A very important question has been bouncing around my friends for a couple of days: if you were told that in half an hour, you were going to be whisked off to a generic, quasi-medieval fantasy land, what would you pack? We figured that half an hour is enough time to throw things in your bag that are already in your apartment, and maybe send someone out to the corner store to buy non-perishables. Too much time would make it too easy, as in, “Well, I’d go to the Leather Jerkin Emporium and buy period-looking clothes and a sword!” Given that I can barely get out the door to work in half an hour with my keys in my pocket, packing a large backpack might get haphazard. Best to plan ahead.
We thought of three categories: survival, things to make a living with, and creature comforts. We decided we couldn’t count on getting plunked down in a city, since there is proportionally more wilderness in most of these places, although it might also be one of those fantasylands with a charmingly rustic inn every five feet. The wilderness survival gear in our apartment is pretty sad—we’re not campers or anything—but here’s what we do have, to be shared among four large backpacks and various shoulder-bags:
- Clothes, worn in layers rather than put in the bags. Women: long skirts, hippie shirts, pea coat, boots, and something to cover our hair. Men: slacks, boots, sweaters, pea coat, a hat. Extra socks.
- Everyone’s pocket knives and Leathermans.
- Matches and lighters. This might be the only time I’m glad that two of my roommates smoke.
- My lame-ass keychain compass. Better than nothing, right?
- One cast-iron pot, a couple of forks and spoons, the big kitchen knives, a mug or two.
- Make one of the roommates run to the store for bags of lentils and chickpeas, cans of tuna, and Neosporin and bottles of multi-vitamins. One thing we assumed was that if this was to be Fantasyland* and not medieval France, there would probably be a higher standard of medical care, administered by nice men and women wearing green, so less need to hoard medication. Some things are still good to have, though; for example, I would not want to live in a world without Aleve. I might recognize a willow tree if I saw one, but aspirin has never quite done it for me.
- On that note, tampons. I know we’d run out, but just for the adjustment phase, you know? One thing I don’t want is to be shlepping along through the underbrush in layers of clothes, slung with bags full of cast-iron pots et cetera, and have a freaking “moontime-clout” wedgie. No way.
- All the toothbrushes and toothpaste in the apartment, so that we blend in with the Fantasyland natives, most of whom have strangely good teeth, except for beggars and old fortune-tellers.
- Hairbrush
- Nit comb. (Yeah, we have one. It would be just our luck to get a Fantasyland rampant with lice.)
- Soap, which is lighter and less messy than shampoo and can also be used for hair.
- Ziploc bags. I don’t care if they’re shockingly non-period, I want a re-sealable way to keep things dry and airtight while we’re on the road.
All right. We’ve made it through the woods and arrive, wet, miserable, and thoroughly sick of lentils, at some sort of civilization where we want to stay. Could be a two-sheep town, could be the capital city, but either way, our needs change. We have to make a living, and given the group of people I was discussing this with, we’re looking at busking; also, there are a lot of things we can bring with us to sell.
- Nina’s violin, my guitar and bodhrán.
- Music books and iPods, so I can learn those last eighteen verses of “Tam Lin” before the battery dies.
- Nina’s tiny copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare. We can declaim them ourselves or sell plays to established companies of roving Players. You know the type: merry, rogueish, unnaturally friendly.
- Just dump the whole spice shelf into the bags. It will help break up the monotony of campfire food, and if the place we’re in is anything like medieval Western Europe, we can make a lot of money selling pepper, saffron and cloves, and even be responsible for introducing Fantasyland to curry. Where did such humble travelers acquire such suspiciously rare and expensive spices? Oh, we were travelling with a larger caravan a while back. We figured they were lighter than coins to bring hiking, and now we’re changing them back into cash.
- Ditto the tea and liquor shelves. Drinking away your sorrows or providing the means to others is a time-honored tradition.
- Jewelry, the real stuff and the fake.
- Pack of craft needles and thread, either for mending our clothes, other people’s clothes for money, or selling.
- Make-up and a tiny mirror.
- Tarot cards
Without technically calculating volume, we decided there was a little room in the bags for personal treasures and creature comforts: pictures of loved ones, a couple of favorite books, a bag of marshmallows and the contents of Nina’s chocolate drawer. I will also be wearing my fuzziest pair of pajama pants under all those skirts.
This list would different if we were headed for the real past, of course, but the more generic the Fantasyland, the friendlier it is. For example, if we were going to Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar, we’d be totally fine and probably even get to meet the Queen; if it were George R.R. Martin’s Westeros, we’d be screwed no matter what, so we might as well make merry around a campfire until we’re slaughtered by roving bandits. The list also varies by person. Do you have a camping stove? One of those cool crank-flashlights? Are you an ex-Marine, who might prefer to hire out as a bodyguard or caravan guard rather than playing music? Have you just been waiting for those calligraphy classes to pay off? And, hell, I’m not an experienced camper, hiker, backpacker or even busker, so what do I know?
In short, what would you bring to Fantasyland?
*It took about five seconds to go from “generic fantasy land” to thoughts of Diana Wynne Jones’s excellent Tough Guide to Fantasyland, to which this dicussion might be a useful appendix.
Photo from flickr user ninahale under a Creative Commons license.
Hmmm:
OK, I get the fun of only going solo, no roommates.
Camping/Survival
Clothing:
Self Defense (yes, I own all these in my house, and they are real and functional):
From the store:
I would actually run to a bookstore, not the corner store, and pick up the following:
*edit: yes, I know a rapier is a horrible random-melee weapon, and I’d do what I could to get a proper bastard-sword once in FantasyLand, but until I could, I only happen to own a functional Rapier.
This is an awesome post. Your list is pretty thorough, so I don’t have a lot to add.
I guess I’d bring some type of cool sword with me (probably one of those cheapies from the mall) because what’s the point of being in a fantasy land if you can’t carry around a cool weapon.
You forgot the can opener!
Only half an hour, eh?
A hatchet, pocketknife, sewing kit (for me and my clothes).
A spork.
My 50′ of nylon rope.
A sleeping bag.
Stout boots, waterproof windbreaker, some extra socks. (just hope I don’t get dumped in Icewind Dale.
A Rifle, a pistol and whatever ammo I have laying about (hey, Witch World allowed guns).
My trenchknife.
The hatchet is so I can cut a nice sapling for a stout walking staff, or sneak up and beat Rickrolla Fife with it (if I feel the need for some chainmail and a rapier). LOL
I like the suggestions thus far, and I’m not opposed to ripping off anyone’s ideas.
I’d have to include to the above:
-Hatchet
-Water purifing pills (for the ‘adjustment period’)
-Rifle (’cause I stink with a bow)
-Visit WalMart for ALL of their ammunition
-My Boy Scout Handbook (anyone old enough to remember Duck Tales knows what I’m talkin’ about)
-LED lantern with crank. I bought my first one about 7 years ago, and it still works.
-My Freshman Physics text
Clearly, I’m not going anywhere once I arrive; at least, not quickly. So, I’d probably include the Harry Potter novels. Like I said, I’m not above stealing ideas. And I’m betting Rowling’s books haven’t been published in this world, yet. Lol
Nothin’ new to add. Just wanted to express my appreciation for Shimrod’s idea for how to obtain a rapier and hauberk.
How many times did we stop and look at each other and say “I know there was something else…ROPE”. Lots of rope.
