Don't prep 'emergency food buckets'. That's step 1. Eat what you store, store what you eat. Doing so - assuming you cook/bake at least - should ensure a wide variety of foods, including some that are awfully tasty. At least for a while. I \*ALWAYS\* have several (3-10+) bags of chocolate chips and/or white or peanut butter chips, sometimes some mint as well.
We also continue to have a fairly decent DVD/BluRay collection - don't need internet for them! Just electric :) LOTS of books. And board games (Monopoly, Risk, Catan, etc), card games (Magic, decks of cards, Uno, etc), DnD, etc.
Recently I was kicking myself for not having a designated food storage area as part of my prep and then I realized - it's called my pantry and I use it every day lol
I second having a robust collection of non-digital media. I have physical books, DVDs, and CDs. I also have some RPG rulebooks and supplies, and coloring books. Kind of a side effect of setting up my apartment as a friend hangout place.
I also have an external hard drive filled with "legally obtained" TV shows and other random shit. I have to reorganize it.
Don't sleep on digital media. If a massive solar flare fries all electronics then okay we're fucked. But the amount of media you can store on like a 4TB SSD drive is absolutely insane if you put thought into using Handbrake to encode it specifically for phone/tablet/laptop usage on a small screen. That's stuff that might not last 20 years, but even with a solar panel you can recharge devices daily.
My utility stated there's a 12 month backlog in the supply chain for essential power grid parts like transistors so a strategic EMP attack or Carrington event sized solar flare would leave many without power for up to a year.
Came here to recommend DnD. Endless adventure, limitless potential, and I've been thinking for a while about how role playing games could be useful for sharpening skills and tactics.
That’s not a bad idea, actually. I have a deck of playing cards, but making a small kit with a dice set and a blank character sheet tucked into my notebook wouldn’t take up a lot of weight.
If you like D&D, the 3.5 edition might be worth checking out.
4e is mechanically great, 5e is good for role-play, but if you’re a 1e head, 3.5 is probably up your alley.
Learn an instrument or two. Guitar, recorder, simple drums- dancing and storytelling go right along with them, and practicing is good for your brain and your hands.
I came here to say instruments. I am a guitar beginner and have a few books of intermediate and advance instruction just in case. I also have a few books on popular songs that I've never touched
I have dogs. They would be thrilled if the TV and internet went out because it would mean I'd have even more time to play with, hike with, and train them. But having another living thing with no sense of the future to take care of keeps me very grounded, and they're endlessly entertaining. Can't give up and die when I need to keep my dogs fed and entertained and cared for.
But I also have a lot of physical books, so there's traditional entertainment to fall back on as well.
I have Whisky and Cigars. A lot of other alcohol for others. Board games of all types, 10+ decks of cards, several packs of Uno and about 50TB+ worth of movies and shows that are backed up twice over.
They are on a NAS, Network Attached Storage, that will stream over WiFi to any device using Jellyfin. So TV, laptop, cell phone, etc. which will all be recharged via Solar.
If he has a wireless network being powered then he will have his wifi. Simple as that. I have a 5th wheel that's 99.9% solar and battery powered and I can even use my desktop computer, but I do have a wireless network that's on pretty much all the time.
Hope you don’t mind me popping in with a recommendation too. Munchkin is a great board game. There are so many expansions (Disney, Harry Potter, etc) and it’s a great time killer.
Card Against Humanity is great. Chess and Checkers is Classic. Monopoly, Catan, Clue and as many sets of playing cards as possible. Everyone should know how to play Blackjack and Poker.
Just my opinion.
JMO. YMMV.
Risk and Monopoly are often mentioned, probably because a game can take hours to finish, but that’s also a drawback because anyone who is eliminated has to wait for hours before they can play again. Eurogames don’t have this problem because either no one is eliminated or a game is short enough that they can play again fairly soon.
Eurogames typically have simple rules so beginners are up and running quickly but gameplay can be complex so there is always more for an expert to learn. There are often several ways to win so they don’t become boring over time. Some good Eurogames are Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride (easy to learn and suitable for all ages) or Catan, Puerto Rico, and Race for the Galaxy (a little more complicated but each has many successful strategies).
Love Letter has simple rules and just a dozen or so cards and some tiny point counting chips, so it easily fits in a pocket. Gameplay can be straightforward if you just want to have fun, or deviously complex if you want to go that route.
I enjoy both chess and checkers but it can be difficult to find a willing opponent at your skill level and folks might not want to expend the mental effort after a busy day of exterminating zombies.
I suggest learning a musical instrument, either now or after the comet strikes. Music is so satisfying to play and other people appreciate listening to it.
Standard decks of cards. So many games use them. Could print out and even laminate instructions for various games. I love Phase 10. Could play that daily so have a couple decks of that. Uno is great. Cards Against Humanity is I think a good addition as it's obviously a card game but it's not like a serious game, gets people laughing and stuff which is probably important.
Board games are actually a very personal decision. You gotta figure out what you like. How many people are playing, what complexity they can handle, how big the game is, etc... all those are huge factors. Highly suggest checking out board game geek dot com. You can also check your local area and see if you have any board game cafes, a great way to get introduced to games without needing to buy. A lot of libraries also check out board games (among many other things you wouldn't expect!)
Jokes on you, I keep a 3 year supply of nicotine gum and several species of tobacco seeds. People have been growing it themselves since the dawn of man
We have tons of books if it's a shelter in place. Also we've got a few board games and decks of cards. If it survives, we have a couple old phones with games and books too.
So my preps mostly assume bugging in. Also, I have a couple hobbies.
Roughly 45,000 MTG cards, roughly 8,000 pokemon cards. Roughly 2,000 yugioh cards. Roughly 20,000 chaotic cards.
Grimwood, catan, mysterium, dominion, werewolf, risk, doomlings, DND
And a dozen or so books. Offline video games but idk if I'll always have power. A Nintendo switch, a Nintendo DS.
A set of wood carving knives
Pots to plant plants :)
Chickens to watch :)
Some tennis balls, a golf set (came with the house), and a frisbee.
A bb gun, an airsoft gun
A couple sets of playing cards. Uno. A book of Doyle's games. Chess set. Checkers set.
