The Case for Cases (aka what's in your Item Bag?)

Hello dear writers and readers!

Every day we (in particular the writers) have to wake up to the marvels of a Pokémon world where there are so many cool things that we can't have ;_; ! Quite a good variety of clothes, bikes with various functionalities, holographic transmitters, Pokédexes, Pokégears, Pokénavs, Poké balls, 99 Potions, 99 Antidotes, 99 Full Restores, 50 TMs, 1 Max Ether (hey, they *are* hard to come by), 1 Protein (they are costly!), one or two Fossil pieces...

...And this is not counting up whatever your Trainer would realistically have to carry around to manage in the open! Hopefully in a case or something similar, because it can come down to lots of stuff.

Food, enough for a few days for a human plus team of six. Water to drink and to clean stuff, and probably a purifier as well. Something to take and leave notes, as well as markers on the road. Underwear! In particular socks, since you need your feet, that carry you around, to be at full HP and without ailments at all times (even more if you go into a cave). Medical supplies in case something happens. A comb.

But fear not! Because most of this and more, somehow manages to fit in your Item Bag without issues.



And don't worry, Mystery Dungeon is not safe either! You have to carry 99 Seeds, 99 Orbs, 99 Reviver Seeds because why not, a number of gummies, apples and other stuff.

Good thing in those games you actually have an item bank...

All this to say, basically, how do you handle your characters having to carry items around in your setting? What limitations do you impose? Weight, volume, amount? Do your Trainers actually even carry the stuff around, or just happen to somehow be able to transport and access items while on the go? Or do they plan and travel in groups to share and amortize the load?

Does your setting's technology for Poké balls allow also for Bags of Holding (don't worry, *not* a TvTropes link) with rooms as big as the Room of Desire in Harry Potter, or even big enough to hold a stadium as in X/Y's "Super Training"? PMD writers, do you somehow take advantage of your Pokémon's abilities or the nature of Mystery Dungeon themselves to enhance your teams' carrying capacitiy?

Share some ideas. Let us know. Feel free to spoiler if you want and the nature of item carrying is plot-relevant in your work.

I... don't really have a specific list. I just have a rough idea of what people are carrying tbh.

I... am semi-realistic with carrying capacity and what gets brought along. My husband is an Eagle Scout and a bikepacker so like... I know about what ya need. I know what can be carried and packed. I know what size backpack is appropriate. The thing I'm probably least realistic about is camping food, mostly because I Don't Know How Real People Eat. (I did get around this by having my character be fairly bad at planning, and therefore did not plan his meals...) I ain't bringing stuff that needs to be cold, though. But Casey has things like, a water bottle with a built-in filter! An ultra-compact (technically) two-person tent! An inflatable sleeping pad! A 4-qt stainless steel lidded saucepan and yeah I know that's specific and also yeah I'm keeping careful track of which clothing he repairs and which he ruins and yeah I've made him do laundry at every Pokémon Center so far because he's not carrying a ton of clothes.

Honestly probably the least realistic things are his miraculously uncrushed Berries. And the two other pairs of shoes. But if you're good at packing, well. And several things can be hooked/tied to the outside of a backpack. I... really could go into detail about All Of Casey's Inventory because the way I've built it is very similar to how I always build out inventories. It's a little unnecessary because so far we've only spent one night out of four camping but. I do a lot of unnecessary things.

SO YEAH TO SUMMARIZE I have a Very Specific inventory of non-consumables & a generalized idea of consumables & it's all a reasonable amount for a person who is used to backpacking to be carrying.

& I'm not mad when people use bag of holding tech but I personally have fun thinking more realistically!

Yeah I also just go with a rough idea of the basic stuff like food, clothes, pokeballs, and maybe a few potions. I don't think too much like weight and volume, maybe I'll impose on an amount but that's about it.

Venia Silente said:

All this to say, basically, how do you handle your characters having to carry items around in your setting? What limitations do you impose? Weight, volume, amount? Do your Trainers actually even carry the stuff around, or just happen to somehow be able to transport and access items while on the go? Or do they plan and travel in groups to share and amortize the load?

PMD writers, do you somehow take advantage of your Pokémon's abilities or the nature of Mystery Dungeon themselves to enhance your teams' carrying capacitiy?

Share some ideas. Let us know. Feel free to spoiler if you want and the nature of item carrying is plot-relevant in your work.

Click to expand...

At the moment, I have a concept of travel pouches (belts) that are generally used to carry items. Occasionally, there's shoulder sacks or packs that can be worn like a backpack. Generally, a mon wouldn't need to take too much stuff with them since travel isn't normally over long distance at least in the more interconnected area.

In Triacal, where our story is right now, you could think of that place as a very big countryside with a few major cities and as result, we don't really see to much heavy traveling or stuff like moving from one area to another.

However, such stuff does exist and while I'd like to go into detail (ramble) about it, I think it'd be best not to overdo it. But essentially,

restrictions would be realistic stuff you could carry inside a belt or sachel. Orbs, Berries, Seeds, maybe some other stuff would be ideal to travel with. Holocaster technology is not something normal citizens carry on them and generally telecommunications are a thing that's not done on the go outside of emergency help or talking (aka: Com orbs that have limited range, require channel connections as well as other hinderances). Also, mons don't have too much need for sleeping bags or stuff since their beds are normally just stuffed with straw or matressless wooden beds.

Since a mon has moves, there's no need to bring weapons or even enhancers since that'd just be adding extra load for what is honestly a light trip.

To summarize, travel on foot from one place to another is generally a light travel type that takes necessary supplies with some rest stops along the way. Larger travel or more heavy loaded travel would require the technology of the time, which is not generally used by the non-military or defense outside of heavy cargo or companies/organizations that haul their stuff around the place. Smaller ones would commonly rely on a town's transport or guard shipment system that could also work to carry passengers, but is generally used to move supplies around a country. This is more prevalent in places with tension and/or looming warfare.

Before I ramble too much, I'll add one last thing. Boats are used for ocean travel since air travel is heavily restricted due to the vessels that can do air transport being for military use or war use only. There won't be any examples in 1 sadly, but stuff like this will get its time to shine.