I've cut way back on rpg purchases, and I've sold about half of the books I owned. The money I used to spend on this has gone into regular books and bargain DVDs.

I haven't stopped the influx, but "will I ever use this" has become a very serious question before I buy something new.

Quote from: Benoist;429403But I sure as hell am not going to invest in completely new games now if I'm not sure I'm going to play them at some point (few months) down the road. I'm much more likely to buy something like Majestic Wilderlands (which I did, and it's awesome) which is an add-on to a classic game (OD&D) than I am likely to purchase Goodman's entirely stand-alone/own Dungeon Crawl Classics role playing game. For instance.

Presently I'm not likely to pick up the Dungeon Drawl Classics (DCC) rpg sight unseen.  (This is coming from someone who has tons of DCC modules from the 3.5E and 4E eras).  At this point, I don't even care anymore.

I think it may be easier to just semi-randomly generate stuff, depending on what generic tropes the players want.

Quote from: Benoist;429403I wonder how many gamers are like this, and how many publishers actually realize this about their target audience.

The OSR publishers probably know this very well.  Some may turn a blind eye to it.

As to whether WotC knows about this at all, or just turns a blind eye to it, is hard to say.

I can appreciate the OP, but I can't help myself. I enjoy reading gaming material, even if it's something I don't plan to use any time soon, if not at all. For example, I recently picked up a Star Frontiers boxed set. Also, just received a Swords & Wizardry: White Box in the mail yesterday. S&W I can see myself playing, especially as an introduction to gaming for my little ones. But Star Frontiers? I don't know if I'd ever use any of it, to be honest. And yet, it's been on my nightstand for about two weeks, and I can't help but read through it and enjoy it for what it is; that is, before switching to whatever novel or short story I'm reading. I digress.

I just love reading good gaming material, but I'm not a collector, per se. I'm neither delicate nor careful with this stuff. A few weeks ago I ran Rob Kuntz's Tomb of the Skeleton King. I have a signed and numbered special edition of it. After using it in my game for 4 weeks, it now suffers pencil marks, dog-ears, beer stains, and cigar burns. I don't really care. I gamed with it, and it was a fun adventure.

Quote from: ghul;429467I can appreciate the OP, but I can't help myself. I enjoy reading gaming material, even if it's something I don't plan to use any time soon, if not at all. For example, I recently picked up a Star Frontiers boxed set. Also, just received a Swords & Wizardry: White Box in the mail yesterday. S&W I can see myself playing, especially as an introduction to gaming for my little ones. But Star Frontiers? I don't know if I'd ever use any of it, to be honest. And yet, it's been on my nightstand for about two weeks, and I can't help but read through it and enjoy it for what it is; that is, before switching to whatever novel or short story I'm reading. I digress.

I just love reading good gaming material, but I'm not a collector, per se. I'm neither delicate nor careful with this stuff. A few weeks ago I ran Rob Kuntz's Tomb of the Skeleton King. I have a signed and numbered special edition of it. After using it in my game for 4 weeks, it now suffers pencil marks, dog-ears, beer stains, and cigar burns. I don't really care. I gamed with it, and it was a fun adventure.

Back in the day, I use to like reading rpg books.  These days I find most rpg books to be a rather "dry" read, similar to reading technical books or a textbook.

Even cheesy D&D comic books read much easier, than many crunch heavy rpg books.

Nope, I don't get this. If anything, for me its quite the opposite.  I find myself regretting, and sometime re-purchasing, stuff I'd gotten rid of years ago.  And I'm now quite determined, having figured out that sooner or later I always find SOMETHING that makes a book worth hanging onto, that I will not get rid of any gaming stuff I should acquire from now on.  The only review material I ever gave away, in spite of quite a lot of it being stuff that right now I can't imagine ever having a direct use for, was the jenga-rules dread game, which certainly wasn't an RPG, they even said so themselves.

RPGPundit

Back in 07 anything I hadn't played in the last decade before 2007 went up for auction. I added some new pathfinder books to my collection in 2010, another 74' original D&D white bookset, and a bunch of minis...

On tap for 2011 is a couple copies of the C&C Castle Keepers Guide just as soon as the hardbacks are released... more minis... Romans, barbarians, uhh... Going to add a New Battlestar Galactica fleet before the year is out.
A few more Pathfinder books next year... that's about it unless something really good comes out.

I wanted to get a copy of Eoris, but never could place a secure credit card order either at the Eoris website, or through an authorized distributor.

Quote from: Benoist;429386What's your take on what Geezer's saying here? What's your personal situation, in this regard?

Please send your extra, unwanted stuff to me.

Seanchai

I can relate to both ends of the spectrum. At one point I sold most of my game materials. Approx.4 wine boxes of RPG books,2 boxes of Wargames and many $K worth of mini's and Dwarven forge etc. I swore it off except for 2 Mithril minis.,dice and a desire to play but not run games or own materials.