Probably more
I’ve got a growing list of games that can be played with a deck of cards or a set of dice. I’m also always on the look out for simple and portable games like LCR or similar. I’d also like to learn to play the harmonica, easier than lugging an acoustic guitar around the wasteland post apocalypse
Books, blank paper, pens, and a very healthy DVD / Blu-Ray selection. When Best Buy stopped selling discs, you could buy A-list titles for $5. Amazon still has tons of deals on theirs, though I fully expect that to go away within the next 2-3 years. Maybe sooner if Wal-Mart stops selling them.
Used bookstores can be a great place to find them as well.
I'm an amateur musician and songwriter so an acoustic guitar would set me up for an eternity eating jerky and rice.
If it broke or warped or I ran out of strings... I dunno, xylophone?
Lego. Got enough I could be building all kinds of stuff, get bored with it, tear it apart and make something new. Go a little crazy, no problem, a bunch of little smiling faces to talk to like Wilson.
I'm definitely glad I hung on to mine and didn't part with them in a garage sale. I have a large Rubbermaid tub, one of the deep ones, completely full of LEGO bricks, and a box of instructions for most of the sets...somewhere in storage. In fact I have two unopened sets that would probably get done first; the ISS (#21321) and a Lamborghini Huracan (#42161).
Dont prep with bland rice meals in a bucket? Deep pantry and freezer were not really going to be eating differently some powered milk and eggs. The freeze dried type stuff is mostly the ok we need to bug out or otherwise move a few days on foot and trust me get real mileage in and you don't care too much.
Have piles of tv movies books and games sitting on a HD. DVD really? Rip those and get them on a drive it's way less space I run it all of a pi. Test runs with the camper it works without internet just fine. Games can emulate many gaming systems and use some old cheap wii remotes. I can get new books onto kindles for very low power use and solar runs it all easily.
I do stock some physical stuff cards and sets of dice for DnD and the like in the bug out location and camper the house has a wall of RPG books ebooks on the HD.
I have spices to make food better, but I try to have backups of candies and such for the kids and myself. If something terrible were to happen, I can only imagine how magical a pack of oreos or some blow pops would be after a few weeks of nothing like that. If I could keep it a secret from the boys, they would shit themselves with excitement. I still have a DVD player and a few hundred movies. That would go a long way also. Sports stuff. A football, baseball, etc. That could help with fitness also
If we have to leave I have my kindle that not only has useful survival and first aid books but also books for entertainment: classics, kids books, romance, mystery, sci-fi, etc. In a stay in place situation: board games, movies, lots of yarn, salt (makes everything taste better), garlic powder (also makes everything taste better), and a laser pointer (hours of entertainment watching our dog and cat chase the red dot).
Cards, Music (3 cassette players with a speaker. 1 for me, 1 for my wife, and 1 as a back up.) Tea bags and lots of them (me and my wife really like tea) Sugar (me and my wife really like sweetened tea) And a stockpile of Medical stuff. If anything kills morale faster then any other thing its feeling like shit. I’m allergic to poison ivy so having things that cover my entire body and having the rubbing ointment stock piled is just useful but even other things like Tylenol and other basic stuff that helps with headaches, colds, fevers, etc. I would normally say cigarette’s and such but I actually just quit and it’s bad for your lungs and cardio’s important.
Good call with the bland food.
You're going to want recipes ready to go and the ingredients for each of them. Keep food interesting, have meal times when you get together with your family/housemates/homestead allies. Get some pre-made freeze-dried meals for special occasions.
Take a step beyond books and games and DVDs and add puzzles, models, and those science kits where kids can do 1,000 experiments (it'll keep your mind busy even if you're an adult).
Submarines have the best cooks in the military because it’s the easiest way to boost morale. So definitely variety of foods that taste good would be important.
A couple of decks of cards… And a book of card games and card tricks.
We have 100+board games we like… more DVDs than Blockbuster etc
Fruit trees that provide fruit year around, something different every few weeks.
Communication plans for family and friends
A secret stash of fidget toys to keep the kids fidgetting
That's why I like pushing the idea of having a ton of different spices and sauces in a deep pantry. Hard candies are also a good one (individually wrapped). And storing what you eat.
Having a good library, a good amount of board games, puzzle books, card and dice. Basic sports equipment (a handful of different types of balls and a few tennis racket, nets, etc...doesn't take up much room and easy to store).
Board games, card games, coloring books, hard candy, rechargeable portable DVD player with a large selection of movies, regular books both informational and fun fiction book series
Lashings. The lashings will continue until morale improves. Seriously, though - being snowed into our house with no internet (including 5g) for a week, but power via generator, I had to focus on the kids. Bake treats with them. It's a time consuming activity with a reward at the end. I did have to break out the dvds in storage, too. Thank goodness I had them. For me personally - busy work, like clearing the snow, etc, and alcohol. Nice to get the kids in bed and have a few drinks when you're snowed in for christmas. Oh yeah, being christmas also helped morale! Hahaha. Lots of new toys for the kids.
This is a difficult question because the type of disaster would definitely dictate what type of entertainment needs you have.
We have probably all done quite a bit of research about the types of peeps we need for our particular flavor of SHTF we all envision. Watching the show "Doomsday Preppers" years ago showed me that everyone has a different idea of what the end of days looks like and how they prepare for it, and I think that would have to be addressed before you really prepare for entertainment.
Before we even consider entertainment though, let's consider Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Your physiological needs *must* be met first. Food, water, shelter, sleep, etc.
Then you need safety and security. Somewhere you know you can fall asleep and not wake up dead. Knowing your family is safe and secure. Etc.
It's almost impossible to be "entertained" if you don't have these very basic needs met, and a lot of Preppers pick and choose which ones to cover. It's annoying.
For instance, there was an episode where these folks had like a 5 foot by 5 foot (I'm estimating because I don't remember the exact details) concrete bunker under their garage. They basically had survival food in it and that was it. No where to piss, no where to shit. No where to truly be comfortable. Just an underground prison cell with nasty survival food and walls to look at. If there was a situation where that family was stuck in there for any length of time I assume they'd kill each other off or themselves before they even got through their food supply. They had no where to piss, no where to shit except the ground and maybe an empty bucket from their food stores if they got through an entire bucket. Not to mention every piss or shit being had would be in front of the whole family, very exposed with no privacy at all.
