# Experience Point:  Are you using too much gear?



## Storminator (Jun 19, 2013)

I recently took our Scout troop to the top of a mountain. I carried as little as possible. Another dad carried everything he needed. Except I carried his tent to the summit because I got bored of waiting for him to lug his gear up!

I should really revisit what I bring to game days since I DM at someone else's house.

PS


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## Morrus (Jun 19, 2013)

Absolutely!  Of course, for those of us crossing oceans to be there, lots of gear isn't an option - but even so, I find that traveling light at Gen Con is important for another, different reason: there's a strong chance you might end up buying lots of stuff!  Hardback books and boardgames can get pretty bulky and heavy, and there's a LOT of stuff you'll want to buy!  So yep, I'll echo that "travel" light advice!


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## Janx (Jun 19, 2013)

I have a simple rule for dressing up for RenFair that applies well to real life.

Keep your hands free.  if you bring it, you carry it or wear it.

As such, it's all great to want to be a wizard, but if you do, you're going to be carrying that staff in your hand all day.

That makes it harder to eat with 2 hands, or look at stuff in shops, or even go to the rest room.

In real life, I don't even like to carry a bag.  Everything I need should fit in my pockets.  Knife, wallet, smart phone.

I have a great leather messenger bag.  But if I bring it, it means bringing my ipad, and then getting handed everything else that needs carrying.

Travel light.

that said, I like good tools and especially multi-purpose tools.  Pocket knives with a few different utility blades, but not so many that the knife itself becomes a burden in my pocket.  Smartphone, because it really does a ton of different practical things (tell time, make calls, get a map, play music, get information).  Why would anybody want to carry a watch, a dumbphone, an MP3 player, a GPS, a book reader as seperate devices when they are out and about.


Now as to Rel's case of "body" surfing, that's an odd duck.  I don't know anything about surfing.  It is possible, that his minimalistic style will become a new olympic sport.  Or, his relatives really suck at surfing and thus struggle to get out there with a board.  And his body surfing really was more like being washed ashore like a piece of flotsam, he just couldn't see it from his perspective.

Basically, there is the inverse extreme of carrying too much stuff, and that is carrying so little that you don't know you're struggling harder than you need to.  Kind of like pulling slips of paper to roll dice, because you thought it was more efficient to go to GenCon without any dice.  As the greeks allegedly used to say, "nothing to excess."  Carrying a single set of dice, a pen and notepad to GenCon is probably a smart payload.  Carrying your entire dice collection, not so much.

For gaming, I found that a dice set and ipad are a really compact payload.


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## Piratecat (Jun 19, 2013)

I would not, in fact, have liked Rel as much if he hadn't had awesome scale models of Martian sky-ships. There. I said it! 

Seriously, I remember those plastic bins so clearly. They were _huge._


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## Janx (Jun 19, 2013)

Piratecat said:


> I would not, in fact, have liked Rel as much if he hadn't had awesome scale models of Martian sky-ships. There. I said it!
> 
> Seriously, I remember those plastic bins so clearly. They were _huge._




i think that's the chance all the Mr. Suitcases take.  They either look ridiculous and annoy everybody with the extra time waiting for them to lug their crap, dig in their crap to find that thing they brought, or it all pays off because all the stuff they brought actually was contributing to the event.

It sounds like Rel's paid off, because he brought stuff he used in his event, and it impressed the PirateCat.

Most folks who over-carry just annoy me as they show a lack of intelligence about what they really needed to bring.


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## DaveStebbins (Jun 19, 2013)

That same question should be asked in our lives, too. How much emotional gear/baggage are we lugging around with us everywhere? How much lighter would our steps be if we could just put all that baggage down and leave it behind?


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## Unpossible E (Jun 19, 2013)

What a great post! As a kid I spent many long days at the beach catching wave after wave without any gear. There is something very powerful about that feeling of self-reliance, the knowledge that the fun is really coming from you, from what you bring to the beach/game table/life.


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## Umbran (Jun 19, 2013)

Hr.  And here I have been musing that many of my games have too few frills.

