"Convention GMs: How much stowage?" Topic

We all know games come in both small and big packages. How much stuff as a function of volume or containers do you bring to a show to run your games?

I typically drive my pickup truck to conventions so I can load up the back of the crew cab and the short bed. My gaming luggage varies as follows.

There are 3 games I run that take up the most space in my vehicle. For my WWII and large Starship Troopers game I essentially load up the back of my crew cab pickup with 3-5 30 gallon containers and fill the bed of my pickup with textured or painted terrain boards. My zombie games use a lot of containers (30 gal, two 20gal, 4 copy paper size and two smaller boxes) and a flat painted city street board in the bed of the truck.

Anything below I generally will bring two different games since I have the space.

My 28mm Weird WW2 games, Samurai Skirmish, small Starship Troopers, or generic Sci-fi generally take between two to three 30 gal containers.

A 15mm Sci-fi skirmish game takes up the least amount of space in my vehicle- 2-3 shoe boxes of terrain, 2 small compartment boxes of figures, a 4x6 rolled up terrain mat and a toolbox of dice and tape measures.

My "combat load" is similar. A number of large tubs, terrain mats or boards and an occasional large custom terrain board. I usually borrow my wife's mini-van for transport.

Depends. I've loaded the back end of a Suburban from the front seats to the hatchback full to the point of not seeing out the back window with stuff, terrain, figures, etc., for convention games. My Samurai Castle takes up LOTS of space.

Well, I have loaded up my Honda Odyssey full of terrain for my Pulp game…
But I have gotten better with less….

My vietnam stuff usually takes 1 container, (30 gal), while my Western Stuff takes 1-2, and my 15mm Bongolesia Stuff currently takes almost 3 and by Origins next year should take 3-4 and maybe 5…

Usually 68-70 cubic feet, in rare instances up to 105 cubic feet.

I typically rent a 12' cargo van

For a largish game, I would fill all but the front two seats, barely leaving room for the luggage! While figures can take a bit of room, it's the 25/28mm terrain that fills the car up! Properly sized hills have to be pretty big to scale correctly, and that requires a lot of room. The same can be said of trees, though I'm sure that there are plenty of games that do not require any at all, depending on where they occurred.

My old west game usually takes 3-4 xerox boxes to carry.
There has been a sort of "contest" between some of us local guys to see who can do the best "game in one box".

sort-of-related (and hope I don't get flamed for hijacking…)…

How much space do cons give a GM for running a game? Sure, there's the actual gaming table space --but what about space for the containers the terrain came in?…or for the troops not-yet-deployed?…or for the usual conglomeration of bric-a-brac (markers, charts, keg…) that is required to run a game?

Much of the oft-berated table clutter (that ruins the ambience of a well-terrained tabletop) could be solved by the allocation of a sidetable (or two) to keep all that "doesn't look cool" junk away from the main attraction.

Okay, I've vented…thank you. You may now return to your regularly scheduled discussion…

ps- please don't take this seriously ; )

sort-of-related (and hope I don't get flamed for hijacking…)…

How much space do cons give a GM for running a game? Sure, there's the actual gaming table space --but what about space for the containers the terrain came in?…or for the troops not-yet-deployed?…or for the usual conglomeration of bric-a-brac (markers, charts, keg…) that is required to run a game?

Those are great questions for discussion. I'm going to start another topic for you.

I did an entire ECW game with Billy Bones Workshop paper minis and terrain at Fall-In. Including the 8'x6' contractor's cloth I used as a terrain mat, everything fit in a backpack. GMs around me were jealous. The actual minis, terrain, rules, QRSs, rulers, etc. all fit in a large binder. So, it is possible to do a large minis game at a con completely from one backpack!

Forest

As little as possible.

For games at shows we usually manage to make do with a folding display board (for publicity blurb), a holdall with all the game support materials and couple of folding folding storage containers to hold the toys.

For gaming weekends, I just take the stuff I need to run the game – gaming bag, and a folding garden bags with the toys, terrain etc in it.

I haven't managed to perfect carless game transportation yet;-)

it depends on how much help i have.
at historicon, when i have at least one other person helping. we load up the minivan pretty well.

at other conventions when i maynot have help. it has to be moved in 1 or two trips of the hand truck.

larry