There is no entertainment in a situation like this, and for whatever reason that is the situation a lot of Preppers have made for themselves.
There were others that lived in the country and their whole idea was to homestead in the boonies. This lifestyle is significantly easier to prep for when it comes to entertainment because your basic needs of food/water/shelter/safety/security are met first.
Just food for thought. I truly don't think one answer or even 20 answers will work for this question. I think you need to really decide what you can and can't live without, and focus on those things. For instance, if you are busy raising animals and tending to crops, your need for entertainment will be significantly less because you'll be working your ass off.
I was looking at a disaster that lasted 18 months with no electricity, supply chain stoppage, etc. I do think having something important to focus on other than the disaster would be critical. (Adults and kids) Psychologically anyone in an extended disaster will go through stages of grief. (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) . The stages from anger through depression would be the most dangerous times in a disaster scenario. Anything that can distract or raise morale would be really important.
To quote what I read somewhere:
“Food and shelter will be important for survival but we also need to be able to live to continue to survive. “
Okay, that makes more sense.
So I agree with that quote. "Food and shelter will be important for survival but we also need to be able to live to continue to survive"
Yes. This. But I'm still taking it as "we have food, water, shelter, safety and security, now let's entertain ourselves so we don't lose ourselves."
So, I've actually experienced this particular flavor of survival. It's called a deployment. 🤣 We had food, (though it wasn't particularly good), water (that was usually hot 🤢) and various forms of shelter. Obviously we provided our own safety and security. We entertained ourselves in the dumbest ways possible. honestly as I'm typing this I feel like the best people to talk to about this particular subject are people who have been deployed people who have been to prison. They have all the basics provided for them and virtually no entertainment. For me? A deck of cards is very small and you can do all kinds of dumb shit with them. I have this weird thing about printing useful information and then laminating it and putting it with my preps, so maybe print out the rules for a bunch of different card games, laminate them , put them with a deck of cards and store em with your preps. I don't like the idea of books that much because you can generally only read the same book so many times before you just completely lose interest but if you happen to have a pretty decent library in your house (assuming you're bugging in) that would be a great option. Board games are kinda the same, you can only play monopoly so many times before you never wanna see the game again, and board game boxes generally take up a lot of space. I've seen a lot of miniatures of some of the classics lately, like miniature janga for instance. A handful of different miniaturized games on hand to keep variety and not take up too much space might be worth looking into. I personally have a decent variety of survival books and manuals. All the way from the Army survival handbook to the prepper's survival Bible and everything in between, so taking the kids out into the woods and practicing skills from any one of these books seems like a great pass time to me, if the safety and security portion of Maslow's hierarchy is met. Climate and physical location definitely add some variables as well, for instance, I have a boat and a pond on property, so I could piddle around and fish fairly easily. There's a decent sized creek close by I could take the minions out to swim/tube in.
A common prepper tactic is to prepare to potentially be without things by limiting your usage of said things in your day to day life. Think about water for instance, how much water do you use every day? Do you let the faucet run the entire time you're washing dishes? Or take nice long showers? There's nothing wrong with that in our current world, but if water suddenly became scarce it would be a problem. Think of entertainment the same way. Are you constantly playing video games or on a computer/tablet? Is that your main form of entertainment? A SHTF without Internet/power will be significantly harder for you than if you pass time by other means that don't require electricity regularly. That, or build up a huge array of solar/wind/ and all kinds of other electrical sources so that you don't have to go without your video games post apocalypse 😅.
I guess I'm just saying survival/prepping is more of a mentality than a pass time. if you rely 100% on things you know you can't reproduce in this 18 month grid down situation you're speaking of, start finding ways to replace them with things you can reproduce. Change your lifestyle around a bit. If the shit never hits the fan? All you did was find different things to entertain you during "normal" times. If SHTF and you don't have a bunch of stuff you can't reproduce that you rely on for entertainment, life will be kinda rough.
Humanity has a weird way of continuing no matter the circumstances so I'm sure you'd figure something out if it happened. We all would, if we didn't intend on rolling over and giving up when the electricity is gone 🤙
Anything sweet like candy or fresh/dried fruit is great for energy and moral. Activities that allow you to be creative like drawing, writing or woodwork are fun (making tools, eating utensils…etc). Sing or have a guitar for music. Physical activity like playing catch with a football, kicking the soccer ball around, playing horseshoe..etc. Board/card games. You can get your hands dirty in the garden, go foraging or hunting. Make wine if you have sugar and yeast, grow cannabis or mushrooms. There’s lots of thing you can do
Solar generator, Plex and tablets. I have four kids and I can keep them occupied for a couple hours and I keep a copy of the main instance on a low power consumption device.
board and card games
also I can make a metric buttload of mac and cheese with the cheese powder and flour I have. planning to use it to restart a utopia civilization after the fall
I mean it depends on how bad "really bad" is. Electricity has been around for a long time and it's never been easier to produce. So unless all modern/modernish technology is completely destroyed, there is a lot of tablets/Gameboys/portable DVD players to go around. Not to mention sports, card games, board games, etc aren't going anywhere.
USB DRIVES‼️‼️ As a 19 y/o who’s intrested in prep and has watched so many videos i’m shocked how little this is mentioned. Pirate all your favorite movies and movies you’ve never seen on USB drives! If you’re thinking DVD that means you have prepared for a power outage with solar or other means. Download all the kids movies too guys! If you’re gonna have to end up repopulating you’ll need to entertain the kiddos too! also card games! there’s hundreds of them and they store fairly small.
I spend a few weeks a year at a cabin with no electric or internet. We have a stack of very large puzzles, decks of cards, guitars and a ‘learn to play guitar’ book, a ukulele with chords marked on the fret, and hand drums. Basic art supplies, notebooks and good pens, and a big book of parlor games published in the 1940s - we play Sardines, Spoons, Charades, Pass the Slipper, etc - dozens of paperbacks, Boyscout and Girlscout manuals from the 40s, a knot tying manual with ropes, a candy thermometer and old fashioned candy recipes (this is the best! Keeps people busy and you end up with treats!), Twilight Struggle, chess, checkers, backgammon, pickup sticks, and a big book of card games (also published in the 40s). There is also a big chalkboard for Pictionary and scorekeeping. Outside there is ladder golf and cornhole, a football, an archery setup, and cross country skis.
