EmergencyGameKit

Emergency Game Kits

I first read about Emergency Game Kits in an article by Matthew Baldwin, and fell in love with the idea. He writes, "My solution to this problem [of being caught short without games] was to consolidate a whole host of small games into a single box -- an all-purpose Emergency Gaming Kit. In this way I could be prepared for every occasion, be it a a small gathering of gamers or a large group of party game enthusiasts."

I now have an Emergency Game Kit, and I know several other people in Seattle Cosmic have one too, or something like one. I hope they will list the contents of their kits below, as I have.

See also GamesToTheRescue: donating Emergency Game Kits to hospitals.

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Ron Hale-Evans

To add an extra sense of emergency (as in Emergency Room), I sometimes call this my EKG, or "Emergency Kit o' Games".

The box is a black, red, and clear Rubbermaid ActionPacker toolbox, 16 inches wide. I believe it is the 16-inch model pictured on this page. I tried a 24-inch model for a while, but not only was it incredibly heavy and cumbersome, but I became a laughingstock. (I'm not sure when -- or if -- I ceased to be one.)

Oh, what the hell, here it is. It's this 16-inch model 85025. I highly recommend it. Capacious (as you shall see), yet portable.

http://www.ludism.org/scpix/misc/85025p.gif

If anyone complains I stole this picture, tell them it's boosting Rubbermaid's sales.

The internal tray of the toolbox has been removed and donated to Marty_Hale-Evans? for holding beads while she works on jewelry. The 24-inch monster toolbox has also been given to Marty for holding sewing supplies.

The front of the kit is plastered with Icehouse and piecepack stickers. If you print this sheet out onto sticker paper, you can have piecepack stickers too. The box also has a Seattle Cosmic sticker from our CafeShop.

Contents of the EKG as of August 2003:

Organisers

There are two lidded, detachable, compartmented, translucent organisers on top. In August 2003, I added Velcro to hold them tighter so that I can fully open the lid of the kit without the compartments dropping off and spilling their contents everywhere (an increasing problem as the box gets older). If you buy one of these toolboxes, I suggest you do the same.

The compartments contain:

http://www.ludism.org/scpix/20010706/04_carc_finger_o_fate.jpg

Inside the kit

GameSystems

Card Games

Many of these card games have been transferred to custom boxes made with the help of the Super Deluxe Tuckbox Template Maker.

http://www.ludism.org/scpix/misc/check2.jpg

Rules

Bags

Miscellaneous Bits

Treasures

http://www.ludism.org/scpix/20001014/06_slug_power.jpg

Rules Binders

I sometimes also bring along my big red binder of rules for the following GameSystems:

More and more I tend to bring along the binder of rules in progress for the GamesToTheRescueBook too.

More annotations as I have time or the contents of the kit change.

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Eric Yarnell

Here are some photos of the Emergency Game Kit of Eric_Yarnell,_ND?, taken at SeattleCosmicGameNight20030419. I hope Eric will add some commentary on the case and its contents soon; he said the contents "needed tuning", in the same way that a CollectibleCardGame deck might. (Look at all the CCGs in Eric's kit!)

Looks a little more capacious than mine...

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Here is what I've got going for the time being, and yes, tuning is definitely in order:

Bits & Miscellany

Rules

Card Games

Trading Card Games

Tile-Laying Games

Miscellaneous Games

Game Systems

Note that my main adjunct to the box is my Apple Powerbook Pismo G3 laptop which has lots and lots of rules in it; not to mention lots of games.

--Eric_Yarnell,_ND?

http://www.ludism.org/scpix/misc/gamekit_ericy1.jpg http://www.ludism.org/scpix/misc/gamekit_ericy2.jpg

1. Kit closed.
2. Kit open.

Dave Howell

Dave has had what he calls his "Big Box 'o Fun" for some years. It's an Anvil-brand briefcase, 5" x 13.5" x 18". The sides are 1/2" plywood, so it's incredibly durable, but also rather heavy, and more than the usual amount of interior space is lost because of the thickness of the sides. [Picture to be provided later...]

It contains various boards, decks, components and rules for the following games:

  1. 12 Tokens (2 each in six colors)
  2. 120 markers (more or less, in six colors)
  3. 16 Dice (six sided, 2 each in same six colors, plus extras)
  4. Abacus (designed as a \x91life counter\x92)
  5. According to Hoyle (book)
  6. After Dinner Games (book)
  7. Agora
  8. Are You a Werewolf?
  9. Ben Hvrt
  10. Bleeding Sherwood
  11. Brain Baseball
  12. Brawl (Rent, Tess, Tamiya, Nickie)
  13. Captain Park\x92s Imaginary Polar Expedition
  14. Change
  15. Chez Geek (with first expansion)
  16. Chrononauts
  17. Cube Farm
  18. Deadwood (with expansions)
  19. Devil Bunny Needs a Ham
  20. El Paso
  21. Falling
  22. Fight the Power
  23. Fight City
  24. Fluxx
  25. Give Me the Brain (special edition)
  26. Guillotine
  27. Huzzah!
  28. Jump
  29. Lightspeed
  30. Lord of the Fries (special edition)
  31. Parts Unknown
  32. Phase 10
  33. Pinochle Deck
  34. Pivot
  35. Playing Cards (2 decks, matching backs)
  36. Renfield
  37. Rook
  38. Safari Jack
  39. Spree! (Hong Kong ed.)
  40. Starbase Jeff
  41. Take Six!
  42. The Very Clever Pipe Game
  43. The Big Cheese
  44. The Great Dalmuti
  45. The Big Idea
  46. The Very Clever Pipe Game (1st ed.)
  47. The Great Brain Robbery
  48. Twitch
  49. U. S. Patent #1
  50. Unexploded Cow
  51. Witch Trial