Ye Olde Inn

Played another Frozen Horror quest and am still kind of puzzled by a few things. (Yeti's in solo quests is the biggest one but there's plenty of discussion already on that topic.)

The Ice Gremlins steal an item but can't steal an "equipped" weapon or armor. Without getting too far into house rules, custom character sheets, etc.--how do you guys differentiate between an equipped item vs. something just in inventory? What about swapping equipped items?

The topic always bothered me a little in the core game. (Just how many weapons can a hero carry? If I'm "carrying" a staff can I "use" a shield?) But with the Ice Gremlins it becomes even more important to identify the status of your equipment and rules around switching from one to another.

If you're carrying a battleaxe or a staff you can still carry and use a shield, but if you attack with a staff or battleaxe you can't use the shield in the next EWP turn.

That's not really a house rule, it's the only rule that makes sense. Another ambiguity in the rules but with a very simple solution, I think this was the intended rule.

Not sure about ice gremlins. I think it might mean they can only steal stuff like scrolls and potions.

Well if the hero is fighting with a longsword and a sheild, but he also has a Battle Axe (maybe strapped to his back), so at some point during the quest he might want swap these out.
The ice Gremlin can steal the battle axe and run with it.

Armor such as chainmail and a helmet can't be stolen as the hero is always wearing it... unless say in Quest 5 the heroes find Plate Mail on the weapons rack and a hero chooses to switch out his chainmail to the Plate mail, at which point the chainmail is no longer equipped and defers to inventory, which the Ice Gremlin can steal.

I too have had issues with how many weapons a hero can carry. It seems a little absurd that he's holding a sword and a sheild but finds somewhere to store a crossbow, battle Axe, staff and Orc's Bane on himself.
I'm kinda in the habit of limiting how many weapons the heroes can carry into a quest. I'd like to limit it to a primary and secondary. Daggers are small enough to carry multiples. But for bigger weapons it's not unreasonable to limit what the heroes carry in with them.
Of course, the rules say nothing of this, which is why you need to either houserule it or just allow the heroes to have a mythical Bag of Holding.

Potions and spell scrolls, however, isn't something I'd limit. They're small enough to carry and are of a 1 time use, so the heroes can generally run through those rather quickly.

The way I would suggest (but not limited too) playing it is the Ice Gremlin can not steal anything that is equipped on the hero. Basically anything the hero is currently using, sword, shield, helmet, armor, ext. They can take anything that is in the hero's inventory that is not being used at that moment, stored weapons, potions, scrolls, gold, ext.

Happy questing.

Mythical Bag of Holding Of course, why didn't I just assume everyone had one of those.

So for those of you who have responded, no "penalty" (like taking your action) for swapping weapons/armor mid-battle? Just whatever you're using when you attack is what you're using when you defend.

Actually, yeah, in my group it costs an action to swap out a weapon, unless the hero is:
A.) Unarmed: suppose a rust spell causes the Barbarian to lose his sword, he can automatically pull out a back-up weapon.
B.) Open handed: if the Elf has a short sword in one hand but nothing in the other, he can use his free hand to pull out a dagger and throw it.

I can't allow the hero to attack with the battle Axe and defend with a sheild.

However, I use Sjeng's equipment cards, which allows dual weilding on some weapons.

I think what I ultimately need to do is just learn to let go of the rules and pivot toward "dungeon mastering". Treat the rules as a starting point that help you leap in but feel free to evolve it from their. It's sure nice to hear some different takes on how other people are doing it, though.

That's one of the great things about this game. When some rules seem convoluted or unclear you're free to make adjustments where you see fit.

Some rules can be bent, others can be broken and replaced by something better to fit the playing group.

You're allowed to make changes, this is explained in the rulebook.
Odds are, out of all the Zargons/Morcars in the HQ community, none of them play by the exact same rules. The variations just change depending on what each is comfortable with.