I always do three things when listing equipment. 1) I figure out something to eat or drink that the character likes. One of my D&D characters really liked Apple Brandy and always had some on hand. Another could not survive without their morning coffee, so she had a coffee kettle and the things she needed to make her beverage of choice. 2) Pick a hobby for my PC and get the the things they like. Even if they are not a bard, perhaps they like to play an instrument and have one. Perhaps they are a dancer and have a costume and dancing shoes. Everyone needs something to fill those empty times. Maybe they read and keep a book on hand to pass the hours. 3) Keepsakes. Old letters, a necklace that mother used to wear, your father's ring, a lock of hair from you wife before the orcs took her away. If you had loved ones, it is likely that they gave you something at some point that you will never want to be parted from. Customize your character, make them a real person, in part through their possessions. :)
So, having been in the military, this is always an easy thing to imagine. My USMC bucket issue included the back pack, clothes, extra boots, a whistle, a waterproof bag, a map kit, a utility/combat knife, canteens (read water bags), a tin cup for heating soup over a fire, extra bootlaces (can be used to make snares or as a garrote), a flashlight (torches), a note book and pens, a compass, etc. Not to mention the body armor and the helmet. I know nobody wants to wear the damn helmet, but its the most important part. Even people who couldn't afford armor often wore a helm... Or should have.
I run dungeon world, it's great your characters have an item called 'adventuring gear' with three uses. Each time a player needs say a rope he crosses one use off, and now has a rope. It works really great.
While I understand the idea behind this mechanic, I am not a big fan of those catch-all-solutions. Thinking about what you want need and could possible pay and carry is - at least for me an important part of the character creation. On the other hand the idea of say, having an advantage like special gear - once or thrice per adventure you have the right tool for the task ahead with you - or mechanisms like 'spend one hero-point / momentum / edge / whatever to have the item you need, is more compelling to me. But that boils down to how you run your campaign. If you want that gear is less important than the characters ideas or how they approach a problem - then you should be in no trouble. But if you want this feeling of urgency, what you have and what you don't have matters then you might like another approach. A good example would be Aliens, when the Marines are holed up in the laboratory, with their two gun-turrets. Watching their magazins slowly run out and this is essencial to the tension of the situation. I guess a three-usage limit does the same job. But if you know beforehand - you have two (2) turrets and sixteen hundred (1600) rounds of ammunition, it has more weight in my opinion.
@itsinmyvein : Yeah. You are right. In some types of campaigns it's less important than in others. But it also comes down to the GMs (and subsequently the players) playstyle. Btw I played StarWars a while ago for the first time. And I really like the light side / dark side mechanic. But our GM also had a very lenient stance on inventory (you have what you need and if it's important spent a light-side-point). The adventure went well and it really was fun... But it felt a bit off. Like if it doesn't really matter how well I plan ahead. Maybe I am just not adjusted to this style.
@itsinmyvein : I played two or three times until now - maybe it comes really just down to getting aqainted to the system... And as said - I really like the light side vs dark side destiny mechanic. Personally - as GM I have sometimes problems challenging (e.g. being evil) towards the characters. With this Dark Side destiny points you have the... hmm... permission to do so. It feels less arbitrary.
I find that the equipment question is something that often is neglected because of shifting play styles. The two big play styles today are cinematic narrativism and combat focused gameism. Both styles have in common that a lot of small details are ignored. We all have elements of this since few characters ever needed to pee. I'm part of the (seemingly) dying breed of simulationists. My characters would never leave town without a tent - unless if they are gleefully unaware about how living outside a palace is like. However, then I wonder how annoying it would be to carry a tent, among other things. So my character gets a mule - and food for the mule. Speaking of food, most of my characters try to avoid iron rations because they just aren't very enjoyable. So they see what's locally available and what of that is durable. Dried fruit, grain and cheese are among the default answers, but several characters of mine traveled with a life chicken to have fresh eggs available. My character also tends to be the only one who brings kitchen utensils. Also, most of my characters have a hobby or two. Challenging companions for a dice game or a card game over some copper is always nice. Other characters have some juggling balls they use to calm down. Recreational drugs also are a thing for some of them. More educated character may carry a book or two which they use to study or read for recreational purposes. A wizard who just has his spell book is a joke to me. Other characters have a knife they use for carving wood. Lastly, there are talismans for superstitious characters and pictures of or letters from loved ones. A few classics most of my characters carry are: ropes (good for climbing, restraining prisoners, repairing things or improvising solutions), knifes (great tools and eating utensils) and hatches for chopping firewood. I'm also a big fan of the good old bucket because you want to carry water to the camp some way. Also, due to a certain book, my characters usually have a towel with them.
I'm no simulationist, and decidedly more experienced as GM than as player, but I do like the rare PC I run to have a day job, or at least have one at the start of the campaign. They're tailors, students, automotive engineers. Then along the journey, they're always looking for ways to leverage the adventuring to improve their day job. (Nissan engineer first, dreamwalking heroine of light second.)
Iron rations aren’t very enjoyable. My bard with prestidigitation 👁👄👁. I haven’t got to play her yet, campaign starts in two days, but she loves to focus on the small little acts of kindness she can give to people, like warming the bedrolls and blankets of her companions, flavoring the meals, scenting a dusty old shop with the wonderful scent of vanilla when she walks in, using prestidigitation to clean up her party members and stuff. The tiny little things.
My current Minotaur was imprisoned in a gladiatorial arena as part of his backstory. One fight went awry one day and a longsword got lodged in one of his horns. After escaping his imprisonment, he kept the sword as a reminder of the trauma he felt there and that he will never go back. He has let it rust, over the years, to show that even the worse memories fade over time...
Hail, I'm a half-giant. I have a dagger. It's really nice, wootz steel, sharkskin grip, ornately-twisted pommel. It was lodged in my skull about a year ago in a bar fight and meh, haven't gotten around to removing it. Spins in the hole! The shorter races like to play with it! Good way for me to make some coin.
Something I love about pathfinder: Class kits. If you're playing any fantasy setting, you should probably look up the pathfinder kit for your class. An example: The fighter's kit: a backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a flint and steel, an iron pot, a mess kit, rope, soap, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin. And then there's a more campaign situation based kits. A "Pyramid buster's kit" contains three sticks of chalk, five sheets of parchment, 1 dose of synthetic mumia, a flask of alchemist’s fire, a tangleburn bag, and a pair of sunrods.
Great vid', Guy! AND another worthwhile purpose for discussion! I'm old-school, so there's no "ad-hoc adventuring kits" around here... Even if there's Canon to support the idea, I'd flat out shut it down... Part of the whole point of "learning to generate a PC" on your own is to derive how you're going to build the starting inventory. "American Restoration" is a show that follows a work shop of restorers and fabricators, and their adventures and antics around the antique markets as they find old and often forgotten relics and bring them back to life... It starts with the following, "You can tell a LOT about a guy by what he keeps on his work bench..." AND that's really how I look at the whole "starting inventory" thing. By the time I've named a character and I'm ready to "go shopping" through the books for inventory, I've got a pretty specific visual idea of this character concept in mind. I understand (more or less, anyway) how this person is going to function psychologically, and with the backstory fleshing out somewhere in this same stage, I like to work with the notion, "You can tell a LOT about a PC by what he's got in his backpack"...(OR reasonably equivalent parcel)... SO whether I "reskin" a concept from the Canon List of items, the way you reskinned the "hooded lamp" for the street-urchin, or I simply jot a few notes expectantly to be able to improvise something out of existing items, say stretching a hammock between trees and then using locally sourced sticks as "ribs" to give it enough shape and structure to create a roof for an improv' field shelter... I create a fair variety of contingencies for the uniqueness of that PC's experience to have already faced some of "the usual" issues with life in "the field"... It also depends on the particular character... In any case, I try to go by the backstory, tweaking items to suit the Character as much by that backstory as by his or her personality, and keeping in mind, encumbrance DOES count at the tables I play most of the time, so getting generous with creative alternatives is always a bonus... Knives... Personally, I'm a kukri fan... IRL as well as in-game. No, not every PC I create has one, but where plausible, I certainly enjoy them. It's a near perfect hybrid between a well made, hefty field knife and a light hatchet... I have a few of my own (obviously) and being an antique dealer (part time) I even have a couple "authentic" kukris from their hey-day... Bowie knives are also highly regarded, and worth the respect. It's not special or particularly pretty, just a big clunky knife, wide blade and refined (if properly made) to a durable and sharp edge... a traditional "chisel" type edge. This thing can be used as a club (striking with either the handle by holding the sheath, or the "flat" or "back" of the blade) effectively... BUT it was just a rugged, hefty, field utensil... Skinning knives are actually an advanced specialty instrument. They're particularly "curved" along the cutting edge, to provide as much "cutting territory" as possible in as small a utensil as possible. While not very useful in a fight, or much of anything past removing hides from animals, they're often overly embraced by some players as "cool" rather than trying for something strategically useful... Daggers, stilletos, and Dirks... Double edged knives sound all bad-ass, but the terminology tends to be amiss with some. Daggers are the "middle of the road" in these instruments. The stilleto, while sounding cool even with the proper description, it's just too delicate for anyone practical to appreciate for a field term longer than a couple days at a time... It's good in a very close quarters fight, because the blade is thin enough to be damn difficult to stop, but the blade is delicately thin... easily broken, and ONLY worth using in a thrust or stabbing manner... It's fine enough (usually) for a sensible GM to allow some mechanic for wedging between plates in most armor, but this also tends to break them. Dirks are the "heavies" of this type of thing... Simply a handle attached to a large triangle of steel, the dirk is wider at the base than a dagger, and heavier all around. It's intended to use that weight for penetration, since (like other double edged knives) it's most useful in a stabbing or thrusting manner... It's hefty enough (if properly made) to be able to take a fair amount of abuse before snapping or otherwise failing structurally, BUT even with cutting edges like a dagger, it's just not substantive enough to be much more than a jabbing WEAPON... Dirks DO admittedly have some pommel, the weighty (usually metallic) end of the handle that can be used with hammer-like strikes... BUT a large flat rock is about as useful in the fashion of an improvised hammer. Rope... One almost can't have too much rope. BUT proper tensile strength only comes from the proper textile in question. Silk is top of the line, unless it's a sci-fi setting, where something better than silk might be available... Cotton lines are good, but get thick and heavy quickly when you consider how much weight is expected of the average "adventurer's rope"... AND cotton snaps quickly, with little or no elasticity to offer warning... Jute is also durable, quality material for twine and rope, but it's prone to "fish-hooking" where the fibers splay out from the main cordage, and on drying out, they get stiff... The result is splintering and gouging into the flesh of any hands that work with the rope or cord... AND jute splinters soften almost instantly upon penetrating the skin and being exposed to the body fluids... For you simulationists out there, it's HELL to try to pick out the softened jute splinters after they've wedged into your hands, and every time you move the hand, the little fiber under the skin "wriggles" teasing agony into the nerves around it. Lanterns and lamps... whether hooded or hurricane, a good lamp should have some form of wind-proofing or protection, or it's not practical to an adventurer... just get a torch together. A reflector is also a worthwhile improvement on "natural fire" lamps... as it does two things... (1) it blocks the light from the flame so the person holding it, and anyone behind that person, isn't BLINDED by the light source itself... (2) if properly made, polished, and kept up well, it reflects light additively from the flame forward, and some even focus the light a bit to concentrate it to some degree in a useful direction and manner. Older reflectors weren't as good as later "mirrors" BUT they certainly were better than nothing. SO there's a top three items and opinions on matters around them, just so those interested have something more to dubiously discuss... ad nauseum infinitus... Enjoy. ;o)
Hooded lanterns did exist in the Medieval times... but they were just an outside shell that required you to have a lit candle inside of it. They were basically meant to be fancy candle holders. And D&D players seem to keep forgetting that candles exist. Same for torches. The light cantrips basically mean that, if there's a magic caster in the party, people tend to forget the most "mundane" options altogether. :/
I have just finished playing in a game where my character pulled out a candle - not for light - but to detect and exit. The wind in the passage would blow the flame in a particular direction. The exit is probably in the opposite direction :) But yes, I agree. One must always consider what is in the backpack!
