Starting Equipment

When making a new character, one of the most time consuming parts of the process, is selecting and buying equipment.
There are several ways to speed up the process, and here we present a few of them.

Random starting packages are great because not only they save time (a huge amount of it if you have even just one or two players which are prone to decision-paralysis...) but also because by giving your players some random items, they encourage them to think outside the box and find creative solutions.


The first link contains an exmple of a starting package of standard dungeon gear. This is a very basic approach - a fixed price for a reasonable selection of dungeoneering equipment.
Of course, you may want to improve this by creating a few packages of your own, tailored to different needs and with different prices.

Standard Starting Equipment Package
by Al
Ming's Tavern has long been a popluar watering hole for adventuring types [...] Recognizing this, Ming has started a sort of side-industry, selling "Ming's Essential Dungeoneer's Kits" (or "MEDKits" for short), usually admonishing loudly bragging adventurers as they head out the door, "what're you gonna eat down there, your axe?"
[...]
Ming's kits cost a mere 15gp and weigh only 15lbs. They usually include:
Backpack
Bedroll
Flint & Steel
Grappling Hook
Hammer
Trail Rations (4 days worth)
Waterskin
Hemp Rope (50')
2 15lb-capacity sacks
Iron Spikes (5)
Torches (10)
Oil (1 pint)
Ming's Fat Lip Lager (1 pint)
Wooden Holy Symbol of Ylalla
[...]

http://beyondtheblackgate.blogspot.com/2009/05/standard-starting-equipment-package.html

Where a "package" has the advantage of simplicity, some organized lists can still make a difference in terms of saving your players a significant amount of time at chargen, while still allowing them to make meaningful choices.
Note that in this post, characters also get some common basic equipment besides what's in the lists, and some gear based on their class.

Starting Equipment

by Norman J. Harman Jr.

[...]I'm aiming for fast (10min) character generation. Thus I have replaced starting monies and pouring over equipment lists with "pick an item from each column" detailed below. Which I'm hoping will be faster than "shopping". If not, table is setup for rolling randomly. I stocked it with old-school dungeoneering equipment to help develop the tone and style I hope to achieve in this campaign.

[...]

- Everyone has a belt, shoes, cloths, and cloak of common/poor variety.[...]

- Elves get an ash longbow, quiver and 40 arrows.[...]

- Religious types start with an appropriate holy symbol of the non-fancy type.[...]

- Pure fighters get an additional weapon of their choice from any of those listed below.[...]

Pick one item from each column:

NUM	weapons1	weapons2	armor	misc1	misc2
1	2 flasks oil	lantern	potion heal	holy water	flagon of wine/ale/whiskey
2	4 javelins	shield	2d6x10cp	pot helm	holy symbol
3	caltrops	The Deck draw	better cloths	chalk	charcoal "pen" & 4 sheets of papyrus
4	1h dagger	1h dagger	padded	2 lg sacks	4 person tent
5	1h sword	sling	leather	10 ft pole	hammer & 10 spikes

[...]

https://trollandflame.blogspot.com/2009/10/starting-equipment.html

Different characters - different classes - of course have the need of different gear. We've seen in the previous post that some basic equipment could be given to each class, but you could also make different lists for different classes.
In the post below, Brendan goes back to the concept of "packages" instead of single items in multiple lists, and provides the entire starting gear with a single 3d6 roll.
The nice thing is that with a single roll you get the entire selection of your character's starting equipment (the fastest method) with focus on your class (nice!) and with differences among the various characters (always good to keep the 3d6 randomness).
Also, if you read the entire article (which you will, because you definitely want to print out that table for future reference), you will notice that there was careful planning in writing the lists; they are not just a random selection of stuff... they keep in mind balance and prices and so on.
Also, Brendan provides a few sample re-equipping packages with their cost.

OD&D Equipment

by Brendan

[...] In OD&D, one is instructed to roll 3d6 * 10 for starting GP and buy all equipment manually. Here is a one-roll method which uses a 3d6 table. This table has 64 different starting packages, one for each class at each potential starting wealth level. I built it strictly using the prices and equipment in Men & Magic, so should be useful in any vanilla OD&D game. Buying equipment has traditionally been the most time consuming part of creating a D&D character, but hopefully this can speed the process up.
[...]

TABLE FOR STARTING EQUIPMENT

3D6	CLERIC	FIGHTER	MAGIC-USER	THIEF
3	cudgel, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10′ pole, wooden cross, 4 GP	spear, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50′ rope, 3 GP	dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10′ pole, 4 GP	cudgel, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50′ rope, 4 GP
4	cudgel, shield, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50′ rope, wooden cross, 4 GP	cudgel, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10′ pole, 1 GP	2 daggers, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 2 flasks oil, 50′ rope, 7 GP	cudgel, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10′ pole, 1 GP
5	mace, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10′ pole, wooden cross, 5 GP	leather armor, morning star, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50′ rope, 3 GP	dagger, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10′ pole, 7 GP	cudgel, dagger, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50′ rope, 6 GP
6	quarter-staff, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50′ rope, 12 iron spikes, wooden cross, 3 stakes & mallet, steel mirror, 10 GP	leather armor, battle axe, hand axe, dagger, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10′ pole, 7 GP	dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50′ rope, vial of holy water, 9 GP	sword, dagger, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10′ pole, 9 GP

[...]

