Man, I like to carry around games

The idea of having some kind of travel kit of games has pretty much always been a part of my gaming life from the start. Before I found any regular groups, a lot of my games were pickup games at restaurants and coffee shops. I didn’t have a game closet. I had a game bag.

Over the years, the bag has changed, depending on circumstances and depending on what struck my fancy. Going to a convention, for instance, always meant a larger bag with a wide variety of choices.

There have been some distinct moments in how I pack a game bag. One of the more recent ones was the Pack O Game series, which gave me the ability to fit a game library into a large pocket. That’s become my go to for any time I’m going somewhere planning to game.

PnP has, more slowly, been affecting the bag. I hadn’t even really noticed until I realized that I was crafting stuff specifically for my every day bag. 

When I go out, I almost always take a daddy bag of things like wet wipes and snacks and spare clothes and water. It’s a satchel that’s been repurposed from carrying work documents around.

And I’ve almost always had a few games that live in the satchel, for when I don’t have any plans for gaming but just in case. Pico 2 has had years of being carried around like that (and I know it will be back when I’m not worried about it getting damaged) and Cinq-0 and Cosmic Wimpout are a couple other standards. However, I got out of that habit when it became focused on baby stuff.

But the doodle has been getting bigger, which ironically means less stuff in the satchel. I almost absentmindedly made a few things like a copy of Bonsai Samurai to keep in the daddy bag. Potential time killers that were small and I wouldn’t care if they got trashed since I could replace them so easily. 

However, when I realized that I had made a copy of The Name of the God for my bag and was planning on making a 1-3 player version of Autumn and a PnP copy of Hive (I have a full Bakelite copy but laminated tiles will take up almost no space), I realized I was making PnP games to always have on me that were more than just time fillers.

I wouldn’t call them disposable games since, particularly after I laminate them, they should hold up to abuse and plenty of use. However, the fact that it won’t be a big deal if they do get wrecked is part of why I am making them to live in my satchel. 

Oh, when it comes time to go somewhere where I’m expecting to game, stuff like Pack O Games and For Sale and High Society are getting packed in a bigger satchel. But it’s nice to plan out a little ziplocked baggy of fun little games to always have.