Now I go to check my notes, since yes, I did actually write out the list while we were discussing this.
Highlights from my list:
Always to have dry socks please.
Make-up (if we’re going the “players” route, or if we need to become “flower sellers”. Also, cause hey, I’m gonna feel pretty icky and want to look nice eventually.)
Candles
Tiny mirrors
Lead and collar for the cat (also, a dress for the cat so that she can busk too)
Gaelic Storm shot glasses.
Bobby pins and elastic hair ties. I believe it was you who declaimed “I’m not fucking around with ribbons!”
Iron pills and airborne
Annnd, I was thinking about bringing pens/pencils and paper/journals. Partially because it’ll be of a nicer quality than the stuff we’ll find there (and can sell if needs must) but also partially because I was thinking that another way to earn money might be to set up in a tavern and write letters for illiterate people. Eventually, once we’d learned some of the history/geography we could maybe even fake references and hire ourselves out as tutors.
Also, because I *have* to take it one step further and start thinking about what I’d say, we could say that we were widows and our husbands (and parents?) died in a terrible fight/battle/highwaymen far away. This makes us less scandalous for traveling as single women (although fortunately we do have one male in our household; he could be your and my husbands’ brother? G will probably have to pretend to be married to him:) and any time we do something weird/have weird things it can be explained because we’re from far away AND OUR FAMILIES ARE DEAD WHY ARE YOU BEING MEAN TO US. But generally, I think one of the best measures we could take to protect our safety and future reputation would be a wedding ring (or something that could look like one).
My question about weapons was whether it would make sense to carry them. First of all, I know that no one in our flat is really *that* good with the swords we have lying around (though you are by the best) and is it more of a provocation to trouble to carry weapons when anyone you meet is going to have been using them for five million times longer than you have and be exponentially better? Or is any defense worth taking? Also, I know that in some fantasylands (coughtortallcough) it’s illegal for commoners to carry. Would it look anachronistic/out of place for people like us to carry them? BUT on the other hand, we do have stage swords and if we’re hiring out as a group of players, should we take them? They’ll be useful in Shakespeare.
I keep wanting to think that I could dress as a boy and gallivant, but really, I think I’d just be riding for a terrible fall. Plus I have way more female period-appropriate clothing.
Oh! Final things (suggested by the other roomates and they are brilliant):
Sunscreen x a million
Chapstick
Toilet paper
Annnd someone suggested a solar charger and all the things that you can charge from it, but I feel like that’s definitely cheating.
drugs. I’d take all the cash I have on hand and in the bank, convert it into drugs, tools and simple medicine from the corner store. On top of everything already said, of course.
Sunscreen and toilet paper are crutches that you’ll have to throw away sooner than latter, so those might not make the list. Pillbottles are good, really and durable plastic or metal container is going to be above and beyond the native technology level.
Man, if I had to pack in half an hour using only stuff from my apartment, I’d be screwed. I don’t even own hiking boots! I keep meaning to put together a decent survival kit…
I guess, based on what I actually own, it would be something like:
-easily layerable clothes, including ALL my socks
-wool coat and scarf
-my suede boots. They’ll be ruined almost instantly looks-wise, but they’re the only ones I own without heels
-thin blanket
-a small towel (because I am a hoopy frood)
-a bunch of garbage bags (multiple uses, especially as a tarp for wet ground and improvised rain ponchos) and Ziplock bags (for keeping everything else dry)
-a ton of matchbooks (we have a whole coffee can full)
-a skillet, fork, spoon, knife, flask, and plastic cup
-whatever non-perishable food I have lying around, plus can opener if necessary
-needle, thread and nail scissors
-antibiotic ointment, Ace bandage, hydrogen peroxide, bandaids, cotton balls, and ibuprofen
-tampons (GOD YES, that will suck)
-toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, contact lens stuff
-glasses for when I inevitably lose my contacts
-sunscreen, chapstick, sunglasses
-pepper spray and my baseball bat (hey, it’s better than nothing)
-notebook, pencil, sharpener
We do have a guitar, but I don’t know that I would take it, because (a) it’s bulky, inconvenient to carry and easily damaged, and (b) neither I nor my roommate have more than the most rudimentary idea how to play it. Yes, I am aware that this is lame.
If I had time to run down to the hardware store, I’d pick up rope, a crank lantern if they had them, and a pocketknife. If I had time to go to the deli I’d get a bunch of those Cup O’ Noodles things, dried jerky, power bars, gelatin, etc. And, um, cigarettes.
I think we’re all forgetting hand-drawn cart (large) as well. I have a wheelbarrow somewhere. lol
One thing I think needs to go into consideration of such a list (for both idle speculation and authors that wish to make a story like this):
What will the impact be of potential anarchronism. Example, I want to bring the anarchist’s cookbook/chem book so I can make explosives or apoxies easily enough, and perhaps even set myself up as a (charlatan)mage. Such things can be hidden if worrisome, or exploited as needed.
Other things, not so much. Clothes are probably the worst. Chances are even the “best” costumes are hideously anachronistic, especially if they were made with sewing machines/modern textiles, thus why I am not packing much in the way of clothing. I would eventually have to learn to tough it in their clothes, so I might as well be ready to make due. Whatever we bring will, at best, be transitory. Weapons, long as they are well made (not mall cheapies that will break if you swing them and have no edge), armor if you happen to own it, some basic camping supplies, those could last well.
What is truely the best, though, is knowledge or things that could be convertable to money without too much attention, such as certain drugs, or nice bits of metalwork (silverware), or gold/platninum/precious-but-likely-known metal. And yes, spices (as per the O.P.)
Oh, and for all the feminine-hygiene comments, damn, I love being a man.
Nobody mentioned toilet paper. lol
Can I use my office stuffs rather than my apartment? I have swords in my office. And pez.
A charlatan mage? Really? I just assumed you’d make your way doing this, R.Fife.
What about a Nalgene? I’d bring that.
@12 – I was thinking a lot in terms of anachronism, especially everyone above who commented re:guns/rifles. I understand the desire to bring something that a) can protect you and b) get you food, but considering that a significant portion of fantasyland(tm)s don’t have guns I think I’d suffer rather than introduce guns into a non-gun system. God forbid someone find it and decide to try and make more! Some things are more easily hidden or explainable – especially if we are assuming that there is magic in this place then a lot of things can be explained by “oh they do it differently where I’m from” or “a crazy magician made it!” My thing about bringing clothing was multi-fold. 1. Warmth. 2. Instead of sleeping bags or blankets or pillows or whatever doesn’t fit, I figured use the clothes. And 3, even though it’s not as much of a factor, but at least to start with it’s a creature comfort. Plus I suspect it would be problematic to show up in fantasyland nekkid!
@14 Only if you bring the pretty pictures with you?
Irene, what do you do that you have swords in your office?
@18 She does art. ;)
@17 I was addressing the guns myself as well. I can understand the desire for initial warmth/shelter. And multi-layered clothes would, I grant, be a decent alternative if you don’t happen to have a nice, volumnous cloak like me.
@15: Touché
In addition to the original list:
A cloak! I do have one, and it’s pretty darn nice- hooded, velvet— and can add either instant glam or instant menace to any ensemble.
And a sewing kit. Useful for fixing clothes as well as stitching up wounds, if necessary. Speaking of first aid, how about those little individually wrapped sanitary wipes you get at restaurants?