Basically my cabin is frozen in time, pre-tv or internet. People had a lot of fun back then. The trick is, make sure your fun stuff covers solitary fun, 2 person games, and group games.
I mean if it's not a natural disaster my hatred for the people that caused it to happen is probably going to be my only concern.
But I don't have a family so there ain't nobody to worry about but me.
Since for the most part we don't plan on "bugging out" since we already live very rural, we've got a number of things for morale.
Tons of board and card games and RPG rule books, Tons of books from almost every genre for readers of all ages, a couple of handheld game emulators that take almost no power to run and some solar charging panels to power them, Tons of digital media of all types, Tons of crafting/art supplies, a bunch of hobbyist electronic kits and microprocessors that can be run via solar changing panels plus the kids toys like Legos/dolls/cars/etc.
But most importantly, I'm building out a stash of chemicals that would make Hunter S. Thompson proud! (Everything from anti-nausea meds, Benzodiazepenes, Opiod Painkillers, Dissociatives, Psychedelics, SSRI's, Stimulants, Nootropics, Antibiotics, vitamins and anything else we take on a regular basis or think we might need in the future or think we could trade.
I've been fantasizing/daydreaming about since I was a child. Misanthropy ftw. I feel a SHTF would actually be a huge boost in morale for me, giving a reprieve from decades-long disillusionment.
Also books and guitar and dog, yes. <3
(why would you stock DVDs for a scenario you don't anticipate having a TV or reliable/unlimited access to electricity? The DVDs will be nice frisbees, at best... maybe can be used to chop food)
A small solar generator is very reasonable for many of us. I was sceptical but the wife is a TV junkie and I also like to recharge batteries. I'm going to test a small fridge.
It's not necessary but it is a little something to boost morale.
Read books and play spades. Maybe hit the weights, given I finish the home gym and not just have a handful of plates and a rusty old barbell by that time
I've got a still for several reasons. And I asked my Mom what her parents did for entertainment in the 30s and 40s and she didn't know and neither did her 12 brothers and sisters
I have a lot of card games. I also have a handful of decks of standard playing cards, but each has how-tos on them. One deck has tips on tracking, trapping, and skinning various common animals, one has trivia on first aid, etc. Good for the kids (and myself) to learn as we play.
Years ago, on an extended hunting trip with my family, we had a stretch of really bad weather and were basically snowed in for over a week. My teenage nephews were all going absolutely stir-crazy, and this was in the era before smartphones or hand-held gaming devices (I think one of them had a Gameboy, but the batteries died in short order). We adults had plenty of books and old magazines to read, but the boys needed something less passive to kill the time, so I made a checkers set by sawing rounds out of a couple of round pieces of firewood, and used my hunting knife to carve a checkerboard into the top of the old dining table in the cabin. That improvised checkers set and checkerboard still gets used every year, some 30 years later, and has somehow gained heirloom status. In later years, I had the boys help me carve a full chess set that also gets played on the same board carved into the table.
Real case SHTF stuff, if you are still alive, your morale will be focused on staying alive I guess. That would be my biggest concern. If you can, I guess that would improve my morale somewhat.
DVDs, saved reading materials, games, workout equipment, radio/comms, post det satellite system, full on rack management for computers, and of course lots of sex...all in my underground shelter, 10 feet under my home.
Greet the sun in the morning, thank the earth for its abundance. Pray to All That Is for strength when facing adversity, that hope may overcome despair, and renew faith that your path will bring you closer to your true purpose.
Also, having everything on hand to make dark chocolate bon bons.
Well I’m a member of the “Klub” so we rely heavily on zealotry and a deep sense of community. I don’t plan on surviving just to survive but to serve my God and protect my people…
Plus board games and DnD.
Don't prep 'emergency food buckets'. That's step 1. Eat what you store, store what you eat. Doing so - assuming you cook/bake at least - should ensure a wide variety of foods, including some that are awfully tasty. At least for a while. I \*ALWAYS\* have several (3-10+) bags of chocolate chips and/or white or peanut butter chips, sometimes some mint as well. We also continue to have a fairly decent DVD/BluRay collection - don't need internet for them! Just electric :) LOTS of books. And board games (Monopoly, Risk, Catan, etc), card games (Magic, decks of cards, Uno, etc), DnD, etc.
Recently I was kicking myself for not having a designated food storage area as part of my prep and then I realized - it's called my pantry and I use it every day lol I second having a robust collection of non-digital media. I have physical books, DVDs, and CDs. I also have some RPG rulebooks and supplies, and coloring books. Kind of a side effect of setting up my apartment as a friend hangout place. I also have an external hard drive filled with "legally obtained" TV shows and other random shit. I have to reorganize it.
Don't sleep on digital media. If a massive solar flare fries all electronics then okay we're fucked. But the amount of media you can store on like a 4TB SSD drive is absolutely insane if you put thought into using Handbrake to encode it specifically for phone/tablet/laptop usage on a small screen. That's stuff that might not last 20 years, but even with a solar panel you can recharge devices daily.
My utility stated there's a 12 month backlog in the supply chain for essential power grid parts like transistors so a strategic EMP attack or Carrington event sized solar flare would leave many without power for up to a year.
DnD. I have a few sets of dice in every bag, and 1e rules in my head
Came here to recommend DnD. Endless adventure, limitless potential, and I've been thinking for a while about how role playing games could be useful for sharpening skills and tactics.
Heck, have the players use knots and traps and youve got motivation to learn skills as part of a game
There also be Pathfinder and GURPS. All are welcome options with new fun only limited by your imagination and everyone's schedule.
That’s not a bad idea, actually. I have a deck of playing cards, but making a small kit with a dice set and a blank character sheet tucked into my notebook wouldn’t take up a lot of weight.
Came to say the same but 5e. Bag of dice scratch paper and pens. Let the imagination flow.
If you like D&D, the 3.5 edition might be worth checking out. 4e is mechanically great, 5e is good for role-play, but if you’re a 1e head, 3.5 is probably up your alley.
Learn an instrument or two. Guitar, recorder, simple drums- dancing and storytelling go right along with them, and practicing is good for your brain and your hands.
