don't think that we should be able to put them in bags, and treat them like any other piece of equipment that can have multiple enchants or charges on them. And since I know that some of our healers happen to have multiple emblems and rings and the like, a slightly higher cap seems necessary, but not much. I think 15 is a good number, and even if we just lump protectives/restoratives in one bag and offensive consumables in another bag, it's already going to speed up tag check in considerably.
I think the idea of limited encumbrance is a logical one. The only big objection that I can see will come from players who decide to store some of their more esoteric items in their stash and then have a problem on a mod that said items would have let them solve. I think some people would want to devise a way to access their stash in game. I don't endorse that idea, but I predict it will crop up.
I do really like the bag idea. It provides an opportunity for some neat phys reps and it will help solve a certain amount of the item/tag issues that we had this past season. If a player is looted the looter gets whatever is in the bags and is represented on the tags.