Supertailz @@@@@ 7:
“Gaelic storm shot glasses”
Amen! I hope my questing party runs into yours. We’ll have quite the fun time.
Torie @@@@@16: Yes to the Nalgene. Very much so.
Fife the rickroller:
Oh, and for all the feminine-hygiene comments, damn, I love being a man.
I’d suggest you bring some protection along, sir. Having your wife/girlfriend/random Mary Sue tag-along get knocked up halfway through the Quest would be most inconvenient.
A very important question is whether I can expect to be a protagonist when I get there. If so, weapons will be much less important, as I am pretty much guaranteed to get a magical, Macguffiny weapon soon after I arrive. If I’m not a protag, I’m bringing my set of kitchen knives. I can sell all of them but one, and the last one may keep me alive for a little while.
@17 Gee Nina, an actual thought on NOT bringing something into the world that might taint it? Wonder where that conversational thought came from? I seem to remember having this conversation with another member of your flat. Plus a wedding band is a fairly recent historical item, specially amongst the commoners and would most assuredly mark you as having some financial means and thus targets for the local brigands or highwaymen.
Personally I would take as little as possible from this world. Sooner or later you will run out of what you bring, and the more items you have that are not of the new world, the greater your chance of being identified as an outsider, witch, daemon or unnatural person. Once identified as one of the aforementioned, death would most likely follow.
Keeping ones self as unnoticeable as possible would be the key. Acquire what you need beyond the basics once you cross over.
Unless you have the good fortune to be sent across with everything you would need as was the case in Joel Rosenberg’s series “Guardians of the Flame”. But even having everything you need does not discount accidents, such as what happened to the character Jason within the first few hours of being in the new world or having half of the supplies destroyed by an accidental premature fireball spell.
I don’t agree with most of what I have seen or heard (from earlier conversations on this topic) with regards to what is wanted to be brought across to another world. But then again, this is fantasy…. anything is possible.
All the coffee and tobacco and condoms the corner store has.
All the meds I can scrounge up.
A flintlock pistol (I _do_ want to be the person that introduces guns to fantasyland, and when I’m king I’ll be nice to y’all, I promise. Just call me Lord Kalvin.)
The book, “The Way Things Work”
basic camping stuff
lots of matches and lighters magnifying glasses
binoculars
all the utensils in the house (they oughta be worth something in a world dominated by forged items, a nice stainless chef’s knife would do wonders as a present to a local bigwig)
by then i’m outta time and on my way
@19 – Yes! I was agreeing with you re: guns! Although, I was wondering – not that I’m putting too much thought into this or anything:) – would it be too risky to set oneself up as a mage in a place where they actually have them? What if they challenged you?? Or is the risk part of the fun?:) Cloak also v. important. Unfortunately I only currently have a half cloak (and the wool sitting in my closet that I keep meaning to make into the big one). One of our roomates has big, gorgeous, full-length cape/cloak though!
@20 It’ll be a party! We’ll quest for whiskey all night long!
@22 Interesting point re: the wedding band. Not actually one I’d thought of. Hmm. Trying to think back on the fantasyland set books I’ve read of late and I’m not specifically recalling any wedding bands. Crap. There goes that plan.
Also @20 and 23; I kind of assumed there would be better alternatives to protection as we think of it. I will admit that in my mind “fantasyland” is “Tortall” from Tamora Pierce’s books, but in those books they have charms that much more effectively deal with safe sex. Plus, imagining if you were trying to woo a girl/guy there and then whipped out this crazy plastic thing! Perhaps marginally lessen my chances of getting friendly with the natives for the night?
Also! Because Janni Lee Simner is totally late in coming to play, I’m going to steal one of her suggestions, which I loved. It may be heavy, but the older Joy Of Cooking has things like “how to skin and cook a rabbit”. Possibly very helpful to a girl like me who has never cooked chicken that didn’t come prepackaged, frozen and even sometimes deboned!
25 Supertailz
Thank you so much for your analysis of protection in FantasyLand! I’m still laughing.
Supertailz: Before I’d start calling myself a Wizard (provided inate magical powers aren’t the very reason I’m going), I would make sure that I’m not going to be stepping on people’s toes about it. And, to a degree, the risk would be part of the fun. Not to mention, if I can make hand-bombs, I might actually win those fights ;)
supertailz @24 and 25, I am now going to go bleach my brain in an attempt to remove the sentence “getting friendly with the natives for the night.”
Re: tampons, Torie and I were talking yesterday and she suggested that we say screw it to the corner-store trip and find the nearest store that sells that cup thing. Infinitely reusable!
In the original discussion, we did play for a bit with how much time we’d have. Two hours? A day? The parameters drastically change the list, so for simplicity’s sake I decided to with with things that were strictly on hand, but more time means more ideal gear.
Also, barnowl66 @22 and supertailz @24, good point on the wedding ring, but there are other ways that women in fantasy – and women in history – signaled their marriage status, either by hiding their hair or wearing muted or dark colors or different clothing. We could maybe pick up on those, move on from the town where we learned them and where people thought us a bit weird at first, and head somewhere else with better knowledge of the social cues.
Bookstore run to get “The Dangerous Book for Boys” and “The Dangerous Book for Girls” because my idea of “roughing it in the woods” would involve an really large Winebago, and they seem pretty scarce in Fantasy Land. Can I request a fantasyland that comes with my own castle?
some small trinkets of silver/glass/art to sell as well
Definitely bring this shirt along
Although I guess there’s no way of knowing how similar to us physics and chemistry work in Fantasyland.
#17 In looking back I did not wish to come off a snarky in my response.
I was glad to see that there was a voice against tainting another world with technology they may not have ever had otherwise. Case in point from the series of Guardians of the Flame once again where firearms are introduced to a world because an Engineering student turned wizard looses his powers in the fantasy world and decides that he needs to create his own magic using knowledge of this worlds technology and science.
The end results becomes a weapons race.
Personally I would want to go to a fantasy world to enjoy what they have that we do not, not to taint their world of the things they do not have.
@31 Whereas I would probably end up going for conquest. First there, then here using what they have that we don’t. So, I have a bit of a Ganon complex….
Can I has Triforce nao?
@32 In the end, yes conquest and the rights to invade our world for conquest as well if I remember the books series, and all manipulated by a third party who was responsible for sending the people to the fantasy world in the first place.
I had composed a nice long comment and then the Interwubs Monster ate it. Woe! While I try to recall what I had tried to post, here is what I consider the Best Story In The World about such matters, from one of the Making Light regulars.
Goodness gracious, what do you people want? I’m leaving the Family atomics at home already.
How many posts until somebody had to bring up sex? 23. Must be a record of some kind.
Well, the bows and the crossbow and arrows, and the associated gear. The basket-backpack to put stuff in. The steel plates. Lots of knives. Lighters — even when they run out of gas, the sparkers will be useful. Water filters and purifiers. Pots. _The Dangerous Book for Boys_. Rope, hatchets, and a shovel — gotta dig a latrine! Binoculars. The kitchen mallet.
I debated guns, but reloading equipment is too heavy to bring with. But a backup pistol, if it works in fantasy land, could save a life.
Get out the hand-wagon, put the tent on it. Lanterns. Tarps. Boots and sneakers.