Because most of the players I have in several campaigns tend to solve everything through magic, I think I might have the opposite problem, I tend to go over the top with mundane items. I just finished my character sheet for a 'murder mystery' on board of a ship one-shot we're having (we're starting at level 5) and this is my final list of items: - Dark hooded clothes, a leather armor, 2 daggers, a rapier, a slingshot with 20 bullets, a burglar's pack, thieves' tools (from class and background), a backpack - The backpack contains a bedroll, a blanket, a book of nursery rhymes (rolled from the Trinkets table), 5 chalk pieces, a chest, a climber's kit, a set of extra (common) clothes, a disguise kit, 3 flasks, a sack (carrying 1 ounce of flour), a healer's kit, a greasy insect repellent salve, a mess kit, 10 parchment sheets, a shawm (to use as an ear trumpet to listen behind closed doors), a signal whistle, 3 soap bars, a tankard (I'm disappointed that the mess kits don't include one), a vial of water soluble glue (allowed by my GM since the only glue in this game is an item worth 2,400 gold...) and a whetstone to keep weapons in check (which is another thing no one ever seems to remember to do) - The chest contains 3 dancing monkey fruits, 5 ryath roots, 10 sinda berries, 5 wildroots, and 5 zabou (great medieval bombs) It's a given fact that, if we weren't starting at level 5, I wouldn't have enough starting money to buy all of this, but it's a one shot, so I wanted to try some more unusual stuff, especially the different food items. :D
My fighter/rouge was always on the lookout for unique jewelry to buy for his wife while he was out adventuring. The habit developed as a sort of peace-offering ritual because he was not always able to write home regularly, and she was invariably furious with him when he came home after weeks of silence. It wasn't an attempt to buy her off so much as proof that he was always thinking of her.
My barbarian/druid carries around a saddle on his back so when he wild shapes, his buddies can ride him! He also has old rusty crowbar. Uses it konk out fish. While they're swimming....
One of my players had a barbarian named Socrates (sew-crates not sock-ruh-tees) that wielded a door as a shield. Whenever he said "Socrates open door!", an enemy went flying back.
My GMs leave glass everywhere, so I usually will get a bag, fill it with glass, tie it tightly, and crush it into a fine dust. I then carry it with me keeping it tied. If we find ourselves in a very dangerous situation against a creature with eyes it’s one of the options I can rely on. Open the bag, shove it into their face and back off. You get something in your eyes and your first instinct is to rub them, doing that in this situation ensures the absolute destruction of the eyes.
A multi-tool. These were around in Roman times, so the tech is really old, although the original focus seemed to be more on eating utensils than tools. There were medieval examples that combined a knife with other small tools, although I couldn't find an example that folded. Of course, in "modern" times into the future, these would be fairly common. The biggest advantage is the saving on space and weight, although a multi tool really can't take the place of a proper tool for the job; it's still better than nothing, and takes up very little space or weight. A knife. Not a dagger, but a regular, good old knife. You can eat with it, cut things, dig things, and it it's big enough, even chop things - all things a pure fighting knife (dagger) really isn't designed to do and will quickly break or be ruined. A hammer or small mallet, in the 16-24 oz range - basically a carpenter's hammer. A lot of stuff can be fixed by giving it a good whack (or 3). Need to break something? This is good. You can use it as a weapon if needed, but that's not it's purpose. Drive tent pegs, nail boards, knock a wagon wheel hub pin out. great for smashing locks, too, without dulling your sword or axe. A satchel. Regardless of the time period, a satchel slung over the shoulder could carry a lot of stuff, be dropped in a hurry, and was rather hard to steal (slung across the body like a messenger bag). Pretty sure there are/will be high tech versions for those future campaigns. And if you've got coin to spend, these can go from gunny sack plain to really expensive. Last but not least, a straw hat. Worn by everyone from kings to peasants from time immemorial. The only differences seem to be how fancy they get, but examples have been found in nearly every culture that got above the Stone Age (and even in most of them). Sunshade, rain shield, even as a small bucket (if woven tight enough), straw hats are still made and used into modern times.
Multi tools kind of suck though. You should only really be carrying them if you really, really don't have the room or weight capacity to carry real tools.
I'd like to mention that fighting knives/daggers can vary widely in their ability to be used as a tool. Just being a weapon doesn't automatically mean it's unsuitable for utility use (though you'd almost always carry both).
@@dynamicworlds1 You generally don't want to use something for both. Weapons are generally flimsier than tools, and tools are not made to fight, and fighting is a very... delicate matter since your life is on the line, so you always want weapons in good condition to fight. Using weapons as tools will damage them and it can cost you your life if you ever have to defend yourself, not to mention they're very likely to break, and using tools as weapons is a sure way to get yourself killed in a fight. Just think about how bad a woodcutting axe is as a weapon.
I don't normally care for items that only exist for roleplaying. As for practical items, I think every player should carry caltrops, a collapsible 10ft pole, at least 50ft of rope, at least 1 piece of chalk, a crowbar, a grappling hook, a signal whistle, a steel mirror, and if you have any money left over you should also consider either a pair of manacles or a miners pick. all of these items have saved my life and the lives of my party at least once.
My cleric has a few small books that he reads in different languages trying to learn them. He also has a little black book, its full of lore on demons celestials and fiends some of it is his own notes from his studies as a demonologist.
If you can stick a mirror around the corner, you can also stick your head around the corner. LOS is fine. I think Samantha is trying to avoid being noticed though. They'll know you are there when they hear the spell casting and get hit by the missiles.
The point is, line of sight is a direct path, not just 'anything you can technically see'. Sticking your head around the corner is fine - you'd have cover, but still be target-able.
I built a character entirely around creating traps. Most Rangers focus solely on hunting, when realistically trapping can be a lot more efficient. My character kept a whole tone of supplies to make these traps: metal strings, fiber strings, spider's silk, rope, cut-down crossbows, bear traps, caltrops, alchemist's fire, gunpowder, poison. Those are the one's I remember now, but my second sheet was full of miscellaneous crap.
I think old-timey ball bearing-like objects were made by taking lead to the top of a tall tower, melting it, and then letting it drip from the top of the tower into a trough of water at ground level. Drops of liquid form into spheres as they fall; when old-timey folks figured that out, they used that property to make small perfectly-formed spheres of metal for various purposes.
A person favorite thing of mine to do is imbue even very functional, unassuming items with meaning. One of my better characters is a very no-nonsense, and though she has been travelling for months leading up to the story, she had neither the time nor the free space in her pack to pick up trinkets and unique items, but by giving emotional significance to something as simple as the ancient and decrepit boots on her feet, I still had opportunities to have some of those interesting downtime moments. In another case, I needed to somewhat handicap one of my characters, because her backstory made her a little too competent at the start of the game. The way I was able to do this was by giving her fairly primitive equipment (which worked great with her backstory of coming from a frozen wasteland quite devoid of resources), and by making one of her main weapons, a bow, far too large for her, saying she inherited it from her father when he passed away. I didn't put too much thought into it at the time, but it ended up working fantastically. It provides a good jumping off point for her to bring up elements of her backstory in a natural, less exposition dumpy way, it handicaps her combat skills for balance, and it reflects both her incredible stubbornness and her reverence for those who brought her into the world.
Chalk and Climbing Pitons. Chalk should be rather obvious in its multitude of uses. Pitons are used to jam doors open/closed, keep mechanisms from turning (like in traps), pretty much any time you need to stop something from moving how its supposed to, a piton or large nail (if pitons aren't available) will usually do the trick. Pitons have been with D&D since 2nd Edition's Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue, Purveyors of Faerun's Finest Merchandise. [TSR # 9358] It's a great book to draw some inspiration from too, even in 5e for stuff your character can be carrying. The 3x Arms and Equipment Guide is a pale imitation, but includes other gear that is on occasion useful.
My Barbarian is nicknamed 'Fangcarver' because she likes to carve totems and in her backstory she landed the killing blow on a veeeery big wolf and took one of its fangs and carved a totem out of it. Last session the party killed 4 Kenku, and since she never saw a Kenku before they were like prey to her... so she has 32 Kenku talons in her backpack :)
I've been listening and appreciating these videos since I've found them recently. Keep up the good work. Funny point: page 150 of the D&D PHB lists ball bearings for sale :-) As Fletch once said, it's all ball bearings these days.
In D&D 5E you can buy a rope and 5 sacks for the same price as a backpack and a rope strapped to the side. It holds 5 times as much, and you just string them all together and take it with you. You can keep little bags of supplies in each one and if your party loses their supplies you have a spare knapsack for them. It’s very efficient
Whenever I have a D&D character that starts with a scholar's kit I pick the flaws from Entertainer that say I satirize locals in the towns I pass through and the one that says I can't resist helping spread and twist local gossip. I then tell the DM that the lore book in my Scholar's kit is a diary I've written over the years of my travels and it's actually a list of all the lies I've told about npcs I've met and ruined with gossip and satire. The idea is to ask the DM "Hey, do I have anything written down about this town in my book of lies?" every time we roll into a new town.
@Ian Robertson Yeah, it's not like there's a whole background mechanic that establishes what a character was doing before they were an adventurer. And it doesn't mean the character knows anything. It just means the player is throwing a line to the GM for them to tie a hook on to. That's excellent RP
@ian Backgrounds that explain your life before adventuring are a thing. A courtier has access to beurocratic spheres and an urban bounty hunter has connections in the cities he has hunted. Its not metagaming to write a background you putz
One of my favorite characters I play at the moment is Arion of Rethis. He origins from a small archipelago-kingdom resembling a greek/eastern mediterranian culture. However the timeframe the campaign is set is more medieval/renisance. But - and here ties backstory with equipment - he is the the Greatest Hero the world has ever seen. At least he believes it unwavering. In his youth Arion was a humble shepperd (the game acutally has shepperd as characers profession) until one day a Cyclops (of course those live there, what did you think) came along and picked some sheep of Arions flock like a man would pluck flowers. Arion - more brave than wise.. or intelligent - followed the monster - for nearly a day. When he finally had tracked the beast down in it's lair it was (luckily for my character) not hungry, hence it had eaten two sheep earlier. However the cyclops was in a bit of a trollish mood, so instead of just killing this annoying little human brat, he told in a solemn voice. "You, brave adventurer - dared to follow me all this time. Your unshaking bravery shall not get unrewarded, for I have a prophecy to make - one day, you will become the greatest hero of them all. You will be the reincarnation of the heroes from the ages when the world was young and wild. And now - off you go, onwards to your destiny." As pointed out - Arion is more brave than smart. So he fell for the ruse. One of his first deeds was to ...obtain... armor and weapon - as a shepperds staff is probably not very hero like. But instead of buying some good sturdy leather armor or chainmail... he fancied something else. An original ceremonial armor of the King of Rhetis own guard. Because you know, if one is about to inherit the glory of the heroes from back when - you need a suitable armor. Let's just forget that bronze-armor is wayyyy outdated, heavy, unrealible and not really good, if your enemies wield steel weapons... Fitting to this - a large round shield. A combat spear, three throwing spears and a short Xiphos. To this there is just a bedroll, rations and a water bladder. He is very ascetic... you could say spartan (every pun intended). Of course he obtained stuff later - healing potions, torches and such, but he is to stubborn to equip himself properly. Even after all this time he hangs on his meanwhile totally deranged armor. Without the rest of the party, Arion would probably die in the wilderness :D Or forget un-herolike things like payment for rescues and subsequently food and such. On the other hand - spears are like the most underestimated weapon there is in my opinion.
When I wrote up the starter kits for the Vocations (the name my game uses for classes) for my game I made sure to create starting gear that was appropriate, and with some unique and memorable pieces are found the kits. When I created the Dracorian vocation, a class I designed specifically for the game, their starting gear has a "Memo Book of Dragons faced" and a "Trophy Box for pieces of favorite dragon they’ve faced" because the class is built around taking on dragons, and little things in their starting gear that tie into the design of the class are always a nice little bit of extra flavor for the players to have some fun with.
