My Dungeon Master Tool Kit Part 6 - Portable RPG Storage Carrier!

Well, here we are - the final post in my Dungeon Master Kit series! (Other posts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5.)  This will one will focus on how I cart around my materials. Obviously, there is the good ol' backpack, but, again, I'm a Grade A Nerd and need MORE.  

There are lot of cool deluxe bags these days, but they're are pricey. "Cases"  in point (get it?): example 1, example 2, example 3, and example 4.

Since I couldn't find a bag my speed and in my price range, I went with something else: the Quik Cart.  Sure, it's a "seen on Shark Tank" product, but it is handy. Plenty of room for my loot.

Here it is in action. As you can see, I can fit a good big of materials. 

I bought both the Regular and the Sport model, and kept the Sport one. The other one was too big. Here's a comparison, with a voiceover by my lovely wife.

Frost Giant Friday - "Frost Giants" by Jesper Ejsing

"Frost Giants" by Jesper Ejsing

Merry Christmas! - "Merry Christmas!" by SomeAnna

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!

"Merry Christmas!" by SomeAnna

My Daughter's Artwork - Jinx from "Arcane"

My daughter, Kama (aka "Chaos"), made this awesome digital art of Jinx from the Netflix show, "Arcane." I think her work is freaking awesome.  You can follow here on Bluesky: @kamachmeleon.bsky.social

My Dungeon Master Tool Kit Part 5 - Map Case

All righty, a quick and dirty post (just how your mom likes it) for my Dungeon Master Kit series (part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4).  Warning: copious phallic jokes within.

I'm running a Castles & Crusades sandbox game in the Haunted Highlands.  I love having a big physical map for the players and me to gaze at.  There is something frickin' cool about a good fantasy map. 

It's a Haunted Highlands hex map made by Darlene, who did the original Greyhawk map.  I bought the PDF from the Troll Lords site and had it printed at Staples.  (It doesn't seem they have it available at their updated storefront.) Since I can reprint it, I have no problem with us writing on it and making it our own.

What I present.

What my players see.

Well, it's kind of a pain to cart around without getting mangled, so being the top-grade nerd that I am, I bought a map case for it from Amazon. It was cheap and has been indeed handy. It's expandable too, which is nice.

Ribbed for your pleasure.

It's a grower, not a shower.

Impressive length.

Frost Giant Friday - "Ice Beast Level Boss" by Sheheryar Akber

 

"Ice Beast Level Boss" by Sheheryar Akber

My Dungeon Master Tool Kit Part 4 - Affordable-ish Tablet for RPG PDFs

Finally, the Dungeoneering Dad has come back to his Dungeon Master Kit series (part 1, part 2, and part 3). 

Why PDFs?

As much as I love the usefulness, lack of eye strain, and, dare I say it, the beauty of hard copy books, I've found myself using PDF copies of RPGs more and more. They take up less space (duh), support smaller publishers, and are typically cheaper.  As of now, I have an online library of 693 items at DriveThruRPG (...not gonna lie, that's a bit embarrassing). 

An actual gamer using a tablet in sheer ecstasy. 

Why a Tablet?

• less to cart around
• access to a large library of PDFs
• can search books electronically
• feel like you're from the future

Why a Fire Tablet?

Rich Corinthian leather case.

Look, straight up, if you can afford an iPad, the Fire tablet can't compete. However, if you're budget-minded, I recommend the Fire. (It was known as the "Kindle Fire," but they seem to have dropped the "Kindle" part.) As I've mentioned a few times in ages past (linky link and linky link), I use a Fire for my RPG PDFs. 

Nice things about the Fire:

• Cheap-ish. Amazon puts them on sale multiple times a year (holidays, Prime Day, etc.).
• Expandable storage with an SD Card.
• From my understanding, you need an adapter to use an SD Card with an iPad.
• With a Fire (and other Android tablets), you just pop the card in.
• Spiffy cases: link 

How to Add PDFs "Officially."

PDF readers aplenty.

Since a Fire isn't a normal tablet, there are a few easy ways to add files for use with the official Kindle app.

1. Use the "Send to Kindle" website to upload them: link

• You'll need to use this particularly if the PDF files are large.

2. Email the PDF. 

• Each Amazon account has a "send-to-Kindle" email address (e.g., "Best_DM_Ever@kindle.com").
• Simply email the PDF as an attachment to that address and it will show up in your Kindle app library before too long.

3. Connect your Fire to your PC and transfer them that way.

4. Get an SD Card, put that into your PC, load up the card, and then pop that into your Fire.

If you want more detailed info on these methods, this site is pretty useful: WikiHow: How to Add a PDF to a Kindle.

How to Make Your Fire More Useful and Super-Duper Cool!

My DriveThruRPG library... behold and tremble.

Since a Fire isn't a typical Android tablet, you can't typically use it like a normal tablet. However, you can pretty easily side-load the Google Play Store and then, bingo, you can install a lot more apps including, the DriveThruRPG Library app, a variety of PDF readers, etc.

• Here is a great "How to Geek" article detailing how to get the Google Play Store: link
• Here is a kind of spiffy PDF reader: EBookDroid

Once you do that, you can use a variety of nice apps to organize your library, although I'm starting to use the DriveThruRPG Library app itself more and more. If you used the SD Card method above, you can access the PDFs via a variety of PDF readers.

There you go. Bingo bango.

Frost Giant Friday - "Frost Giant" by Albertus Tyasseta

"Frost Giant" by Albertus Tyasseta

 

Frost Giant Friday - "Phin vs the Frost Giant Queen" by Ed Louchren

 

"Phin vs the Frost Giant Queen" by Ed Louchren