RPG Books: Precious Gems or Just Dead Trees?

[questing gm]

How do you see and treat your RPG books?

Are they Precious Gems or Just Dead Trees to you?

Share how you treat your books, whether from the most peculiar to the most 'could care less'.

Why?

 

[Crothian]

I treat them well. I don't write in them, I don't bend them, or toss them around. I treat all my stuff well it's just habit. I like nice things.

 

[frankthedm]

I don't treat em special. If they start falling apart, Glue, staples, wire, drills and duct tape will be used to keep them in functional condition.

 

[Obryn]

I freely write, highlight, and annotate them. I carry them around on occasion, and they get banged up. I don't really worry about them being damaged, until they start falling apart.

More or less, I treat them like I treated my college textbooks... except I open them more.

-O

 

[weem]

I take pretty good care of em, particularly the older ones. I may get them with damage done already, but I don't make them worse

I still enjoy reading the older ones from time to time (front to back).

 

[EricNoah]

Piles. Lots and lots of piles. I only write errata in them (exception - adventures - I write lots in adventure products); I do use sticky notes in/on them from time to time.

 

[El Mahdi]

For me, the "Precious Gems" are the ones that get beat up, because I'm using them all of the time. The ones I don't care as much about end up staying in pretty good shape simply through lack of use.

 

[DEP]

All of my books are precious gems to me! I keep them all in the best shape I can. I only write my name in the books I know other players in the group have to keep them seperated. The corebooks are a little more rough due to carrying them around but still in excellent shape. I have my pdf printouts in binders on the bookshelf also.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I'm generally a bit anal when it comes to my RPG books. Most of my books are still in excellent condition. The two exceptions to this is the Magic Item Compendium, which has slightly frayed corners and my Shackled City Adventure Path hardcover which has started to wear along most of the edges of the hardcover. I think this damage has come as a result of them travelling in my backpack (the SCAP book has seen a lot of travel with me as I prep on the train to and from work). I have considered buying another SCAP hardcover to keep on my shelf since this first one has really started to get trashed but I haven't been able to justify the cost to myself just yet.

I never write in my RPG book, not even just putting my name on the inside of the front cover. I've used post-it-notes and post-it-flags in them before though. At the table I'm happy for players to use my books as I like to see them get used. However if they've just been eating something greasy or sticky I won't hesitate to ask them to wash their hands first. I do ask nicely though!

I am very, very reluctant to lend my books out to anyone due to a couple of bad experiences. When I lent my 2E AD&D core rulebooks to a friend back when I was a teenager they were returned with 2 of the spines cracked. On another occasion a few years later I lent a friend the Kingdom of Kalamar Campaign Setting. The spine of that book isn't quite right either now. As a result I almost never lend out my books. If I do I make sure the person borrowing them knows of my previous experiences with lending my books and that I would be very unhappy if I got books back in that condition again.

Overall though I don't mind if my books get damaged due to wear and tear from using them. I just try and take precautions so that they stay in excellent condition for as long as possible.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Jhaelen]

Well, you can definitely tell which of my books have seen heavy use. I also don't mind making notes or applying errata right into the books.

But they're still precious to me in a way. So far I've never thrown away a single one even if they're in tatters.