Great series, I always enjoy your videos. I definitely agree that putting a little time into creating a unique character (backstory, interesting possessions, etc.) can make the game more fun for everyone (as long as it doesn't get too involved and steal focus from the main storyline). And it's nice to see someone point out the silly anachronism of ball bearings as a supposedly standard item in a quasi-medieval setting.
Personally IRL I always carry a salt shaker around in my bag... now I always have access to some if I get a hotdog or burger from an event vendor, they always have Ketchup, Mustard, sometimes brown sauce or mayo.... But it's becoming increasingly common that they don't have salt.
Sometimes items that saved your bacon once tend to find themselves in other characters luggage as well later on. Once upon a time in the black eye 3rd edition we were trapped and a fireplace poker was my characters find that was (luckily sturty enough to) opening bars and broke only when clubbing the final baddy in that dungeon. Since then my characters, if they have a large collection of items tend to have a poker amongst the random stuff. It has served as a makeshift conductor in sci-fi games, as part of a butlers general equipment (the master was another pc and I stoked things from campfires to orcs) and as a treasured posession in coc as the only remaining thing from the characters childhood home.
I harvest the bones and sinews from creatures and make cheap and easy door stops and tripwires. I also purchase a pamphlet listing the edible and dangerous flora in the region as well as a guide to trapping and skinning to help boost my low survival skill. When life gives you Dire Wolves, make smoked wolf jerky.
I have a rather old character of mine that i set up as a fey hunter a while back. Managed to convince the DM's that my whip should be made of iorn since that meant I could grapple the fey and prevent them from escaping. They were pretty chill with the idea since I gave a reason and story as to how the character got the whip in the 1st place. Had to change the modifer to str though since it would be heavier than a normal one. Ever since then I try and get my players to make a few personal items to kinda get them to think about what their character is about.
I have a barbarian that carries a small stuffed bear that he has had since childhood. The bear was given to him by his best friend when he was a child. Undead decimated his village and killed his best friend. So he carries the bear around as a memento.
I really like that you changed the style of the thumbnails again, to a style more similar to the old one. I just noticed that I have missed a number of your videos which I would have been interested in, due to the fact they did not stick out like they used to.
Even in a futuristic setting, one should have low tech alternatives. Some remote activated taser field is nice and fine - but it if you can trigger it from afar, somone could intercept your signal or scramble the electronics A pound of ball bearings however stays a pound of ball bearings. And may the gods have mercy with your enemies, when their ships gravity fail and they have dozens of heavy, hard, magnetic and electrical conductive marbles flying around in unpredictable veloceties and trajectories.. Edit: On the glass beads: Sheated glass was hard to come by in the medieval period. Glass or stone beads however were easier available. There is glass jewellery dating back to the bronce age. So in a generic medieval fantasy setting glass or marble marbles should be no big issue
If for no other reason, think of the many ancient cultures that used glass/ceramic or stone beads for religious purposes. Your character might not be a follower of one religion or another, but they would recognize a resource they could purchase or steal to use. Which may lead to new stories for angering some deity for how they chose to use said beads.
@@Bsmaka : I can see it clearly before my eyes. Party trapped in some dungeon, the Orcs are closing in. Suddenly the thief pulls out a bag and drops some pearls on the ground, while the party makes its retreat... Paladin: "Hey - where did you get those?" Thief:" You remember the temple in the last city?" Paladin:"You mean the holy house of Vrogar the Vengeful, god of self-righteous retaliation and nasty things stuck on your boot? This temple....?!" Thief: "Maybeeee...." With the faint sound of cracking ceiling stones we end this scene
Low tech solutions may be a good idea, but ball bearings have the extremely serious problem of only staying in place on level surfaces. If someone is chasing right behind you, maybe dumping a bunch of ball bearings would trip them up, but if you are trying to set a trap, the bearings will roll away if the floor is even a couple degrees off level, which in a fantasy setting with medieveal or earlier technology, is going to be pretty much all the time unless your setting is so rich in magic that it has mages dedicated to construction of perfectly level floors.
@@coopercummings8370 : For low-level eras I'd prefer good ol' caltrops. they don't roll away and are enourmus frustrating for anyone chasing you :D Hm. Thinking of that - caltrops from a very sturdy material, tungsten or some high-tech alloy might even be better than ball bearings in a futuristic setting. It might be hard enough to pierce through even hight-tech boots... And what is more annoying than a hole in your space-suit when the ship is loosing atmosphere due to some well placed laser hits?
Bit late to this vid :) How would wearing the full backpack and other gear impact agility and acrobatics skills etc vs not wearing all that gear during fights, stealth, climbing etc? Don't recall reading about that in the few rulebooks I've glossed over....
In the game I am currently playing in my sorcerer actually went through the wizards college as part of her back story. As a result my character likes to read and anytime we enter a new town I always pick up a new book to read when sitting around at camp. Also I keep around blank parchment and tindersticks. Since I can't always find charcole to do etchings with I will burn a tinderstick half way and then put it out and have something to do an etching with. The party members asked me why I didn't just learn a spell to do this and I answered that magic is special and why should it be wasted on something that can be performed so easily. She may suck a sewing, but that mind set is consistent with her. She refuses the idea of taking the mend spell and instead carries around a thread and needle to do horrible mending jobs that probably just hurt the equipment a bit more.
in a Dark Heresy (warhammer 40k) campaign, my scitarii ranger has a lot of trophies. mostly pieces of bone, but also different pieces of metal. All from targets he has had the last hit on. He is wearing a 3 eyed metal mask, from a special target. in a pathfinder campaign, my undine cleric always has a certain spell prepared. I know it is not his backpack per say, but it is something he also prepares. the spell is Oasis, so that he can create an oasis once a day to honour his ancestors, the water spirits =) It should also be said, that he operates in a desert. in a dnd 5e ravnica campaign, my druid is always carrying mushrooms with him (well, to be honest, he grows them on some of the inner layers of his clothing).
Oh. my character I'm making was going to have loads of glass marbles to throw on the ground. Admittedly their mother is a glassblower, so it still makes sense. Maybe their family is richer than I thought.
when i was new one of my first characters was a dwarf and i bought a travel anvil because "im a dwarf" and well i basically used it to pull a loony tunes.
My kobold assassin has a pipe of smoking that can form various animals when puffed, a tankard of sobriety so she will never get drunk using her own cup, and the deflated body of an imp from a run through a bad dm's story. She also collects odd things to use later for mischievous shenanigans.
You don't need equipment, if you're an outlander druid. Now you're thinking with -portals- classes! In all seriousness though, having access to the Outlander's food finding trait and druid's Goodberry, along with the nature of such a character being used to sleeping on branches or the dirt, allows you to really free yourself up on what you carry. I find it a shame I can't do such a thing with most other classes.
A character with proficiency in survival could do that. If your character is used to sleep on branches or the dirt is mostly dependent from their upbringing. Foraging for food is a DC10 check - and even as a druid, you need either a tent or shelter if the weather turns bad. If you beat a DC of 15, you can do a weather forecast, and with the previously mentioned DC of 10, you can get +4 on Fortitude if you don't travel during bad weather. I think that this approach would also really fit a monk well (to quote Thich Nhat Hanh “Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free.”)
Unfortunately the gm in my current 2e game is very much enforcing encumbrance. Which is unfortunate because my Witch has a Strength of 6 and currently has no pack mule.
I had a character not too long ago who was a bard, and an ambassador. As an ambassador, her inventory included things like parchment, pens, ink, sealing wax, and, on my insistence, a ponce pot - a jar of chalk dust to help ink bind to paper. A jar of chalk dust can be very, *very* useful. She also had whiskey for extracting herbal essences for potions. The GM kept making snide remarks about drinking her whiskey to get drunk, which is something she would absolutely never do under any circumstances, except maybe if she were absolutely certain she was about to die.
The kitchen sink is the first thing I buy. Even as a new player (one year in playing), I tend to keep more equipment than less, even though I know they'll rarely be used. At least when we do need it, we'll be covered.
My character has a jar with some Gelatinous Cube. The character is immune to acid and considers the cube a delicacy. Food scraps are put into the jar to feed and flavor the cube.
You can have lead balls or bearings or other similar, soft metals Lead shot was simply made by pouring our little drips of lead from on top of a shot tower into a giant tub of water These lead shots were more or less round
Considering that I didn’t know how arcane focuses can be used as a material component replacement at the time, the Tabaxi Bard I wrote up had food and bugs as part of her collection. My reasoning are the spells Sleep and Stinking Cloud.
My druid started collecting rocks (likes using the magic stone cantrip and the rogue stole it thinking it was something valuable lmfao) and over time started cherry picking particular rocks that stand out.
My warlock carries a bone hunting knife made from the first animal she killed with her simple fire cantrip called ignite. It was an elk btw. Ignite is extremely useful in and out of combat for doing light fire damage to anything that attacks her and lighting a campfire no Flint and steel needed. Alongside her hand made animal skin bedroll and a low teir bag of holding but only because she took it off of someone else who died a few in the woods she was traveling alongside only a few days before.
How to make a Kitchen Sink: Step 1, acquire components: Gather a bowl, a decanter of endless water, and a bag of devouring. Step 2, making the sink: Cut a hole in the bowl. Turn the removed bit into a plug. Step 3, affixing the other components: Attach the Bag of Devouring to the hole, and the Decanter of Endless Water to the top. Step 4: Enjoy.
I'll be honest, I'm not one of those people who carries around a lot of sentimental gear in D&D; but I am the one who's unique because the character usually has something for every occasion. I tend to play Thief/Rogue, so being the one who can do a little of everything is definitely a solid "schtick". A crowbar, a hammer, a knife, a 12-foot pole (collapsible and usable as 6-ft staves), rope & twine, caltrops, pitons, stones, dice (yep, in character my character carries dice - both a set of rigged and a large bag of unrigged, usually made from bone), oil (for cooking, for lanterns, and for setting enemies on fire), a bottle or two of ink, a compass, blank paper - usually a collection of vellum and parchments along with blank scrolls, a rope ladder, a pup tent and bedroll, even a shallow cooking pan. That's not everything, obviously, but it's a solid collection of things I've used in recent history.
Druid can skip a lot of food issues. Goodberry! I was always disappointed the plant growth would not work on green slime. Collect a sample of slime in a large vial. In combat toss it out among the enemy. PLANT GROWTH! Give the enemy spell casters something to worry about.
If you want to make a table top rpg, how do you track materials without too much materials, reading and writing? I've been thinking of making game tokens for common items, a rack to put them in to mark how many I have of those, and then a reference card with information about that item. This makes the information easily accessible yet only needs a single print for all players, only a few tokens per item, etc. Opinions?
I've got a druid that carries around a leaf and occasionally uses it as an instrument... She's not particularly good with it, but it makes for some funny moments.
I go normally theese Steps through: 1. What Stuff do I need to play My Char - like Lockpicks for a Rogue, Weapon and Armor for a Fighter, Books for Casters etc. Thoose Stuff you need to be the Class you are, the Stuff you need in a Combat. Keep an Eye on Weight and practicability regarding movement. 2. What do I need on Travel to survive? Tent? A Blanket and a Sleeping Bag? A Rope? Cooking and Diningequip? A normal Knife? Also, look at how to carry it and keep track on Weight and practicability - if there is a sudden Attack from Wolves or Bandits, you wont spend 5 Rounds for getting off all Equipment and getting ready for combat. If your Char is not living completeley on the dark side of the Moon, he will do so. 3. What is "Intercangable", like "Rope" can be used for "Tent" as well, the Hammer for Blacksmithing is good for other uses, too. A Cauldron for Basic Alchemy can be used for cooking a Soup, either. 4. Make it Fluffy - Bring in the Fluff of your Char. He had bought or gained his stuff somewhere. His Mug could have Dwarven Carvings, his Pants could be made by this Elven Tailor "Leafis", and so on. Let the Mage you play make mistakes as he is not used for "Camping" and "Travelling", so he comes completeley overloaded and having a lot of nonsense with him (Like a Feather Blanket and his Feather Pillow in the Summer). Then, I take a look at it and think of different conditions and if it is "my Char" in this Situations (like the Mage freezing nearly to death because Robes do not fit for bad Weather - ok, fits ;) ). By God, I swear, how often I had seen Players nearly die because of Weather shifts from 20°C and Sunny to 16°C and Rain with a mild, chill Wind. Or saw Fighters wandering into the Desert Lands Full Plate on with just a single Ration of Water - especially the "Black Knight"-Guys tent to do so. DM-Tip if your Players do so: Save them by a local Tradesmen on Travel who mocks them for beeing so stupid. Make it clear that they now owe him - which means their whole Equip goes to his posession or they do a Job for him. This Job is basically the Job they should do - just that the whole "Loot and Reward" from it goes to the Trader. No loot today. If they revolt - let em. Let em slaughter all of the People they want, let them rob the Tradesmen of his belongings to survive from now on the local conditions. The next Tradesmen will just be as evil as they are - he will stab the victims and rob them or - even better - turn them in for their crimes. The Players create the World they live in as we do in RL, too.
