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Author Topic: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?  (Read 3472 times)

Reckall

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #15 on: February 28, 2021, 08:13:14 AM »
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...
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Zalman

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #16 on: February 28, 2021, 09:39:12 AM »
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).
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Theory of Games

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #17 on: February 28, 2021, 10:55:36 AM »
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.
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Starglyte

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #18 on: February 28, 2021, 02:57:34 PM »
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.

Brad

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #19 on: February 28, 2021, 03:16:05 PM »
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.
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BronzeDragon

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #20 on: March 01, 2021, 03:30:27 AM »
Still feel bad about that, even over 20 years later.

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remial

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #21 on: March 01, 2021, 05:23:22 AM »
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.

hedgehobbit

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #22 on: March 01, 2021, 10:44:22 AM »
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.

zircher

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #23 on: March 01, 2021, 10:49:14 AM »
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.)
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markmohrfield

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #24 on: March 03, 2021, 01:57:04 AM »
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.

PFrota

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #25 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.

Arkansan

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #26 on: March 04, 2021, 01:48:57 AM »
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. 

BronzeDragon

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #27 on: March 04, 2021, 09:08:39 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.
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Trond

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #28 on: March 04, 2021, 11:12:33 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.

Trond

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Re: Anybody ever got their rpg books stolen?
« Reply #29 on: March 04, 2021, 11:13:55 PM »
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?