Lightweight DND 5th Edition Item Tracker (Excel)

Taking inspiration from this old blog post from Rotten Pulp, here’s an (optional) item tracker that you can use to keep a more immersive record of what your character has equipped and where.

5th Edition Item Tracker

The tool itself covers most of the rules you’ll need to be aware of for this new ruleset. I took some guidance from the blog post mentioned above and tweaked some of the rules to better suit 5th edition.

You have up to six containers, which you name yourself, like your rucksack, your quiver, belt etc. These containers each have three slots, which can carry up to three items, based on their size. Heavy weapons like great swords take up three slots, light weapons like daggers and rapiers take up one slot, and all other weapons like longswords take up two slots. This method allows you and your DM to keep track of what and where your characters are carrying their equipment. Some interesting things can happen as a result of this.

Imagine your character is trying to cross a ravine, and your DM asks for an acrobatics check to see if you cross it, and they set the DC at 15. You roll an 8, and with your acrobatics bonus… you get 14. You fail the roll. Now the DM could just kill you, throwing you down the ravine. However, with this inventory system, the DM could tell you that you successfully make the jump, but you slip. Before falling down the ravine, you grab onto a loose vine that barely holds your weight. In order to pull yourself up, you need to shed one of your containers. Your character then chooses which to detach from his body, and the items (instead of your dwarf, Brungar, dying) fall to the dark depths, and you lose your arrows, 1000 copper pieces, and rations for the weeks ahead.

The DM can also award special items, like a smaller magical shield that only takes up one slot, or a shrinking longsword for storage, that make better use of the container system.

The item tracker for a character wearing heavy armour

Feel free to modify the tracker as you see fit to best fit your campaign and DM’ing style.

You can download the tool here:

dnd-item-trackerDownload

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