In the future how could you debilitate someone walking down the hall? Strobe light, even with light sensitive filters the very sharp and frequent change of light will fuck someone up. I had to demonstrate this only once to a GM.
As a collector, restorer, and dealer in antiquities of various levels of obscurity, I can assure you, the most popular (cheap) method for making marbles dates back to the late stone age... At any river-side you can find CLAY... lots of the stuff. The particular colors depend on the local mineral deposits, which isn't necessarily important unless you've got a keen sense of story regarding your Character's Journey and geography in the game-world... SO we all know how to roll a lump of clay between the hands in circles until it's as spherical as it's going to get... (and with practice, it's not difficult to get a VERY precise spherical out of it)... AND then you just "fire harden" the thing. Any campfire CAN accomplish this, to a greater degree. Since the marbles are "solid" (meaning there's no airspace intended inside them) they're damn difficult to break even with a "relatively low temperature" hardening process... Of course, a fire-pit (properly constructed) can achieve higher than ordinary campfire temperatures (and relatively primitive ancestors knew how to do this) so that generates the kind of heat that makes excruciatingly durable clay marbles... I still have a few in my own "collection", some of which are confirmed at more than three HUNDRED years old... still round... still as worthy of play as any of the modern glass ones. Another odd, note, Syria, actually "perfected" glass back DURING the Roman era (pre-1000 AD)... AND while I haven't actually tested the clay marbles for hardness by a Mohs scale, Glass is listed at 6, which is the SAME as Steel. AND for the record, yes... I have gone to the river, collected the clay (red mostly around here) and fired my own clay marbles. I just didn't have a hardness testing "scratch kit" to bother with them before some lunk-head decided he wanted them more than I did... I WAS (btw) completely up front about where they'd come from and how old they really were. Whatever he did with them (however) is all on him. (lolz) NOT to diminish your suggestion or knowledge. I haven't tried it that way, so I just don't know. I just thought you might find this interesting, since I CAN confirm the successful relative ease and cost efficacy. ;o)
@@haveiszalfaroqie1628 low-fire unglazed ceramic for the pit firing method, technically. I'd also like to point out that people have been polishing gems much harder than ceramic and glass for ages (far longer than we've been able to cut them) so even if your glass/glazed marble isn't a perfect sphere, that isn't really a big obstacle to touch the spot up. Even just a tumbler cound do a lot of the work if you just want a lower-end priced set (to say nothing of how simple it would be to make _really_ hard ceramic ones with some designs and no glaze) Why they replaced marbles in the equipment list, I can't say other than pandering to players too uncreative to think of how marbles could be used in a dungeon. Caltrops are still better as an area denial tool though.
@@haveiszalfaroqie1628, yep... essentially. Dynamic Worlds has it about right. I'm not entirely convinced of "tumbler" technologies as far as historical terms... BUT in the purely engineering and technology available sense, one could construct a "windmill" powered or "water-wheel" powered version that would feasibly do the job, not so much different from grain mills, which we have evidence dating back to Rome... I'd count it as "doable" even if it wasn't exactly the popular use of the tech' in the day "IRL". I might step out on a (figurative) limb, here and point out that properly constructing a fire-pit for ceramics is just a bit complicated, but pays off fairly well. By tunneling a sloped "vent shaft" to the bottom of the "fire-chamber" of the pit (since you don't actually have to fill the whole pit with fire) and topping the pit (once filled with ceramics to treat) with appropriately insulating material, a surprisingly high temperature can be reached and maintained... It's a lot of physical labor to set up well, but it's a reliable way to make durable ceramics. AND for durable ceramics (the kind that don't explode on the slightest tap or ding) high temperatures are of paramount importance... Besides that, there's also the invention of bellows (like a smithy might have)... BUT that's dubious at best (in a worldbuilding sense) since we're starting the engineering process somewhere here-in for an oven or kiln... ...nothing wrong with it (of course) but we can be honest about it. ;o)
My elf cleric keeps one of every tool kit she can find. Beyond the value of learning new skills, it's fun for me to work with the DM and find various uses for the individual components of the kits. She once got disarmed in a duel and stabbed her opponent with an awl from her leatherworker's kit.
I like your idea about the slippery slime. However, with the addition of the Artificer or steam punk I think ball bearings are now acceptable. As for time period. I find myself drawn more to Ancient Rome.. I also suggest a pack goat for spare supplies.
Ceramic beads as a replacement for glass marbles or ball bearings are easily done and take a lot less effort to store, carry and use. Best use is of course on stairs.....
First - Ask your GM - is the equipment in the book available? Or what is and is not available, and how much cash do you start with. Some systems are specific, and others are open. If the GM says - you have 100 gold, and it's all available you have agency.
Once - not in D&D - my newly made lvl 1 character got in a mage duell. Unneccessary to say, a crowbar to the head mid-casting is really distracting, even for a very experienced Mage...
Siting around the fire and restringing bows and repairing armor is good and all, but from my experience everyone forgets about that shit cause we have to think how do we complete our current task. When you just fought an orc tribe such mandane things as blade sharpening tend to fall out of head.
My cleric has a necromancy spell that makes put flesh back onto bones. So I just have her carry around a small bag with a chicken skeleton in it. As a bonus, she can now repeatedly butcher the same animal and sell the meat.
@@CuriousKey Because it's necromancy. Also infinite food for such an easy technique is kinda giving the middle finger to entropy, which I tend not to do in my own settings. There are no free lunches IRL so why should there be in a survival-focused game?
Maddock Emerson Well, classical cleric spells like create water, create food and water have already made laws of physics run to the teacher crying in published games. If you run your games differently, fine. But do not try to impose your “no” in other people’s games that you aren’t involved in.
Oh jeez what character. My inquisitive rogue has case files from every quest He's been on, where he uncovered the whole story then put a stamp on it for a good bad or neutral ending. I believe I still have some arrows that I dipped in a water basin filled with poisoned water, or cursed water... whatever it would have killed me if I drank or even touched it I remember that much
spent all my starting money on a barrel full (I did the math - 172,800) of ball bearings, having built a character that didn't particularly need much equipment. the idea was to capture the personality of the character: smart enough to calculate exactly how many BBs go into a barrel, but not smart enough to spend money on something more useful
My players tend to hate managing the "mundane" items in their inventories, so in my next campaign I was thinking about having them just make Wisdom checks to see if they had brought something along with bonuses and penalties based on how plausible it is that they would have it.
I have a drow born the youngest male of house Oblodra in the Forgotten Realms setting. If you know the history of it, just a few days of indecision by its matron mother spelled the destruction of the entire house, which was, at that time, more capable than the other 9 most powerful combined. While he has no use for his blood relatives, those alive or dead, he keeps, but never wears, the necklace-sigil of his house to remind him that "even the fastest squirrels will be flattened if they can't make a decision."
My human ranger keeps a dagger in his belt that he got from his father before he died. Since he has a strength of 9, it is used more like a utility knife, but it does well. He also carries around a rather large stick for whacking people and testing water depth. And a bottle of vodka at all times because he's an alcoholic.
My character spent more then 2/3 of her starting gold on a magnifying glass. Why? Well have you ever had a magnifying glass that gets about 1/4 ft diameter of sunlight, then held it over a few twigs for about 7 minutes and it started to burn. That’s with only 1/4 ft of light, now imagine you casted light on the lense, a 60 ft radius, or 120 ft of light of the same intensity shining onto the same little beam with a light cantrip, now your little magnifying glass can easily melt through steel bars in under a minute. Got entangled by vines? “ ohhh noo..... anyway”. Got backed into a dead end in the castle? Point it at the stone floor ... and “ ohhh nooo..... anyway” not sure if you could hit the shot and would really appreciate a laser dot sight before you shoot eldritch blast at 2 miles away? “ ohh nooo...... anyway”. So frickin useful.
No matter who you are, always carry some caltrops, a net, some glue, and a couple of pikes, great for traps, but if your not in medieval times or such even just the Victorian area, get 25 foot of hard, thin cord, glue, few knife tips, and rope
My lawful good ranger keeps stone carved masks in his pack that represents the spirits that he worships. The mask he wears depends on the situations he is in.
Story items...ok, let's just start with something simple, aright? An elf living in poverty was made to step, was caught, by circumstance and a benevolent lord she was allowed community service. During this, with her knowledge of precision stuff and good handwork she was employed in the merchants guild as a jewler. She was also not a bad person so she aided the town's guard in every way possible, she was only stealing out of circumstance after all and turns out the wizard when was doing community jewelry cutting for took a liking to her and started training her due to her very easy understanding of magic, but since she had to work off the payment she stole she also had to work in the town's guard spotting thieves and solving cases due to her training with the wizard. So is she now an urchin, a guild artisan jewler, a town's guard or a Wizards apprentice? Do I get all 4 backgrounds plus the sailor pirates infamously background trait? Which one is it?
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I always do three things when listing equipment. 1) I figure out something to eat or drink that the character likes. One of my D&D characters really liked Apple Brandy and always had some on hand. Another could not survive without their morning coffee, so she had a coffee kettle and the things she needed to make her beverage of choice. 2) Pick a hobby for my PC and get the the things they like. Even if they are not a bard, perhaps they like to play an instrument and have one. Perhaps they are a dancer and have a costume and dancing shoes. Everyone needs something to fill those empty times. Maybe they read and keep a book on hand to pass the hours. 3) Keepsakes. Old letters, a necklace that mother used to wear, your father's ring, a lock of hair from you wife before the orcs took her away. If you had loved ones, it is likely that they gave you something at some point that you will never want to be parted from.
Customize your character, make them a real person, in part through their possessions. :)
7:02 I personally carry 20d4s with me so I can drop them behind me if I'm being chased.
People chasing you take 20d4 damage
In Dutch we call caltrops "crow's feet".
Your dice are trying to kill me
Especially if they are made of metal.
LEGO-bricks.
So, having been in the military, this is always an easy thing to imagine. My USMC bucket issue included the back pack, clothes, extra boots, a whistle, a waterproof bag, a map kit, a utility/combat knife, canteens (read water bags), a tin cup for heating soup over a fire, extra bootlaces (can be used to make snares or as a garrote), a flashlight (torches), a note book and pens, a compass, etc.
Not to mention the body armor and the helmet. I know nobody wants to wear the damn helmet, but its the most important part. Even people who couldn't afford armor often wore a helm... Or should have.
An excellent list!
I run dungeon world, it's great your characters have an item called 'adventuring gear' with three uses.
Each time a player needs say a rope he crosses one use off, and now has a rope.
It works really great.
That would be an excellent rule to use in almost any game. thank you for share that.
While I understand the idea behind this mechanic, I am not a big fan of those catch-all-solutions.
Thinking about what you want need and could possible pay and carry is - at least for me an important part of the character creation.
On the other hand the idea of say, having an advantage like special gear - once or thrice per adventure you have the right tool for the task ahead with you - or mechanisms like 'spend one hero-point / momentum / edge / whatever to have the item you need, is more compelling to me.
But that boils down to how you run your campaign. If you want that gear is less important than the characters ideas or how they approach a problem - then you should be in no trouble.
But if you want this feeling of urgency, what you have and what you don't have matters then you might like another approach.
