What would the ideal adventurer's backpack be made of?

[Amaril]

Every adventurer in any fantasy RPG needs a good backpack. Usually, when I see characters depicted with one, it's made of leather--but wouldn't that actually be a pretty bad material for the purpose? Sure it's durable, but it's expensive and also heavy, and anyone who's been backpacking in real life knows that every pound counts. Assuming no modern or fictional materials, what would give the best balance of weight, durability, water resistance, and price for an adventurer needing to carry large amounts of survival gear through the wilderness?

[hymer]

Hessian leaps to mind, used for industrial strength sacks for a long time. Cheap and durable. Other plant fibres could work as well, like flax or cotton. You might want some sort of cover to keep the rain out, which you would probably have your night roll double as, when rolled up and attached on top of your pack.

I guess you could waterproof plant fibre-cloth. Oilskin isn't exactly high tech, though early waterproofing wasn't exactly comfortable. But then, it's for a bag, not undergarments. The price might be prohibitive. I imagine it took some time and effort.

[RazorChain]

We sell real adventurer's backpacks made from the tanned leather of retired adventurers.

Recent study has shown that the tanned hide of an adventurer is resistant to most stuff like dragon's breath, acid and even curses and hexes.

It is also enchanted with the diet version of reverse gravity so it neither falls up or down but only floats there gently and makes your burden ever so lighter.

There are countless dimensional pockets on the backpack so you can store your keys in the demi plane of Evil while your meat is the elemental plane of ice.

It comes wit a loyal option so you don't even have to strap it on, yourself, just say the magic word of "buckle up"

Limited offer now, only for the price of your mothers soul, so hurry up and get here before your siblings snatch one before you!

[Lunali]

If you want realism, leather saddlebags. The typical D&D character runs around with enough stuff that a dedicated pack mule wouldn't be unreasonable.

[gkathellar]

Cheeseburger backpack.

[jindra34]

Every adventurer in any fantasy RPG needs a good backpack. Usually, when I see characters depicted with one, it's made of leather--but wouldn't that actually be a pretty bad material for the purpose? Sure it's durable, but it's expensive and also heavy, and anyone who's been backpacking in real life knows that every pound counts. Assuming no modern or fictional materials, what would give the best balance of weight, durability, water resistance, and price for an adventurer needing to carry large amounts of survival gear through the wilderness?

I'd say what militaries used up until the 1900's. Which is to say leather. Its the default represented choice for a bloody good reason.

[TheStranger]

I'd guess a tough cloth (burlap/hessian is an option, or something like a light canvas), with some leather straps/buckles. And none of the suspension and padding that we get with modern backpacks. So that's not an ideal carrying configuration, but it's probably the best you can do without modern materials. That would probably be okay, albeit with a pack weight that few modern backpackers would consider reasonable (but which would probably be pretty familiar to WW2 infantry).

That said, I imagine very few adventurers would actually carry backpacks. Like Lunali said, pack animals make a lot of sense when you actually want to carry all the stuff you might want to have with you. Boats are also very helpful - rivers have served as highways in many times and places. If I were an adventurer, actually carrying all my stuff on my back would be an absolute last resort. In fact, if I had to travel cross-country on foot, I'd give serious thought to hiring a couple guys to help carry my stuff. If I couldn't hire porters, I'd start thinking about how much of that stuff I really needed in the first place. You can sleep pretty rough if you need to, especially with a few ranks in Survival. Of course, if I actually needed to travel through rough terrain with nothing but what I could carry, full plate would probably be one of the first things to go. So I'm more than willing to gloss over it in the name of convenience.

[Deophaun]

Every adventurer in any fantasy RPG needs a good backpack.

Lies. Most of mine get by with a bandoleer or two even at low levels. I've never liked the image of someone in a sword-fight with a pack stuffed with gear messing up his balance, and fantasy RPGs generally accommodate by giving you some fantastical gear choices that lessen what you have to carry, whether that be self-filling canteens, tools that reshape themselves to whatever you need at the moment, or a half-pound of elven BS that can feed you for a month.

[JoeJ]

A string net on a wooden frame would probably be the lightest you could get without modern or magical materials. Anything that needs to be protected from the weather would obviously need to be in some kind of container, but everything that's resilient can just sit in the bag or be tied with string onto the frame.

[LibraryOgre]

I'd lean towards leather or canvas... dungaree (similar to denim) would also work pretty well. Basically, you're looking for relatively light and tough. Ability to be moderately waterproofed is a plus, but you might do that with wax in the short term.

[DrewID]

If you want realism, leather saddlebags. The typical D&D character runs around with enough stuff that a dedicated pack mule wouldn't be unreasonable.