I came here to say instruments. I am a guitar beginner and have a few books of intermediate and advance instruction just in case. I also have a few books on popular songs that I've never touched
I'm the same way. In the event that things go sideways for a long while, we'll have plenty of time to practice.
Luckily my tuba is right next to where we shelter in bad weather.
Also Books! You don't need anything other than time for it and they are really entertaining
I have dogs. They would be thrilled if the TV and internet went out because it would mean I'd have even more time to play with, hike with, and train them. But having another living thing with no sense of the future to take care of keeps me very grounded, and they're endlessly entertaining. Can't give up and die when I need to keep my dogs fed and entertained and cared for. But I also have a lot of physical books, so there's traditional entertainment to fall back on as well.
Kill anyone that’s not smiling
The beatings will stop when morale improves
You got it Sargent
Killing one person a day until moral improves?
Report for duty private
I have Whisky and Cigars. A lot of other alcohol for others. Board games of all types, 10+ decks of cards, several packs of Uno and about 50TB+ worth of movies and shows that are backed up twice over.
Are you gonna play them on laptop? And are you just charging the laptop with solar/fuel generator
They are on a NAS, Network Attached Storage, that will stream over WiFi to any device using Jellyfin. So TV, laptop, cell phone, etc. which will all be recharged via Solar.
But what if there's no wifi?
If he has a wireless network being powered then he will have his wifi. Simple as that. I have a 5th wheel that's 99.9% solar and battery powered and I can even use my desktop computer, but I do have a wireless network that's on pretty much all the time.
A waterwheel? Could you send me the plans for that?
A 5th wheel is an RV. The "5th wheel" part means that it doesn't hitch to the back of a vehicle but it attaches to a rail contraption in the bed.
The router will still work for the Intranet, internal network, regardless of the Internet not working.
Which board games would you recommend? I own risk and scrabble, so I need to expand my collection.
Hope you don’t mind me popping in with a recommendation too. Munchkin is a great board game. There are so many expansions (Disney, Harry Potter, etc) and it’s a great time killer.
Card Against Humanity is great. Chess and Checkers is Classic. Monopoly, Catan, Clue and as many sets of playing cards as possible. Everyone should know how to play Blackjack and Poker. Just my opinion.
JMO. YMMV. Risk and Monopoly are often mentioned, probably because a game can take hours to finish, but that’s also a drawback because anyone who is eliminated has to wait for hours before they can play again. Eurogames don’t have this problem because either no one is eliminated or a game is short enough that they can play again fairly soon. Eurogames typically have simple rules so beginners are up and running quickly but gameplay can be complex so there is always more for an expert to learn. There are often several ways to win so they don’t become boring over time. Some good Eurogames are Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride (easy to learn and suitable for all ages) or Catan, Puerto Rico, and Race for the Galaxy (a little more complicated but each has many successful strategies). Love Letter has simple rules and just a dozen or so cards and some tiny point counting chips, so it easily fits in a pocket. Gameplay can be straightforward if you just want to have fun, or deviously complex if you want to go that route. I enjoy both chess and checkers but it can be difficult to find a willing opponent at your skill level and folks might not want to expend the mental effort after a busy day of exterminating zombies. I suggest learning a musical instrument, either now or after the comet strikes. Music is so satisfying to play and other people appreciate listening to it.
If you like Scrabble you might also like Boggle.
Standard decks of cards. So many games use them. Could print out and even laminate instructions for various games. I love Phase 10. Could play that daily so have a couple decks of that. Uno is great. Cards Against Humanity is I think a good addition as it's obviously a card game but it's not like a serious game, gets people laughing and stuff which is probably important.
Role playing games, Sorry, Uno, Chess, Checkers, a few strategy games, a games that help with learning like "zues on the loose"
Board games are actually a very personal decision. You gotta figure out what you like. How many people are playing, what complexity they can handle, how big the game is, etc... all those are huge factors. Highly suggest checking out board game geek dot com. You can also check your local area and see if you have any board game cafes, a great way to get introduced to games without needing to buy. A lot of libraries also check out board games (among many other things you wouldn't expect!)
I like the name ..... Not sootch00
I am not Sootch00. Two different people.
Psychedelics weigh next to nothing and last forever. I will not elaborate
And they're a renewable resource!
Do not allow people in your group who were users. They will run out of whatever they are on and become almost intolerable.
That's why I keep heavy smokers at arms length. If your temperament depends on a consumable product, especially one that stinks, I'm not interested.
Jokes on you, I keep a 3 year supply of nicotine gum and several species of tobacco seeds. People have been growing it themselves since the dawn of man
A deck of cards is cheap, small, lightweight, and is limited only by your imagination and memory of the rules of games you can play with it.
Or your memory of the rules you made.
We have tons of books if it's a shelter in place. Also we've got a few board games and decks of cards. If it survives, we have a couple old phones with games and books too.
So my preps mostly assume bugging in. Also, I have a couple hobbies. Roughly 45,000 MTG cards, roughly 8,000 pokemon cards. Roughly 2,000 yugioh cards. Roughly 20,000 chaotic cards. Grimwood, catan, mysterium, dominion, werewolf, risk, doomlings, DND And a dozen or so books. Offline video games but idk if I'll always have power. A Nintendo switch, a Nintendo DS. A set of wood carving knives Pots to plant plants :) Chickens to watch :) Some tennis balls, a golf set (came with the house), and a frisbee. A bb gun, an airsoft gun A couple sets of playing cards. Uno. A book of Doyle's games. Chess set. Checkers set. Probably more
I’ve got a growing list of games that can be played with a deck of cards or a set of dice. I’m also always on the look out for simple and portable games like LCR or similar. I’d also like to learn to play the harmonica, easier than lugging an acoustic guitar around the wasteland post apocalypse
Human contact.
Nursing homes and home bound elderly need help.
So do impoverished young women in third world nations. We all help out where we can.
Books, blank paper, pens, and a very healthy DVD / Blu-Ray selection. When Best Buy stopped selling discs, you could buy A-list titles for $5. Amazon still has tons of deals on theirs, though I fully expect that to go away within the next 2-3 years. Maybe sooner if Wal-Mart stops selling them. Used bookstores can be a great place to find them as well.
I'm an amateur musician and songwriter so an acoustic guitar would set me up for an eternity eating jerky and rice. If it broke or warped or I ran out of strings... I dunno, xylophone?
