Sailor’s Pack: Gear Idea
Anyone with a sailor’s background or a backstory that involves being on the ocean is likely to have a Sailor’s Pack.
What is a Sailor?
A character who makes a living on the ocean, whether that be captaining a ship, being a crew member on someone else’s ship, being a pirate, merchant or even owning a small fishing boat.
HLG designed this fun starter pack for players who want to have backstories that involve characters who come from the sea.
Here’s a description of the inventory, cost and the reason for each item.
Sailor’s Pack
Suggested cost 5 gp
Sack 1 cp 1/2 lb. (on the boat you work with sacks all day, food stores, fish hauls, you name it, sacks are easy and familiar to you. Why on earth would you want something as fancy as a backpack for your gear when you can just throw it in a sack?)
Dagger 2 gp (it’s always a good idea to have a dagger. They are multi functional tools that can cut, pry and pick at things)
Whetstone 1 cp (keep that dagger sharp)
Blanket 5 sp 3 lb
Fishing tackle 1 gp 4 lb.
Lamp 5 sp 1 lb.
Oil (flask) 1 sp 1 lb.
Tinderbox 5 sp 1 lb.
Bucket 5 cp2 lb.
Waterskin 2 sp 5 lb. (full)
Mess kit 2 sp 1 lb.
Optional extras
Costs not included in above pack
Spyglass 1,000 gp 1 lb.
Net 1 gp 3 lb. Special, thrown (range 5/15) Martial Melee Weapons
Trident 5 gp 1d6 piercing 4 lb. Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8) Martial Melee Weapons
Navigator’s tools 25 gp 2 lb.
Worth noting
All of these items can be found in the player’s handbook at the costs we stipulated above.
The price we suggest for the kit is based on the overall cost of the items at a discount for buying it as a kit.
You will probably also need an explorer’s pack or dungeoneer’s pack for your day to day items.
If your Dungeon Master (DM) allows you to then get these items before the game starts or if you don’t have the gold for it yet then you can pick up the items as you go. Just be sure to let your DM know that you want to do that so they are prepared.
As a DM you can also have a merchant selling these kits to possible investigators. They can either be selling them as part of a legitimate trade business or at an inflated rate if they know the demand for them is high.