My wife and I are blessed with a “Sword Santa” friend who presents with a very high quality edged weapon every year, and has done so for several years. We would certainly take those along. Anarchists Cookbook, yes and also the Foxfire books Vol 1-5, more if I had them. Guns? Yes, a revolver and what ammo I have in the house – it would be crazy not to, IMHO.
Supertailz beat me to it, but yes, the first thing I grab is The Joy of Cooking, which not only tells how to skin game, but how to cook … almost anything, I think.
After that … well, we are campers and occasional backpackers here, so after that we go out to the shed, raid the camping gear, and fill our backpacks as full as we can. Things I’d bring from there include:
– Water purification tablets (right behind the cookbook)
– Water, but only enough to get started, because water is heavy and if there’s not a source around we’re in trouble anyway
– Matches
– Lightweight, quick-cooking camp food: couscous, lentils, dehydrated veggies, canned tuna, any powdered soup mixes about, powdered milk, dried salami, the stuff we no longer recognize but meant to use on some camping trip, etc.
– Pocket knives
– Lightweight backpacking mess kit, utensils, and the cooking knives
– Those tiny emergency blankets we always buy and never use
– Our teeny tiny backpacking stove and (if I have some on hand) the teeny tiny propane canister that goes with it. (Supertailz and I had some discussions about this–but it’s essentially a burner that screws onto a canister, so I think it’s small enough to take, and worth taking)
– Sleeping bags (but would skip even the lightweight inflatable ground pads, with regrets)
– Maybe the lightweight backpacking tent, depending how space looked (if my husband and I were heading out together, better chances we could fit it in by distributing among both packs)
– Fleece jacket
– Windbreaker/rainjacket
– Sunhat (Tilley!)
– Fleece hat and gloves
– Extra socks (extra jeans and T-shirt too, if there’s room, but even if not, extra socks)
– Teeny tiny flashlight and extra AAA batteries (while kicking myself for not having gotten an LED yet)
– Our tiny foldup shovel (meant for digging holes in the woods when nature calls, but bound to have other uses, too)
– Notebook and writing implements
– All the allergy and asthma medication on hand (if I’m not allergic to the local fauna, I may be able to make it last)
– Tylenol, Advil, and any other painkillers in the cabinets
– Antibiotic ointment
– Travel sewing kit
– Refined white sugar (for trade)
– Other spices (for same)
– Any teeny tiny 19th-century ricepaper-thin volumes of poetry/prose I can dig out on short notice
– Some other thing I’m no doubt forgetting but would kick myself for once I got there
And my luck, I’d then land right in the middle of a city anyway. :-)
I pretty much have no marketable skills to bring with me (only survival ones), so there’s no sense bringing equipment for that–I’m going to have to find somewhere I can offer to do laundry or watch children or some such, and hope the people there speak an understandable dialect of fantasyland English/Common.
That thing I forgot to pack would be, every last pair of old-prescription eyeglasses I can find.
Aspirin and spices –can sell it to people plus use it myself and it doesn’t take that much room
Baseball bat–a pretty simple weapon, and one that could be mistaken for a club, so less anacronism
Sweatshirt and heavy raincoat–keep the cold off, act as blankets, anacronism inducing, but suck it
My Akubara hat– just cause it’s awesome
I dunno about the rest, just grabg anything that looks useful and hope for the best, I guess
The first thing I’d get would be my horse. Then I’d pack my tent and sleeping bag on him, saddled with my western saddle. (bye bye, nice dressage saddle.)
More supplies — meds, cooking gear, warm clothes and boots, hat and cloak, fire-making gear, etc. in packs.
I do get to take my horse, right?
@35 – But there has to be wenching! Or…boywenching? I think it’s essential to maintain good “foreign relations” no? I do think – especially since we have a couple living in our flat – that protection and safety in those matters would be a valid concern. That magic can fix:)
@38 Yyyup. But I did give you credit, Janni! And I let you expound on the adorableness of your stove all by yourself despite how much I wanted to. And yes! Every old pair of glasses! Partially because even if you don’t end up needing them (people in fantasyland often have glasses of some kind) the way the lenses are ground is probably a lot finer and fancier. But hey, also backup glasses is v. good.
@41: Only if he is in your apartment! I mean, I don’t see why not? I would, were I you. As it is I want to bring my kitty, which is not nearly as helpful. But adorable!
This will be interesting because I would be packing for myself, my PREGNANT wife and our 5 year old son.
I will only list things not on the General lists, and only things already in the house.
Wok
Cutco Knives
15 pound bag Rice
1 pound Bag pepper
Back packing Tent
The Birth Book by Sears
Diva cup
-Ladies don’t wait for needing to rough it, my wife can run through a box of tampons and pads in a month. She got one of these about a year after we got married and never looked back.
Boken
Mace
Katana(looks like a short staff)
Bolas
Martial arts Instruction books (sword and HtoH)
Solar power calculator – and greatly regretting that all my Engineering text books are at work
Several survival texts including, How to stay alive in the woods and John Brown’s Field Guide to Tracking and Observation.
All my wife’s knitting supplies especially her Knitpicks modular needles and all the Yarn and a couple of pattern books.
Sewing Kit
My BDUs and Combat Boots,
Chalk and chalk board
any silk or fancy cloth clothes.
Wife’s Clarinet
Zippo + Fuel
Pump water filter and bottle of Bleach
Maya Wrap
Two Crank Flashlights
contents of our three foot tall Jewelery Chest(most of which is mine)
Id fill any extra space I could with math and Engineering texts
I’m sure there’s more but that’s all I can think of to transport I have an REI Northstar and I’d build a drag litter first thing.
Janni @@@@@ 38: Do not have marketable skills? Sure you do. We all do.
Literacy. even if not in the local language, Literacy in a foreign language would be a fairly good code. Might be useful to lots of local movers and shaker. Hell, anybody who has read “Cryptonomicon” probably has enough crypto skills to be useful.
Numeracy. Basic math skills. Not as common as you might think. One thing modern folks have a hard time getting their heads around is how uncommon basic math skills we take for granted are in a pre-public ed world. People way back then used counting sticks and bags of beans for a reason. If the local math folks don’t have the Zero you could be made in the shade – or maybe burned at the stake, depending on how the locals take the philosophical implications of a symbol for nothing.
So, trying to recapture my comments from early yesterday… by now a lot of it is repeating what others have said, but oh well.
First thing to grab, the high-quality katana and the short staff hanging in the bedroom. (The katana is part of the zombie contingency plans, of course.) ‘d like to claim I have some kind of practical reason for that, but really I have just read way too much fantasy.
I’m going to pretend guns don’t work in Faerie, to avoid that philosophical dispute. Besides, I don’t own any.
Then grab the backpacks, and stuff the sturdiest clothes and warm stuff we can find into them. Sturdy water bottles, lighters, my old Sierra Club Wilderness Guide and Wilderness Survival Guide, and a first aid handbook. Any nylon rope we can find. Also the lightweight books on sword and staff fighting – it’s suddnely time to get serious about that.
Much of the rest depends on whether there’s time for a quick run to the Costco 15 minutes away. Half-hour, no – but if they’ll wait an hour, then while I load up the bags, my wife could run to the Costco and load up on OTC generic Naproxen (Aleve), diphenhydramine, stomach meds, and any other handy OTC medication, and those giant Costco jars of cinnamon, black pepper, and ginger if they have it. Meanwhile, at home, grab a quart or half-gallon bottle and fill it up with Chlorox bleach. Given the ability to treat fevers, ulcers, and the common allergy, plus a basic knowledge of sanitation, we’d be set for life as healers. If we didn’t get mugged in the first week, we’d also be rich. (Do you know how much those spices were worth in the Middle Ages? Some spices were worth more than their weight in gold.)