A good example would be Aliens, when the Marines are holed up in the laboratory, with their two gun-turrets. Watching their magazins slowly run out and this is essencial to the tension of the situation.
I guess a three-usage limit does the same job. But if you know beforehand - you have two (2) turrets and sixteen hundred (1600) rounds of ammunition, it has more weight in my opinion.
@itsinmyvein : Yeah. You are right. In some types of campaigns it's less important than in others.
But it also comes down to the GMs (and subsequently the players) playstyle.
Btw I played StarWars a while ago for the first time.
And I really like the light side / dark side mechanic.
But our GM also had a very lenient stance on inventory (you have what you need and if it's important spent a light-side-point).
The adventure went well and it really was fun... But it felt a bit off. Like if it doesn't really matter how well I plan ahead.
Maybe I am just not adjusted to this style.
@itsinmyvein : I played two or three times until now - maybe it comes really just down to getting aqainted to the system...
And as said - I really like the light side vs dark side destiny mechanic.
Personally - as GM I have sometimes problems challenging (e.g. being evil) towards the characters. With this Dark Side destiny points you have the... hmm... permission to do so. It feels less arbitrary.
I find that the equipment question is something that often is neglected because of shifting play styles. The two big play styles today are cinematic narrativism and combat focused gameism. Both styles have in common that a lot of small details are ignored. We all have elements of this since few characters ever needed to pee.
I'm part of the (seemingly) dying breed of simulationists. My characters would never leave town without a tent - unless if they are gleefully unaware about how living outside a palace is like. However, then I wonder how annoying it would be to carry a tent, among other things. So my character gets a mule - and food for the mule. Speaking of food, most of my characters try to avoid iron rations because they just aren't very enjoyable. So they see what's locally available and what of that is durable. Dried fruit, grain and cheese are among the default answers, but several characters of mine traveled with a life chicken to have fresh eggs available. My character also tends to be the only one who brings kitchen utensils.
Also, most of my characters have a hobby or two. Challenging companions for a dice game or a card game over some copper is always nice. Other characters have some juggling balls they use to calm down. Recreational drugs also are a thing for some of them. More educated character may carry a book or two which they use to study or read for recreational purposes. A wizard who just has his spell book is a joke to me. Other characters have a knife they use for carving wood. Lastly, there are talismans for superstitious characters and pictures of or letters from loved ones.
A few classics most of my characters carry are: ropes (good for climbing, restraining prisoners, repairing things or improvising solutions), knifes (great tools and eating utensils) and hatches for chopping firewood. I'm also a big fan of the good old bucket because you want to carry water to the camp some way.
Also, due to a certain book, my characters usually have a towel with them.
I'm no simulationist, and decidedly more experienced as GM than as player, but I do like the rare PC I run to have a day job, or at least have one at the start of the campaign. They're tailors, students, automotive engineers. Then along the journey, they're always looking for ways to leverage the adventuring to improve their day job. (Nissan engineer first, dreamwalking heroine of light second.)
Iron rations aren’t very enjoyable. My bard with prestidigitation 👁👄👁. I haven’t got to play her yet, campaign starts in two days, but she loves to focus on the small little acts of kindness she can give to people, like warming the bedrolls and blankets of her companions, flavoring the meals, scenting a dusty old shop with the wonderful scent of vanilla when she walks in, using prestidigitation to clean up her party members and stuff. The tiny little things.
My current Minotaur was imprisoned in a gladiatorial arena as part of his backstory. One fight went awry one day and a longsword got lodged in one of his horns. After escaping his imprisonment, he kept the sword as a reminder of the trauma he felt there and that he will never go back. He has let it rust, over the years, to show that even the worse memories fade over time...
I fucking love this, i wish my players thought that much into their characters.
Thank you kindly. I put a lot of time into writing it. The full version is about 8 paragraphs long :P
Very dope, Minotaurs are some of my fav. Loved DL as a kid.
Hail, I'm a half-giant. I have a dagger. It's really nice, wootz steel, sharkskin grip, ornately-twisted pommel.
It was lodged in my skull about a year ago in a bar fight and meh, haven't gotten around to removing it.
Spins in the hole! The shorter races like to play with it! Good way for me to make some coin.
Are Minotaurs resistant to tetanus or something : /
I have a former soldier equipped like a Roman legionary: so, pick and shovel, as well as little statues of their gods.
Something I love about pathfinder: Class kits.
If you're playing any fantasy setting, you should probably look up the pathfinder kit for your class.
An example: The fighter's kit: a backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a flint and steel, an iron pot, a mess kit, rope, soap, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin.
And then there's a more campaign situation based kits.
A "Pyramid buster's kit" contains three sticks of chalk, five sheets of parchment, 1 dose of synthetic mumia, a flask of alchemist’s fire, a tangleburn bag, and a pair of sunrods.
Great vid', Guy! AND another worthwhile purpose for discussion!
I'm old-school, so there's no "ad-hoc adventuring kits" around here... Even if there's Canon to support the idea, I'd flat out shut it down... Part of the whole point of "learning to generate a PC" on your own is to derive how you're going to build the starting inventory.
"American Restoration" is a show that follows a work shop of restorers and fabricators, and their adventures and antics around the antique markets as they find old and often forgotten relics and bring them back to life... It starts with the following, "You can tell a LOT about a guy by what he keeps on his work bench..."
AND that's really how I look at the whole "starting inventory" thing. By the time I've named a character and I'm ready to "go shopping" through the books for inventory, I've got a pretty specific visual idea of this character concept in mind. I understand (more or less, anyway) how this person is going to function psychologically, and with the backstory fleshing out somewhere in this same stage, I like to work with the notion, "You can tell a LOT about a PC by what he's got in his backpack"...(OR reasonably equivalent parcel)... SO whether I "reskin" a concept from the Canon List of items, the way you reskinned the "hooded lamp" for the street-urchin, or I simply jot a few notes expectantly to be able to improvise something out of existing items, say stretching a hammock between trees and then using locally sourced sticks as "ribs" to give it enough shape and structure to create a roof for an improv' field shelter... I create a fair variety of contingencies for the uniqueness of that PC's experience to have already faced some of "the usual" issues with life in "the field"...
It also depends on the particular character... In any case, I try to go by the backstory, tweaking items to suit the Character as much by that backstory as by his or her personality, and keeping in mind, encumbrance DOES count at the tables I play most of the time, so getting generous with creative alternatives is always a bonus...
Knives... Personally, I'm a kukri fan... IRL as well as in-game. No, not every PC I create has one, but where plausible, I certainly enjoy them. It's a near perfect hybrid between a well made, hefty field knife and a light hatchet... I have a few of my own (obviously) and being an antique dealer (part time) I even have a couple "authentic" kukris from their hey-day...
Bowie knives are also highly regarded, and worth the respect. It's not special or particularly pretty, just a big clunky knife, wide blade and refined (if properly made) to a durable and sharp edge... a traditional "chisel" type edge. This thing can be used as a club (striking with either the handle by holding the sheath, or the "flat" or "back" of the blade) effectively... BUT it was just a rugged, hefty, field utensil...
Skinning knives are actually an advanced specialty instrument. They're particularly "curved" along the cutting edge, to provide as much "cutting territory" as possible in as small a utensil as possible. While not very useful in a fight, or much of anything past removing hides from animals, they're often overly embraced by some players as "cool" rather than trying for something strategically useful...
Daggers, stilletos, and Dirks... Double edged knives sound all bad-ass, but the terminology tends to be amiss with some. Daggers are the "middle of the road" in these instruments. The stilleto, while sounding cool even with the proper description, it's just too delicate for anyone practical to appreciate for a field term longer than a couple days at a time... It's good in a very close quarters fight, because the blade is thin enough to be damn difficult to stop, but the blade is delicately thin... easily broken, and ONLY worth using in a thrust or stabbing manner... It's fine enough (usually) for a sensible GM to allow some mechanic for wedging between plates in most armor, but this also tends to break them. Dirks are the "heavies" of this type of thing... Simply a handle attached to a large triangle of steel, the dirk is wider at the base than a dagger, and heavier all around. It's intended to use that weight for penetration, since (like other double edged knives) it's most useful in a stabbing or thrusting manner... It's hefty enough (if properly made) to be able to take a fair amount of abuse before snapping or otherwise failing structurally, BUT even with cutting edges like a dagger, it's just not substantive enough to be much more than a jabbing WEAPON... Dirks DO admittedly have some pommel, the weighty (usually metallic) end of the handle that can be used with hammer-like strikes... BUT a large flat rock is about as useful in the fashion of an improvised hammer.
Rope... One almost can't have too much rope. BUT proper tensile strength only comes from the proper textile in question. Silk is top of the line, unless it's a sci-fi setting, where something better than silk might be available... Cotton lines are good, but get thick and heavy quickly when you consider how much weight is expected of the average "adventurer's rope"... AND cotton snaps quickly, with little or no elasticity to offer warning... Jute is also durable, quality material for twine and rope, but it's prone to "fish-hooking" where the fibers splay out from the main cordage, and on drying out, they get stiff... The result is splintering and gouging into the flesh of any hands that work with the rope or cord... AND jute splinters soften almost instantly upon penetrating the skin and being exposed to the body fluids...
For you simulationists out there, it's HELL to try to pick out the softened jute splinters after they've wedged into your hands, and every time you move the hand, the little fiber under the skin "wriggles" teasing agony into the nerves around it.
Lanterns and lamps... whether hooded or hurricane, a good lamp should have some form of wind-proofing or protection, or it's not practical to an adventurer... just get a torch together. A reflector is also a worthwhile improvement on "natural fire" lamps... as it does two things... (1) it blocks the light from the flame so the person holding it, and anyone behind that person, isn't BLINDED by the light source itself... (2) if properly made, polished, and kept up well, it reflects light additively from the flame forward, and some even focus the light a bit to concentrate it to some degree in a useful direction and manner. Older reflectors weren't as good as later "mirrors" BUT they certainly were better than nothing.
SO there's a top three items and opinions on matters around them, just so those interested have something more to dubiously discuss... ad nauseum infinitus...
Enjoy. ;o)
Hooded lanterns did exist in the Medieval times... but they were just an outside shell that required you to have a lit candle inside of it. They were basically meant to be fancy candle holders. And D&D players seem to keep forgetting that candles exist. Same for torches. The light cantrips basically mean that, if there's a magic caster in the party, people tend to forget the most "mundane" options altogether. :/
I have just finished playing in a game where my character pulled out a candle - not for light - but to detect and exit. The wind in the passage would blow the flame in a particular direction. The exit is probably in the opposite direction :) But yes, I agree. One must always consider what is in the backpack!
Because most of the players I have in several campaigns tend to solve everything through magic, I think I might have the opposite problem, I tend to go over the top with mundane items. I just finished my character sheet for a 'murder mystery' on board of a ship one-shot we're having (we're starting at level 5) and this is my final list of items:
- Dark hooded clothes, a leather armor, 2 daggers, a rapier, a slingshot with 20 bullets, a burglar's pack, thieves' tools (from class and background), a backpack
- The backpack contains a bedroll, a blanket, a book of nursery rhymes (rolled from the Trinkets table), 5 chalk pieces, a chest, a climber's kit, a set of extra (common) clothes, a disguise kit, 3 flasks, a sack (carrying 1 ounce of flour), a healer's kit, a greasy insect repellent salve, a mess kit, 10 parchment sheets, a shawm (to use as an ear trumpet to listen behind closed doors), a signal whistle, 3 soap bars, a tankard (I'm disappointed that the mess kits don't include one), a vial of water soluble glue (allowed by my GM since the only glue in this game is an item worth 2,400 gold...) and a whetstone to keep weapons in check (which is another thing no one ever seems to remember to do)
- The chest contains 3 dancing monkey fruits, 5 ryath roots, 10 sinda berries, 5 wildroots, and 5 zabou (great medieval bombs)
It's a given fact that, if we weren't starting at level 5, I wouldn't have enough starting money to buy all of this, but it's a one shot, so I wanted to try some more unusual stuff, especially the different food items. :D
My fighter/rouge was always on the lookout for unique jewelry to buy for his wife while he was out adventuring. The habit developed as a sort of peace-offering ritual because he was not always able to write home regularly, and she was invariably furious with him when he came home after weeks of silence. It wasn't an attempt to buy her off so much as proof that he was always thinking of her.