For vacationing, I heartily agree with the sentiment, though.  I don't need many *things* to enjoy a place or an activity.  I don't need many *things* in life (which my wife says makes me devilishly difficult to shop for around the winter holidays, my birthday, and the like).  We have shifted much of our thinking to making sure we have experiences, rather than stuff.

Now, sometimes you need stuff to have the experiences - if, for example, you want to have movie nights with friends, you need a decent TV.  Maybe not super-expensive, top of the line, but decent.  The point being that the stuff is a means to an end, and you should be able to check and see if it really is helping you reach the desired end.


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## Nytmare (Jun 19, 2013)

I'm a weird combination myself.

On one hand, I'm huge on traveling if not "light" at least smart.  I scale down, try to find as many multi purpose items as I can, and try to be realistic about the big "what if" items that I know from past experiences that I'm going to kick myself for dragging along with me. 

 But at the same time (and I'd hazard a guess that working in the film industry has a lot to do with this) I want to have not only everything that I will probably need, but also a handful of worst case scenario items, as well as the necessities that the people around me are probably going to forget.  This usually translates into not only bringing more than I know that I'm going to realistically need, but to pack and organize and devise ways to carry everything so that it has a Batman's-utility-belt accessibility to it.


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## Rel (Jun 19, 2013)

I can dig the idea of being prepared.  I was a Boy Scout.  I'm somewhat of a fan of saying, "I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it."

But I've gotten a good handle on what "need" means.  And "need" to me is a pretty strong word.  I'm pretty big on improvising from my surroundings and view that as somewhat of a challenge.

As the Beatles said, "All you need is love."  And insulin.  I need insulin.  Love and insulin.  And a good knife.

Love, insulin, and a good knife.


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## diaglo (Jun 20, 2013)

this is how i know you never read any of my posts or threads.
2003 i carted around a cassion full of lead (actual lead minis) to run OD&D(1974) for anyone willing to roll 3d6 in order.
Piratecat promised (here on ENWorld) to play in one of my games.
my back is still sore.

but i learned a valuable lesson. KISS for convention games.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 20, 2013)

When i travel,I try to pack situationally.  Sometimes that means the kitchen sink, sometimes it means only what I can put in a bag.

I only do the full Monty when I'm at home.












Keep it clean!


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 20, 2013)

> 2003 i carted around a cassion full of lead (actual lead minis) to run OD&D(1974) for anyone willing to roll 3d6 in order.




FWIW, I'd do that.


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## Teflon Billy (Jun 20, 2013)

Those bins were something else man, and the Lego models were impressive enough, but if you think I liked you for any other reason that SandwichCon, you are delusional


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## Teflon Billy (Jun 20, 2013)

And incidentally you can do pretty good with Love, Insulin and a Good Knife.


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## Rel (Jun 20, 2013)

Teflon Billy said:


> Those bins were something else man, and the Lego models were impressive enough, but if you think I liked you for any other reason that SandwichCon, you are delusional




Well then this proves the point beyond argument.  SammichCon wasn't invented until the following year in 2006.  I know because that's the year I roomed with Old One at the Embassy Suites.  And I was voted Best Dressed Man to Ever Do True Dungeon.


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## nerfherder (Jun 21, 2013)

As you know, I'm a keen photographer.  I bought an SLR in 2005, and decided to replace it last year.  I was originally thinking of upgrading and getting a more expensive, larger and heavier camera, but after some careful thought about my experience of carrying a camera around I decided to buy a smaller and lighter camera.

I went to Prague earlier this month, and took only hand luggage on the flight.  If I'd bought the large, heavy camera I would have left it at home, because it probably wouldn't have fitted in my bag and I wouldn't want to lug it around all day.  Instead, the smaller camera with one general-purpose lens was portable and capable enough to fulfill my needs.


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## Scrivener of Doom (Jun 21, 2013)

Three cheers for body surfing!