If we can’t make it to Costco, same thing but with whatever we’ve got on hand in the bathroom and kitchen.
All the kitchen knives, either to use or trade; same for the old pocket knives to trade, plus my best pocket knife to keep. The folding diamond whetstones! Screw the cast iron fry pan, grab some of the Calphalon pans. Aluminum is lighter, and if we found a chef who could believe his eyes, they’d make great trade goods. Ziploc bags! Lighters! Truly we will be dealers in great wonders.
I haven’t been doing much camping or backpacking in a long time, so I’d be kind of out of luck for shoes and foul weather gear. I’m no longer the kind of Real Programmer who wears hiking boots to work in case a mountain suddenly appears in the machine room. Sturdy sneakers and layering up would have to do.
They probably have hatchets there; instead grab some basic tools from under the house – a folding pruning saw and/or hacksaw, files, a few pliers or wrenches. A saw is way better than a hatchet for cutting stuff. Also the bolo knife from outside; sturdier than a machete, chops like a hatchet, doubles as short sword.
We’re going to need a cart for this, aren’t we?
If we’re pulled in there to go on a Quest, well then hopefully the author will provide for our basic necessities of life. Otherwise, as to making a living – like I said, become the local doctors.
If it turns out the Fay already have magical healers, then instead become a local merchant and introduce Arabic numerals (if they didn’t have the equivalent yet), long multiplication, and double-entry bookkeeping, or team up with a goldsmith to introduce fractional reserve banking, lending money to the nobility. (Better learn the local religious laws first, though – don’t want to violate a local equivalent of the usury laws and end up jailed or burned.) If we tread carefully, we could end up owning half a city.
A lot would depend on which Fairyland we end up in. In some, we’d just be slaughtered in no time, while if it were Dragaera, they’d probably be laughing at how backwards we were.
BTW, are there a lot of sword-owning geeks or what? Come on, admit it, you’re all hoping this will suddenly happen to you one day. Me too.
CliftonR @45
Be careful with the zero. A symbol for nothing is no joke, metaphysicly speaking. As to going through that gate… I’m not sure I would. I have read Poul Anderson’s “The Man Who Came early”, after all.
Not sure if it’s allowed to post a link, but I just blogged my response to this (at http://kcshaw.blogspot.com/2009/05/hurry-up-portals-about-to-close.html).
I’d be doomed. I don’t even own a pocket knife. On the other hand, if I lucked out and ended up in a city, I’d be sitting pretty with some good jewelry, a silk scarf, and spices to sell–not to mention modern metal crochet hooks and scissors. I can spin pretty well, too, so if I had to I could find work as a spinster.
Dentists…I hope I end up in a world with really good magical dentists. Or maybe in fantasyland my teeth will suddenly become as healthy as the local residents’.
Everybody’s got great ideas here. I’m bringing my Claritin-D, matches in a Ziploc bag, a tent and sleeping bag.
hmm..
In no particular order:
1: Rush to the supermarket, buy spices in bulk. Large bulk, Fantasy worlds tend to have primitive trade networks, so a backpack full of spices should trade for a lot of local money, this also gives me a respectable identity as a spice trader and an exuse for looking and acting somewhat strange.
2: No period weapondry – anyone I might get into a fight with in fantasyland is going to kick my ass if I try to engage them with naked steel because I havent been training with swords for years, and they almost certainly have. A hunting rifle and a few hundred rounds of ammo, on the other hand.. Might be difficult to get in 30 minutes. Screw it, grabbing an axe for woodchopping, insurance against rodents of unusual size, and general tool use. Also, in the general survival kit – a lighter, a 2 liter coke bottle (full), compass and string.
3:Books with which to *break the world*. Lets face it, preindustrial life sucked, and I hate monarcies anyway, so.. Grabbing my math, mechanical engineering, and so on text books.. and grabbing my cellphone, which is loaded with the entirety of project gutenberg. – I wont be able to *read* the damm thing until I’ve got an alternate current generator running, but thats what the hardcovers are for, and the memory is non-volatile.
To all people who are thinking of taking firearms, just remember that this is a fictional world. If you have a gun in the first chapter, it will go off in the last. If you want to end up having no choice but to kill a lot of people, take the AK-47 and the 50 boxes of ammo. Unlike in our world, you will be compelled to use it all, and it will run out just as you kill the last bodyguard, leaving you to attack the Evil King with nothing but your titanium (Mithril!!!) spork.
Whatever you choose will shape the Eigenplot, so if you take science, medicine and engineering texts in an attempt to change the world into a much better place, you will succeed.
The whole weapons issue intrigues me. Yes, we have swords in the apartment (stage combat high-carbon steel, not stainless), but I still wouldn’t want to bring them, because anything you bring to a fight can be taken from you and used against you. Nina @@@@@ 7 and LaVode @@@@@49 make a similar point; I am not good enough with a sword to risk provoking a fight by carrying it. My best bet, always, is to run.
I just plain wouldn’t know what to do with a gun, other than bludgeon someone with it, and a crowbar works just as well for that. Ammunition, loading, maintenance, even where the safety is…I just don’t know. If I did, I’d be more likely to bring a handgun than a sword, though, so I could pull an Indiana Jones and get the hell out of Dodge if need be. A sword fight would be all too short, but a gun is an advantage. And when I run out of ammunition, I can get it melted down into a crowbar.
@51: But, Megan, if we don’t have swords we can’t have the awesome “training sequence” backed by epic inspirational soundtrack.
@52: If we hear any inspirational power chords, we’ll just lie down until they go away.
I would definitely be in trouble! I have no weapons and very little in the way of survival gear in the house. I would have to grab some kitchen knives I guess (and the sharpener – don’t want to forget that)
My pack would be heavy on the trade goods; medicines, spices, coffee, jewelery, pens etc.
My wardrobe would be leaning towards the practical, waterproof, warm stuff. There always seems to be a lot of sleeping out by a campfire in fantasy world and I don’t own much in the way of cloaks and ball gowns anyway.
In addition to the tampon/moon cup discussion, I would be packing a bunch of bras – no one ever mentions proper underwear in fantasy and they do a lot of running around adventuring.
I would also have to slip my digital camera in the pocket of my pack – I know the battery would run out but one day I might make it back and I could get some awesome pictures.
At the shop I would be stocking up on chocolate, medicines and hard liquor.
@53: Best. Montage. Evah.
Most things have been said. I would definitely be bringing a gun if I have the time to locate one. If not, lots of aerobic exercise as I flee in terror.
What about a bible? Some worlds having one might keep you from trouble with the locals. If you have time left, pray on it that you’re going to Oz and not the Inferno. And Aslan might be impressed.
@45 possibly just a few geek owners of swords, but hey, I would not take most of my swords from the rack as they are stage rebated blades. I have one true sharp sword, so it would be the basket hilt cutlass for me on the hip. Possible the Warhammer or the newest Axe I just finished.
At minimal, a good walking staff of oak or hickory.
For distance and hunting I would at least get to test the hickory stock crossbow I finished a few years back. Rolling block design release, so it is historically accurate (as well as sight on accurate).