My barbarian/druid carries around a saddle on his back so when he wild shapes, his buddies can ride him!
He also has old rusty crowbar.
Uses it konk out fish.
While they're swimming....
One of my players had a barbarian named Socrates (sew-crates not sock-ruh-tees) that wielded a door as a shield. Whenever he said "Socrates open door!", an enemy went flying back.
My GMs leave glass everywhere, so I usually will get a bag, fill it with glass, tie it tightly, and crush it into a fine dust. I then carry it with me keeping it tied. If we find ourselves in a very dangerous situation against a creature with eyes it’s one of the options I can rely on. Open the bag, shove it into their face and back off. You get something in your eyes and your first instinct is to rub them, doing that in this situation ensures the absolute destruction of the eyes.
Oh god you are evil
@@StarboyXL9 yes
A multi-tool. These were around in Roman times, so the tech is really old, although the original focus seemed to be more on eating utensils than tools. There were medieval examples that combined a knife with other small tools, although I couldn't find an example that folded. Of course, in "modern" times into the future, these would be fairly common. The biggest advantage is the saving on space and weight, although a multi tool really can't take the place of a proper tool for the job; it's still better than nothing, and takes up very little space or weight.
A knife. Not a dagger, but a regular, good old knife. You can eat with it, cut things, dig things, and it it's big enough, even chop things - all things a pure fighting knife (dagger) really isn't designed to do and will quickly break or be ruined.
A hammer or small mallet, in the 16-24 oz range - basically a carpenter's hammer. A lot of stuff can be fixed by giving it a good whack (or 3). Need to break something? This is good. You can use it as a weapon if needed, but that's not it's purpose. Drive tent pegs, nail boards, knock a wagon wheel hub pin out. great for smashing locks, too, without dulling your sword or axe.
A satchel. Regardless of the time period, a satchel slung over the shoulder could carry a lot of stuff, be dropped in a hurry, and was rather hard to steal (slung across the body like a messenger bag). Pretty sure there are/will be high tech versions for those future campaigns. And if you've got coin to spend, these can go from gunny sack plain to really expensive.
Last but not least, a straw hat. Worn by everyone from kings to peasants from time immemorial. The only differences seem to be how fancy they get, but examples have been found in nearly every culture that got above the Stone Age (and even in most of them). Sunshade, rain shield, even as a small bucket (if woven tight enough), straw hats are still made and used into modern times.
Ah, instead of swiss-knife, it's roman-knife!
Multi tools kind of suck though. You should only really be carrying them if you really, really don't have the room or weight capacity to carry real tools.
I'd like to mention that fighting knives/daggers can vary widely in their ability to be used as a tool.
Just being a weapon doesn't automatically mean it's unsuitable for utility use (though you'd almost always carry both).
@@dynamicworlds1 You generally don't want to use something for both. Weapons are generally flimsier than tools, and tools are not made to fight, and fighting is a very... delicate matter since your life is on the line, so you always want weapons in good condition to fight. Using weapons as tools will damage them and it can cost you your life if you ever have to defend yourself, not to mention they're very likely to break, and using tools as weapons is a sure way to get yourself killed in a fight. Just think about how bad a woodcutting axe is as a weapon.
I had a level 1 Kobold rogue use her climbing hammer to smash a knee cap before. xD
I don't normally care for items that only exist for roleplaying. As for practical items, I think every player should carry caltrops, a collapsible 10ft pole, at least 50ft of rope, at least 1 piece of chalk, a crowbar, a grappling hook, a signal whistle, a steel mirror, and if you have any money left over you should also consider either a pair of manacles or a miners pick. all of these items have saved my life and the lives of my party at least once.
Next time try an 11 foot pole, for the three square reach.
My cleric has a few small books that he reads in different languages trying to learn them. He also has a little black book, its full of lore on demons celestials and fiends some of it is his own notes from his studies as a demonologist.
When I play a wizard with magic missile I like to keep a small steel mirror to use to hit enemies beyond a corner
Samantha Cousland I’ll have to try that with my wizard. I’m still on my first campaign.
*nice*
I might have to use that idea.
Nope, line of sight has to be a straight line.
If you can stick a mirror around the corner, you can also stick your head around the corner. LOS is fine. I think Samantha is trying to avoid being noticed though. They'll know you are there when they hear the spell casting and get hit by the missiles.
The point is, line of sight is a direct path, not just 'anything you can technically see'. Sticking your head around the corner is fine - you'd have cover, but still be target-able.
I built a character entirely around creating traps. Most Rangers focus solely on hunting, when realistically trapping can be a lot more efficient. My character kept a whole tone of supplies to make these traps: metal strings, fiber strings, spider's silk, rope, cut-down crossbows, bear traps, caltrops, alchemist's fire, gunpowder, poison. Those are the one's I remember now, but my second sheet was full of miscellaneous crap.
I think old-timey ball bearing-like objects were made by taking lead to the top of a tall tower, melting it, and then letting it drip from the top of the tower into a trough of water at ground level. Drops of liquid form into spheres as they fall; when old-timey folks figured that out, they used that property to make small perfectly-formed spheres of metal for various purposes.
A person favorite thing of mine to do is imbue even very functional, unassuming items with meaning. One of my better characters is a very no-nonsense, and though she has been travelling for months leading up to the story, she had neither the time nor the free space in her pack to pick up trinkets and unique items, but by giving emotional significance to something as simple as the ancient and decrepit boots on her feet, I still had opportunities to have some of those interesting downtime moments. In another case, I needed to somewhat handicap one of my characters, because her backstory made her a little too competent at the start of the game. The way I was able to do this was by giving her fairly primitive equipment (which worked great with her backstory of coming from a frozen wasteland quite devoid of resources), and by making one of her main weapons, a bow, far too large for her, saying she inherited it from her father when he passed away. I didn't put too much thought into it at the time, but it ended up working fantastically. It provides a good jumping off point for her to bring up elements of her backstory in a natural, less exposition dumpy way, it handicaps her combat skills for balance, and it reflects both her incredible stubbornness and her reverence for those who brought her into the world.
Chalk and Climbing Pitons. Chalk should be rather obvious in its multitude of uses. Pitons are used to jam doors open/closed, keep mechanisms from turning (like in traps), pretty much any time you need to stop something from moving how its supposed to, a piton or large nail (if pitons aren't available) will usually do the trick. Pitons have been with D&D since 2nd Edition's Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue, Purveyors of Faerun's Finest Merchandise. [TSR # 9358] It's a great book to draw some inspiration from too, even in 5e for stuff your character can be carrying. The 3x Arms and Equipment Guide is a pale imitation, but includes other gear that is on occasion useful.
My Barbarian is nicknamed 'Fangcarver' because she likes to carve totems and in her backstory she landed the killing blow on a veeeery big wolf and took one of its fangs and carved a totem out of it.
Last session the party killed 4 Kenku, and since she never saw a Kenku before they were like prey to her... so she has 32 Kenku talons in her backpack :)
I've been listening and appreciating these videos since I've found them recently. Keep up the good work. Funny point: page 150 of the D&D PHB lists ball bearings for sale :-) As Fletch once said, it's all ball bearings these days.
In D&D 5E you can buy a rope and 5 sacks for the same price as a backpack and a rope strapped to the side. It holds 5 times as much, and you just string them all together and take it with you. You can keep little bags of supplies in each one and if your party loses their supplies you have a spare knapsack for them. It’s very efficient
Thank gods for your mention of how anachronistic ball bearings are in D&D! People have no idea how hard they are to make!
Shape metal or fabricate, depending on the system.
Whenever I have a D&D character that starts with a scholar's kit I pick the flaws from Entertainer that say I satirize locals in the towns I pass through and the one that says I can't resist helping spread and twist local gossip. I then tell the DM that the lore book in my Scholar's kit is a diary I've written over the years of my travels and it's actually a list of all the lies I've told about npcs I've met and ruined with gossip and satire. The idea is to ask the DM "Hey, do I have anything written down about this town in my book of lies?" every time we roll into a new town.
@Ian Robertson Yeah, it's not like there's a whole background mechanic that establishes what a character was doing before they were an adventurer. And it doesn't mean the character knows anything. It just means the player is throwing a line to the GM for them to tie a hook on to. That's excellent RP
@ian Backgrounds that explain your life before adventuring are a thing. A courtier has access to beurocratic spheres and an urban bounty hunter has connections in the cities he has hunted. Its not metagaming to write a background you putz
That’s why Minor Conjuration is such a fun ability.
One of my favorite characters I play at the moment is Arion of Rethis. He origins from a small archipelago-kingdom resembling a greek/eastern mediterranian culture. However the timeframe the campaign is set is more medieval/renisance.
But - and here ties backstory with equipment - he is the the Greatest Hero the world has ever seen. At least he believes it unwavering.
In his youth Arion was a humble shepperd (the game acutally has shepperd as characers profession) until one day a Cyclops (of course those live there, what did you think) came along and picked some sheep of Arions flock like a man would pluck flowers. Arion - more brave than wise.. or intelligent - followed the monster - for nearly a day.
When he finally had tracked the beast down in it's lair it was (luckily for my character) not hungry, hence it had eaten two sheep earlier. However the cyclops was in a bit of a trollish mood, so instead of just killing this annoying little human brat, he told in a solemn voice.
"You, brave adventurer - dared to follow me all this time. Your unshaking bravery shall not get unrewarded, for I have a prophecy to make - one day, you will become the greatest hero of them all. You will be the reincarnation of the heroes from the ages when the world was young and wild. And now - off you go, onwards to your destiny."
As pointed out - Arion is more brave than smart. So he fell for the ruse. One of his first deeds was to ...obtain... armor and weapon - as a shepperds staff is probably not very hero like. But instead of buying some good sturdy leather armor or chainmail... he fancied something else. An original ceremonial armor of the King of Rhetis own guard. Because you know, if one is about to inherit the glory of the heroes from back when - you need a suitable armor. Let's just forget that bronze-armor is wayyyy outdated, heavy, unrealible and not really good, if your enemies wield steel weapons...
Fitting to this - a large round shield. A combat spear, three throwing spears and a short Xiphos.
To this there is just a bedroll, rations and a water bladder. He is very ascetic... you could say spartan (every pun intended).
Of course he obtained stuff later - healing potions, torches and such, but he is to stubborn to equip himself properly. Even after all this time he hangs on his meanwhile totally deranged armor.
Without the rest of the party, Arion would probably die in the wilderness :D Or forget un-herolike things like payment for rescues and subsequently food and such.
On the other hand - spears are like the most underestimated weapon there is in my opinion.
When I wrote up the starter kits for the Vocations (the name my game uses for classes) for my game I made sure to create starting gear that was appropriate, and with some unique and memorable pieces are found the kits. When I created the Dracorian vocation, a class I designed specifically for the game, their starting gear has a "Memo Book of Dragons faced" and a "Trophy Box for pieces of favorite dragon they’ve faced" because the class is built around taking on dragons, and little things in their starting gear that tie into the design of the class are always a nice little bit of extra flavor for the players to have some fun with.
Great series, I always enjoy your videos. I definitely agree that putting a little time into creating a unique character (backstory, interesting possessions, etc.) can make the game more fun for everyone (as long as it doesn't get too involved and steal focus from the main storyline). And it's nice to see someone point out the silly anachronism of ball bearings as a supposedly standard item in a quasi-medieval setting.
Personally IRL I always carry a salt shaker around in my bag... now I always have access to some if I get a hotdog or burger from an event vendor, they always have Ketchup, Mustard, sometimes brown sauce or mayo.... But it's becoming increasingly common that they don't have salt.
