Starting Equipment Packages

It’s a very popular trope in gaming.  What sort of possession does your potential hero or adventure find in his collection of items to start his or her career of adventure?  Veteran roleplayers may recall the likes of “iron rations”, a few torches, a waterskin and your weapon of choice.  Others might be limited to a Towel and Sub-Etha Sense-o-Matic. Anything more, and you’re consigned to mugging various monsters, smashing open virtual crates or getting a job.

What if residents of real world cities started the same way. What sort of things would they find in their collection of gear to help them best fit into their respective cities?

Your starting gear for various cities.

Seattle

  • Sporty Weather-Proof Jacket
  • Messenger Bag
  • Dog
  • Coffee Mug
  • Bike, Kayak or Snowboard
  • REI Membership

Atlanta

  • Lyric Sheet to “Georgia on My Mind”
  • Season Pass to Six Flag or Stone Mountain
  • ITP (“Inside the Perimeter”) Mailing Address
  • Obama Bumpersticker & GOP Registration Card
  • Laminated Waffle House Menu (suitable for framing)
  • Industrial Strength Insect Repellent
  • Map (all streets labeled Peachtree, all navigation from “The Big Chicken”)

Los Angeles

  • Bottle of Percoset, Economy-Sized
  • Annual Super Saver Car Wash Pass
  • Designer Mobile Phone
  • Gym Membership (with discount on Plastic Surgery)
  • SAG card and/or Undistributed Screenplay

New York

  • Novelty Parking Pass & Driver’s License
  • Subway Card, Subway Map & Ebola Suit
  • 1000 Yard Stare
  • Vanity Business Cards
  • “I <3 New York” or “New Jersey Sucks” t-shirt

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8 Responses

  1. Lindsay says:

    Polar fleece — you forgot the polar fleece for Seattle. Or is that just for us over the mountains from you? I know it’s de rigeur here and in Montana, Utah, et cetera.

  2. Mystech says:

    You have an excellent point. I am, in fact, wearing polar fleece at this very moment. Busted. 🙂 I was just lazy and tried to roll everything into the “Sporty Weather-Proof Jacket”.

  3. Gieseppi says:

    God I’d forgotten about “iron rations”

  4. Tara says:

    The Atlanta starting gear is LAME!
    You aren’t giving us enough credit.

    (Besides, we all have the lyrics and the menus on our PDAs or memorized. Why would we carry them around?)

  5. Mystech says:

    If you’d wanted better gear, Tara, you should have rolled higher on the Starting Equipment Table. 🙂

  6. Mae says:

    I have to agree with Tara. You completely left out bug spray for those mosquitos and directions to everything from the Big Chicken. (May be substituted by a map entirely consisting of streets named “Peachtree.”)

  7. Mystech says:

    By popular request, two more items have been added to the Atlanta Starting Gear package. Man, beta-testers can be demanding. 😉

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