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## Harknail (Jun 21, 2013)

Every week I lug 3 large plastic bins onto campus. One contains misc board games that are easy to learn, one contains my entire collection of dungeon tiles, the third has all my battlemats, cardboard miniatures, lots of dice, character sheets, home made dungeon tiles (for fast or odd sized dungeons). Also in the boxes are assorted D&D books, and over 4 dozen Magic the Gather decks. Just one box was 37 pounds! (Ok, that's the heaviest of the 3). I'm also bringing 8 large pizzas, 7 2-liter bottles of soda, a gallon of water, a 6-qt popcorn popper (and supplies), a laptop computer and iPad. And an overloaded cart to haul everything.


The fun part is, I'm not even playing D&D currently! But I'm using the dungeon tiles more than ever in the fantasy game I am playing in. The D&D stuff is just enough to support a pickup game of D&D, if needed.


I am definitely bringing too much stuff, but it's handy to have when I need it.


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## TarionzCousin (Jun 21, 2013)

Rel said:


> As the Beatles said, "All you need is love."  And insulin.  I need insulin.  Love and insulin.  And a good knife.
> 
> Love, insulin, and a good knife.



And that's the only thing I need is *this*. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray... And this paddle game.


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## Henry (Jun 22, 2013)

Rel said:


> Love, insulin, and a good knife.




And there is the title of your autobiography.


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## Mathew_Freeman (Jun 22, 2013)

Love, insulin, a good knife...and a hard-boiled egg </Discworldreference>

I took a bunch of good advice to heart before my first trip over to GenCon. I packed as lightly as I could, hoping for hot weather (duh). No sweatshirt, no coat ("in case it rains" TM), just my dice bag for gaming. I assumed that at a Con if I needed anything else I could get hold of it. It paid off really well and meant I could move about easily throughout.


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## SpeaksWithStone (Jun 22, 2013)

I remember those props.  I loved the all orc adventuring party.  Mugnutz the Blue Master Wizard.  And his apprentice who knew no magic, but carried the Shovel of Necromancy.  The shovel was just a shovel used in grave digging.


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## Rel (Jun 24, 2013)

And who could forget Gronka Thonka, priestess of Grumsh, with her Club of Healing?  Caused 1d6 damage and healed 1d8+1.  Many a tense moment after a battle as she beat other party members back to health...or killed them.

The will of Grumsh is not to be questioned.


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## Jack Daniel (Jun 30, 2013)

For one reason or another, the places I've lived have never been suited to gaming.  Even though I regularly referee, I've always found myself travelling before playing, whether to a friend's house or a nice quiet spot on campus or the game room at the FLGS.  On that account, I like to keep it light and travel with the bare minimum needed to cover all the bases.

The latest iteration of my "standard game kit" consists of the following: 
- A two-tier tackle box.  In the bottom tier are pouches containing dice (about five sets), Rory's Story Cubes, some poker chips (for representing large monsters on a grid), a set of chessmen (regular size monsters), and the little wooden blocks that represent armies from a retro Risk set (in case a mass battle breaks out).  In the top tier are pencils and markers, a pack of cards, various kinds of tokens (glass stones, bingo chips, you never know when they come in handy), and a variety of wooden and plastic game pawns (usually to represent PCs and their allies, but again, you never know how they'll wind up being useful).
- A battle-mat.  These days it's a 1.5" gridded mega-mat, squares and hexes.  I've found that I prefer a scale of 1.5" = 10' for reasons many and sundry.  I'm still looking for an easy way to attach a couple of hooks or clips to the tackle-box so that the rolled up mat would come with it while in transit.
- A couple of books.  Never more than three hardcover volumes, ever again, thank you very much.  Learned my lesson from playing revised 3rd ed.


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## Lwaxy (Jun 30, 2013)

I'm minimalistic at cons and such, usually just having a small binder with printed out maps and keywords and maybe paper miniatures, but anything not too far from our house, I usually carry quite a bit of stuff. 

Of course by now all our games but one are in our place so it is not an issue anymore


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## Lwaxy (Jun 30, 2013)

Mathew_Freeman said:


> Love, insulin, a good knife...and a hard-boiled egg </Discworldreference>




Seriously, where's your towel?


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