Sometimes items that saved your bacon once tend to find themselves in other characters luggage as well later on. Once upon a time in the black eye 3rd edition we were trapped and a fireplace poker was my characters find that was (luckily sturty enough to) opening bars and broke only when clubbing the final baddy in that dungeon. Since then my characters, if they have a large collection of items tend to have a poker amongst the random stuff. It has served as a makeshift conductor in sci-fi games, as part of a butlers general equipment (the master was another pc and I stoked things from campfires to orcs) and as a treasured posession in coc as the only remaining thing from the characters childhood home.
I harvest the bones and sinews from creatures and make cheap and easy door stops and tripwires. I also purchase a pamphlet listing the edible and dangerous flora in the region as well as a guide to trapping and skinning to help boost my low survival skill. When life gives you Dire Wolves, make smoked wolf jerky.
I have a rather old character of mine that i set up as a fey hunter a while back. Managed to convince the DM's that my whip should be made of iorn since that meant I could grapple the fey and prevent them from escaping. They were pretty chill with the idea since I gave a reason and story as to how the character got the whip in the 1st place. Had to change the modifer to str though since it would be heavier than a normal one.
Ever since then I try and get my players to make a few personal items to kinda get them to think about what their character is about.
I have a barbarian that carries a small stuffed bear that he has had since childhood. The bear was given to him by his best friend when he was a child. Undead decimated his village and killed his best friend. So he carries the bear around as a memento.
I really like that you changed the style of the thumbnails again, to a style more similar to the old one.
I just noticed that I have missed a number of your videos which I would have been interested in, due to the fact they did not stick out like they used to.
Even in a futuristic setting, one should have low tech alternatives.
Some remote activated taser field is nice and fine - but it if you can trigger it from afar, somone could intercept your signal or scramble the electronics
A pound of ball bearings however stays a pound of ball bearings.
And may the gods have mercy with your enemies, when their ships gravity fail and they have dozens of heavy, hard, magnetic and electrical conductive marbles flying around in unpredictable veloceties and trajectories..
Edit:
On the glass beads:
Sheated glass was hard to come by in the medieval period.
Glass or stone beads however were easier available. There is glass jewellery dating back to the bronce age. So in a generic medieval fantasy setting glass or marble marbles should be no big issue
If for no other reason, think of the many ancient cultures that used glass/ceramic or stone beads for religious purposes. Your character might not be a follower of one religion or another, but they would recognize a resource they could purchase or steal to use. Which may lead to new stories for angering some deity for how they chose to use said beads.
@@Bsmaka : I can see it clearly before my eyes.
Party trapped in some dungeon, the Orcs are closing in.
Suddenly the thief pulls out a bag and drops some pearls on the ground, while the party makes its retreat...
Paladin: "Hey - where did you get those?"
Thief:" You remember the temple in the last city?"
Paladin:"You mean the holy house of Vrogar the Vengeful, god of self-righteous retaliation and nasty things stuck on your boot? This temple....?!"
Thief: "Maybeeee...."
With the faint sound of cracking ceiling stones we end this scene
Low tech solutions may be a good idea, but ball bearings have the extremely serious problem of only staying in place on level surfaces. If someone is chasing right behind you, maybe dumping a bunch of ball bearings would trip them up, but if you are trying to set a trap, the bearings will roll away if the floor is even a couple degrees off level, which in a fantasy setting with medieveal or earlier technology, is going to be pretty much all the time unless your setting is so rich in magic that it has mages dedicated to construction of perfectly level floors.
@@coopercummings8370 : For low-level eras I'd prefer good ol' caltrops. they don't roll away and are enourmus frustrating for anyone chasing you :D
Hm. Thinking of that - caltrops from a very sturdy material, tungsten or some high-tech alloy might even be better than ball bearings in a futuristic setting.
It might be hard enough to pierce through even hight-tech boots... And what is more annoying than a hole in your space-suit when the ship is loosing atmosphere due to some well placed laser hits?
Bit late to this vid :)
How would wearing the full backpack and other gear impact agility and acrobatics skills etc vs not wearing all that gear during fights, stealth, climbing etc? Don't recall reading about that in the few rulebooks I've glossed over....
my Bard, gnome has a tinkerers kit and 2 stones from an ogres necklace other than the usual stuff. no ballbearings
In the game I am currently playing in my sorcerer actually went through the wizards college as part of her back story. As a result my character likes to read and anytime we enter a new town I always pick up a new book to read when sitting around at camp. Also I keep around blank parchment and tindersticks. Since I can't always find charcole to do etchings with I will burn a tinderstick half way and then put it out and have something to do an etching with. The party members asked me why I didn't just learn a spell to do this and I answered that magic is special and why should it be wasted on something that can be performed so easily. She may suck a sewing, but that mind set is consistent with her. She refuses the idea of taking the mend spell and instead carries around a thread and needle to do horrible mending jobs that probably just hurt the equipment a bit more.
in a Dark Heresy (warhammer 40k) campaign, my scitarii ranger has a lot of trophies. mostly pieces of bone, but also different pieces of metal. All from targets he has had the last hit on. He is wearing a 3 eyed metal mask, from a special target.
in a pathfinder campaign, my undine cleric always has a certain spell prepared. I know it is not his backpack per say, but it is something he also prepares. the spell is Oasis, so that he can create an oasis once a day to honour his ancestors, the water spirits =) It should also be said, that he operates in a desert.
in a dnd 5e ravnica campaign, my druid is always carrying mushrooms with him (well, to be honest, he grows them on some of the inner layers of his clothing).
Oh. my character I'm making was going to have loads of glass marbles to throw on the ground. Admittedly their mother is a glassblower, so it still makes sense. Maybe their family is richer than I thought.
when i was new one of my first characters was a dwarf and i bought a travel anvil because "im a dwarf" and well i basically used it to pull a loony tunes.
My kobold assassin has a pipe of smoking that can form various animals when puffed, a tankard of sobriety so she will never get drunk using her own cup, and the deflated body of an imp from a run through a bad dm's story. She also collects odd things to use later for mischievous shenanigans.
You don't need equipment, if you're an outlander druid. Now you're thinking with -portals- classes!
In all seriousness though, having access to the Outlander's food finding trait and druid's Goodberry, along with the nature of such a character being used to sleeping on branches or the dirt, allows you to really free yourself up on what you carry. I find it a shame I can't do such a thing with most other classes.
A character with proficiency in survival could do that. If your character is used to sleep on branches or the dirt is mostly dependent from their upbringing. Foraging for food is a DC10 check - and even as a druid, you need either a tent or shelter if the weather turns bad. If you beat a DC of 15, you can do a weather forecast, and with the previously mentioned DC of 10, you can get +4 on Fortitude if you don't travel during bad weather. I think that this approach would also really fit a monk well (to quote Thich Nhat Hanh “Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free.”)
And in a pinch Orc: The other, other white meat.
Unfortunately the gm in my current 2e game is very much enforcing encumbrance. Which is unfortunate because my Witch has a Strength of 6 and currently has no pack mule.
I had a character not too long ago who was a bard, and an ambassador. As an ambassador, her inventory included things like parchment, pens, ink, sealing wax, and, on my insistence, a ponce pot - a jar of chalk dust to help ink bind to paper. A jar of chalk dust can be very, *very* useful.
She also had whiskey for extracting herbal essences for potions. The GM kept making snide remarks about drinking her whiskey to get drunk, which is something she would absolutely never do under any circumstances, except maybe if she were absolutely certain she was about to die.
Great advice. A lot of what you are saying deals with flavor. I think it can make a game far more entertaining!
The kitchen sink is the first thing I buy. Even as a new player (one year in playing), I tend to keep more equipment than less, even though I know they'll rarely be used. At least when we do need it, we'll be covered.
My character has a jar with some Gelatinous Cube. The character is immune to acid and considers the cube a delicacy. Food scraps are put into the jar to feed and flavor the cube.
You can have lead balls or bearings or other similar, soft metals
Lead shot was simply made by pouring our little drips of lead from on top of a shot tower into a giant tub of water
These lead shots were more or less round
Chain-Mail Boot Covers, for walking on slippery surfaces. Would be totally acceptable in most timelines.
I tend to pack the ultimate multitool that can do pretty much anything. It's my friend Johnny, he's a wizard.
Buffalo-mounted orc cavalry is a thing now
My bard didn't have a backpack, he had a basket. And he didn't have a lute, he had a banjo.
Considering that I didn’t know how arcane focuses can be used as a material component replacement at the time, the Tabaxi Bard I wrote up had food and bugs as part of her collection. My reasoning are the spells Sleep and Stinking Cloud.
I had a Druid that would collect Sea Shells from different beaches that he would go to.
My druid started collecting rocks (likes using the magic stone cantrip and the rogue stole it thinking it was something valuable lmfao) and over time started cherry picking particular rocks that stand out.
My warlock carries a bone hunting knife made from the first animal she killed with her simple fire cantrip called ignite. It was an elk btw.
Ignite is extremely useful in and out of combat for doing light fire damage to anything that attacks her and lighting a campfire no Flint and steel needed.
Alongside her hand made animal skin bedroll and a low teir bag of holding but only because she took it off of someone else who died a few in the woods she was traveling alongside only a few days before.
How to make a Kitchen Sink:
Step 1, acquire components: Gather a bowl, a decanter of endless water, and a bag of devouring.
Step 2, making the sink: Cut a hole in the bowl. Turn the removed bit into a plug.
Step 3, affixing the other components: Attach the Bag of Devouring to the hole, and the Decanter of Endless Water to the top.
Step 4: Enjoy.
I'll be honest, I'm not one of those people who carries around a lot of sentimental gear in D&D; but I am the one who's unique because the character usually has something for every occasion. I tend to play Thief/Rogue, so being the one who can do a little of everything is definitely a solid "schtick". A crowbar, a hammer, a knife, a 12-foot pole (collapsible and usable as 6-ft staves), rope & twine, caltrops, pitons, stones, dice (yep, in character my character carries dice - both a set of rigged and a large bag of unrigged, usually made from bone), oil (for cooking, for lanterns, and for setting enemies on fire), a bottle or two of ink, a compass, blank paper - usually a collection of vellum and parchments along with blank scrolls, a rope ladder, a pup tent and bedroll, even a shallow cooking pan. That's not everything, obviously, but it's a solid collection of things I've used in recent history.
What would you take camping in a medieval world?
10X 10 tarp, oiled.
Rope
Tent stakes.
You can now have a tent up using your walking staff as a pole.
Druid can skip a lot of food issues. Goodberry!
I was always disappointed the plant growth would not work on green slime.
Collect a sample of slime in a large vial.
In combat toss it out among the enemy.
PLANT GROWTH!
Give the enemy spell casters something to worry about.
If you want to make a table top rpg, how do you track materials without too much materials, reading and writing? I've been thinking of making game tokens for common items, a rack to put them in to mark how many I have of those, and then a reference card with information about that item. This makes the information easily accessible yet only needs a single print for all players, only a few tokens per item, etc. Opinions?
I've got a druid that carries around a leaf and occasionally uses it as an instrument... She's not particularly good with it, but it makes for some funny moments.
I go normally theese Steps through:
1. What Stuff do I need to play My Char - like Lockpicks for a Rogue, Weapon and Armor for a Fighter, Books for Casters etc.
Thoose Stuff you need to be the Class you are, the Stuff you need in a Combat. Keep an Eye on Weight and practicability regarding movement.
2. What do I need on Travel to survive? Tent? A Blanket and a Sleeping Bag? A Rope? Cooking and Diningequip? A normal Knife?
Also, look at how to carry it and keep track on Weight and practicability - if there is a sudden Attack from Wolves or Bandits, you wont spend 5 Rounds for getting off all Equipment and getting ready for combat. If your Char is not living completeley on the dark side of the Moon, he will do so.
3. What is "Intercangable", like "Rope" can be used for "Tent" as well, the Hammer for Blacksmithing is good for other uses, too. A Cauldron for Basic Alchemy can be used for cooking a Soup, either.
4. Make it Fluffy - Bring in the Fluff of your Char. He had bought or gained his stuff somewhere. His Mug could have Dwarven Carvings, his Pants could be made by this Elven Tailor "Leafis", and so on. Let the Mage you play make mistakes as he is not used for "Camping" and "Travelling", so he comes completeley overloaded and having a lot of nonsense with him (Like a Feather Blanket and his Feather Pillow in the Summer).
