[ScytheKnight]

There's two things that really annoy be about the core rule book for 5E... #1 is the Rigging section, the entire thing, clear as mud, rewrite the whole bloody thing for Pete's sake... #2 Is clear calculations for a character's carrying capacity, but NO wight guidelines on gear, making it completely pointless except as a number to smack players with when they try to abscond with an entire bank vault. ( would just say the entire contents of a bank vault... but Shadowrun does breed a special kind of crazy).

Personally I'm doing a Missions based game, so things a reasonably PM, but I'm trying to keep things grounded in reality so I've just taken more of a "There's no Hammerspace" point of view, how much stuff can you character reasonably carry and access? It works, but it feels kind of hamfisted, lose and going to lead to problems at various points.

So how have other people tackled encumbrance?

[Lucean]

We skip it more or less, as the values are quite arbitrary and hard to handle. They may serve as guideline but that's it.

[Imveros]

the game excplitly states to ignore it 98% of the time. You have lift carry for that other 2% of the time

SR Core P420

carrying gear
As long as the players are reasonable and don’t perpetually
carry around every firearm and toaster in creation
(with enough ammo and bread to operate them both
continuously), weights and encumbrance aren’t important.

[8-bit]

Yeah, my IRL group doesn't even use it. Unless we're wearing 2 layers of armor, a mask, and have a ballistic shield (and mostly that last one), we don't bother with it. It's assumed that standard protocol is wearing armor underneath, more armor or clothing on top, and a mask/helmet. Once you get past that point, we just arbitrarily assign a penalty or two (usually not attribute penalties; usually just dice pool penalties and maybe a minor speed penalty).

[Sterling]

When I GM I feel it's fine to ignore unless you have a character that decided to dump stat STR.  Then I pay very close attention to their "normal" load out.

At STR 1 you can carry 10 kg, or 22 lbs.  (That's about 10 bags of sugar, if you are trying to imagine it.)  I happen to know that a Colt M1911 fully loaded weighs ~3 lbs, of which a loaded magazine is ~ 1/2 lb, and use that as a guideline for Heavy Pistol weights.

I had a player turn up with a pistol Adept, STR 1, carrying 2x Predator V, 2x Lightfire 70, 2x Super Warhawk and 30 "clips" of ammo, so roughly 23 lbs there already.  Added to this he wanted an Armoured Jacket, a backpack with 10 kg of explosive foam, and all the other miscellaneous stuff he thought a runner needed. Oh, and no means of transport and a Squatter lifestyle!

He was eventually persuaded to look again when the other players began impersonating such a character on a run.  Imagine it, a pathetically weak elf stopping every few steps to adjust his gear, dragging the backpack of explosives, and begging the bus driver to drop him at the door and not the bus stop a block away!

[8-bit]

Well, that guy pretty overdid it on the guns and stuff. I, personally, don't see a lot of Strength 1 characters at our table, but most of the time they are mages who carry very minimal stuff. Certainly well under 10 kilos.

[Namikaze]

We don't bother with encumbrance, though I always ask my runners what they're bringing with them before anything happens.  This way, there's no bags that hold everything they have on their sheet or anything like that.  If they want to carry around a couple of backpacks full of gear (which hasn't ever happened outside of the few missions that we do outside in the woods), then I usually let them know that once combat starts, or they need to do something physical, they might have to drop the bag(s) quickly (with a Free Action).

I do enforce encumbrance rules for armor though - strictly.

[Herr Brackhaus]

For me it's not so much encumbrance that's an issue as it is figuring out what's reasonable.

Take your average B&E sneakthief. He'll probably want a hardware toolkit, an autopicker, and a miniwelder at the very least; null sheen, right, that's all shiny. But he could also use a lot of other tools, and that's where things start getting dicey. How large is that electronics toolkit, or the disguise toolkit, or the jammer and the white noise generator and the bug scanner and the handheld motion sensor.

It adds up real fast. I'd typically go with allowing certain items to be stashed in other items. Got drugs and slap patches? Stow them in the medkit (within reason, we're not talking a k of novacoke here). That Bug Scanner fits nicely in the hardware toolkit slingpack you've got over your shoulder, along with the jammer, a couple data taps, etc. And the Rating 6 medkit which is said to be about "briefcase" size? Easily fits in the survival kit backpack, along with a few extra rations, or distributed across the various pockets of your jumpsuit (i.e. built in capacity).

Run & Gun did help in this respect, at least it's easier to compare item sizes with what a normal suit should be able to hold if the items were built into it. Still, it's always going to be a fine line because as a runner you always want to be prepared without bringing everything and the kitchen sink.

[Reaver]

For most of the time, I don't worry about it. For those few times that it has mattered or the player is being silly I put my foot down and say "no". If they argue, they then can prove to me how they would carry such items. And for the most part, those that try to prove to me how they would do so fail 90% of the time. For the other 10%, they proved their point and get what they wanted....

[Imveros]

they proved their point and get what they wanted....

A burial at sea after an impromptu swim check? >: D

[ScytheKnight]

Nods. Alright, makes me feel better knowing that what I'm going with is a pretty common way of handling it.

[Jayde Moon]

Hammer space is a wonderful thing.

[Reaver]

they proved their point and get what they wanted....

A burial at sea after an impromptu swim check? >: D

"I can totally swim in all my clothing, with an armored duster on. And 2 pistols, an SMG and my rifle to boot!"

".... prove it"

[Tarislar]

My current character is STR-1 & I don't carry much on him to try & represent that, but he's not naked either.

His "Heavy" load is the following
Armor Jacket + Helmet
AK97 + 2 Spare Magazines + Survival Knife
Backpack + First Aid Kit, Trauma Patch, & Commlink    (Maybe a few other things too.  Not much)

[Reaver]

That isn't all that much. And if players keep their characters to the same level of gear (plus or minus a few items) then there isn't a problem.