One could roll d4 on this table to select the contents of a beginning cleric scroll.
1 - Light (C 1, MU 1)
2 - Detect Magic (C 1, MU 1)
3 - Protection from Evil (C 1, MU 1)
4 - Detect Evil (C 1, MU 2)

[...]

BUNDLES FOR RE-EQUIPPING

Budget explorer (22 GP): backpack, waterskin, 6 torches, 1 week iron rations
Deluxe explorer (39 GP): backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations
Budget vampire slayer (10 GP): 3 stakes & mallet, steel mirror, wooden cross
Deluxe vampire slayer (73): 3 stakes & mallet, silver mirror, silver cross, vial of holy water, garlic
Werewolf slayer (35): 5 silver tipped arrows, wolvesbane
Heavy infantry (83): plate armor, shield, helmet, sword, dagger
Budget infantry (19): leather armor, spear, dagger
Archer (78): leather armor, longbow, quiver of 20 arrows, sword, dagger
Skulk (24): leather armor, dagger, 50′ rope, belladona
Spelunker (6): 50′ rope, 10′ pole, 12 iron spikes, 3 stakes & mallet

[...]

http://www.necropraxis.com/2012/07/20/odd-equipment/


This last post presents yet another approach, again with a mix of lists and random rolls.
There is a d8 roll for armor (modified by class, and which can give you extra rolls for weapons or shields), then a roll for a shield, then for weapon(s) (melee and ranged), then additional gear, mounts, a fixed list of other gear by class, and finally additional money.
It's another approach, which still keeps some balance between lucky rolls and reasonable lists, and gives each class a boost where it matters.

Random Starting Equipment Charts
by Chris Kutalik
Buying gear for a starting character in old school D&D is often the most time-consuming step. For some players this is a favorite ritual. Should I go for that silver dagger this time or a mining pick and a bag of caltrops? Do I really need that lantern?

[...]

Armor (Roll d8)

Cleric, +1 to roll

Fighter +2

Thief, Druid: leather automatically

Magic User, Illusionist, Monk: no roll

1,2,3	Leather armor **
4	Studded leather *
5, 6	Scale mail
7,8,9	Chain mail
10	Splint or banded mail
11	Plate mail

* 1 extra roll on weapon or shield chart

** 2 extra rolls on weapon or shield chart

[...]

Shield (Roll 1d6 only if extra roll indicated)

[...]

Melee Weapon (Roll 1d6)

Clerics, Magic Users, Illusionists hand weapon only

1,2	Hand weapon (dagger, hand axe, short sword, mace, morningstar, staff, spear)
3,4	Medium weapon (long sword, battle axe, rapier, scimitar)
5	Polearm (polearm, pike)
6	Two-handed weapon (two-handed axe, two-handed sword, bastard sword)
7	Quality weapon of choice (+1 damage)

[...]

Missile Weapon (Roll 1d6)

[...]

Adventure Packs (Pick one)

All packs come with backpack, two small sacks, bedroll, water skin, tinderbox, and one week of iron rations

Pack A (10 oil flasks, lantern, shovel, two caltrops, whistle)

Pack B (10 torches, 10 pieces of chalk/charcoal, blank scroll, mirror, crowbar)

Pack C (five torches, five oil flasks, 60 ft. rope, grappling hook, wooden pole)

Class-based equipment

Fighter, Ranger, Paladin: extra weapon roll, 10 gp starting

Cleric, Druid: holy symbol, 10 gp

Thief: Thieves tools, 5 gp

Magic-User, Illusionist, spellbook, 5 gp

Monk, 2 gp

Extra cash (Roll d6)

[...]

http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2010/10/random-starting-equipment-charts.html

All these posts leave the concept of Encumbrance and equipment weight aside. Probably because they assume you will look up the weight of each single item on your rules, or use whatever system for encumbrance you desire.

Personally, I would never use anything that is not slots-based. It's the year 2019, almost 2020. There is no reason to use anything different than a slots-based system for encumbrance.


Design notes:
- Browsing the equipment list and deciding what to buy and what to carry in the dungeon, is one of the most time consuming activities at chargen, and may take up time also before any expedition
- Building "packages" with different selections of gear and different prices will save precious time at chargen and also when restocking supplies between adventures
- You can also build a few lists, to maintain some freedom of choice for the players, while still speeding up the process
- For example there could be one or more default items (everyone gets these)
- One or more pieces of gear depending on the class (get all or select a fixed number of them)
- And a certain number of lists; they could either have a price or you could select one item from each list, etc...
- Lists are good also for random selection
- The more detailed and useful articles present default starting lists of equipment divided by class, and with a random 3d6 roll in order to determine what you get

- You can also have lists by topics (armor, melee weapons, ranged weapons, mounts, etc.) and selections of basic default gear by class