Then, I take a look at it and think of different conditions and if it is "my Char" in this Situations (like the Mage freezing nearly to death because Robes do not fit for bad Weather - ok, fits ;) ).
By God, I swear, how often I had seen Players nearly die because of Weather shifts from 20°C and Sunny to 16°C and Rain with a mild, chill Wind.
Or saw Fighters wandering into the Desert Lands Full Plate on with just a single Ration of Water - especially the "Black Knight"-Guys tent to do so.
DM-Tip if your Players do so: Save them by a local Tradesmen on Travel who mocks them for beeing so stupid. Make it clear that they now owe him - which means their whole Equip goes to his posession or they do a Job for him. This Job is basically the Job they should do - just that the whole "Loot and Reward" from it goes to the Trader. No loot today.
If they revolt - let em. Let em slaughter all of the People they want, let them rob the Tradesmen of his belongings to survive from now on the local conditions. The next Tradesmen will just be as evil as they are - he will stab the victims and rob them or - even better - turn them in for their crimes. The Players create the World they live in as we do in RL, too.
My cleric usually carries a empty flask and a magic quill that can use water instead of ink
In the future how could you debilitate someone walking down the hall? Strobe light, even with light sensitive filters the very sharp and frequent change of light will fuck someone up. I had to demonstrate this only once to a GM.
Marbles can be made by putting rock in a hole in a rock in the river. Takes time (months). But fairly cheap way to get spherical stone ball bearings.
As a collector, restorer, and dealer in antiquities of various levels of obscurity, I can assure you, the most popular (cheap) method for making marbles dates back to the late stone age...
At any river-side you can find CLAY... lots of the stuff. The particular colors depend on the local mineral deposits, which isn't necessarily important unless you've got a keen sense of story regarding your Character's Journey and geography in the game-world...
SO we all know how to roll a lump of clay between the hands in circles until it's as spherical as it's going to get... (and with practice, it's not difficult to get a VERY precise spherical out of it)... AND then you just "fire harden" the thing.
Any campfire CAN accomplish this, to a greater degree. Since the marbles are "solid" (meaning there's no airspace intended inside them) they're damn difficult to break even with a "relatively low temperature" hardening process... Of course, a fire-pit (properly constructed) can achieve higher than ordinary campfire temperatures (and relatively primitive ancestors knew how to do this) so that generates the kind of heat that makes excruciatingly durable clay marbles...
I still have a few in my own "collection", some of which are confirmed at more than three HUNDRED years old... still round... still as worthy of play as any of the modern glass ones.
Another odd, note, Syria, actually "perfected" glass back DURING the Roman era (pre-1000 AD)... AND while I haven't actually tested the clay marbles for hardness by a Mohs scale, Glass is listed at 6, which is the SAME as Steel.
AND for the record, yes... I have gone to the river, collected the clay (red mostly around here) and fired my own clay marbles. I just didn't have a hardness testing "scratch kit" to bother with them before some lunk-head decided he wanted them more than I did... I WAS (btw) completely up front about where they'd come from and how old they really were. Whatever he did with them (however) is all on him. (lolz)
NOT to diminish your suggestion or knowledge. I haven't tried it that way, so I just don't know. I just thought you might find this interesting, since I CAN confirm the successful relative ease and cost efficacy. ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464
So it's basically little marbles of brick?
@@haveiszalfaroqie1628 low-fire unglazed ceramic for the pit firing method, technically.
I'd also like to point out that people have been polishing gems much harder than ceramic and glass for ages (far longer than we've been able to cut them) so even if your glass/glazed marble isn't a perfect sphere, that isn't really a big obstacle to touch the spot up. Even just a tumbler cound do a lot of the work if you just want a lower-end priced set (to say nothing of how simple it would be to make _really_ hard ceramic ones with some designs and no glaze)
Why they replaced marbles in the equipment list, I can't say other than pandering to players too uncreative to think of how marbles could be used in a dungeon.
Caltrops are still better as an area denial tool though.
@@haveiszalfaroqie1628, yep... essentially.
Dynamic Worlds has it about right. I'm not entirely convinced of "tumbler" technologies as far as historical terms... BUT in the purely engineering and technology available sense, one could construct a "windmill" powered or "water-wheel" powered version that would feasibly do the job, not so much different from grain mills, which we have evidence dating back to Rome... I'd count it as "doable" even if it wasn't exactly the popular use of the tech' in the day "IRL".
I might step out on a (figurative) limb, here and point out that properly constructing a fire-pit for ceramics is just a bit complicated, but pays off fairly well. By tunneling a sloped "vent shaft" to the bottom of the "fire-chamber" of the pit (since you don't actually have to fill the whole pit with fire) and topping the pit (once filled with ceramics to treat) with appropriately insulating material, a surprisingly high temperature can be reached and maintained... It's a lot of physical labor to set up well, but it's a reliable way to make durable ceramics. AND for durable ceramics (the kind that don't explode on the slightest tap or ding) high temperatures are of paramount importance...
Besides that, there's also the invention of bellows (like a smithy might have)... BUT that's dubious at best (in a worldbuilding sense) since we're starting the engineering process somewhere here-in for an oven or kiln...
...nothing wrong with it (of course) but we can be honest about it. ;o)
My elf cleric keeps one of every tool kit she can find. Beyond the value of learning new skills, it's fun for me to work with the DM and find various uses for the individual components of the kits. She once got disarmed in a duel and stabbed her opponent with an awl from her leatherworker's kit.
Nothing meaningful to say, but I'm commenting to boost the video with the YT algorythm. Hope it helps. Thanks for your videos
I like your idea about the slippery slime. However, with the addition of the Artificer or steam punk I think ball bearings are now acceptable. As for time period. I find myself drawn more to Ancient Rome.. I also suggest a pack goat for spare supplies.
Ceramic beads as a replacement for glass marbles or ball bearings are easily done and take a lot less effort to store, carry and use. Best use is of course on stairs.....
Would you just add items to your character sheet or do you need to consult your gm on what you are allowed to have?
First - Ask your GM - is the equipment in the book available? Or what is and is not available, and how much cash do you start with. Some systems are specific, and others are open. If the GM says - you have 100 gold, and it's all available you have agency.
7 jars of bees, to throw at enemies
Always carry a crowbar. Always.
But dont bring a crow into my tavern
Why use a crowbar when a portable ram is only a couple gold more?
my last rogue character always had his crowbar with him, so much so that when he died the others thought about burrying him with it lol
@@benjaminking4286 Sounds like you use your intimidate score to sneak around.
Once - not in D&D - my newly made lvl 1 character got in a mage duell.
Unneccessary to say, a crowbar to the head mid-casting is really distracting, even for a very experienced Mage...
Siting around the fire and restringing bows and repairing armor is good and all, but from my experience everyone forgets about that shit cause we have to think how do we complete our current task. When you just fought an orc tribe such mandane things as blade sharpening tend to fall out of head.
I agree - but remembering it for when there are down-times, when there are quiet times, makes the experience that much better :)
I mean, grabbing an Uruk Big Boy with a side of Morgul Flies sounds pretty good right about now at 11pm at night.
what is that end song? sounds like a cover of a song that i cant remember the name of :')
My cleric has a necromancy spell that makes put flesh back onto bones. So I just have her carry around a small bag with a chicken skeleton in it. As a bonus, she can now repeatedly butcher the same animal and sell the meat.
Shouldn’t that flesh be all nasty and rotten? Cuz it’s undead?
@@maddockemerson4603 Why would being undead make the rotting process instantaneous?
@@CuriousKey Because it's necromancy. Also infinite food for such an easy technique is kinda giving the middle finger to entropy, which I tend not to do in my own settings. There are no free lunches IRL so why should there be in a survival-focused game?
Maddock Emerson Well, classical cleric spells like create water, create food and water have already made laws of physics run to the teacher crying in published games. If you run your games differently, fine. But do not try to impose your “no” in other people’s games that you aren’t involved in.
@@graceliu8839 I'm jut saying, you might enjoy a game that's more hardcore
What would you drop in a modern setting instead of caltrops? Legos, obviously.
Great ideas!
A single lockpick to cast "knock" with
Or they can know the light cantrips and use a scroll tube for the flashlight
Oh jeez what character. My inquisitive rogue has case files from every quest He's been on, where he uncovered the whole story then put a stamp on it for a good bad or neutral ending. I believe I still have some arrows that I dipped in a water basin filled with poisoned water, or cursed water... whatever it would have killed me if I drank or even touched it I remember that much
spent all my starting money on a barrel full (I did the math - 172,800) of ball bearings, having built a character that didn't particularly need much equipment. the idea was to capture the personality of the character: smart enough to calculate exactly how many BBs go into a barrel, but not smart enough to spend money on something more useful
When talking about modern versions of caltrops you failed to mention Lego! Lmfao :P
My players tend to hate managing the "mundane" items in their inventories, so in my next campaign I was thinking about having them just make Wisdom checks to see if they had brought something along with bonuses and penalties based on how plausible it is that they would have it.
in a worldo f magic you could ahve something akin to ball berrings but serve an alternate purpose.
I have a drow born the youngest male of house Oblodra in the Forgotten Realms setting. If you know the history of it, just a few days of indecision by its matron mother spelled the destruction of the entire house, which was, at that time, more capable than the other 9 most powerful combined. While he has no use for his blood relatives, those alive or dead, he keeps, but never wears, the necklace-sigil of his house to remind him that "even the fastest squirrels will be flattened if they can't make a decision."
I always keep a short shovel on my pack whenever I'm not the dm(which is almost never)
I once went backpacking/camping and forgot my tent. True story
yup, now a band of orcs riding armored buffalo (or bison) are a thing now that i'm adding to my world
My human ranger keeps a dagger in his belt that he got from his father before he died. Since he has a strength of 9, it is used more like a utility knife, but it does well. He also carries around a rather large stick for whacking people and testing water depth. And a bottle of vodka at all times because he's an alcoholic.
A Simple replacement for ball bearing could be seeds. They would be round, strong and plentiful.
Acorns! But the green ones. They're not as likely to break when stepped on.
My character spent more then 2/3 of her starting gold on a magnifying glass. Why? Well have you ever had a magnifying glass that gets about 1/4 ft diameter of sunlight, then held it over a few twigs for about 7 minutes and it started to burn. That’s with only 1/4 ft of light, now imagine you casted light on the lense, a 60 ft radius, or 120 ft of light of the same intensity shining onto the same little beam with a light cantrip, now your little magnifying glass can easily melt through steel bars in under a minute. Got entangled by vines? “ ohhh noo..... anyway”. Got backed into a dead end in the castle? Point it at the stone floor ... and “ ohhh nooo..... anyway” not sure if you could hit the shot and would really appreciate a laser dot sight before you shoot eldritch blast at 2 miles away? “ ohh nooo...... anyway”. So frickin useful.
Would love to be apart of the 200 player game ❤❤❤
No matter who you are, always carry some caltrops, a net, some glue, and a couple of pikes, great for traps, but if your not in medieval times or such even just the Victorian area, get 25 foot of hard, thin cord, glue, few knife tips, and rope
My lawful good ranger keeps stone carved masks in his pack that represents the spirits that he worships. The mask he wears depends on the situations he is in.
Story items...ok, let's just start with something simple, aright?
An elf living in poverty was made to step, was caught, by circumstance and a benevolent lord she was allowed community service. During this, with her knowledge of precision stuff and good handwork she was employed in the merchants guild as a jewler. She was also not a bad person so she aided the town's guard in every way possible, she was only stealing out of circumstance after all and turns out the wizard when was doing community jewelry cutting for took a liking to her and started training her due to her very easy understanding of magic, but since she had to work off the payment she stole she also had to work in the town's guard spotting thieves and solving cases due to her training with the wizard. So is she now an urchin, a guild artisan jewler, a town's guard or a Wizards apprentice?
Do I get all 4 backgrounds plus the sailor pirates infamously background trait? Which one is it?
But, where is the discord server to be found
the invite link is on the website discordapp.com/invite/Znwtkd2