Back at it now...concentrating on games/books I keep going to for info./inspiration/nostalgia or am actualy interested in running.

So now I have 2 wine boxes of games total (war & RPG)and have been building a mini's collection again though very selective in this regard,going to keep it under 200 figures.

Most RPG's are used  (some PDF for study/info only) and I trade in the ones I have not looked at for some time. Still tweeking my collection but within bounds.
I recently traded all my AD&D core and picked up OD&D set. No more Trav.,Gamma World or Rifts but Metamorphosis Alpha (original) and Space Master.

Just today I traded Traveller compilation,Dark Nebula,Conspiracy of Shadows,Valley of Mists module and Pantheon for... Space Master RPG(single volume), Space Master Companion1 and GURPS Rome.
 
My RPG collection is nigh complete though I will continue to check out new systems and trade out for the keepers! Just want a few titles of each genre to riff from with various resolution mechanics to ponder/toy with.

cheers
 !!! MAY YOU DELVE DEEP IN THE COMING NEW YEAR !!!

When I graduated from college and got settled in my first job I went through a phase of buying any game that even vaguely interested me. I also started acquiring games I wasn't able to purchase when I was younger. It was pretty obsessive behavior. That tapered off several years back. Now I mostly purchase things that will update systems I like and have already (ex MRQII has been my most recent game purchase, along with the Elric and Lankhmar settings).

Six years ago I started to have periodic purges of my game collection. It all started when I was looking at all the shelves of gaming stuff I had and found myself wondering, "Do I really need Talislanta editions 1-4?" I went through the collection and boxed up all of the old editions (You would not believe how many copies of CoC I owned at the time) and took them down to our local library and donated them to the book sale.

One of the librarians is part of my gaming circle and he told me that a group of junior high kids who hang out at the library saw all the gaming stuff go out onto the tables and scarfed up a ton of it and then sent other kids over to get the rest. All of it sold by the end of the day. I like to think those kids got some serious material for their games and lots of fuel for their imaginations and I got back some shelf space. I've done it a few more times since then. The first time was the hardest, now it can be kind of liberating.

I don't really have a lot of physical stuff.

I take a long time to pick up physical game (or novel) books, because I already have tons of (non-gaming, technical) books taking up most of my shelf space.

So I tend to consider my purchases very carefully, and when in doubt, I buy the PDF version and print out whatever I'll need for in-game reference.

I was never a hardcore buyer but I have a modest collection, 6 ft of shelf space floor to ceiling of rpgs and wargames, about that much more of boardgames.  I'm thinking of having a modest purge.

I've stopped buying new print rpgs unless I'm certain that I'm going to play them.  I prefer games where I can get by with the core book, mainly for time reasons.  Most of my browsing curiosity is covered by free pdfs. If I really want to read it but am not likely to play, I buy the pdf IF it's reasonably priced.

My wife and I have a ton of books. A year ago, I sold 2-3 boxes of stuff but it was a small dent.  I really need to go through it more and get rid of 3-4 more boxes.  

I rarely buy fiction; I get it from the library.  Having a book take up space means that it should be a book that I'll reference on occasion.  I find myself never going back to most fiction.  But I still have a few shelves of treasured novels.  

The majority of my media of all types was bought used, either used shops are at yardsales extreme discounts.

I have slowly been selling or giving away a large portion of my game collection (although it was never really enormous; a few shelves at its peak). A recent old school con was great for this, since I could just take a suitcase of stuff to the place, hand it over to the organisers and say, 'OK, let people have them'. The books have new homes, and I am rid of stuff I'll probably never use or read beyond a quick browse.

That doesn't mean I am no longer buying. I am simply looking for game materials which are imaginative, strongly personal and which provide inspiration for the kind of games I like to play, meaning I will buy your dodgy homemade OD&D clone with dodgy homemade illustrations before a full-colour volume that just doesn't speak to me.

I am not getting rid of my folders of notes, character sheets, maps and adventure sketches, and I hope I never will.

I like to support the hobby, so I buy game books somewhat often.  Even though everything I actually use I keep online...

I bought all the 4e books, and I always buy a few yearly purely because I believe in the hobby.  

The only things I have used in the past decade or so in gaming, however, that I have bought, is one adventure and the 'Ultimate Equipment Guide'.  I buy stuff, peruse, catagorize and probably graft an Idea or so, though often I note ideas I already use being used by others...

Throwing my lot in with the "old, tired, bald, broke, married, kids," demographic I kinda go with Geezer's take on things.

My automatic "buy," button just ain't pushed by anything anymore (thank God), but I'm not certain if that is from being content with what I have, being tired of the supplement treadmill, being uninterested with what new games are coming out or some combination of all of the above.

Nowadays, I'll pick up something and look at it hard 2 to 4 times before even getting to the cash register (if its new at the store) or it has to be something interesting to me if its used - and used books are the bulk of my gaming purchases anymore.