# The High-Speed Low-Drag RPG Go Bag tags: #thoughts #game/rpg/loner #game/rpg/ironsworn #game/rpg/home-mech-x-kaiju   > If you're going to have to play on the spot for people trying TRPG for the first time— > > Plays board games fairly often: Custom inSANe scenario > Has experience with creative writing/acting or enjoys it frequently: Fiasco > No experience at all: CoC one-shot scenario (something like The Haunted House) + including sample sheets > > This is about what I'll bring. > From experience, 'fantasy' carries a high risk when attempted in a state where there's no mutual understanding. ![[Loner (cover).jpg|200]] ![[Home - Mech x Kaiju (cover).jpg|200]] ![[Ironsworn (cover).jpg|200]] In my high-speed game go bag (yes, I have a high-speed go bag in case I need to go somewhere in a hurry and we might want to run some games along the way), this is what I have been packing: **[[Loner]]** (https://lonersrd.zotiquestgames.com/). Because it handles every genre extremely well, and I can run it without actually looking at any books. If I want some tables to support me, all of the genre supplements are online on the website. So as long as I have my phone with me or my tablet, I can pull one of those up in a hurry, and we can be literally playing a game with someone who's never played a game before or anybody else in under five minutes. It's that simple to explain. **[[HOME Mech x Kaiju|HOME: Mech x Kaiju]]** (https://www.deepdark.games/home). Giant robots are always a hit with a certain segment of the population, but the fact that it is super lightweight and play is map-focused means that as long as I have a few spare sheets of map in the bag and a copy of the extremely thin book, we're good to go. Home can also get really surprisingly deep if someone really catches hold and gets into it, which is great. Anybody that liked Pacific Rim is going to be a shoo-in for this one. Like Loner, it only takes a fistful of d6s and you're good to go, which makes making sure that your minimal spanning dice collection is relatively small. **[[Ironsworn]]** (https://tomkinpress.com/pages/ironsworn). As much as it can sometimes be a little bit of a challenge to meet people in the middle when it comes to fantasy, it is way too popular a genre not to have something easily on hand that's a little bit crunchier than **Loner**, because that's what people who play traditional fantasy games like D&D expect. Not that **Ironsworn** is crunchy in that sense. The very straightforward resolution system and the focus on being GM-less and co-op means that you can literally sit down and show someone how to play, literally by making a character with them in five minutes and simply asking them what they think their character would do. The default low fantasy European Viking Age setting is a godsend for that. If you say Viking to pretty much anybody in the Western world, they know what you're talking about. You need 2d10s and a d6 to resolve pretty much everything in the game. So you've got good overlap with the other things in the go bag. Plus, this is the only one I carry around in actual hardback along with its supplement **Delve**, because I use it as a great example of the best layout and design visually in the industry. You should always have a very pretty book that is laid out wonderfully to show people when you're out and about. (People of a more traditional bent may want to go with **[[ShadowDark]]** (https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark), and if they did, I would not blame them at all, another beautifully laid out text.) Okay, admittedly, depending on the day, I might be willing to swap out **Ironsworn** for **[[Ironsworn - Starforged|Starforged]]** (https://tomkinpress.com/pages/ironsworn-starforged) because I do love science fiction more than fantasy. If I do so, I would effectively lean on Loner to carry that fantasy load, which it can do perfectly well. In terms of dice, I have an old glasses case that holds more than enough. **Home** needs 4d6 of two different colors. If you pick red and green, you can then use four dice from that set for **Loner**, so you don't need to carry any extra. You'll need 2d10 for **Ironsworn**, which isn't much space. To play all three games, which cover pretty much every genre you can think of, you can get away with carrying around a kit of only ten dice. Compared to my full collection, which probably is more than seven or eight pounds of dice at this point, that's a tiny kit. Easy fit. I generally don't bring **[[Fiasco]]** (https://bullypulpitgames.itch.io/fiasco-classic) with me because it really does want more people than I usually have to play with. It's great if you're at a party and everybody's come there to do it, but it can be difficult to use as a pickup game. Great fun if you can do it. A little bit challenging if you can't. You'll notice I linked to **Fiasco Classic** up there because I think that the new version of **Fiasco** that uses cards instead of dice is pretty much a money grab. It basically means that third parties have a real problem entering the market to create new playsets, whereas the original one, anybody can make a playset just by putting some tables into a small pamphlet. It's much easier to carry too, because you only need those pamphlets, the core book, and some dice. This pretty much covers all the ways I would get a new player into TRPG out of a single bag that weighs less than three pounds, all told. I could get by without the hardbacks of **Ironsworn**/**Starforged**, but I really want to have an example of what good layout and design looks like because many people are visually driven, and seeing something cool that they can hold in their hands can really help them feel that first flush for the hobby. It's probably not a shock to see that none of these games are part of the classical, general, traditional, GM-centric RPG design set. In fact, all of them are GM-less, if you want them to be. Pair this with a messenger bag, with a couple of pads of paper. Some markers. A handful of pens, and I'm ready to go and play some games with people who've never seen games on a whim. It's truly grab and go. (Yes, I put in links for every game that I ever mention, even when I'm talking to people that I know have seen some of them, because somebody somewhere else might see this and be curious about those games. The audience who might accidentally see something are sometimes the best audience. I want to make it easy for them.) --- You get more interesting discussion coming out of the Korean side of X lately, which is great news because the Koreans and the Japanese have very different approaches to gameplay. The Japanese are way too static and straight-laced for my taste. The Koreans, on the other hand, don't mind getting out there and being a little wild. There's hope. Hope springs eternal.