A good utility knife is a must.
I’d rather be burdened down with a few good weapons, than burdened down with too many of this worlds comforts.
I would not travel to a new world if I was not wanting to leave this world and the things from it behind.
If I wanted to have all those things with me, I’d stay here.
Diana Wynne Jones’ “The Tough Guide to Fantasyland” contains all the knowledge you will ever need in that situation.
Something that I’m surprised I haven’t seen yet (and which, playing by the rules as stated, I could only bring if we had three people or more, so I could send one to the convenience store and the other to the relevant store) is fishing line and hooks. Very light and portable, useful for obtaining food, and the hooks would make good trade items — as something that’s an obvious improvement of existing technology, at Fantasyland levels of technology they’d be better than what’s locally available but not so far advanced as to be incomprehensible or raise suspicion.
A point I was meaning to make about guns:
If one makes the standard assumption of a world without advanced technology, it could be dangerous to take a gun, if one took with it the mental assumption that one could use it as a deterrent.
In Medieval Fantasyland, a gun – pistol, rifle, or shotgun – would have no deterrent value at all. The residents of Fantasyland, lawful or brigands, would have no way of recognizing it as even being a weapon, other than perhaps some sort of oddly shaped mace or club.* Even the crack of a warning shot might not be recognized as a lethal threat, unless they’d already advanced to the point of inventing the harquebus or musket.
It would be unfortunate to be put in the position of having to kill someone as a demonstration because they could not recognize that you were attempting to warn them off. It would tend to leave hard feelings among their surviving comrades and kinsmen, and you can’t necessarily watch your back all the time.
[*] I think Gordon Dickson used that idea in one of his books, possibly Time Storm.)
@@@@@ 59 – Aleistra, Wowser, fishing line and hooks most definitely an overlooked necessity.
@@@@@ 60 – CliftonR, Nice points on the gun thing.
Have four UL backpacks already packed with one week of hiking gear. Have several boxes of Clif bars and a mix of other hurricane/blizzard supplies (rice, beans, etc.).
Wife and I are SCA’ers so have leather armor and pointy weapons. Even daughter (8 years old) has a bow and a Sting size leaf blade (had to keep busy waiting for her to be born).
Picking among the books would be difficult but my EMT book, wife’s How to Build Craft Equipment Book and the Air Force Survival book should make it easy to set up as doctors.
I have a 12v solar panel with convertors for our hand held stuff. Daughter will like having her Nintendo DS and I can store a lot of book texts on iPods (already set up for trip later this month). Only downside is won’t have enough low powered storage for movie collection. And half hour’s not long enough to get one of those new pocket size movie projectors ordered in. Knew I shoulda’ got one back in March.
I guess gun wise, would make sense to bring along our two old (’30’s era) break top single shot 12 gauge’s. One I’d cut down for pistol use and keep the other one for medium range stuff. Carbine and .45’s would be nice but reloading them would be a pain. Easier to convert shotguns over to black powder match/flint locks after ammo runs out.
Finally, we have a big gardening 2 wheel barrow out front. Can rig up the dogs to pull it and away we go.
Gold coins (pounded flat and shaved off for less large quantities of spending money). For use where I want to be for a while.
Fake gold coins. For use where I’m never ever ever going back (and am also leaving in a hurry.)
Counterfeiters =/= good people, but if it makes a quick buck…
And yes, for reasons strange and wondrous, I do have both at my home.
Also, I’d like to add a ‘heck yeah’ for the crowbar mentioned above. A staff and a crowbar would be all the offensive I need, and very easily explained as Not Offensive if I wanted to be.
Lastly, button-weight or upholstery thread = floss, hair-ties, sucture thread for injuries, fishing line, trip-wire, traps for catching food, and incidentally enough, sewing things.
For extra spending money, I’d take all the modern sewing needles I could dig up (probably about 50, more if I count the machine needles and my ancient treadle machine, which is heavy, but GOD could I make so much money off of it. I’ll make my husband carry it.)
What to take would certainly depend on the situation that called for the jump in the first place. Is this world blowing up? Have I been sent on a magical quest for fame and glory? Will the next world be able to continue if I DON’T go there? Will I come back to this one when I’m done? The answers for all these questions (hopefully) would be answered before the 30 min timer started. Since I am currently living on an Airbase in Iraq, the amount of firepower and survival gear I could get my hands on is phenominally large (provided it’s a one way trip). And mostly inappropriate if I’m not going there to obliterate the evil tyrannical usurper, then leave to come back home. So yeah, the above questions would probably have to be answered before I could make a list. For the sake of argument let’s go with worst case scenario, which )to me) is, this world is going to end in 30 min. Anythig you don’t take with you will be gone forever. There is no quest for the greater good. No magical items to assist you (SUCK!), and no conveniently placed guide on the other side to share in witty banter and become your best friend. I just happened to be around when my benefactor chose to save something of this place. After commandeering a bread truck, First raid would be on the Medical clinic, followed by the Dining facility. The processed spices, sugar, salt, etc in institutional sized quantities would be entirely too big to pass up. As cool as it would be to raid the armory, that would take far more planning than the 30 min I have, SO just the M9 and M16 that I brought with me here, plus the ammunition. Not much, but enough to get me through the first week or so of being in the wilderness. I have two full A-3 bags of uniforms, boots, and desert survival gear (to include skeeter repellant and sunblock). So in the truck that goes, along with my helmet and body armor. That will probably be the end of that. Running away after stealing hundreds of pounds of medical supplies and food/spices would probably require a good deal of the 30 mins to escape. The assumption is that at the end of 30 min, I’ll be transported from whereever I am at the time. Otherwise, I might get shot before I could go!
Some may complain that I’m introducing ENTIRELY too much tech into a society unqualified or ready for it. Agreed. But if i’m going to have to try and survive somewhere for the rest of my life, with no idea what sorts of dangers this new land holds…I’m going to make sure that my life is protected long enough to eventually blend into a society properly.
OK…
So, having skipped a bunch of these comments, I’m gonna say this…
Toilet paper – nah… it’ll run out and I’d have to make due anyway, so why bother.
Medication/dental/hygene – fantasyland seems to make well enough without these lovely items, so, I’m guessing I won’t need them. There never seems to be infectious diseases or infections in these lands for some reason… O_o
Nor do people in fantasyland have trouble seeing, as far as I can tell, so… won’t need contacts or glasses either.
What I would bring:
A couple of knives (i.e. kitchen and camping)
Perhaps a spoon
2 pairs of shoes (hiking + another pair)
Warm blanket
windbreaker – Light.
3 pairs of underwear
2 pairs comfy pants
3 short shirts
3 long sleeve Tee’s
3 sweaters
As many socks as fit – I’d run buy new pairs
as many foodbars as fit
I’d run buy a fire-starting kit, and collapsable bowl and cup, and canteens.
hat
Sunnies
Biggest honking book I own to read on them lonely nights.
That’s about it, I think, so… since I have room to spare, I’d deffinitly buy rope, and a survival book and bring those too.
And good luck to us in fantasyland
A.
er… how about a lighter? Striking sticks? Flint? Some fire causing implement? And napalm?
If I have to get right down to it I’d also have my Kaybar and my Mission Buckmaster- must haves.
Clothes- long live gore-tex. Boondockers would be traded in for Zamberlain Jasper GT’s. Would be taking my Helly-wear though. And my cammo gear. Underwear optional.
