Need help for a game

[Lockwolfe]

Tonight I'm running a game. The plot involves the players waking up on an island with no memory of how they got there and all of their inventory missing. However, one random player is going to wake up before hand on a ship in the middle of a terrible storm, with only a short amount of time to grab some items. I need help with the selection of items to choose from. What would be useful or thematic? Any ideas?

[Cl0001]

Are you going for a survival based game where they'll need to forage for food or is it going to be more about dungeon delving. I would also consider what type of ship they are on. Besides that I would include some normal weapons and then a bunch of basic survival gear that you would find on a ship like rope, cloth, food, matches etc.

[nickl_2000]

Spell focuses and Wizard spells books. They absolutely need those saved.

[Findulidas]

Look at the starter packs. If you make them suffer from not having food/drink/proper sleep/light/heat (as you should) then those things should be priorities. Rope is always useful.

Taking the spellbook from the wizard is just mean by the way.

[Aett_Thorn]

Wooden weapons are always a plus. Clubs and spears would have a better chance of floating than a sword would, if you dropped them.

[Brawnspear]

Is the character going to have the knowledge that they will soon be wrecked on an island, or are they grabbing things to survive at sea, or possibly just looting?
I assume there will be a selection of items and they only have time to grab a subset. Useful items for a shipwrecked person to have!
1. Rope
2. Waterskins
3. Handaxe
4. Dagger
5. Bow
6. Arrows
7. Sacks
8. Flint and Steel
9. Fishing tackle
10. Compass
11. Twine
12. Blankets/bedroll
13. Healer's Kit
14. Torches
15. Lantern
16. Oil
17. Steel Mirror (signaling)
18. Rations
19. Various Magical Macguffins
20. Personal effects
21. Various weapons
22. Life Jacket
23. Booze
24. Floppy Hats
25. Belaying Pin
26. Sail canvas
27. Salt Pork from the Galley
28. Random Box kept under lock and key in the Captains Cabin (folding boat)
29. Fancy Chess pieces (figurines of wondrous power/feather tokens)
30. Fan of Wind used during the doldrums.

[JellyPooga]

Be really over-generous with what's available to grab and throw in a bunch of red herrings of the sort that seem like they [i]may[/i[ seem really useful, but turn out useless, but also some things that appear useless, but come in handy.

Manacles, for example, may seem superfluous but engineering a situation where they're actually useful isn't difficult.

On the other foot, something like a lantern and oil seem like they might be handy if the players are expecting a dungeon delve, but if there's plenty of materials to make them on the island, or there are few underground or night encounters, then they could just be dead weight.

You want the players to take a few duff choices, otherwise there's little point in having a choice in the first place.

[Lockwolfe]

Thanks, guys. This session is definitely survival focused. And don't worry about the spellcasters. I'm not quite that mean.