I packed my bag and in it I put
Nov. 4th, 2018 04:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethSo far today I have been sorting pictures into folders again, and once again discovering I save really a lot of very similar looking things.
The other day I chose an outfit for adventuring in, with maximum pockets, wax cotton waterproofing, and lots of layers for different conditions. Magic should take care of the mending and cleaning so you only really need two of everything, in case something either gets extra destroyed or needs taken off to get mended. Should fit in a backpack.
Today I'm wondering what I'd put in a trunk. You couldn't necessarily drag a trunk around with you, but a decent sized steamer trunk just seems like the kind of thing everyone has. Yes, I went to boarding school. Yes, I am aware that's a limited cross section of everyone. Still. My baseline assumption includes satchel, backpack, and trunk.
So what does your adventurer put in their trunk?
Depends on setting and class, obviously, or role in the party, in a classless game.
I feel like a lot less of it needs to be books these days, but I just mean I can fit so much more on a usb stick. It's no use if you can't read one. Still, if you're going to Atlantis, you can probably fit many terabytes of data in whatever they're planning to use for computers there, so I feel like all my books and DVDs and definitely audios would come with me, in an assortment of files.
But to be really sure you'd need paper books, or maybe microfilm and a reader. Those are the durable formats even these days. ... heh, imagine a fantasy setting seeing microfilm and making assumptions about the size of the writers.
If you didn't know what you'd find at the other side of a portal you'd want to pack all kinds of everything. Not going to fit.
You could bring the sort of book that tells you how to reinvent everything or rebuild society from scratch.
... I wasn't planning to just think of books, though, the post apocalyptic library being a topic all its own. And if you don't know where you're going you have to plan for post apocalypse.
Hmm, bring many seeds? Seed library in a trunk? Now that would be some trade goods.
... or a big breaking the rules importing biologicals.
Obviously you could just use it to bring more clothes. I mean it fit a term's worth of school uniform in it plus some bits and pieces, it's not really an apocalypse proof trunk. You'd have clothes for different conditions that way. Multiples of things.
... my characters still tend to wear red and I've just now re realised why. Boarding school colors apparently leave their mark. Not that that specific maroon was wonderful or anything...
If I was a cleric I'd need holy symbols. Like, lots of backup ones. There's rules for getting them tattooed but then there's only one way to disarm you, and while there are spells to grow your arm back, it's not nice. A whole trunk of wooden holy symbols is a bit excessive though.
A bard would need instruments. I'm always tempted to say they play the triangle and call it a day, or maybe add a pennywhistle, but you could bring more.
Wizards would be the ones with the books.
Your actual fighting classes would need somewhere to stash armour and weapons. Would need a reinforced trunk for that. I never pay as much attention to that section of the equipment lists. I'm more likely to say they use a stick and be done with it. Thrifty and efficient.
I keep thinking though, the basic GURPS setup where you and your equipment get yanked through the Banestorm, you could easily have a trunk with you, or indeed a car for what that would be worth on a mostly medieval planet, but you wouldn't know in advance you were going, unless you went by a very odd route. I guess there are some predictable portals in fantasy.
... who would go on a one way trip through a portal with only rumours about what is on the other side?
... top of the list is people who miss whoever went the last time it opened, but you'd have to start that with someone...
... people trying to get away from something? Rogues and runaways and refugees. I still like the idea of a world like Yrth in the Banestorm book but instead of mashing up the mainstream civilisations that did quite well for yourself you end up with all the obscure ones that got stomped on in the here history. Banestorm guided by a collector, mercy roads out of ruin. You'd end up with a much more diverse setting.
So you'd end up with two sorts of well equipped traveller, people who just happened to have a trunk
(car) full of everything useful they owned, and those that knew where they were going.
The random person probably hasn't packed for an apocalypse but could easily have packed for hiking, camping, fishing, or LARP. ... that's a bit meta, but, there's days you can get hundreds of well packed adventurers at one swoop. Or more. Banestorm meets Pennsic... woah...
They could also have a removal van and be dragging literally everything they own around.
... I am once again tempted to own a solar recharging thingy specifically for in case of this...
Being well prepared at random, packed for a holiday or similar, means the character is the sort of person who packs for a weekend of hunting, shooting, fishing, etc. I mean they could have their horse in a trailer if they wanted.
Huh, are modern horses particularly excellent horses, by medieval-ish standards? Would you arrive with a super horse?
So I'm tempted to get equipment lists out and actually pack these things, but, there's a lot of character decisions that go into them first. Plausible or prepared? Character class they're trained for or just a lot of tradeable goods? The amount a TL8 adventurer could have in the bank compared to the TL3 people they'll arrive among could make for spectacular wealth right there.
I'm tempted to make it an actual school trunk, plausibly full of textbooks, because even your basic maths books could be very shiny if actual TL3 is in effect, and high school science would be very.
But there's also trunks packed without the portal aspect at all, just 159 litres of native Golarion stuff or suchlike.
