This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: [What if] Slimming down your gaming library.  (Read 2166 times)

flyingmice

  • Flunchist-Cruftist
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9757
    • http://www.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #15 on: March 10, 2013, 10:20:38 AM »
Damn you, Brad Murray! I was going to make a slime joke and you just RUINED it!

-clash
clash bowley * Flying Mice Games - an Imprint of Better Mousetrap Games
Flying Mice home page: http://jalan.flyingmice.com/flyingmice.html
Currently Designing: StarCluster 4 - Wavefront Empire
Last Releases: SC4 - Dark Orbital, SC4 - Out of the Ruins,  SC4 - Sabre & World
Blog: I FLY BY NIGHT

Dana

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 257
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #16 on: March 10, 2013, 10:38:16 AM »
Quote from: TristramEvans;635703
I've transported my entire collection in boxes by bus one at a time over a week-long period.
Now *that* is devotion. :-)

Sacrosanct

  • cisgrog
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7224
    • http://www.sacrosanctgames.com
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #17 on: March 10, 2013, 11:38:07 AM »
if I had to get rid of books, it would be games I don't play, like heavy gear, robotech, tmnt, and rifts.  B/x and Ad&d would be last.. But the first thing to go would actually be my dragon mag collection since I have the pdfs
D&D is not an "everyone gets a ribbon" game.  If you're stupid, your PC will die.  If you're an asshole, your PC will die (probably from the other PCs).  If you're unlucky, your PC may die.  Point?  PC's die.  Get over it and roll up a new one.

The Butcher

  • Cyborg Shock Trooper
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7183
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #18 on: March 10, 2013, 12:11:58 PM »
Shit, that'd be rough.

I have a lot of core books but not a lot of supplements. My biggest "collections" are Rifts and nWoD.

I can do away with D&D 3.0e, Iron Heroes, Starblazer Adventures (a huge lug of a book), Reign, Unhallowed Metropolis, Barbarians of Lemuria, all DC Heroes (MEGS) supplements minus the core, and part of my Rifts collection.

If it was the zombie apocalypse or something, I'd be grabbing the D&D RC, CoC, RQ6, Traveller, nWoD and Savage Worlds. Oh, and the iPad of course. ;)

K Peterson

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 982
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #19 on: March 11, 2013, 12:22:48 AM »
Christ, what a terrible hypothetical.

I think I could only go halfway. Any more than that and it'd cut too deep for my comfort.

Quote
1) You only need to trim. Say maybe a quarter of your current levels. What would go? How do you prioritize?

The first few things out the door would be some standalone core books: Unknown Armies, Aces & Eights, Space 1889. Then some of the game lines: Blue Planet v2, Mongoose Traveller, various OSR products.
Quote
2) About half needs to go.

Next to go would be: FASA and LUG Trek materials, Classic Traveller, the random 1e books and modules, some BRP supplements (Merrie England, Rome). That'd strip me down to about 1/2 my gaming library.

I'd be loathe to part with any of my extensive Chaosium and Pagan Publishing CoC material (which is a solid 3rd of my gaming collection), or my MegaTraveller books, or my 2e and 3e RuneQuest books and supplements.

James Gillen

  • Caress Me Down
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3981
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #20 on: March 11, 2013, 02:01:43 AM »
Quote from: flyingmice;635820
Damn you, Brad Murray! I was going to make a slime joke and you just RUINED it!

-clash


I don't wanna slime down my gaming library.  It needs dusting, not sliming.

JG
-My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line and kiss my ass.
 -Christopher Hitchens
-Be very very careful with any argument that calls for hurting specific people right now in order to theoretically help abstract people later.
-Daztur

Philotomy Jurament

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1971
  • Prisoner 24601
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #21 on: March 11, 2013, 03:54:24 AM »
Every time I've sold off a batch of RPG stuff I've always regretted it later.
The problem is not that power corrupts, but that the corruptible are irresistibly drawn to the pursuit of power. Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.

Warthur

  • No longer here.
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • W
  • Posts: 4572
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #22 on: March 11, 2013, 08:35:50 AM »
Well, Piestrio, when sliming down my game library I like to use a goop of my own recipe which I've made. Now, despite what many people think bodily fluids really aren't very useful for making this sort of slime because they tend to dry out far too quickly, so what I...

Oh wait, you mean slimming...

Quote from: Piestrio;635668
1) You only need to trim. Say maybe a quarter of your current levels. What would go? How do you prioritize?

Ditch adventures and core books for games which I've played or run in the past but never intend to play/run again (like Weapons of the Gods) and mmmmmaybe some of the less-used supplements (ones which focus mainly on setting details I'm not interested in using, for instance) and that should be good.

Quote
2) About half needs to go.

Ditch adventures, core books for games I don't want to play/run again, and all but the most crucially useful supplements - stuff which genuinely add cool new material to a game which can't be quickly and easily replicated with stuff from the core books.

Quote
3) 3/4 needs to go.