Pots- 1
Food- kill it.
Tarp.
Camp hammock.
Blanky.
Rest is duck soup.
Woof.
The two essentials of survival in any time period:
Gaffer Tape (or variants Gaffa/Duck/duct/carpet tape)
Cable Ties (also known as zipties)
Most other things you can wing. :-)
I’m glad I actually have a nice, large hiking backpack with a frame to store all my stuff in. Here’s what I’d pack that hasn’t already been mentioned:
-entire contents of my sewing basket (lots of needles, two pairs of scissors, many kinds of thread and yarn, zippers, buttons, hooks & eyes, etc.)
-The nice fabrics in my bins (for trade) and the patterns (I can introduce new fashions!)
-dutch oven
-My heavy winter coat (though with my luck it’ll be high summer and 100 degrees outside)
-my Kindle after quickly downloading most of the cooking and survival books mentioned above (if I’m not coming back I don’t care about the bill). The battery will run out eventually, but I should have a grasp of the basics by that time.
-a couple notebook and pencils and colored pencils. These are to write down key things from my Kindle, make maps, draw plants & animals that are/n’t safe to eat or have other uses, and to record information I need but won’t remember well.
-several packets of seeds (edibles and flowers). I’m a little concerned about introducing them to a new environment, but they could be a good source of income as renewable exotics.
-my metal hair claw. If I can find a silversmith who can reproduce it we could make lots of money selling them to women.
If my business idea doesn’t pan out I could make a living either by being a scribe (I work as an editor already, so it wouldn’t be a huge jump) or as a seamstress (though doing so without a sewing machine would be hard).
Since people mentioned roommates going with them and my roommates would not be ideal travel companions for this sort of venture (one can’t function w/o a curling iron and makeup), I thought about who I would like to come with me. If I had to go with someone who lived close enough to join me in the 30 minute limit, my friend Toby has tons of camping gear and is a enviromentalist who knows her edible plants and animals and can sew even better that I can.
If I could pick anyone I know no matter where they live, I’d pick my friend Alex who’s an ex-Marine sniper trained in wilderness survival and has actually made an effective bow and arrow using only a knife and stuff he found in the woods. He has tons of survival skills and could hire out as a really good guard of some sort.
Ideally, I’d have both of them plus my friend Liz who is also an outdoor enthusiest, plus she’s a singer. I’d have her bring lots of sheet music for her and Toby to sing; then we’d have another career option.
My riding breeches, boots, gloves, leather vest. I don’t care if girls wear skirts in Fantasy land, I’m NOT (maybe I’d pack some for more formal occasions). And I’m going to buy or steal a horse the first chance I get.
Waterproofs and my fur lined cape, a plaid.
My bastard sword and the hunting knife.
The outdoor cooking gear, tablets for cleaning water.
Salt. Anything else I can find in the wilderness.
A rope; my retractable trekking pole (in case I can’t find a horse, plus it’s also useable as weapon).
My solar cell powered torch and the binoculars.
Jewels may be a good idea in case I’d need something to barter
Tampons (one needs one luxury)
I’ve thought about similar situations, since I live in the Bay Area and after Rita it was clear that driving out after The Big One is not going to happen. Here’s something crucial that hasn’t yet been mentioned:
BICYCLE
You can carry much more stuff, much faster, and the tech would be a huge boon for the world you go to.
I would take a gun if I had one; like they said in the 1800s, “God made men, Samuel Winchester made them equal”.
As a single lady, my best bet is to get married to someone there, I suppose. So I need to take at least one lovely dress.
I work in a bio lab, which is only about 8 minutes from my house, but I’d rather spend those 8 minutes packing than in picking up morphine and interesting poisons from the chemical shelf.
Seems to me my best bet for making a living is to be an artist. I know how to draw things in perspective! I know that eyes are about halfway down the skull! So, dump every bit of art stuff I have into a duffel. The fabric is in that closet, and I’d be happy to sell it for money.
Being a doctor would be great, but even with modern general knowledge I don’t know enough. I’d love to apprentice to a doctor there if I could.
Down sleeping bag. I have a nice wool blanket I got off eBay! Wool cloak. Wool greatcoat. Wool shawl/scarf. I don’t have wool pants, dammit, but I do have mittens and maybe thick socks?
Trying to look like I fit in is completely doomed even if I had “authentic” stuff, so I’d go for durable, comfortable clothes.
Peppercorns. Steel sewing stuff. Steel knives. Steel pots (cast iron is way too damn heavy). Fortunately I have a plan to try salt-roasting things, so I have a ton of kosher salt right now… And salt is an obviously useful/known/simple thing to explain, great to sell for cash.
Thermoses… Booze… Man, I would need all my tools and rope, too, so once I got there I could build a rig to haul all this behind my bicycle.
Good thing I already have a go-bag packed for The Big One or the more likely “house next to me on fire, have to go now” scenario. Saves packing time.
No-one’s mentioned a ten foot pole! Maybe I’m imagining the wrong fantasy world. :-)
@68 – Safety pins would also highlight with your choices. Sometimes you have to think fiddly.
The only thing you really need is a towel and your trustworthy Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Anything else you can improvise as needed. And remember: don’t panic! :)
Reminds me of the bit in the very first Merchant Princes book when Miriam very practically stocks up on camping supplies and such before going to the parallel world.
I suppose I’d layer on as many items of clothing as possible to prepare myself for a variable northern European sort of climate, and stuff everything else in my large hiking backpack.
– Fleece blanket
– Toiletries: soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, lip balm
– Spare underwear and socks, maybe an extra pair of lighter shoes
– Several small paperbacks, or one or two doorstoppers (maybe that mathematical stuff in the appendices to Anathem would come in handy)
– Notebook and pens
– Art supplies: brush, ink, pastels, pad of paper
– Small saucepan, bowl and cup, and basic utensils like a wooden spoon, knife, etc.
– Candles and a lighter
– As much rice and dried beans as I can reasonably carry
– All my spices
– Apples
– Peanut butter
– As much of my current meds as I can get in advance, probably a month’s worth, and all the other medications I have, OTC and prescription both
I would have to go off my meds, so I’d need to find someone trustworthy to take care of me when the withdrawal symptoms hit. I would need a lot of psychological support in lieu of medication—might have to take up religion or something.
The rest of my prep time would probably be taken up with phoning around and finding someone who’d take care of my cat. Oh! Remembered one more thing:
– Towel
Good lord, you’re all packing like you’re actually planning to survive in the real world! Have none of you studied the *narrative* actualities of Fantasy Land? Sure, I’ve got my camping/survival gear bundled together, a passle of period appropriate clothing and whatnot, but I’ve got to think like a denizen of a land in which certain things always happen in certain ways:
*Nobody ever worries about lacking anything you might find in your medicine cabinet, so you probably don’t need more than a few days worth of hygeinic or medical supplies.
*…unless you’re a beautiful young maiden, in which case you might be the doomed heroine, and it would behoove you to acquire a ten-day supply of antibiotics so that you don’t waste away from some mysterious disease. The hero can find some other motivation for his quest, alright?
*You need to be ready to either sing for your supper or hunt for it, since that seems to be the preferred method. However, if you’re rubbish in the wilderness, you’ll probably only have to suffer for a couple of days before a Ranger comes along.
