Im not trying to aks about some trigger thing or whatever. I wanted to ask if any of you gamers lended a book/magasine/anything to other players for them to just not give them back and retract from contact. Once it happened to me when i was a teeanger and started with the hobby. Then it happened in a company i worked in, with a person i thought was a normal adult(a cthulhu main rulebook). Now im pretty sure ill never lend anything to anybody ever again. Anybody has similar stuff happen to them?
My most memorable stolen book story was not an RPG book, it was a Astrology book.
I lent it to one girl at University who lent it to another friend who lent it to another friend because it turns out that girls love that horoscope shit.
I lent a friend of mine (he was a player in one of my longest running campaigns in the late 90s) the Dungeoneer and Blacksand books (the Jackson and Livingstone Advanced Fighting Fantasy stuff) and the guy never gave them back. I had half-forgotten it, but then one day the fancy struck me to go read those books again and I remembered lending him the books.
I called him and asked for the books, and he told me he didn't have them. He supposedly lent them to a friend of his who never gave them back. He didn't seem bothered by the ethics of sub-lending stuff that wasn't his in the first place.
Needless to say, we didn't remain friends.
Lent my Spycraft book to a friend. I got it back three weeks later with damage to the covers, spine, and pages. Seems his dog(s?) and kids were quite fond of the book. He did buy me a replacement, so all was good, but I never let him borrow anything else after that.
Not RPG books, but movies on DVD and video games. I don't loan anything out anymore without asking myself if I'm willing to risk it being "disappeared".
1e PH, DMG, MM and Fiend Folio. Lent to a friend to read over the summer. He decided to take them while backpacking in Europe to game with and 'lost' them. Blame myself for being too trusting, assuming that friends would recognise the value they had for me.
Problem is, what's precious to us is just some curiosity or lark for others.
If my friends want to borrow now, they get the pdf, never the print. Trust no one.
If I lend someone something, I have already decided I was willing to lose it. But I am still not willing to lend just anything to anyone. I did put a box of things in my brother's care when i went to boot camp (incoming list of 1st edition books, PHB, DMG, MM, MM2, UEA, the under ground guide book, wilderness survival guide, Fiend Folio, Deities and Demigods (the illegal one with all the stolen IP stuff, Gamma world box set, oriental adventures) and he lost all of them at some point before I finished my gig. So he is not high on my list of allowing to borrow. he did manage to scratch up the DMG since then, but I sure would like to look through my old books.
My first RPG book was an AD&D 2e Player's Guide(or Handbook or whatever). I'd only gotten to read a little of it before it mysteriously disappeared. When I wasn't reading it, it stayed on a shelf in my closet. I never took it out of my room. I just got home from school one day, went to read on it, and . . . poof. 25 years later and it hasn't shown up during a move or anything. I suspect my mom.
Quote from: oggsmash on February 28, 2021, 12:25:05 AM
Deities and Demigods (the illegal one with all the stolen IP stuff
That might be Chaosium's characterisation of the situation, as opposed to most Cthulu stuff being Public Domain even in the 1970s, and Michael Moorcock having granted TSR licence to publish the Elric mythos without checking with his agent. I don't think TSR can fairly be described as stealing any IP.
No, never. The closest I got was when I lent the Pathfinder (1E) rulebook + Monster Manual to the wife of a player who really wanted to become a DM. She told me that, if she "cracked" the feat she would have bought her own copies. Six months into her campaign (where she displayed a real talent for DMing) I simply said "Just keep my books. I will never use them anyway."
Quote from: S'mon on February 28, 2021, 05:01:41 AM
That might be Chaosium's characterisation of the situation, as opposed to most Cthulu stuff being Public Domain even in the 1970s, and Michael Moorcock having granted TSR licence to publish the Elric mythos without checking with his agent. I don't think TSR can fairly be described as stealing any IP.
IIUC, there is a difference between the Mythos being public domain (and thus full of interpretations and contradictions), and the specific description and interpretation that Chaosium developed for "Call of Cthulhu". This is why there are all sorts of "lovecraftian" products (including comics, movies, games and videogames) but also products "officially licensed from Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium" (like FFGs "The Arkham Horror Files"). I think that it must be serious stuff, because these products actually can sport the official "Call of Cthulhu" RPG logo.
Having said that, I never owned the "forbidden" D&D manual, so I can't say if TSR adapted the Mythos as established in CoC or if Chaosium simply decided to be a PitA.
A gaming buddy once got into Warhammer (wargame) and asked if he could borrow all my classic White Dwarfs and a couple of the WHFRP supplements for background info.
He also borrowed my FASA boxed Star Trek set, the one with the rpg and the starship combat game, just for reading.
Then, in a very short time, he suddenly emotionally imploded, fell off the wagon hard, divorced and moved without leaving an address or phone number (that was before cell phones became a thing).
So yeah, that's two big gaps in my collection.
