Travelling DM's, hernia waiting to happen?

[Ylis]

Ah, it's good to know that I'm not alone in my back aches concerning books .

One of the things I'm currently trying to get my player's to do is make them take care of their own books, excerpts and the like. Problem is, is that I'm a book-o-holic and the only one with a collection of this size.

Maybe I'm going to take the suggestion of some of you to heart and 'lend' my books semi-permanently to the ones who need them... if I only can get myself to part from my 'baby's'

Just make sure you know the person really well...we had one guy in our group that we didn't know as well and he was originally in charge of the "group library" as his house was in a convenient, central location to the rest of us. Then he up and moved at the spur of the moment, taking our beloved books with us. But, you live and learn, and luckily we're all book-o-holics as well, so we had backup copies. So we make sure that one of the "core group members" holds the books.

The only other thing I could suggest is getting everything on PDF and getting a laptop...that way all you have to take is the laptop

 

[LordVyreth]

I'm another load-bearing DM. My typical haul includes the three core books, the 3.0 version of those same books, three additional harcover monster books (MM2, Fiend Folio, and Tome of Horrors,) Legions of Hell, Monsters of Faerun, four other hardcover books (epic level, psionic, manual of the planes, and savage species,) all the splat books except for the cleric one, my campaign folder, and two huge binders containing campaign notes, including every adventure written up to this point. The whole mess takes up a backpack, a small carry-on bag, and that tote bag WotC gave away when buying the three 3.5 cores.

 

[Buttercup]

We don't have a big enough dining room table to play at our house, so all our sessions are held in the ceramics studio of one of my players.

I bring the PHB, a notebook with my notes, my giant 1" grid tablet, all the counters needed for the session, and my dice. Recently I've started bringing the MM too, since one of my players uses Summon Monster I frequently.

If I needed more stuff than this, we would just have to find a way to fit in my dining room, because I'm not dragging my weight in RP materials all over town.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

The only other thing I could suggest is getting everything on PDF and getting a laptop...that way all you have to take is the laptop

The moral of that story is: "Make sure it's not a business laptop."

I was doing great when I had access to one, burned all my pdfs to CDs, and game notes on the hard drive.

Now I'm back to lugging stuff around. It's not the core books and the occasional splatbook though. It's my own notes! I fill an entire canvas tote bag with binders.

 

[billd91]

I lug around a milk crate with the stuff I want to carry for my Greyhawk campaign. In it I have handout folders and extra copies of character sheets, the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, the 1983 GH folio, a tablet of graph paper, the 5 3.0 splat books, trays of chits from Fiery Dragon, dice, markers, and the 3 core books. I also have printouts of the current adventure I've written.
I then also bring my megamats and the GH map.
It's all moderately heavy but the milk crate makes it easier to carry. I can also add a book or two as needed if I plan on introducing non-MMI monsters.

Finally, I typically bring my laptop as well. I have a spreadsheet set up with the PCs' Spot, Listen, Sense Motive, and Search modifiers. I can then just hit F9 and have it re-generate some random skill checks for me without me having to toss a lot of dice. The laptop is pretty much optional though.

I do what I can to try to keep the resources I need to lug around to a minimum. I kind of like having the library at my back, but I find I really don't use it anyway more than 90% of the time. And when I do want to consult it, it's never urgent and can generally wait until between sessions.

 

[Quickbeam]

Not me. I've got my DMG and MM; adventure notes and campaign materials; the Pocket Grimoires for ease of access to spells and magical items; and the battlemat depending on whose house we're gaming at.

However, I do have one player who carts along 6-8 books; the BattleHive; two extra cases of scenery/props; and goodness knows what else. Plus he tends to be the most generous in terms of bringing food and beverages, so it usually requires several of us to help in into the house from his car !!

 

[DaveStebbins]

We rotate among the gaming houses in my group, so I'm usually travelling. I use a plastic box madeto be filled with hanging folders. I only carry the three core books, but I also have a bunch of material in different hanging folders and a notebook with campaign material. It also carries a small tin with minis and a dice bag.

It has a hand-hold on each end and a single-piece cover which is really convenient for rainy or snowy nights. It helps me keep everything organized and is easy to carry. Plus, a plate of brownies is easy to carry on top.

-Dave

 

[frankthedm]

The moral of that story is: "Make sure it's not a business laptop."

I was doing great when I had access to one, burned all my pdfs to CDs, and game notes on the hard drive.

Now I'm back to lugging stuff around. It's not the core books and the occasional splatbook though. It's my own notes! I fill an entire canvas tote bag with binders.

Fired because of them?


I used to have a player that drove help me lug my stuff togame [ i am heavy into minis so 3 tackleboxes was th usual amount. now the minis are kept at the host's house.

today i am traveling light, jst the core books.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Fired because of them?

Thank god no. But when the budget shrinks and they replace all the laptops with desktop PCs, that's no longer that portable is it?

 

[pogre]

I bring the MM, DMG, my current adventure notes, and my latest miniatures or scenery project. The rest of my materials are kept over at my friend's house where we game. I have an entire miniatures case (a glass front china cabinet with 5 shelves) and two huge dressers full of scenery (mostly mastermaze). God help me if he ever decides to move!