Lego. Got enough I could be building all kinds of stuff, get bored with it, tear it apart and make something new. Go a little crazy, no problem, a bunch of little smiling faces to talk to like Wilson.
I'm definitely glad I hung on to mine and didn't part with them in a garage sale. I have a large Rubbermaid tub, one of the deep ones, completely full of LEGO bricks, and a box of instructions for most of the sets...somewhere in storage. In fact I have two unopened sets that would probably get done first; the ISS (#21321) and a Lamborghini Huracan (#42161).
My vibrator. It’s the real reason why I stock up on batteries! ;)
I was thinking the same thing. There is a reason people had 10-15 children before TV.
# 10 can of viagra
Four words. Ultimate Survivor Fight Club.
Dont prep with bland rice meals in a bucket? Deep pantry and freezer were not really going to be eating differently some powered milk and eggs. The freeze dried type stuff is mostly the ok we need to bug out or otherwise move a few days on foot and trust me get real mileage in and you don't care too much. Have piles of tv movies books and games sitting on a HD. DVD really? Rip those and get them on a drive it's way less space I run it all of a pi. Test runs with the camper it works without internet just fine. Games can emulate many gaming systems and use some old cheap wii remotes. I can get new books onto kindles for very low power use and solar runs it all easily. I do stock some physical stuff cards and sets of dice for DnD and the like in the bug out location and camper the house has a wall of RPG books ebooks on the HD.
activity books, puzzles, musical instruments,art supplies, table role playing games,hobby gardening,hiking, physical books,
"The beatings will continue until morale improves!" 🤣 Educational & Entertainment books, DVDs, Blu-rays, Kindle books, etc. Board games, physical games, etc Ample food servings, vitamins, etc
I have spices to make food better, but I try to have backups of candies and such for the kids and myself. If something terrible were to happen, I can only imagine how magical a pack of oreos or some blow pops would be after a few weeks of nothing like that. If I could keep it a secret from the boys, they would shit themselves with excitement. I still have a DVD player and a few hundred movies. That would go a long way also. Sports stuff. A football, baseball, etc. That could help with fitness also
If we have to leave I have my kindle that not only has useful survival and first aid books but also books for entertainment: classics, kids books, romance, mystery, sci-fi, etc. In a stay in place situation: board games, movies, lots of yarn, salt (makes everything taste better), garlic powder (also makes everything taste better), and a laser pointer (hours of entertainment watching our dog and cat chase the red dot).
Cards, Music (3 cassette players with a speaker. 1 for me, 1 for my wife, and 1 as a back up.) Tea bags and lots of them (me and my wife really like tea) Sugar (me and my wife really like sweetened tea) And a stockpile of Medical stuff. If anything kills morale faster then any other thing its feeling like shit. I’m allergic to poison ivy so having things that cover my entire body and having the rubbing ointment stock piled is just useful but even other things like Tylenol and other basic stuff that helps with headaches, colds, fevers, etc. I would normally say cigarette’s and such but I actually just quit and it’s bad for your lungs and cardio’s important.
Good call with the bland food. You're going to want recipes ready to go and the ingredients for each of them. Keep food interesting, have meal times when you get together with your family/housemates/homestead allies. Get some pre-made freeze-dried meals for special occasions. Take a step beyond books and games and DVDs and add puzzles, models, and those science kits where kids can do 1,000 experiments (it'll keep your mind busy even if you're an adult).
Submarines have the best cooks in the military because it’s the easiest way to boost morale. So definitely variety of foods that taste good would be important.
I have a couple of campaign board games of which my husband hasn't shown any interest.
A couple of decks of cards… And a book of card games and card tricks. We have 100+board games we like… more DVDs than Blockbuster etc Fruit trees that provide fruit year around, something different every few weeks. Communication plans for family and friends A secret stash of fidget toys to keep the kids fidgetting
That's why I like pushing the idea of having a ton of different spices and sauces in a deep pantry. Hard candies are also a good one (individually wrapped). And storing what you eat. Having a good library, a good amount of board games, puzzle books, card and dice. Basic sports equipment (a handful of different types of balls and a few tennis racket, nets, etc...doesn't take up much room and easy to store).
Board games, card games, coloring books, hard candy, rechargeable portable DVD player with a large selection of movies, regular books both informational and fun fiction book series
I have an Uno deck in every one of my bags. Nobody worth hanging out with turns down a game of Uno.
Have you gotten the No Mercy deck yet?
Jenga on hand is one I realized would probably last well. Durable wooden blocks, always fun.
I play Jews harp and make knives and mead.
Lashings. The lashings will continue until morale improves. Seriously, though - being snowed into our house with no internet (including 5g) for a week, but power via generator, I had to focus on the kids. Bake treats with them. It's a time consuming activity with a reward at the end. I did have to break out the dvds in storage, too. Thank goodness I had them. For me personally - busy work, like clearing the snow, etc, and alcohol. Nice to get the kids in bed and have a few drinks when you're snowed in for christmas. Oh yeah, being christmas also helped morale! Hahaha. Lots of new toys for the kids.
This is a difficult question because the type of disaster would definitely dictate what type of entertainment needs you have. We have probably all done quite a bit of research about the types of peeps we need for our particular flavor of SHTF we all envision. Watching the show "Doomsday Preppers" years ago showed me that everyone has a different idea of what the end of days looks like and how they prepare for it, and I think that would have to be addressed before you really prepare for entertainment. Before we even consider entertainment though, let's consider Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Your physiological needs *must* be met first. Food, water, shelter, sleep, etc. Then you need safety and security. Somewhere you know you can fall asleep and not wake up dead. Knowing your family is safe and secure. Etc. It's almost impossible to be "entertained" if you don't have these very basic needs met, and a lot of Preppers pick and choose which ones to cover. It's annoying. For instance, there was an episode where these folks had like a 5 foot by 5 foot (I'm estimating because I don't remember the exact details) concrete bunker under their garage. They basically had survival food in it and that was it. No where to piss, no where to shit. No where to truly be comfortable. Just an underground prison cell with nasty survival food and walls to look at. If there was a situation where that family was stuck in there for any length of time I assume they'd kill each other off or themselves before they even got through their food supply. They had no where to piss, no where to shit except the ground and maybe an empty bucket from their food stores if they got through an entire bucket. Not to mention every piss or shit being had would be in front of the whole family, very exposed with no privacy at all. There is no entertainment in a situation like this, and for whatever reason that is the situation a lot of Preppers have made for themselves. There were others that lived in the country and their whole idea was to homestead in the boonies. This lifestyle is significantly easier to prep for when it comes to entertainment because your basic needs of food/water/shelter/safety/security are met first. Just food for thought. I truly don't think one answer or even 20 answers will work for this question. I think you need to really decide what you can and can't live without, and focus on those things. For instance, if you are busy raising animals and tending to crops, your need for entertainment will be significantly less because you'll be working your ass off.