Loaned my Moldvay basic boxed set to a school friend who then "lost" it. Rather than replace it I got the 1e hardbacks instead. Similar thing happened with my Warhammer 1e (still nominally an RPG in that edition) as well as the Regiments of Renown boxed expansion. The friend I loaned it to unexpectedly left school and I never saw those again.
Those incidents pale in comparison to what happened to my RPG collection in the late 90's though. I was between house shares and gradually moving stuff from the old place to the new place. Came back to find almost all of my RPG collection had gone - probably 15 years worth of various systems books and magazines. It was only much later I found out the shady cousin of one of my housemates had stolen them - loaded them up in his car and sold them on a market stall he ran, likely for peanuts. I've since replaced some of the stuff via ebay and the like, but a lot of it was irreplaceable. Pretty sure my folders of campaign notes, character sheets, homebrew notes, self- written adventures etc. was taken as well and probably binned.
Yes. 1979. My ODD box set. Gone from the strategy club cabinet. 🤬
My cousin 'Borrowed' my entire AD&D collection. I guess that was 30 years ago and I'm still waiting to get it back!
Oh, yeah! I forgot! One evening (back in the early '90s) I was on my car, coming home from a gaming session. I had with me the JUST BOUGHT the two original "Realm of Chaos" books for Warhammer 40K. I had brought them with me to show the great quality of these supplements to the other players.
When I arrived home the sky had opened and water was pouring down like under a waterfall. I had the books safe in my gaming backpack, in the trunk, so I waited for the rain to calm down a bit and sprinted to my house's door - after closing the car.
Next day, no car. It had been stolen during the night. The good news: after a few days I got a call from the police and was informed that my car had been found. For some reason the thief (thieves?) had driven it in the middle of a field and left it there. The car door and the trunk were forced but there was no other damage.
The bad news: the Chaos books were the only thing missing in the whole car. I had other items of "interest" for small time crooks (like spare parts for the car, another backpack with travel stuff...) all untouched. Even the gaming backpack was there, opened and abandoned in the trunk. I always wondered about these thieves who hit the big one: two great books for their favourite game...
Happened all the time when I played as a kid: players would casually start to fondle a manual at the gaming table until they became confident it belonged to them. "What do you mean, bro? This is MY Player's Handbook!".
We all started writing our names on the sides of the pages (I mean, when the book is closed, the surface created by the stacked pages opposite the spine).
Quote from: Warder on February 27, 2021, 06:53:39 PM
Im not trying to aks about some trigger thing or whatever. I wanted to ask if any of you gamers lended a book/magasine/anything to other players for them to just not give them back and retract from contact. Once it happened to me when i was a teeanger and started with the hobby. Then it happened in a company i worked in, with a person i thought was a normal adult(a cthulhu main rulebook). Now im pretty sure ill never lend anything to anybody ever again. Anybody has similar stuff happen to them?
Well, yeah.
Many of us "older gamers" from the 70's and 80's dealt with the "Satanic Panic". It was a very real event that cost many of us our books and dice. I know it did me. I had to hide anything new in players' lockers because anything I brought home would be discovered and destroyed.
It was crazy. That a game could create such hysteria. FKN Pat Robertson.
So, I admire the resilence of older gamers since I know what they had to endure, some more than others of course. Some of the people playing tabletop roleplaying games had to defy their family in order to defend their ability to engage the hobby.
It's funny. SJWs talk about boomer neckbeards gatekeeping the hobby, but those old gamers had to fight their own battles to keep D&D vibrant in their towns. No one was saying football or baseball or basketball or video games or board games were EVIL. If you were playing D&D you might as well be selling crack cocaine. Same villification.
SJWs are just over-entitled jerks with no concept of what it took to get the hobby to this point. They should be thanking the older gamers, but you know what? Fuck older gamers. Fuck their collective rpg experience. This mentality is what will eventually paralyze WotC.
I had a storage locker with a bunch of Middle Earth, Classic White Wolf, and some TSR box sets. No problems for years then it got broken into and all of it was stolen. I hold out hope that someone got some use out of them, but since my unit was not the only one hit, I figured it was a just a smash and grab. Such is life.
When I was in high school, someone broke into my car and stole my AD&D books. Had a $100 hunting knife and a borrowed Mac Plus that went untouched so I'm pretty sure they went specifically for the books. Pissed me off to no end, so much so I worked double shifts every weekend to buy a new set. After that they either stayed in my room or my backpack.
Also certain someone stole a box of stuff when I was moving after grad school...was putting boxes outside my apartment then carrying them to the trailer. After I unloaded everything I was missing a complete Rolemaster set and the Ghost Dog rpg that happened to be in one box together. Super random, guessing someone just grabbed a box and ran off while I was loading.
I always got back stuff I loaned, although I rarely did. However one summer I played Shadowrun with some guys and one of them let me borrow the Street Samurai guide. I remember specially saying I'll get it back to him with the response of, "Oh I know you will." And of course he never got it back because of some extenuating circumstances. Still feel bad about that, even over 20 years later.