Tell that to almost every infantryman ever. Mind, they'll agree with you, but throughout history, infantry have marched on foot with an awful lot of crap in a pack on their backs. And as another posted said, generally army issue packs prior to the XX century were leather.

DrewID

[Dimers]

Dragonhide, duh! Why has no one else said that yet?!

[PersonMan]

Assuming no modern or fictional materials

Dragonhide, duh! Why has no one else said that yet?!

Unless you're talking about Komodo Dragons, I think that may not fit the OP's restrictions.

[Calthropstu]

Tell that to almost every infantryman ever. Mind, they'll agree with you, but throughout history, infantry have marched on foot with an awful lot of crap in a pack on their backs. And as another posted said, generally army issue packs prior to the XX century were leather.

DrewID

Yes, but only while travelling did they have those packs on them. When fighting, those packs hit the ground in second, and then only when attacked during travel. Usually, those packs were in camp or at the base. Soldiers on patrol traveled light with a single mule serving to port gear needed for the patrol if it was going to be more than a few days out.

[Lunali]

Tell that to almost every infantryman ever. Mind, they'll agree with you, but throughout history, infantry have marched on foot with an awful lot of crap in a pack on their backs. And as another posted said, generally army issue packs prior to the XX century were leather.

DrewID

Historically, infantrymen carried far fewer weapons than the average adventurer and distributed an adventuring party's worth of tools over 20-100 people. They also relied on buying/pillaging food from wherever they had to go or on supply trains to keep them fed.

[Beleriphon]

Historically, infantrymen carried far fewer weapons than the average adventurer and distributed an adventuring party's worth of tools over 20-100 people. They also relied on buying/pillaging food from wherever they had to go or on supply trains to keep them fed.

Your typical adventuring party is more akin to a modern special forces fire team, but half the size. Capable of infiltration and exfiltration, demolitions, intelligence gathering, assaults, and general mayhem.

[TheStranger]

Tell that to almost every infantryman ever. Mind, they'll agree with you, but throughout history, infantry have marched on foot with an awful lot of crap in a pack on their backs. And as another posted said, generally army issue packs prior to the XX century were leather.

DrewID

This is true, and it's probably a good rule of thumb that what people actually did with the pre-industrial technology available to them is a pretty good indicator of the best ways to use that technology. People have been pretty smart for a long time. But it's worth noting that almost every infantryman ever didn't get much say in what they were carrying or what they were carrying it in, and the people who got to make those decisions did not always have the comfort of the infantrymen while carrying stuff high on their list of priorities.

[JoeJ]

But it's worth noting that almost every infantryman ever didn't get much say in what they were carrying or what they were carrying it in, and the people who got to make those decisions did not always have the comfort of the infantrymen while carrying stuff high on their list of priorities.

That's true. However, long distance traders in the Americas generally decided for themselves what to carry their stuff in. On routes where using a boat was impractical, it was very common in the period before horses to use a net bag supported by a tumpline around the head.

[Anonymouswizard]

Lies. Most of mine get by with a bandoleer or two even at low levels. I've never liked the image of someone in a sword-fight with a pack stuffed with gear messing up his balance, and fantasy RPGs generally accommodate by giving you some fantastical gear choices that lessen what you have to carry, whether that be self-filling canteens, tools that reshape themselves to whatever you need at the moment, or a half-pound of elven BS that can feed you for a month.

Even without fantastical gear there's ways around it. Most GMs I've played with assume you drop your packs once combat begins, and as such only have access to items in belt pouches, quivers, bandoleers, or otherwise about your person. I've personally ended up switching from backpacks to satchels for most of my characters, I rarely play dungeon crawls, so we're never that far from resupplying or the pack animals, and they're easier to access or drop.

[Deophaun]

Most GMs I've played with assume you drop your packs once combat begins

The image of Conan fumbling with shoulder straps while bandits jump from their hiding spots behind the rocks also ruins the aesthetics, even if the GM gives it to you as a free action (which is an unsatisfying solution for those of us interested enough in logistics to pay premiums on equipment that solve logistical problems).

[LibraryOgre]

The image of Conan fumbling with shoulder straps while bandits jump from their hiding spots behind the rocks also ruins the aesthetics, even if the GM gives it to you as a free action (which is an unsatisfying solution for those of us interested enough in logistics to pay premiums on equipment that solve logistical problems).

Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog had backpacks with quick-release straps because of this.

On the Dragonhide issue, one of the prime uses of dragonhide in our 2e days was spellbook cases... design cases that would maximize item saves to protect your most valuable possession.

[TheStranger]

That's true. However, long distance traders in the Americas generally decided for themselves what to carry their stuff in. On routes where using a boat was impractical, it was very common in the period before horses to use a net bag supported by a tumpline around the head.

