I know, I know; the game isn't in the books, it's in your head.  But the books are so inspiring; not to mention the Dungeon Tiles, Maps, Miniatures, Pawns, etc.  A little background music to set the atmosphere, a handful of dice, and you're off upon an adventure!!!

But you have enough RPG resources to burden down a small pack animal; Way more stuff than you can actually use?  How do you Narrow It All Down to THE Stuff you use?

Quote from: Razor 007;1099307I know, I know; the game isn't in the books, it's in your head.  But the books are so inspiring; not to mention the Dungeon Tiles, Maps, Miniatures, Pawns, etc.  A little background music to set the atmosphere, a handful of dice, and you're off upon an adventure!!!

But you have enough RPG resources to burden down a small pack animal; Way more stuff than you can actually use?  How do you Narrow It All Down to THE Stuff you use?

Heresy!

Primarily? A set of my own custom-created GM references, and a tablet with all my PDFs.

If we end up somewhere without an outlet that will require me hiking, then just the book I absolutely need to play, some dice, a pencil and some notepaper, and doling out a few more spot rulings than normal. I'd still be tempted to load that mule up, but I've always been a completionist...

Quote from: Razor 007;1099307I know, I know; the game isn't in the books, it's in your head.  But the books are so inspiring; not to mention the Dungeon Tiles, Maps, Miniatures, Pawns, etc.  A little background music to set the atmosphere, a handful of dice, and you're off upon an adventure!!!

But you have enough RPG resources to burden down a small pack animal; Way more stuff than you can actually use?  How do you Narrow It All Down to THE Stuff you use?

I have the GURPS source books. So I only look through the sourcebook that fits the genre/setting my non-GURPS game will be using.

It's a conglomeration of things.  You're playing system x, and you use material from at least 2 or 3 books from that system.  There are also a few things you like in system y, and system z has something no other system has.  So, you melt all of those rules down into a compound substance, and call it your favorite rpg.

Then you wrestle with using miniatures, maps, and terrain; vs theater of the mind.  Sometimes one feels right, and sometimes you experiment with the other.

You go back and forth between using a dice tray, vs just rolling on the table.  And how many dice to have out for use?  Did any get dropped on the floor, to become caltrops?

You try playing with, and without a DM Screen.  You like it, and you don't; for different reasons.

Then you realize that you have invested "x" years into this hobby; and half the time was spent in a ruleset or two, or an edition or two, you should have just skipped over.  In hindsight, you wish you would have spent more time and money on this, instead of that.  But such is the nature of hindsight.....

And so you circle the wagons, and tell yourself you already have a lifetime supply of stuff to run orc vs elf games.  What is the cream of it all, that will bring the best possible gaming to your table?  You don't want to keep searching for stuff forever.  You want to go ahead and roll with what you've got.  More gaming, and less experimentation.

And then something really cool hits the market.  Argh!!!!  It's hopeless!!!!

Good players. No amount of stuff replaces good players.

But if I am narrowing down my stuff, then the most important is "representational terrain" and that depends from game to game. Sometimes its a battlemat and minis, other times its a couple of toys that represent a key aspect of the game (the PC's ship, the evil temple, etc), sometimes its a full diorama with 3D terrain. The more "theater of mind" that I'm running, the less "stuff" I need.

Good evocative music playing in the background. What specifically that is depends on the type of atmosphere trying to be achieved.

My GM uses a lot of soundtracks. Does a lot of playing of music from Youtube on an old laptop. Which used to work pretty well before Youtube decided to double down on ads layely.

For me? It would be a nice trip into my music collection. Pulling out an MP3 player of stuff I collected or ripped from my CDs.

Lately I have been listening to a lot of Judas Priest. And they have a lot of great songs in their catalog that could provice some great atmosphere for a whole host of different RPG campaigns.

Then there is my collection of Iron Maiden albums...

My rpg travel pack is a mens leather shoulder bag, like something Indiana Jones would have, heh heh
Inside I comfortably pack my rpg essentials:

* GM Screen,
* GM Reference Sheet Folder (often home made),
* Character sheets,
* Dice,
* Scenario and Notes,
* Pens, Pencils, Eraser,
* My iPad Mini (which has all my pdf rulebooks etc).

Depending on the game, I may also have:
* A bag of poker chips for tokens,
* The core rulebook (only if it is in digest format, or if it is slim).

If the core rulebook is a tome, then I don't really need to travel with it, especially if I also have a pdf copy of it in my iPad Mini.

If I'm at home, I use the same bag, but always will have the core book at the gaming table with me.
If I need anything else I can easily access my bookcases.
Occasionally will use minis and a battle mat for reference, but it's not a big deal for me, I'm prefer to keep most things in our minds rather than on the table.
I also usually have genre-appropriate soundtracks/playlists playing in the background.

That's pretty much my set up

Just ordered more miniatures.......

Bwaaa!!!!!!!  Haha!!!

Quote from: Darrin Kelley;1099351Good evocative music playing in the background. What specifically that is depends on the type of atmosphere trying to be achieved.

My GM uses a lot of soundtracks. Does a lot of playing of music from Youtube on an old laptop. Which used to work pretty well before Youtube decided to double down on ads layely.

For me? It would be a nice trip into my music collection. Pulling out an MP3 player of stuff I collected or ripped from my CDs.

Lately I have been listening to a lot of Judas Priest. And they have a lot of great songs in their catalog that could provice some great atmosphere for a whole host of different RPG campaigns.

Then there is my collection of Iron Maiden albums...

Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
What an album.  It blew my mind when I was a young man.

Iron Maiden's album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son goes so well with DCC...

I ran a campaign based on inspiration from Bruce Dickinson(and thus William Blake)'s chemical wedding. Great album.
On the resource front, I love my old Arcanum book, lots of useful stuff in the back for codes, alchemical ideas, demons and devils - everything really!

Quote from: Razor 007;1099345And then something really cool hits the market.  Argh!!!!  It's hopeless!!!!

You make it sound like variety is a bad thing.

Quote from: Alexander Kalinowski;1099365You make it sound like variety is a bad thing.

No.  That is not my intent.  Spending time and money with abandon, without narrowing one's focus; appears to be a big distraction for me.  If I pick up some Beholders, because I have zero Beholders to work with; that makes perfect sense.  It adds to the game, period.  

But if I am reading 10 different rulesets, in search of the perfect ruleset; that had better yield some very useful tools for gameplay, or else it is too much of a distraction.  It eats up my time, and clouds my focus.  I am spending more time searching, than I am playing; and that must stop.