Ditch everything which isn't a core book for a game I genuinely intend to play or run at some point in the future. If that isn't enough (I'm reasonably sure it will be but just in case), then select one core set for any game I own multiple editions of and ditch the less-favoured editions.

Quote
4) Really drastic. You can only keep a small backpack full of games, so figure 3-5 books and some dice, etc...

Easier at this point to just list the books I'd save:

- D&D Rules Cyclopedia.
- Mongoose Traveller core rulebook.
- Call of Cthulhu.
- Unknown Armies.
- Only War

All complete-in-one-book games (Only War is by far the most complete-in-one-book of the 40K RPGs except for mmmmmmmaybe Dark Heresy, though CoC and Dark Heresy scratch very similar itches for me), each of which I consider iconic for their particular genre (fantasy, hardish SF, classic horror, modern-day occult weirdness and grimdark warhams lunacy).

Quote
Let us know how PDFs factor into this as well.

Ah, well if we're allowed PDFs then suddenly this becomes a lot easier. The only reason I'd slim down my collection in the first place is to conserve physical space - data storage is so cheap and plentiful these days I don't consider my PDF collection to be a burden at all. (Indeed, if I were allowed to scan books to PDF as part of the slimming process that'd take most of the sting out of it).
I am no longer posting here or reading this forum because Pundit has regularly claimed credit for keeping this community active. I am sick of his bullshit for reasons I explain here and I don't want to contribute to anything he considers to be a personal success on his part.

I recommend The RPG Pub as a friendly place where RPGs can be discussed and where the guiding principles of moderation are "be kind to each other" and "no politics". It's pretty chill so far.

Melan

  • Creeped out by the \'Net
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3757
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #23 on: March 11, 2013, 09:02:18 AM »
I am slowly slimming down my collection already, but if I really had to do something radical, I would focus on saving my adventure notes. I can always buy a new copy of a rulebook or module, but I couldn't replace those few folders of handwritten stuff, and only a small part of it is scanned.
Now with a Zine!
ⓘ This post is disputed by official sources

jibbajibba

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9098
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #24 on: March 11, 2013, 01:06:47 PM »
I basically did this when i moved out here.

The Wife said i could have one box of gaming books. It wasn;t the shipping , work paid for that but we were moving from a BIG 6 bedroom house to a 3 bedroom flat in a condo.
As it happens she lied to me as there is a perfect game cupboard I could have filled :)
I brought
i) Classic traveller LBB 1-6
ii) Paranoia
iii) oWoD Mage + player supplement
iv) SW Explorer edition delux
v) Amber

then non RPG games

Box of magic cards (big arsed box :)
Tanhauser
Arkham Horror
Chess
Backgammon
Ma Jong
Cathederal
Go
Monopoly
Lots of cards
Poker Chips - use these all the time as we play poker weekly.
Scrabble & Mega Scrabble

My daughter also bought all the MB Heroquest stuff we use for rpging but its ll offically 'hers' now apparently :)

I have PDFs of 2e D&D, Vampire, and a few others. As well as all my homebrew stuff of course
No longer living in Singapore
Method Actor-92% :Tactician-75% :Storyteller-67%:
Specialist-67% :Power Gamer-42% :Butt-Kicker-33% :
Casual Gamer-8%


GAMERS Profile
Jibbajibba
9AA788 -- Age 45 -- Academia 1 term, civilian 4 terms -- $15,000

Cult&Hist-1 (Anthropology); Computing-1; Admin-1; Research-1;
Diplomacy-1; Speech-2; Writing-1; Deceit-1;
Brawl-1 (martial Arts); Wrestling-1; Edged-1;

Drohem

  • RPG Diversifier
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4460
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #25 on: March 11, 2013, 01:53:38 PM »
Quote from: TristramEvans;635676
I'm afraid I can't suspend disbelief for this fantasy premise.

they'll have to pry them from my cold dead hands.


This!  (Also, it would make a good RPG bumper sticker) :)

However, if I HAD to grab only one book before running out of my burning house, then I would grab the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia and run.

Exploderwizard

  • DESTROYER OF HOBBIES!
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • E
  • Posts: 5025
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #26 on: March 11, 2013, 02:08:44 PM »
Quote from: jibbajibba;636085


The Wife said i could have one box of gaming books.


:rotfl:

I would put this into the "things I'm not going to take seriously" bin and get on with packing my collection.
Quote from: JonWake
Gamers, as a whole, are much like primitive cavemen when confronted with a new game. Rather than 'oh, neat, what's this do?', the reaction is to decide if it's a sex hole, then hit it with a rock.

Quote from: Old Geezer;724252
At some point it seems like D&D is going to disappear up its own ass.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;766997
In the randomness of the dice lies the seed for the great oak of creativity and fun. The great virtue of the dice is that they come without boxed text.

The Butcher

  • Cyborg Shock Trooper
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7183
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #27 on: March 11, 2013, 04:14:15 PM »
Quote from: jibbajibba;636085
The Wife said i could have one box of gaming books.


