The Broken Hourglass Monday Update

Planewalker Games' official website has received its usual Monday update for The Broken Hourglass, this time detailing the game's unique way of handling the party's inventory.
The following rules apply to party inventory:

- Items in party inventory do not count against the carrying capacity and encumbrance of any of the party members. In that sense, every party could be thought of as having a "shared portable hole." However...
- No item in a party inventory may be equipped. (It would not mean anything to say "The party is wearing this pair of Boots of Judgment.")
- Party inventory may be interacted with at any time during normal exploration, but party inventory is strictly off-limits when combat begins. Objects may not be placed into or removed from party inventory during combat. So you might be carrying the Halberd of Ultimate Mastery in party inventory to save on weight penalties, but if you are ambushed while it is still in party inventory, no one will be able to use it to defend the party.
- When a thief attempts to pickpocket a victim, the victim's personal and party inventory are both considered. However, items in party inventory are considered to weigh twice as much as they would in a personal inventory. Items which have higher bulk-weight are more difficult to pickpocket, and there is also a hard cap on the bulk-weight of any item which may be stolen. Therefore, items in party inventory are more difficult to steal than they would be in a personal inventory, and only smaller/lighter objects may be stolen. (As an aside, equipped items may never be stolen.)
- When the last member of a party dies, then and only then do the contents of the party inventory drop.