[Major Doom]

I'm preparing to run SR in January 2011, and was looking for ideas on how to handle equipment carried by the PCs.  I had run WoD (nWoD) and used the idea of Carried Gear and Adventure Gear, where Carried Gear was on the PCs all the time (ie: cell phone, flash light, condoms, etc.) and Adventure Gear would be a gym bag or back pack stored in a closet or trunk of a car with extra equipment normally not feasible to carry all the time (weapons, explosives, large container of KY Jelly, etc.) except when a mission required or shit hit the fan.  Although the idea was simplistic, my players were too lazy to maintain the separate list, kept arguing that they always had certain items on them or certain items wasn't normally carried so it shouldn't have gotten stolen or lost.

So to eliminate such bickering I'm deciding to go with the rule "if your character has it written down then it is on his/her person at all times, otherwise the character doesn't have it".  Of course I can foresee arguments about encumbrance and how it's not fair for the PCs to limit their equipment based on Encumbrance rules.  Frankly, I don't really care about the players opine on this matter, but I'm wondering what has other GMs done in the past to handle PCs equipment and encumbrance?

[Usda Beph]

Bags of holding work wonders for encumberance! Seriously, I know we get alittle crazy with what we are carrying, so inforcing the "On your sheet, on your bod" rule will get them to make the necessary notations and lighten up their characters. For My character to date Encumberance isn't to big of a deal. As long as it isn't his bike he is unincumbered! No firearms, no ammo, not alot for him to carry on the mission besides some mission equipment, grenades, slap patches, Axe, & the armor on his back!

[Dakka]

You will notice none of the gear in shadowrun has a weight listed, except explosives which derive damage from kilograms used.  Encumbrance and carrying limits exist but its mostly handwaived.  So long as you have armor <= Body x2 you are not encumbered.  If players have a tendency to take that a little overboard you can just flat tell them walking down the street with an assault rifle is bound to get them into trouble.

I personally have no problems keeping separate gear lists for carried, in storage, even in storage in separate countries around the world but there are players in my group who don't even track their current unspent nuyen correctly, having to recalculate from the group total any time they feel like they want to buy a piece of gear.  The key thing to remember is we do this for fun, and excessive bookkeeping is not fun.  A simple way to handle it would be to have off mission and on mission gear, with off mission gear including only things they have fake licences for and no forbidden rating gear.  Even then you can expect to be questioned about that assault rifle you are carrying pretty frequently as you walk into various coffee shops.

[Angelone]

I usually do it like you did with the all the time gear and combat gear. Recently though as long as my players don't go nuts I let it slide unless they are trying to get into a nice place. They are fairly restrained with what they carry around with them. It doesn't hurt that they've got drones that will airdrop their gear to them.

Honestly, the way I see the 6th world it's considered smart to have a pistol on you at all times. With heavier firearms coming out in the barrens and those quaint feral cities.

[Codac]

Well the on the sheet on the character thing would just not work for my character since he has more firearms than the rest of the party combined...probably double actually. But the idea works for most characters.

[The Doomed One]

Well the on the sheet on the character thing would just not work for my character since he has more firearms than the rest of the party combined...probably double actually. But the idea works for most characters.

The rest of the party have one gun between them so quite a bit more than double actually.

[Codac]

Oh really only one then yes at least triple...i like to have options.

[Angelone]

Yes, options are good... how many other runners are there?

I might be in the same boat actually. I think my character, when I play, has more guns than the rest of the team. Then again I have a player who insists you should be able to smartlink a katana.

[Dakka]

The group I play with is also guns lite on everyone who isn't me.  They each have 1 pistol (mainly because I make them) and 2 of them have heavier weapons, so a grand total of 6 guns out there.  My character has 6 pistols including 3 SA Puzzlers to defeat MAD scanners, and various long arms and automatic weapons, at least double the rest of the party probably triple since I become the default quartermaster for firearms in the group.  It helps that I am more detailed with things like where various guns are stored with my character.

[Codac]

There are three other runners in the group. I'm packing 8 pistols 3 sniper rifles an assault rifle a SMG and a LMG oh and also a grenade launcher.

[Medicineman]

You will notice none of the gear in shadowrun 4(A) has a weight listed,

fixed it for You
For Me it comes naturally to list the equipment on Body, equip on the Run,equip in Car,emergency kit,etc
(Maybe 'cause I'm Oldschool and its no burden for me to list it, nor writing down all the Weapons ,ammo,clips and weaponmods or add-ons.Its fun for Me and only fair to the GM (I consider it professional Gaming behavior)

My character has 6 pistols including 3 SA Puzzlers to defeat MAD scanners, and various long arms and automatic weapons

Same if not more here(at least for the Streetsams)
Most of my Chars are like Boyscouts(Allways prepared).Different Situations/Runs demand different Weapons and its quite Professional to have the proper Tools for the Job

with more Dances
Medicineman

[Bradd]

@Dakka: Karina actually has a Predator and a Puzzler, although I don't think she's ever fired the latter.

[Mäx]

"if your character has it written down then it is on his/her person at all times, otherwise the character doesn't have it".

You must be running your game purely in the barrens or one in one of the feral cities(Chicago,Lagos etc.) if you just allow your players to walk aroun heavily armored packing tons of heat.
The meets with the Johnsons must be pretty intresting, what with the players packing military grade heat in to a peaceful meet. 

[Bradd]

Frankly, I don't really care about the players opine on this matter ....

I really don't see a way to succeed with this attitude. There's no way to resolve differences in expectations without reaching an agreement.

[Usda Beph]

There are three other runners in the group. I'm packing 8 pistols 3 sniper rifles an assault rifle a SMG and a LMG oh and also a grenade launcher.

And Code has a pistol and a taser, I don't remember if Nestor has anything besides a Katana, but he has been playing character Catch-Up so I can hold off on what he's packing. I still owe you 45Y for the grenade of yours I launched. It was worth it though