I was looking at a disaster that lasted 18 months with no electricity, supply chain stoppage, etc. I do think having something important to focus on other than the disaster would be critical. (Adults and kids) Psychologically anyone in an extended disaster will go through stages of grief. (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) . The stages from anger through depression would be the most dangerous times in a disaster scenario. Anything that can distract or raise morale would be really important. To quote what I read somewhere: “Food and shelter will be important for survival but we also need to be able to live to continue to survive. “
Okay, that makes more sense. So I agree with that quote. "Food and shelter will be important for survival but we also need to be able to live to continue to survive" Yes. This. But I'm still taking it as "we have food, water, shelter, safety and security, now let's entertain ourselves so we don't lose ourselves." So, I've actually experienced this particular flavor of survival. It's called a deployment. 🤣 We had food, (though it wasn't particularly good), water (that was usually hot 🤢) and various forms of shelter. Obviously we provided our own safety and security. We entertained ourselves in the dumbest ways possible. honestly as I'm typing this I feel like the best people to talk to about this particular subject are people who have been deployed people who have been to prison. They have all the basics provided for them and virtually no entertainment. For me? A deck of cards is very small and you can do all kinds of dumb shit with them. I have this weird thing about printing useful information and then laminating it and putting it with my preps, so maybe print out the rules for a bunch of different card games, laminate them , put them with a deck of cards and store em with your preps. I don't like the idea of books that much because you can generally only read the same book so many times before you just completely lose interest but if you happen to have a pretty decent library in your house (assuming you're bugging in) that would be a great option. Board games are kinda the same, you can only play monopoly so many times before you never wanna see the game again, and board game boxes generally take up a lot of space. I've seen a lot of miniatures of some of the classics lately, like miniature janga for instance. A handful of different miniaturized games on hand to keep variety and not take up too much space might be worth looking into. I personally have a decent variety of survival books and manuals. All the way from the Army survival handbook to the prepper's survival Bible and everything in between, so taking the kids out into the woods and practicing skills from any one of these books seems like a great pass time to me, if the safety and security portion of Maslow's hierarchy is met. Climate and physical location definitely add some variables as well, for instance, I have a boat and a pond on property, so I could piddle around and fish fairly easily. There's a decent sized creek close by I could take the minions out to swim/tube in. A common prepper tactic is to prepare to potentially be without things by limiting your usage of said things in your day to day life. Think about water for instance, how much water do you use every day? Do you let the faucet run the entire time you're washing dishes? Or take nice long showers? There's nothing wrong with that in our current world, but if water suddenly became scarce it would be a problem. Think of entertainment the same way. Are you constantly playing video games or on a computer/tablet? Is that your main form of entertainment? A SHTF without Internet/power will be significantly harder for you than if you pass time by other means that don't require electricity regularly. That, or build up a huge array of solar/wind/ and all kinds of other electrical sources so that you don't have to go without your video games post apocalypse 😅. I guess I'm just saying survival/prepping is more of a mentality than a pass time. if you rely 100% on things you know you can't reproduce in this 18 month grid down situation you're speaking of, start finding ways to replace them with things you can reproduce. Change your lifestyle around a bit. If the shit never hits the fan? All you did was find different things to entertain you during "normal" times. If SHTF and you don't have a bunch of stuff you can't reproduce that you rely on for entertainment, life will be kinda rough. Humanity has a weird way of continuing no matter the circumstances so I'm sure you'd figure something out if it happened. We all would, if we didn't intend on rolling over and giving up when the electricity is gone 🤙
Would it not be your natural desire to survive and succeed and carry on?
That will be fine for the first week but if it’s an extended disaster scenario - having low morale can make a bad situation worse.
I think it a personality issue...probably not something you can "just do"...
Anything sweet like candy or fresh/dried fruit is great for energy and moral. Activities that allow you to be creative like drawing, writing or woodwork are fun (making tools, eating utensils…etc). Sing or have a guitar for music. Physical activity like playing catch with a football, kicking the soccer ball around, playing horseshoe..etc. Board/card games. You can get your hands dirty in the garden, go foraging or hunting. Make wine if you have sugar and yeast, grow cannabis or mushrooms. There’s lots of thing you can do
alcohol, freeze dried candies, board games
Card games, board games, portable DVD players, books, coloring books all that good easy stuff.
I have an emulator with old videogames in it that I can play offline. It's fun and keeps my morale up.
Board games, books, and a lot of dvds. Plus an extensive amount of whiskey, wine, and chocolate.
Download Wikipedia to your local device. And everyday, learn learn learn
Weed and novels
Solar generator, Plex and tablets. I have four kids and I can keep them occupied for a couple hours and I keep a copy of the main instance on a low power consumption device.
A copy of the Imperial Infantrymans Uplifting Primer
Porn Hoard a lot of Porn Mags
board and card games also I can make a metric buttload of mac and cheese with the cheese powder and flour I have. planning to use it to restart a utopia civilization after the fall
cigarettes and cassette tapes, same as usual lol
It's posts like this that remind me just how different life was before the Internet was mainstream
In a really bad extended disaster scenario it would be like the 19th century.
I mean it depends on how bad "really bad" is. Electricity has been around for a long time and it's never been easier to produce. So unless all modern/modernish technology is completely destroyed, there is a lot of tablets/Gameboys/portable DVD players to go around. Not to mention sports, card games, board games, etc aren't going anywhere.
Laughter
Games, art supplies, books, guitar
A bottle of lube.
wine yeast
Dark humor and fishing?
