The Provisioner’s Playbook

A shopping strategy guide.

Dungeony Dragony type games grind to a halt everytime players need to prepare for an expedition. New players in particular get a bad case analysis paralysis.

Procedures tend to go faster when someone is appointed to take the lead. In my games I give players who take on special roles an extra share of treasure. One such role is the provisioner.

As the provisioner you’re in charge of kitting out the party. This doesn’t mean that you have the final say in what everyone packs or that other players aren’t expected to contribute to planning. You’re just the one who takes the lead and crunches the numbers.

Here’s how you get good at it:

There are 5 steps to being a good provisioner:

1. Prioritise

2. Adjust

3. Budget

4. Distribute

5. Store

Let's tackle them in order.

1. Prioritise

Bring what you need.

Start with what’s most necessary and work your way down.

I’ve put together a list of common equipment in order of importance, prioritising things with multifunctional uses to save you as much inventory space as possible.

It broadly goes:

Light > Food > Weapons > Essential Tools > Armor > Helpful Tools > Backup Tools

Light

Torches, lanterns, oil. By far the most important thing to bring. Everything else can be scrounged, improvised or neglected but you’re not going anywhere if you can’t see what’s in front of you. Even if you have some sort of perpetual light or dark-vision, just having the ability to control fire, burn things and spill oil makes this a must have. Always double up on these if possible. Ideally every PC would have a light-source in case they get separated.

• While being able to start fires is great, electrical or magical light sources are also great since they're impervious to things that quell fires.

• Don’t forget to bring a lighter or flint and steel to get your fire going.

Food and Supplies

The bottom of Maslow's pyramid. Everything you need to to avoid dying of hunger, thirst or exposure. A lot of this is going to depend on your game system and/or DM’s handwavyness regarding survival rules. In addition to food and water this may include tents, sleeping bags and weather-appropriate gear.

• At minimum pack enough food to get you to the dungeon and back.

• Extra food may be needed if you run into delays or to use as monster bait/distraction.

• Food is usually cheap so don't be afraid to double up in case you get lost or delayed.

• For longer trips this might include cooking gear.

• You can supplement your food supply with foraging, hunting, monster eating or emergency cannibalism.

• You can make basic tents out of the tarp, ropes and spikes we’re going to bring along but if you’re facing harsher conditions a more specialised shelter should be considered.

Weapons

Only in third place because, if you really need to cheap out, you can grab some big sticks or rocks then loot real weapons off the first enemies you come across.

How a weapon works varies from system to system but they’re usually balanced with some ups and downs. I’m going to focus only on their practical utility and ignore weird variants and exotic weapons.

• Spears can do almost everything a 10-foot pole in addition to being a weapon.

• Swords, knives and daggers are great for cutting ropes and binds.

• Axes are useful for hacking through doors or chests.

• Maces and warhammers are handy for bashing things in and hammering things in place.

• All other things being equal you’ll want at least one of each in your party. If not for utility then for damage type variety.

• You’ll also want a ranged option, ideally for every party member. Don’t forget ammo.

• Bows and crossbows are all well and good but consider the humble sling and it’s ability to fling potions and explosives long distances.

Essential Tools

Damn useful in almost every dungeon. Never leave home without them.

• Rope

  • I don’t really need to explain how useful rope is do I?

  • Give everyone a short length and tie them together when you need something longer.

• Grappling Hook

  • No rope is complete without this must-have accessory.

  • You can also attach it to the end of a pole for a long grabber tool.

• Tarp

  • This isn’t usually found on most equipment lists but reasonable GMs will surely allow it.

  • A tarp can be used to make a tent, a bag, a stretcher or a trap covering.

• Needle and thread

  • Necessary for making the above as well as generally useful for patching things up.

• Ball Bearings/ Caltrops

  • The simplest and often best tools for covering an escape. They’re both good picks but fill the same role. I’m inclined to prefer ball-bearings for their utility more comedic effects.

• Pitons / Iron Spikes

  • Helps with any sort of verticality-based challenge.

  • Especially useful if you’re in one of those bullshit Gygax dungeons where doors spontaneously stick themselves shut.

• Ink and Paper

  • Generally handy things to have for making notes, maps and etchings.

• Chalk

  • Handy for marking where you’ve been, especially if you’re mapping the dungeon by hand.

  • Small enough that a reasonable GM isn’t going to demand an inventory slot.

The following three aren’t reliably or cheaply available in every setting or location but are must picks when they are:

• Healing

  • Be it in the form of potions or medkits, some way to bounce back from injury is always a must.

• Explosives

  • Useful as both a weapon, trap, and door maker.

  • You can also combo it with string or oil to make a fuse.

• Poisons

  • Poison’s use in combat is pretty obvious, but remember poisoning food and leaving it for the monster is a great way to beat an encounter without risking combat.

Armor

Placed here because tools that help you avoid a fight are always better than tools that help you survive a fight.

• A shield is your best choice as it can fill other roles like mirror or acid umbrella.

• If your system of choice hands out armor piecemeal then a helmet can also serve as an improvised bucket.

• Heavy armor is usually pricey and sometimes penalized, so don’t be afraid to skip it if something more useful is available.