Bobloblah

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • B
  • Posts: 1504
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #28 on: March 12, 2013, 12:57:23 PM »
My wife tried something like this when we moved. I laughed it off. She then suggested I put the collection on shelves in the garage. I laughed that one off, too, then bought a couple thousand dollars in shelving for the new place. I don't think she really grasped the significance of the stuff to me before that.

I've thought about these kinds of scenarios a lot since then (haven't we all? ...no, really - haven't we all idly considered these at some point?). I've even done a bunch of paring down, though that's not really saying much - the collection is still large.

Part of the trouble for me is that I'm also a boardgamer, CCG player, PC video gamer, and miniature wargamer (minis and terrain, in particular,  take a lot of space).  Balancing limited storage space against all of these is tough.

Anyway, back to the OP's question (or nightmare scenarios, if you prefer)...
Quote from: Piestrio;635668
1) You only need to trim. Say maybe a quarter of your current levels. What would go? How do you prioritize?

The question is simply: what wouldn't I miss too much? For me that means several DP9 games I only picked up 'cause they were cheap (Gear Krieg and Core Command; got 'em nearly free), the Witch Hunter: the Invisible World stuff (nowhere near as good as I'd hoped), the remaining Rifts stuff (remaining because I culled this a year or so ago - and, as others have mentioned, you can't pay people to take it), the AD&D 1E and 2E Forgotten Realms stuff (I have a greater fondness for several other AD&D2E settings). Lastly, all but 1 of TSR's Amazing Engine books, keeping Bughunters, which I have always been inordinately fond of. This should put me in the ballpark. If there needs to be more, it'll be the D&D 3.0 material other than the core books, but don't be fooled: I have a lot of 3.5 material.

Quote from: Piestrio;635668
2) About half needs to go.

Now you're talking seriously difficult decision territory. All of the above, obviously, but my AD&D 1E core books go under the knife (I'd keep a number of the modules; I like modules and run them or plunder them regularly now). The DP9 stuff tossed earlier is joined by the Heavy Gear 3rd edition material, plus most of the 2nd edition colony and space-based books. The White Wolf D&D3.x Ravenloft run, which I really want to like more than I do (the setting is just ill-suited to the 3.x system). Palladium Fantasy and Robotech fall under the axe next, followed closely by MERP (except the Northwestern Middle-Earth Gazetteer; great for any Tolkien RPG!) and Rolemaster, plus all but Fell Beasts & Wondrous Magic and the revised core rulebook for Decipher's Lord of the Rings RPG. AD&D2E's Al-Qadim setting stuff would have to find a new home (I'd keep the Arabian Adventures softcover book). All my Pathfinder RPG stuff (other than miniatures, that is), including some 3rd party books like Slumbering Tsar and Tome of Horrors. I'd cry a little bit as I finally got rid of my MSH and AMSH stuff, even though it's been superseded by ICONS for me.

Quote from: Piestrio;635668
3) 3/4 needs to go.

I have difficulty imagining this under all but extreme duress. The D&D Basic stuff would have to go, along with all the clones save ACKS. Virtually all the D&D3.x settings and supplements (Forgotten Realms, Majestic Wilderlands, numerous Necromancer modules and boxed sets). The small amount of Traveller stuff would suffer a catastrophic mis-jump. Warhammer Fantasy RPG 1st edition stuff has to go, along with the new Advanced Fighting Fantasy. The AD&D modules I held on to from before. DP9's Tribe 8 and Jovian Chronicles would be shown the door (but Heavy Gear can stay). I'd probably keep my AD&D2E core books, plus the Complete and DMGR line. Planescape, Dark Sun and Ravenloft would still occupy a bunch of shelf-space, although a little less than before. In reality my AD&D2E stuff is close to a quarter of my collection on its own. The D&D3.0 core books (PHB, DMG, & MM) plus Ptolus would stay; I could get years out of those (yes, I know the editions don't match; I like D&D3.0 more).

Quote from: Piestrio;635668
4) Really drastic. You can only keep a small backpack full of games, so figure 3-5 books and some dice, etc...

Why don't you just cut my arms and legs off while you're at it? Hmmm...this is basically desert island stuff. Here goes: ACKS, Heavy Gear 2nd + Life on Terra Nova, Call of Cthulhu 6th, ICONS, TSR's Bughunters. Then just shoot me once you tell me one of these is one too many.

Every time I consider this type of masochistic fantasy scenario, I'm reminded just how true the following is: you don't own your possessions, they own you.
Best,
Bobloblah

Asking questions about the fictional game space and receiving feedback that directly guides the flow of play IS the game. - Exploderwizard

RPGPundit

  • Administrator - The Final Boss of Internet Shitlords
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 48855
    • http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com
[What if]Sliming down your gaming library.
« Reply #29 on: March 13, 2013, 06:32:06 PM »
You know, I could easily change the thread title.. but I just don't think I want to.

RPGPundit
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you've played 'medieval fantasy' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.