What's in your GM "bug-out bag"? Tips for running a TTRPG session on the fly and on the go

I don't get to play DnD or any TTRPG as often as I would like. So, when an opportunity presents itself, I had to let it go because I have nothing prepared.

What tips do you have for a quick one-shot, pick-up game?

I try to have a number of 4-6 hour adventures that I'm familiar with and which don't require too much prep time.

If I'm at home, it is much easier because I have access to all my materials.

I can, however, pull together everything I need for a session in a few minutes. This would include the following items that all fit in one large book bag.

* I backed Arc Knights latest Kickstarter and have a box of flat 2D minis and bases organized in envelopes, alphabetically. I don't even bother trying to select minis. I just grab that box and have hundreds readily available.

* A Bag Of Superior Holding (B.O.S.S.) from another Kickstarter. It is large has multiple compartments of multiple sizes, which are easy to grab from when it is open. I have all the dice I need for myself and 4-6 players in it and ready to grab and go.

* Pencil bag with a bunch of sharpened pencils and wet erase markers. The wet erase markers are for the battle map and also to mark numbers and conditions on the flat plastic minis or their bases. At home, I use color-coded, magnetic status markers from Alea tools. But even though I have a nice carrying case for these, I find it easier to have several colors of wet erase markers and just mark right on the flat minis or their bases.

* Battle map grid. If I want to keep everything in one bag, I can just use the D&D Adventure Grid, but I usually bring my big Chessex mat and use it more, as I like the larger play area. But if table space is limited the Adventure Grid is often more practical.

* Dungeon Master Screen. I prefer the one with the red dragon on the front. When away from my home set up, I rely on the reference charts on the DM screen more.

* Books & character sheets / DnD Beyond. Even with the items listed, I can still fit the core books. But I also have DnD Beyond, which I can also share with players. So, I could do without the books, but I tend to take the PHB, DMG, and MM. I'll also have the pre-gen characters and some blank character sheets from WoTC pre-preprinted. Again, DnD Beyond can allow me to forgo all books and character sheets. But not all players have or want to use smartphones, tablets, or laptops at the table.

* Evernote. I have a collection of adventures in Evernote. I use tags to make it easier to search by level, theme, etc. I have a few that I mark for "new players" or "one-shot" and also some that flagged because I've run them before and are familiar with them.

* Tablet / Smartphone / laptop. I *could* just use my iphone X, but running an adventure from a phone would not be very convenient. My laptop is easiest. I have an old iPad, which is a good compromise. I've thought of getting the 12.9" iPad Pro, but that's a lot of money for something I don't have a great deal of use for outside of gaming.

Anyway, what is in your GM bug-out bag?

Cheap backpack, three-ring binder, copies of Barbarians of Lemuria and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. Dice, pencils.

My "D&D-like" I prefer to run is 13th Age. It's a d20 OGL by lead designers of D&D 3.0 and 4e.

Among it's advantages is that it's quick to prep, easy to improv foe statistics, and the publisher gives you the PDFs when you buy the hardcovers. Oh, and it's really easy to have pre-gens with everything but name, One Unique Thing, and Backgrounds done so the mechanics are already worked out but there's still a huge amount of customization to make the character yours.

So my gaming bag is:

• Core book plus extra monster book.
• Cheap tablet (kindle <$40) with all of the material in PDF, plus adventures, plus things like a monster index across all the products.
• Pre-printed notes. For me it's my campaign, for random one-shots it could be pre-gens and other hand-outs.
• Dice, including plenty to lend.
• Half index cards - green for characters and orange for "Foe #1", ... that I use to lay out Initiative during combat so it's obvious who's next.
• Steno pad for notes and a couple of mechanical pencils.
• Poker chips - I put out piles on the table and players reward other players for cool RP with them. They have no mechanical value, yet players still like getting them for the accolades. If I was running 5e I'd have them be inspiration, not caring that it goes out more frequently then once a session.
• A cardboard envelope with a bunch of rpg portraits that I printed out 3x3 years ago, so I can pull out random NPCs and have a visual (which can quickly become more).

Could easily include a wet-erase battlemap and markers but we play theater of the mind. Same for including a padded box of minis.

For my AL Open Table, I pack:

-Spiral notebook with my notes for the upcoming session
-Scratch paper pad
-Inspiration tokens (glass beads)
-Pencils
-Dice
-PHB
-Whatever module I am running
-DM screen
-Either the supplemental PDF for the module or the MM.
-A supply of pregens - come to think of it, I really need to restock these.
-Madeline Hale’s Table Fables - this slim collection of tables is great for when I need to get ideas on the fly, for an NPC or to put something interesting in a treasure parcel.

Dice.
Blank Notebook.
Pencil.

GO!

Ralif Redhammer said:

For my AL Open Table, I pack:
-Madeline Hale’s Table Fables - this slim collection of tables is great for when I need to get ideas on the fly, for an NPC or to put something interesting in a treasure parcel.

Click to expand...

Hadn't seen this before. Definitely going to check it out. Looks like there is a Table Fables II as well.

My phone, which has a dice-rolling app and a bookmark to the Fate SRD. If I'm in a situation where it's "do or die", I'm running Fate Accelerated, though I'd use Fate Core for a campaign. If we want D&D, i've also got a bookmark to DND Beyond (as well as the app beta).

Note: I don't love digital dice, despite having an app. If given a chance, I have several bags of dice (one for WoD, one for Fate, one "Dice of Rolling" for D&D, and one of all the other dice I've collected over the years) sitting on my bookshelf that I'd rather grab. Given a hair more time, I'd also grab my laptop with OneNote, a digital stylus, and some gaming software.

The original question was about an emergency kit, though. I carry my phone and I prefer "winging it" to prep, anyway.

There’s a lovely sense of whimsy to it. Items like a gem that, when shattered, summons a blizzard, or a knight chess piece that detects horses. Plus NPC traits, adventure hooks, tavern details, and all sorts of random useful stuff.

MNblockhead said:

Hadn't seen this before. Definitely going to check it out. Looks like there is a Table Fables II as well.

Click to expand...

shidaku said:

Dice.
Blank Notebook.
Pencil.

GO!

Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much this.
Have imagination will travel....

Backpack:
Bag o' dice (various types, multiples of each).
Spiral-bound notebook.
3x5 cards.
mechanical pencil.
ink pen (black or blue).
yellow highlighter.
water bottle.
snack/nutrition/protein bars.
Almost all of this stuff is always in my backpack no matter what I'm using the backpack for.

Android tablet with Dropbox, Google Drive, and Acrobat Reader installed. I have a lot of gaming PDFs, including lots of simple one-shot or short-run adventures. Most of it is stuff I picked up for free or on a Pay-What-You-Want basis.

Android smartphone, for access to the same items as the tablet, in case I left the tablet or the dice at home. I don't take notes on devices, though - that's all done on paper.

I also have my minis and rigid board tiles (of various sizes, of indoor and outdoor locations) all packed into a portable compartmentalized tackle/craft box.

Rule books optional, since I have a lot of those as PDFs (see above). Playing mostly D&D 5E these days and I have a Master subscription to D&D Beyond with a lot fo shared content, so I don't need the books.