Necessary Geek Gear

“Necessary” may be an overstatement here, but I’m trying to decide which nerdy indulgences Glen and I should pack along on our trip. The laptop (which plagues my thoughts on a regular basis) is coming, according to Glen, and he intends to fit it out with a computer game or two that is easy on the system requirements. The availability of a computer game will ensure that Glen and I do not resort to staring, poking, and eventually boxing in order to amuse ourselves when we get a bit squirrelly. As the laptop is more for work and professional development related stuff, however, I shall leave it out of this discussion.

What I am wondering more about is what small, space-and-weight friendly diversions can we bring out when spending the occasional “night in” at a hostel or kicking back with particularly interesting or friendly WWOOF hosts. At the moment, the three most practical nerd diversions I can think of are:

1) A couple sets of gaming dice (the infamous D20, as well as its friends – the D4, D6, D8, D10, and D12). For the uninitiated, the ‘D’ stands for ‘dice’, while the numbers refer to the number of sides each dice has. These are crucial for any tabletop role-play game, and it would be fun to scratch up an impromptu D&D game and teach some people how to play. There are few things quite so satisfying as playing pretend while drinking bear and throwing around dice to see if your character can beat up a horde of goblins. Furthermore, they only occupy about a square inch of space when bundled up.

2) Our Munchkin card game. Cards are a good thing to have, but Glen and I don’t play normal card games, unless it is the occasional poker night with Glen’s buddies. And this is one of those stupid games that you can whip out anywhere, teach the rules in about five minutes, and have a rip-roaring good time. We bring it with us when we decide to line up for absurd periods of time to see movies of particular interest. It is slightly larger than a regular deck of cards.

3) My zills. As I am going to be keeping up with my belly dance practise while down there, I want to have my zills with me. I also want to have them because I can make a great deal of noise with them, thereby producing hours of amusement on my part while annoying the snot out of everyone else. They are very small, light and easy to pack despite feeling like a couple of dinner plates strapped to my fingertips when being played.

I’m rather concerned about over-packing (a classic rookie long-term traveller’s mistake), so picking amusements requires considerable deliberation. Truthfully, I think that Glen will be naughtier than I in the over-packing department. I’d like to be able to pare our stuff down to one carry-on sized bag each, but he is insisting on bringing a 70 L pack. I’m guilty of large capacity packing as well, as the best bag I’ve found so far is a 60 L fellow. As long as we don’t carry too much weight, the large bag size shouldn’t present a problem, comfort wise. Live and learn, I suppose. We don’t be able to really figure out what is best for us until we try it.