I had to look up tumplines. That looks incredibly painful to me, but once you get the neck muscles built up and learn how to align your spine to take the weight, it's probably pretty efficient. Personally, I'd be afraid I'd stumble and the weight would shift and screw up my neck.

On the topic of things people have used to move heavy loads on foot, pack-baskets are another popular choice.

It seems to me that the right pack depends a lot on what you're carrying and where you're carrying it. That's supported by the fact that people around the world have come up with a few different solutions to the general problem of "I need to carry this stuff somewhere." I suspect a big part of it is deciding how important it is to keep everything dry. Net bags are good because they're light, but bad because they're not waterproof (yes, you can put individual things in waterproof containers, but once you have a few of those it's easier to just make the pack waterproof). Leather is good because it's waterproof, but bad because it's heavy. If I were in a dry climate, or carrying things that could get wet, I'd go with a net. If it's cold and rainy and my life might depend on having a dry bedroll when the temperature drops, I'd go with leather and live with the extra weight.

[Anonymouswizard]

The image of Conan fumbling with shoulder straps while bandits jump from their hiding spots behind the rocks also ruins the aesthetics, even if the GM gives it to you as a free action (which is an unsatisfying solution for those of us interested enough in logistics to pay premiums on equipment that solve logistical problems).

Yeah, I've been considering adding penalties for fighting with bags the next time I run explicitly to stop players buying everything in the equipment list.

But that's partially why I switched to satchels, they can be removed more easily than a backpack at the cost of not being as comfortable to carry (at least in theory). There's also a lot to be said for reducing your equipment list to the essentials, which depending on the exact character and game can fill everything from a few belt pouches to a fully stuffed backpack (generally characters like alchemists).

I also seem to play in much less high magic games than you do, things like self filling canteens are really rare when I play if they exist at all. So when exploring there's a lot more stuff to lug around even in the late game, leaving behind bags entirely isn't really an option.

[John Campbell]

Extradimensional spaces.

[Jay R]

The ideal adventurer's pack would be made of light ripstop nylon.

But the pack of an adventurer in a world whose technology has been stopped by magic at the medieval-to-Renaissance level would be made of leather.

[Dimers]

Unless you're talking about Komodo Dragons, I think that may not fit the OP's restrictions.

Oop, reading comprehension fail. That DOES explain why nobody else had mentioned it yet.

Wow, no modern or fictional materials? That doesn't leave a lot, does it? Wicker is a light material that holds its shape, but it's not as tough as leather and does nothing to weatherproof its contents. Silk might be reasonable for weight reduction, and (with a blind guess) I'd presume it easy enough to waterproof, but it's expensive and still needs a frame for some purposes. Leather is the best compromise all around.

[Kardwill]

The image of Conan fumbling with shoulder straps while bandits jump from their hiding spots behind the rocks also ruins the aesthetics, even if the GM gives it to you as a free action

I dunno, Conan unslinging a satchel and dropping it with a heavy *Thud*, while his other hand holds a blade, has a certain intimidating charm to it.

And, well, if we're talking Fantasy esthetics, Conan charging (or even travelling) with a backpack is not optimal either

[Kami2awa]

A string net on a wooden frame would probably be the lightest you could get without modern or magical materials. Anything that needs to be protected from the weather would obviously need to be in some kind of container, but everything that's resilient can just sit in the bag or be tied with string onto the frame.

Trouble is, that's not much. Before modern materials (mainly plastics and stainless steel), practically everything is biodegradable, or rusts, and would need to be thoroughly dried out if it got wet.

A very light (balsa/bamboo would be ideal) frame might not be a bad idea however.

One thing to consider is that in a fantasy world, materials might be available that we simply don't have, and this is not even taking into account magical materials. For a start, with all those giant spiders, spider silk might be widely used, which would effectively mean kevlar becomes available thousands of years before it was invented.

[BWR]

For a start, with all those giant spiders, spider silk might be widely used, which would effectively mean kevlar becomes available thousands of years before it was invented.

Guess what lots of clothes and gear in Alphatia (Mystara) is made of...

[JoeJ]

Trouble is, that's not much. Before modern materials (mainly plastics and stainless steel), practically everything is biodegradable, or rusts, and would need to be thoroughly dried out if it got wet.

A backpack isn't for long term storage. Unless you're adventuring in a rainforest you shouldn't have a problem with most materials. When things get wet (and that will definitely happen on a long trip, even if you have modern materials) you take them out and dry them at your next campsite. Paper, and powdered foods such as flour or pre-ground coffee would need to be completely protected, and whole grain would be rather inconvenient to dry if you have very much of it (as animal feed, for example), but most objects made of wood, metal, ceramic, or cloth will be fine, as will cheese, dried meat, and either fresh or dried vegetables and fruit. And if you're hiking in the rain you can wear a poncho or oversized cloak so that it covers a medium sized pack.