Quote from: Brad on February 28, 2021, 03:16:05 PMStill feel bad about that, even over 20 years later.
I knew those pouty lips of yours meant trouble...
one of the guys I used to game with borrowed the 2nd ed monstrous manual from me, the one they came out with after all the 3 ring binder loose pages, so he could run his "epic" 2nd ed D&D game with all the "fixed" rules.
the only rule of his I remember was if you rolled high during character creation for your stats, you got negative modifiers to everything because you shouldn't be rewarded for being lucky. So that evened the playing field for everyone.
I left the game after 2 sessions of that stupidity, said I'd get the book back in a month or so. never got the book back.
Back in the 90s, I loaned out my 1e Players Handbook to a co-worker. At the time I thought, "I'll never need my first edition AD&D books because second edition is superior in every way."
Well, I've never actually played 1e AD&D since then so I guess I was right. Funny thing is, I have no idea what happened to all my second edition AD&D books.
I've had a couple of mix ups with books and started signing mine when I play in public. I have had one theft and that really hurt since it was a book I have not been able to replace (expect as extreme expense.) So, my borrowing policy is never unless it is someone who I have daily contact with (which is nobody these days.)
Never had anything stolen from me, but once had a friend refuse to take back a Champions book he loaned me despite several offers on my part to return it.
Luckily, most of my books are in English and most people here are not fluent in English, but I lent my copy of Legend of the Five Rings 2e and never got it back. I also forgot to whom I lent it. Once I had my house broken into and they took almost everything, but didn't touch my books ::) Little did they know that the books were worth more than the crappy computer I had at the time.
No thankfully I have not. As far as loaning stuff out goes the only person I would loan stuff to is someone I trust completely to handle my things with care and return them in a timely fashion. We've known each other since jr high and have passed gaming books, novels, cd's, etc back and forth many times with no incident.
Quote from: PFrota on March 03, 2021, 08:28:18 PM
Luckily, most of my books are in English and most people here are not fluent in English, but I lent my copy of Legend of the Five Rings 2e and never got it back. I also forgot to whom I lent it. Once I had my house broken into and they took almost everything, but didn't touch my books ::) Little did they know that the books were worth more than the crappy computer I had at the time.
I have a hunch we live close to each other. Probably not the same state, but I'm pretty sure it's the same country.
Quote from: Shasarak on February 27, 2021, 07:27:32 PM
My most memorable stolen book story was not an RPG book, it was a Astrology book.
I lent it to one girl at University who lent it to another friend who lent it to another friend because it turns out that girls love that horoscope shit.
To this day, I have never been asked about my star sign by a guy.
One of my RPG books was stolen. But it was in a bag with my phone and some other things (thankfully not my wallet). Does that count?
Quote from: Trond on March 04, 2021, 11:12:33 PM
Quote from: Shasarak on February 27, 2021, 07:27:32 PM
My most memorable stolen book story was not an RPG book, it was a Astrology book.
I lent it to one girl at University who lent it to another friend who lent it to another friend because it turns out that girls love that horoscope shit.
To this day, I have never been asked about my star sign by a guy.
I also have never asked a guy about their Star Sign so story checks out.
The only thing that really stands out was when I came home from Navy Basic Training. Before leaving, I had packed up all of my paperback books and gaming books so that my parents could use my bedroom for storage. When I arrived, I was dying to grab my Classic Traveller and D&D books to bring back to base with me. I spent a day looking through the house and the garage and attic for the box with them in it, but could not find them. I asked my Dad and he hadn't seen it. I asked my Mom and she told me that now that I was in the Navy, I was too old for all of that "kid's stuff". She had taken about $200 (in 1988 dollars) of RPG books and sold them to a local used book store.
hmmm...an interesting idea. I should leave some Rolemaster books out in the wild with my phone number and email address on the inside cover an see if I can find some players!
About 31-32 years ago when I was in college, I had our stash of Palladium Fantasy. Most of the books belonged to a good friend. I needed rent money and traded them in to the local game store. I bought them back when payday came (so it cost me more in the long run), but he was still pissed. I deserved the anger and apologized as much as I could. He later accepted it. What he never accepted was me winning our collection of Lost Worlds Combat Books in a poker game we had. But that was fair and square.
I lent out my AD&D Dieties and Demigods with the Moorcock and Cthulhu content and never got it back. I've since replaced it but I no longer lend out gaming books.
Now I also buy 2 copies of books since 5e came out but the wokeness has paused my purchases from WotC for the foreseeable future.
A friend wanted to buy my extra original copy of Champions 4th Edition. I let him have it, and he said I would get paid later for it.
Then he got called up for Desert Storm. Took the book with him. When I called his family to get the money for it, they gave me the brush-off. And I was pissed.
He eventually came back from his tour of duty, paid me, and apologized. But I became a lot less trusting as a result.