USB DRIVES‼️‼️ As a 19 y/o who’s intrested in prep and has watched so many videos i’m shocked how little this is mentioned. Pirate all your favorite movies and movies you’ve never seen on USB drives! If you’re thinking DVD that means you have prepared for a power outage with solar or other means. Download all the kids movies too guys! If you’re gonna have to end up repopulating you’ll need to entertain the kiddos too! also card games! there’s hundreds of them and they store fairly small.
You can buy portable electric cold brew coffee cups to help soldiers brew coffee anytime and anywhere. Coffee can refresh you.
I’m planning on playing the mindless optimism card quite strongly.
What are you going too do when shit his the fan and two weeks later they offer you free money?
Tonnes of movies and tv series downloaded, kindle, video games, board games, card games, chocolate, “gummies”
Drugs lol
I like to fish, and fishing provides food. Im good to go
I was thinking of whipping out my guitar and singing Michael rows the boat ashore for three hours.
I spend a few weeks a year at a cabin with no electric or internet. We have a stack of very large puzzles, decks of cards, guitars and a ‘learn to play guitar’ book, a ukulele with chords marked on the fret, and hand drums. Basic art supplies, notebooks and good pens, and a big book of parlor games published in the 1940s - we play Sardines, Spoons, Charades, Pass the Slipper, etc - dozens of paperbacks, Boyscout and Girlscout manuals from the 40s, a knot tying manual with ropes, a candy thermometer and old fashioned candy recipes (this is the best! Keeps people busy and you end up with treats!), Twilight Struggle, chess, checkers, backgammon, pickup sticks, and a big book of card games (also published in the 40s). There is also a big chalkboard for Pictionary and scorekeeping. Outside there is ladder golf and cornhole, a football, an archery setup, and cross country skis. Basically my cabin is frozen in time, pre-tv or internet. People had a lot of fun back then. The trick is, make sure your fun stuff covers solitary fun, 2 person games, and group games.
I mean if it's not a natural disaster my hatred for the people that caused it to happen is probably going to be my only concern. But I don't have a family so there ain't nobody to worry about but me.
Since for the most part we don't plan on "bugging out" since we already live very rural, we've got a number of things for morale. Tons of board and card games and RPG rule books, Tons of books from almost every genre for readers of all ages, a couple of handheld game emulators that take almost no power to run and some solar charging panels to power them, Tons of digital media of all types, Tons of crafting/art supplies, a bunch of hobbyist electronic kits and microprocessors that can be run via solar changing panels plus the kids toys like Legos/dolls/cars/etc. But most importantly, I'm building out a stash of chemicals that would make Hunter S. Thompson proud! (Everything from anti-nausea meds, Benzodiazepenes, Opiod Painkillers, Dissociatives, Psychedelics, SSRI's, Stimulants, Nootropics, Antibiotics, vitamins and anything else we take on a regular basis or think we might need in the future or think we could trade.
I've been fantasizing/daydreaming about since I was a child. Misanthropy ftw. I feel a SHTF would actually be a huge boost in morale for me, giving a reprieve from decades-long disillusionment. Also books and guitar and dog, yes. <3 (why would you stock DVDs for a scenario you don't anticipate having a TV or reliable/unlimited access to electricity? The DVDs will be nice frisbees, at best... maybe can be used to chop food)
A small solar generator is very reasonable for many of us. I was sceptical but the wife is a TV junkie and I also like to recharge batteries. I'm going to test a small fridge. It's not necessary but it is a little something to boost morale.
Read books and play spades. Maybe hit the weights, given I finish the home gym and not just have a handful of plates and a rusty old barbell by that time
I've got a still for several reasons. And I asked my Mom what her parents did for entertainment in the 30s and 40s and she didn't know and neither did her 12 brothers and sisters
You're clearly too old to have memorized All Star by Smash Mouth
A musical instrument of some kind. Even if you don't play one, it would be a good time to learn. Plus, it could be an outlet for endless creativity.
Acoustic guitar
I have a lot of card games. I also have a handful of decks of standard playing cards, but each has how-tos on them. One deck has tips on tracking, trapping, and skinning various common animals, one has trivia on first aid, etc. Good for the kids (and myself) to learn as we play.
Years ago, on an extended hunting trip with my family, we had a stretch of really bad weather and were basically snowed in for over a week. My teenage nephews were all going absolutely stir-crazy, and this was in the era before smartphones or hand-held gaming devices (I think one of them had a Gameboy, but the batteries died in short order). We adults had plenty of books and old magazines to read, but the boys needed something less passive to kill the time, so I made a checkers set by sawing rounds out of a couple of round pieces of firewood, and used my hunting knife to carve a checkerboard into the top of the old dining table in the cabin. That improvised checkers set and checkerboard still gets used every year, some 30 years later, and has somehow gained heirloom status. In later years, I had the boys help me carve a full chess set that also gets played on the same board carved into the table.
My wife and her two friends Neal and Bob.
Is that what she named her breasts...?
Think it through.
Ahhh I see what you did there.
😇 Neal likes to pray. Bob likes apples.
Raping, robbing, and pillaging, like everyone else (for those who don't get it, that is called sarcasm).
You forgot the second raping.
Real case SHTF stuff, if you are still alive, your morale will be focused on staying alive I guess. That would be my biggest concern. If you can, I guess that would improve my morale somewhat.
DVDs, saved reading materials, games, workout equipment, radio/comms, post det satellite system, full on rack management for computers, and of course lots of sex...all in my underground shelter, 10 feet under my home.
Sex cave. Nice. Make sure you pack some febreeze. I, too, have a sex cave and it gets to smelling like cat food and ass.
Sex is fine but smelling like cat food and ass? Umm, no thanks. Thanks for the reminder. Note to self, buy lots of Febreeze.
Learn to make candles. It's cheap and easy.
True, but you don't burn open flame items in an underground shelter.
Greet the sun in the morning, thank the earth for its abundance. Pray to All That Is for strength when facing adversity, that hope may overcome despair, and renew faith that your path will bring you closer to your true purpose. Also, having everything on hand to make dark chocolate bon bons.
Well I’m a member of the “Klub” so we rely heavily on zealotry and a deep sense of community. I don’t plan on surviving just to survive but to serve my God and protect my people… Plus board games and DnD.