Packing and Option Paralysis: A First World Problem

As the weekend approaches, it's time for another trip up North to visit my parents for 8 days with the Young Lord Shadowmoss in tow.

Packing for him is relatively straightforward; my parents' basement is a wonderland of toys for children up to about age 10 (for years my mom baby-sat for some friends of theirs, followed by the arrival of my niece and now the Young Lord), so he really just needs clothes, the baby monitor and a few favorite toys. The latter are, relatively speaking, easily identifiable.

I, on other hand, as usual find myself wrestling with what to bring on the "toy" front. Truly, a first-world problem.

I'll be working as usual during the day, and I'll certainly hang out with my folks (unless hockey is on - both of my parents are very into hockey - conversation is then limited to between periods) so I don't need tons of things to do.

Here are my ideas so far:

The Ever Expanding Dungeon - By this, I mean, the map, the character sheets, the D30 GM's Companion, and my booklet of my various solo systems + a printed copy of Mythic GME. Labyrinth Lord is on my Kindle, as is Mythic Variations and JF's 9Qs worksheets. One set of polyhedral dice + a d30 round this out. This is potentially multiple nights of entertainment.

Helvetica Campaign Materials - This would be the map of the island, the map of the tribal regions and my TO&E for Riesling. I spent some of my lunch time today re-working a mash-up of Soldier's Companion and G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. and have thought about bringing a small number of figures along in order to give them some play testing.

Painting supplies - I'm about 1/2 way to completing the first 15 U.S. Airborne for Flames of War from the Open Fire box. Since all the paints I'm using are Vallejo, there's little danger of them leaking in the checked luggage. My magnifying visor and some brushes would complete the setup. My concern is transporting the brushes in a way that doesn't ruin them.

Some 1/32 WWII soldiers - I suspect if I presented my dad with a German vs US skirmish of a weak platoon each, he'd probably play along despite not being a wargamer. Disposable Heroes is pretty straight forward. For solo gaming, the same figures could be used for a skirmish or a small company (2 figures per section 3 sections per platoon, 3 platoons for the company) vs. company action. In any case, I'll have to raid my niece's craft supplies to set up any kind of terrain.

My skateboard - I can't skate at night; it's black as pitch where they live once the sun is down. But, their driveway is a nice flat smooth surface and lunch time skating is always an option. The helmet and elbow pads do take up a bit of space though.

Tony Bath's Ancient Wargaming: Including Setting Up a Wargames Campaign. Given the return to Helvetica, I thought I'd browse through this to remind myself of ideas I saw that I liked and might adapt for a small solo game revolving primarily around platoons and warbands.

Most everything else - movies (samurai, war, documentaries), reading material (rules, modules books, etc.), my zine  articles - are digital and on the Kindle or on Google Docs. So they'll be coming along regardless.

Hmm. Maybe I should just bring it all?