I use a Rook Endura Pro [1] to store all of my small stuff: pens, pencils, enough dice for nearly any RPG (10d10, 30+d6, 3+ full polyhedral sets and more), highlighter, index cards, paper clips and counters (to flip).
I have plenty of dice to give to players who forget theirs, and the box saves me from having to scramble to get all this together at this last minute — I just grab it and go. This is easily my single favorite gaming tool.
4 Comments To "Make a To-Go Box for Your Small GMing Essentials"
#1 Comment By psychoph On January 20, 2006 @ 12:57 pm
Do you have a picture of what it looks like inside? The website just shows the outside and dimensions which doesn’t give me much of an idea of the organizational potential.
#2 Comment By Frank On January 20, 2006 @ 4:45 pm
My file box organization derrived from this idea of a to-go box. Currently, my dice don’t fit in it, but back in the past, when I did use it as a to go box, my dice bag would fit in (along with my balsa cigar tray that I used for dice rolling). With counters only, it’s quite possible for me to have everything I need for a Cold Iron run except the battlemat in the box.
Of course these days, my preference runs to running games at home.
But I keep thinking about running one shots at my FLGS. The box would be very handy for that.
Frank
#3 Comment By hellibrarian On January 22, 2006 @ 9:05 am
I’ve also used something similar in the past.
I used a fairly common type of small toolbox that has a compartment built into the top for small parts like screws, in which I put my dice. There is also a removable tray for pencils, pens, markers, etc. Under the tray is a larger space. Large enough for a 3×5 notecard box and some minis. To keep the minis in place during transport I hot-glued small magnets to the bottom of the toolbox. I have washers glued to the bottom of my minis for stability on the table anyway, so they stay on the magnets. I could grab this box and a couple of books I needed and I was ready to go.
#4 Comment By Martin On January 22, 2006 @ 9:48 am
psychoph: Do you want an empty picture or a full one (to see what I did with mine)? It sounds like you want an empty one, which might not be necessary: The Endura Pro has no partitions, dividers or anything else inside. It’s just a box.
It’s actually designed to hold four of Rook’s steel CCG deck cases side by side, and they can be pretty useful for organizing small RPG stuff. I don’t use them myself, though.
Frank: Convention games were actually my inspiration for putting this box together. I hated having to assemble a “kit” of stuff (like specific sets of dice) every morning for each day’s events, and this was my solution.
hellibrarian: I know exactly what you mean — those toolboxes rock. If I needed more widgets for every session, I’d probably use one of those instead. 🙂