Outfitting a Wagon for Grand Adventure!

[Mathis]

In an adventure I'm playing through, I've become the proud owner of your typical wagon and a band of horses to pull it. Now, I need some advice on the essential equipment I need to bring with me now that I have the storage capacity for it. What are your favourite things to buy and bring along to heighten the sense of realism and just have plain fun when roleplaying a traveller?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Well, that really depends on the level you're operating at. At mid-levels, Bags of Holding can significantly increase your storage capacity. Hanging a few lanterns on it with Continual Light is never a bad idea. Making one a Lantern of Revealing could yield interesting results, if you have the cash reserves.

Necklace of Adaptation and Ring of Sustenance both do exceptionally well to keep your horses alive. You may have to adapt them (say, for example, a Feed Bag of Sustenance and a Yoke of Adaptation), depending on how well magic items are able to conform to the wielders in your game setting. Horseshoes of Speed would also be useful.

Again, it depends on what sort of cash you have available.

Just for your basics... I'd probably say a lot of sacks, barrels, and chests to hold loot and a couple of lanterns hung out front.

Now then, never underestimate the tactical value of Smokesticks, Sunrods, Tanglefoot Bags, Thunderstones, and some Acid.

Rope is absolutely essential to any adventurer, with a Grappling Hook as a handy utility to add on.

Flint and Steel is also practically mandatory

With your cargo capacity, you have enough to hold quite a bit of oil for your lanterns, but in the long run, it's much more cost effective to do Everburning Torches (I let them also be Everburning Lanterns if the PC's provide the lantern).

Spikes/Pitons are also extremely useful for many uses other than simply climbing. Spiking doors to keep them shut, for example.

Caltrops can make an escape easier, and a chase scene much more painful for your pursuers.

And, of course, rations. Food and drink. They probably take up more volume than any other gear when hiking.

[Crasical]

Instead of multiple Continual Flame lanterns, you might also just have Continual Flame cast on one chain or rope, which is long enough to hang like christmas lights around the perimiter of your wagon?

[Ketiara]

And someone to guard the sucker when you are in a dungeon.
I keep loosing my horses and vagons/carts because I leave them unattended.

[ceduct]

block and tackle could come in handy for repairs, might want to pick up a craft and gain the benefit of 2 hrs a day worth scribing/brewing on the road

[Vizzerdrix]

Hehe. I did this once with a wizard. Party wanted me to craft stuff but wouldn't give me downtime to do it, so I bought a wagon and turned it into a portable workroom/bedroom.

Anyways, I'll list off a few ideas I use. Take the ones that apply.

Barbed wire around the top (to keep things off).
A few cranes mounted on it to pull it free when it gets stuck.
wheels made of livewood.
Eternal wands of mending.
A few oxen to pull it (and enough onyx to animate them should the worst happen).

Later on, animating it or shrink item it to make it harder to steal (but I'm not sure what caster level would be needed to use shrink item on it, myself).

EDIT: Be inspired! (http://www.worth1000.com/contests/7544/7544-covered-wagon)

[Cieyrin]

Later on, animating it or shrink item it to make it harder to steal (but I'm not sure what caster level would be needed to use shrink item on it, myself).

You're not likely to Shrink a wagon, given from historical records shows your average wagon was 4' W x 10' L x 6' H, meaning 240 ft3. Shrink Item does objects up to 2 ft3/level, so unless you've got some super method of boosting your CL to 120 (or more, given lots of games I've seen tend to make wagons mobile 10' x 10' rooms), you're probably not gonna manage it, not with the base spell, anyways. Researching a higher level version that handles a bigger volume would probably be in order for anything like that.

[Mushroom Ninja]

I've got to say, managing wagons has been one of my favorite parts of some of my recent campaigns -- I recommend setting up a good excel spreadsheet which calculates weight carried, capacity remaining, etc. I'd also recommend making these calculations factor in the number of horses you have pulling the wagon, as I've found that this number can quickly change.

As for items to carry in a wagon -- in addition to things already mentioned, I would add manacles, crowbars, a pick, saws, a portable ram, a cage, a tent (if your wagon doesn't have a covering), lots of extra arrows/bolts/etc, and several square yards of canvas (seriously, you never know when it will be useful).

Be careful if you want to bring gunpowder and oil, I once lost a good wagon to a pixie-started gunpowder explosion.:smallfrown:

[Agent 451]

Are there any rules for Conestoga style wagons in 3rd ed? If not, ask your GM if your wagon could be of the Conestoga style. If successful laugh as you and your wagon float away down river, avoiding an ambush at the local ford.

[Crasical]

A war dog, trained to guard the wagon and bark whenever someone it doesn't recognize approaches?

[jackattack]

A wagoneer and a guard for the wagon itself, so you don't lose your stuff while the party is away. Or if you do, you know it's a plot point.

A small supply of lumber and sand. These will help get the wagon unstuck, or provide traction, as needed on your journey.

A chest of tools and supplies for each character's craft/professional skills.

Enough arrows/bolts to go hunting on a semi-regular basis. No matter how many rations you take, you still want to supplement them with fresh meat. And a month's supply of spices, just in case.

And remember, wherever you are going, take half as many clothes as you think you'll need, and twice as much money.

[cagemarrow]

I once did this for a character idea that I had. I had pictured the Tinkerer, a gnomish artificer, as one of those travelling salesmen from the wild west and construct horses or an animated wagon were outside my price range.

Start with a Masterwork Carriage, then add a hidden trap door in the floor of the passenger compartment, only needs to be an inch or so deep after you open it, because in the bottom of the space we're going to put a portable hole, or better yet an Enveloping Pit.

If you want to get really fancy add Reduce Person/Shrink Item to the pit to increase the apparent size of the interior. Just make sure to make a big, bright red sign on the underside of the trap door that says "No bags of holding beyond this point!". Put locked storage compartments under the wagon's seats for people to put their bags in. With reduce person it's like an inverted tower in the bottom of the wagon. 20ft diameter and 100ft in depth. You'll want to build multiple levels/platforms and add stairs or ladders to get down into it safely.

Instead of horses I had hooks where multiple Rod of Ropes could be attached and used to fire out in front of the wagon, drawing it along like strange tendril like limbs. I pictured the Carriage as firing multiple lines out at a time (I made it with 4 but why stop there) and pulling it along at the indicated rate of 60ft per round for items of 1000lbs or less per hook. For added fun I built in the animated grappling hooks from Dungeonscape for an additional +6 on the use rope check to set the hooks, plus having animated dragon claws on the end of the up to 300ft cables is just cool.

The fun part about this setup is the wagon is just decoration really. You can unhook the rods of ropes so each party member can have one and then you roll up the enveloping pit and put it in your pouch. You could just as easily put it in the bottom of a chest, on the underside of your tower shield, or any other flat surface big enough that you could crawl through it.

If your DM rules you can place the portable hole/enveloping pit on the walls and walk into it horizontally even better. Line the walls with more. Of course you'll need to figure out how the gravity works within the hole if you change the orientation between setups. :)