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In the confusion, you might have someone else's pack. It might have been in the vehicle you managed to get into, it might have been someone who didn't need it anymore and you grabbed it because your own pack is somewhere else and you can't get to it and a pack probably has some useful stuff.

Just an idea to let the GM introduce some randomness.

I mean, that's all fine. It doesn't explain ending up with an empty backpack.

Actually there is a pretty common way that soldiers lose much of their kit.

Yes. There is a general problem with people viewing What Happens In War through the lens of recent experience, and recent experience is not a high-intensity conflict against a peer or near-peer adversary. I agree that soldiers in WWIII Europe likely would have lost most of or all of their kit, & stragglers sneaking out of Kalisz would likely have little more than their weapons and the clothes on their backs. Especially if you travel in vehicles, which tend to burn nicely.

At the same time ... it's weird that everyone has a backpack, if that backpack is empty! If you have a backpack, you ought to have accumulated some stuff in there, leading me back to sleeping bag or coat; rain gear or blanket; shelter half or....

There is another quirk here that no one has mentioned: only soldiers get backpacks. So I can generate a civilian who is lucky enough to have 6 days of food and 6 days of water, but this character is apparently presumed to carry it in their pockets. I think everyone should be presumed to have a day pack or satchel (or the butt pack on their web gear) to stuff with incidentals (such as a blanket or a rain coat or whatever.) It's important not to have a system where military characters are wildly more gear-rich than civvies (except with respect to weapons).

At the same time ... it's weird that everyone has a backpack, if that backpack is empty! If you have a backpack, you ought to have accumulated some stuff in there, leading me back to sleeping bag or coat; rain gear or blanket; shelter half or....

I mean, you do have 1d6 days of food and water to throw in there 8)

It's important not to have a system where military characters are wildly more gear-rich than civvies (except with respect to weapons).

While I disagree with this in principle, as military get handed all the things hundreds of years of institutional knowledge have determined are needed while civilians generally have to scrounge and figure it out on their own, no pack is silly. Even the Wolverines had their Jansports.

An empty backpack might be useful later.
An idea: shouldn't the SCROUNGER speciality affect the starting kit?

While I disagree with this in principle, as military get handed all the things hundreds of years of institutional knowledge have determined are needed while civilians generally have to scrounge and figure it out on their own, no pack is silly.

Bear in mind that any civilian character in this game has already survived three years of war. We can't expect them to have flak jackets, but having civilian characters who start the game only with a few history books and a dictionary, or a pocket calculator, is wildly unbalanced.

An idea: shouldn't the SCROUNGER speciality affect the starting kit?

Logically it should, but the effect of this will be to favour those careers that allow the specialty and lead to players trying to game character generation to start with more gear.

While I disagree with this in principle, as military get handed all the things hundreds of years of institutional knowledge have determined are needed while civilians generally have to scrounge and figure it out on their own, no pack is silly.

Bear in mind that any civilian character in this game has already survived three years of war. We can't expect them to have flak jackets, but having civilian characters who start the game only with a few history books and a dictionary, or a pocket calculator, is wildly unbalanced.

Fair enough. I think we have different ideas of wildly more equipped and may be talking past each other. Military with night vision and radios that are not generally available to civilians is not a problem. That said, especially if some form of base system is in place for trying to reestablish civilization, books and a calculator will be invaluable

While I disagree with this in principle, as military get handed all the things hundreds of years of institutional knowledge have determined are needed while civilians generally have to scrounge and figure it out on their own, no pack is silly.

Bear in mind that any civilian character in this game has already survived three years of war. We can't expect them to have flak jackets, but having civilian characters who start the game only with a few history books and a dictionary, or a pocket calculator, is wildly unbalanced.

Fair enough. I think we have different ideas of wildly more equipped and may be talking past each other. Military with night vision and radios that are not generally available to civilians is not a problem. That said, especially if some form of base system is in place for trying to reestablish civilization, books and a calculator will be invaluable

I have an image of Eli in The Book of Eli arriving at Alcatraz and dictating the Twilight saga to the stunned archivist. Not all books are useful.

Where is the upvote button?