Too many options, must decide...
Which one would you like to play with?
The other day I chose an outfit for adventuring in, with maximum pockets, wax cotton waterproofing, and lots of layers for different conditions. Magic should take care of the mending and cleaning so you only really need two of everything, in case something either gets extra destroyed or needs taken off to get mended. Should fit in a backpack.
Today I'm wondering what I'd put in a trunk. You couldn't necessarily drag a trunk around with you, but a decent sized steamer trunk just seems like the kind of thing everyone has. Yes, I went to boarding school. Yes, I am aware that's a limited cross section of everyone. Still. My baseline assumption includes satchel, backpack, and trunk.
So what does your adventurer put in their trunk?
Depends on setting and class, obviously, or role in the party, in a classless game.
I feel like a lot less of it needs to be books these days, but I just mean I can fit so much more on a usb stick. It's no use if you can't read one. Still, if you're going to Atlantis, you can probably fit many terabytes of data in whatever they're planning to use for computers there, so I feel like all my books and DVDs and definitely audios would come with me, in an assortment of files.
But to be really sure you'd need paper books, or maybe microfilm and a reader. Those are the durable formats even these days. ... heh, imagine a fantasy setting seeing microfilm and making assumptions about the size of the writers.
If you didn't know what you'd find at the other side of a portal you'd want to pack all kinds of everything. Not going to fit.
You could bring the sort of book that tells you how to reinvent everything or rebuild society from scratch.
... I wasn't planning to just think of books, though, the post apocalyptic library being a topic all its own. And if you don't know where you're going you have to plan for post apocalypse.
Hmm, bring many seeds? Seed library in a trunk? Now that would be some trade goods.
... or a big breaking the rules importing biologicals.
Obviously you could just use it to bring more clothes. I mean it fit a term's worth of school uniform in it plus some bits and pieces, it's not really an apocalypse proof trunk. You'd have clothes for different conditions that way. Multiples of things.
... my characters still tend to wear red and I've just now re realised why. Boarding school colors apparently leave their mark. Not that that specific maroon was wonderful or anything...
If I was a cleric I'd need holy symbols. Like, lots of backup ones. There's rules for getting them tattooed but then there's only one way to disarm you, and while there are spells to grow your arm back, it's not nice. A whole trunk of wooden holy symbols is a bit excessive though.
A bard would need instruments. I'm always tempted to say they play the triangle and call it a day, or maybe add a pennywhistle, but you could bring more.
Wizards would be the ones with the books.
Your actual fighting classes would need somewhere to stash armour and weapons. Would need a reinforced trunk for that. I never pay as much attention to that section of the equipment lists. I'm more likely to say they use a stick and be done with it. Thrifty and efficient.
I keep thinking though, the basic GURPS setup where you and your equipment get yanked through the Banestorm, you could easily have a trunk with you, or indeed a car for what that would be worth on a mostly medieval planet, but you wouldn't know in advance you were going, unless you went by a very odd route. I guess there are some predictable portals in fantasy.
... who would go on a one way trip through a portal with only rumours about what is on the other side?
... top of the list is people who miss whoever went the last time it opened, but you'd have to start that with someone...
... people trying to get away from something? Rogues and runaways and refugees. I still like the idea of a world like Yrth in the Banestorm book but instead of mashing up the mainstream civilisations that did quite well for yourself you end up with all the obscure ones that got stomped on in the here history. Banestorm guided by a collector, mercy roads out of ruin. You'd end up with a much more diverse setting.
So you'd end up with two sorts of well equipped traveller, people who just happened to have a trunk
(car) full of everything useful they owned, and those that knew where they were going.
The random person probably hasn't packed for an apocalypse but could easily have packed for hiking, camping, fishing, or LARP. ... that's a bit meta, but, there's days you can get hundreds of well packed adventurers at one swoop. Or more. Banestorm meets Pennsic... woah...
They could also have a removal van and be dragging literally everything they own around.
... I am once again tempted to own a solar recharging thingy specifically for in case of this...
Being well prepared at random, packed for a holiday or similar, means the character is the sort of person who packs for a weekend of hunting, shooting, fishing, etc. I mean they could have their horse in a trailer if they wanted.
Huh, are modern horses particularly excellent horses, by medieval-ish standards? Would you arrive with a super horse?
So I'm tempted to get equipment lists out and actually pack these things, but, there's a lot of character decisions that go into them first. Plausible or prepared? Character class they're trained for or just a lot of tradeable goods? The amount a TL8 adventurer could have in the bank compared to the TL3 people they'll arrive among could make for spectacular wealth right there.
I'm tempted to make it an actual school trunk, plausibly full of textbooks, because even your basic maths books could be very shiny if actual TL3 is in effect, and high school science would be very.
But there's also trunks packed without the portal aspect at all, just 159 litres of native Golarion stuff or suchlike.
Too many options, must decide...
Which one would you like to play with?