Carrying Capacity

In D&D 5e, a character's carrying capacity is calculated as 15 times their Strength Score. That means that a character with an average Strength Score, 10, can carry up to 150 pounds of armor and equipment without any penalties. Characters can also lift, push, or drag up to 30 times their Strength Score (300 pounds for an average person), but their speed is reduced to 5ft per round, or about 0.5 miles per hour while they do so. On top of this system, some Dungeon Masters use the variant Encumbrance rule, which introduces two new conditions (encumbered and heavily encumbered) which characters get if they carry a certain amount of weight (5 times their Strength Score and 10 times their Strength Score, respectively). Under the variant Encumbrance system, if a character with an average Strength Score carries 50-100 pounds of weight, their speed is reduced by 10ft per round or 1 mph, and if they carry 100-150 pounds, their speed is instead reduced by 20ft per round or 2 mph and they have disadvantage on all ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. Essentially, in D&D, the more stuff a person carries, the harder it is for that person to function.

The same is true in real life, with all kinds of burdens, physical and otherwise. We, theoretically, can carry a good deal of weight and still function to one degree or another, but the more we carry, the harder it is to carry it.

However, it should be noted that not everyone has the same Strength Score, some people carry heavier burdens than others, and some of these burdens are invisible. Some people can carry more than others can, some people carry more than others do, and some of those burdens aren't clearly apparent to others.

For these reasons, and others, we should be patient with people, including ourselves, as we all try to carry our burdens and help other people carry theirs. We can each only carry so much before we need to slow down, so if we ever find ourselves overburdened, we may do well to slow down and not try to push ourselves to go faster than we can manage. Each person has a different carrying capacity, and each person has different burdens to carry, so let's all try to be compassionate with each other. You never know how much weight is on someone else's shoulders or how much it weighs them down.