*If you are, in fact, an Army Ranger, or possibly even the least bit skilled in wilderness survival and hunting, plan enough medical and camping supplies for an army of helpless urchins, because you’re nearly guaranteed to encounter a passle of them – unless you are lucky enough to happen upon a helpless, beautiful maiden or handsome, if practically unskilled, prince-disguised-as-a-bard.
*dancers – KA CHING! Find yourself an inn or a carnival, baby, because you are set up for life. It is your job to be the strangely sage side character who shows up briefly early in the story and says something that will be be important later. You could probably chat up a questing party every day if you worked at the right tavern. If you want to join the adventure, you’ll usually have to be the Veronica to the hero’s Betty, though, and who really wants that? Anyway, just bring your working gear and a few extra layers. You’ll find hot food and drink soon enough.
*bards – Yes, do bring your instruments, but don’t haul them out until you’ve gotten the lie fo the land. Bards are story wildcards. They may be heroes, mages, outlaws, sidekicks, etc. Heck, bards may be executed in your fair FantasyLand. If, like me, you play a brass instrument in the lower register, you’re probably cool. I have yet to find a french horn or sousaphone in a fantasy story. For all I know, a tuba rendition of “Flight of the Bumblebee” might destroy Mount Doom, summon Elric to do your bidding, or cause Esmerelda Weatherwax to actually crack a smile. Or it might simply make you an extremely popular and unique performer, since most of the instruments of FantasyLand are strings or lightweight, high register winds. “Man, what’s that instrument? The trombone, you say? It’s so sexy!” Now, that would be a welcome twist.
*blacksmiths – Bring a book of runes along with your tools. You will have a fine career making “magic” gear and charging extra.
OK, having not read all 75 or so comments before me, I may be repeating some people.
However, having read the bit about our tech, and materials and knowledge being alien to Fantasyland, I believe I can say honestly… who cares if it’s period or not, or if it’d be alien to the world or not. We’re talking about being sucked into a world that’s alien to us, except in books.
I don’t much fancy wiping my ass with leaves, so hell yes, I’d grab a role of TP for that first week or so, while adjusting to the Fantasyland foods.
Aside from that, things in my apartment that I’d bring, in a backpack as large as I own, are:
-Sleeping bag
-Large thin, Picknick blanket
-couple of big sharp knives (All my camping knives and a kitchen knife)
-most durable looking spoon I own
-shallow saucepan
-Windbreaker
-wide brim hat + winter hat
-belt
-lightweight cloths, as durable and light as I can find in my closet, easily layerable if possible.
-towel (smallest and thinnest I’ve got)
-ALL my underwear
-As many pairs of socks as will fit
-Hacksaw (yeah, I have one)
-Leatherman
-Hammer (I own no sowrds, period or otherwise, but I figure a good hammer is as useful a weapon as any, if you’re hands are empty)
-I’d also probably rip out my shower curtain rod to use as a walking stick/weapon
-Complte works of Edgar Allen Poe (I have no copy of complete Shakespear)
-Homer’s iliad and Odyssey
-ziplock bags
-My glasses on my face
-Best shoes I own on my feet
-LED headlamp with new batteries. (the ones in there now have lasted 8 years so far, but with only sporadic use)
-Anything sturdy looking, and small enough to carry, which I own and that can fit, that I might be able to sell.
From a store:
-Matches (as many as I can find)
-toothbrushes (a bunch of new ones)
-pens (5-10)
-Empty notebooks (3 or 4)
-a couple of boxes of Advil (though most Fantasylands don’t seem to have infections, headaches, or diseases).
-Rope (if I can find it, as long as possible)
-LED crank flashlight
-AA batteries (about 12)
These things obviously wouldn’t last long, but if I manage to blend in quickly and unobtrusively enough, I may be able to keep a few things with me for years.
And good luck to us all, in whatever Fantasyland we get sucked into.
What they all said and…
Every pen in the house, and pencils, all of ’em. Do you know how much a scribe would pay for a writing device that doesn’t need to be dipped? Heck, spend the time going to the drug store down the street and buying every ball point pen they have.
I agree with whoever said that every knife in my kitchen would impress a king in fantasyworldlandia.
Oh and Hoyle’s rules of card games.
Its a good thing I’ve been traveling and I own a few swords and armour, I’m all set to go.
A few corrections.
1. There are NO “ex” Marines. (and yes my sea bag is packed and ready to go.)
2. “God made men, Samuel Colt made them equal.”
Guns and as much ammo as I could carry. With that, I think anything else needed, would kinda work itself out.
Practically, in half an hour, all I’d be able to do is pack notebooks, pens, and food…
… I’m fairly sure the cast iron frying pan would make an okay weapon, though.
I would bring the following…
Sleeping bag
One person tent
Sword, pick one I have several
Knives, mostly kitchen
Survival book
Hammer
nails
Hatchet
Any medicine in the cabinet
Crank light
Tool box, filled with various items.
I would try to get set up as a blacksmiths apprentice. Then use my knowledge of future metals to corner the market. Then make the ultimate sword and take over…or something. It would be awesome if I could survive.
first item of business: A properly fitted frame backpack. Then I’d get advice from my “local” backpacker, since I really do not have any of the things I’d really need. (Seriously worn down clothing right now; I have trouble finding things that are properly sized and am so sick of it that I’m swearing off clothes shopping for a bit.)
For things that you wouldn’t normally take camping, may I suggest a lot of good sewing needles? As I’ve seen, the spices are also good. I’d also take a hunting knife I was given some years back; if I have room, I’ll take the daggers too, but that knife was made for serious, heavy use and is comfortable to hold as well.
Recorders (small instruments, no battery). Paper and ink, and a pen capable of using it.
And… this is important… remember your weight distribution! Don’t take the cast iron unless you’re GUARANTEED there will be something or someone to carry it for you. I know that breaks your heart, but a good pot can take up a quarter of the weight you should carry*. There’s a reason they have aluminum camping pans.
*Generally, the max load you should carry is 1/3 of your weight. That’s max, so a linebacker can carry the cast iron, while the cheerleader should not.
Trebuchet plans. Specifically several modern varieties, wholly unknown during the pre-gunpowder times, and more efficient. Of course I wouldn’t be able to survive without my CPAP machine anyway, but wouldn’t I love to be able to talk with the original siege engineers, and re-find the secrets that have been lost.
I agree with the majority of suggestions made here. The half hour time limit can be a pain.
The SCA, backpackers, Service personel and rondevouers have sort of a head start because they usually have some sort of kit already prepared.
On the weight problem, if you do not have access to a hand cart, the good old travois would do and can be made wherever you wind up. The cast iron dutch oven is worth the weight it costs for the ability to bake in it.
The point about the salt is a good one, and it can be used as a trade good along with the spices. And yes we are spoiled with the availability of them. Pepper, which we take for granted was the basis for several fortunes in pre-industrial Europe.
Needles of all sorts (sewing, knitting, crochet) are valuble not only as trade goods but also as possible templates.
Wearing clothing in layers saves space in the pack, also.
While I do not do fish as a rule, the fishing equipment is an excelent idea, as well as as much rope as you can afford to carry. (Sam will thank you.) Striking a deal with a local blacksmith would not only give you an in into the local economy.
I was getting my coat out my closet this morning and saw my bottle of wood glue and thought “Oh, that would need to go in my pack, too!” Plus my hammer and packets of nails and hooks to use for both and as templates.