• Like weapons, armor can also be easily found on enemy corpses.

Lest you think I’m reaching here, M1 helmets like these were historically used as digging tools, wash basins and cooking pots.

Useful Tools

Handy but nonessential things to consider bringing.

• Acid

  • Good for selectively melting things like hinges and locks.

  • You can also just fling that shit.

• Lockpicks/ Thieves Tools:

  • Presumably already in the hands of the party rogue but worth considering if not.

  • You only really need these if you want to open a lock non-destructively. If you don’t care about leaving a trace then acid or a blunt force does the job just fine.

• Lock

  • This one’s a clutch pick if dungeon doors can be sealed with padlocks. This can shut down a whole encounter or at least buy you enough time to get away.

• Fishing Rod

  • Damn versatile, it’s a hunting tool, a prodding tool, a hooking tool and it comes with string.

• Flour

  • Detects airflows, reveals invisible foes and can be baked into fucking bread!!!

  • Upon review I think this should be placed higher.

• Compass

  • Usefulness depends a lot on how strict your GM is about mapping. If they are, it's well worth it.

Backup Tools

Bring these only if you have a specific need or if you have a wagon or hirlings you can leave them with. Broadly any tool that you have no reason to deploy in a hurry goes here.

• Picks, shovels, crowbars, hammers, saws, chisels, etc.

  • Most of their functions can be accomplished with repurposed weapons but a more specialised tool might be necessary if you’re expecting to do something for a long stretch of time, like clearing the rubble out of a collapsed section of dungeon.

• Chain, Cages, Nets

  • Obviously bring these along if you need to capture something alive.

  • If you just need to tie up a goblin hostage rope is a perfectly good substitute.

• Bells

  • Can be used to set up tripwire alarms, which are helpful but a bit niche, the most common use case is when you need to make camp.

• Thongs

  • The metal kind, not the sexy kind.

  • Useful for handling hazardous substances.

• Vessels: jugs, bottles, buckets.

  • Mostly do everything a waterskin does but there are a few use cases when you come across an interesting liquid.

• Disguises

  • Really more of a tool for intrigue missions but they can be situationally useful.

  • Dressing up in enemy uniforms or as a protected class could save you the trouble of a travel encounter.

• Pulley, Winch, Block and/or Tackle

  • Favoured by the ambitious sort of player who doesn’t let trivialities like weight get in the way of looting.

  • Also good for setting up traps, elevator systems or forcing doors open.

• Spyglass

  • Useless in a dungeon but good for scouting out overland encounters from a distance.

  • Strangely expensive in most equipment lists but all that gold’s gotta go somewhere right?

Anything past this point I would consider niche. Bring it only if you have a specific use case in mind. Equipment lists are multitudinous and ever growing so I can’t cover everything but this should give you an idea of where an unmentioned piece of gear should go. On to step 2.

2. Adjust

Chances are you disagree with some of my takes here. That’s good. You’re thinking like a provisioner now.

Now it’s time to write your own priority list.

Consider the following:

System:

I wrote this guide with no particular game system in mind.

Does your system have special rules that make some items on this list more or less useful?

Does your system provide players with abilities that make any of the suggested equipment obsolete?

Availability:

Is everything on this list available?

If not, can you find a good substitute?

Are there tools not listed here that you can buy?

If so, how highly would you rate them?

Information:

What do you know about where you're going or what challenges you’re facing?

Let's say we’re venturing into the ice princess’s frozen mountain tomb. Some niche equipment like snow shoes, ice picks and cold weather gear becomes top priority. If we know we’re facing permafrost golems and skeletons then we ditch our spears and equip everyone with bludgeoning weapons.

3. Budget

Remember that you have two budgets.

One is gold, the other is carrying capacity. Be careful not to leave yourself short on either front.

Bringing your coin purse with you to the dungeon isn’t as dumb as it sounds. You can bribe or distract greedy monsters with it or trade with the dungeon’s more cooperative inhabitants. You’ll also want enough inventory space to carry things back. If all your space is clogged with things you can’t afford to let go of, it’s time to buy more space, lest you find yourself ditching valuables because your mule went lame.

4. Distribute

There’s two parts to this. The first is to make sure equipment is in the hands of the people who can use it best. You can get away with passing equipment around while exploring but when shit hits the fan it’s important that the grappling hook is in the hand of the nimble rogue and not the short sighted mage.

The second thing to consider is about redundancy. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. We can’t prevent the wizard from falling down the bottomless chasm but we can ensure he wasn’t the one carrying all the torches.

5. Store

A clever provisioner can make use of caches to stretch the number of tools available to them. Assuming you're exploring a big megadungeon and making multiple trips, you can leave behind equipment to save yourself an extra trip or to keep as a backup in case a rust monster digests what you have. Just burying them somewhere nearby works but even better is if you utilise all the little hidden nooks in the dungeon and rearm traps to keep them safe.

Where possible make multiple redundant caches. You’ll inevitably lose some to the kobolds so make backups. The same rules for what you bring into the dungeon apply to what you bring out. Don’t store all your gold in one place. Split it up, bank some, keep some, bury some, invest some, diversify! But alas, financial advice like this is getting outside the scope of this guide.

Happy Shopping