Do You Have Too Many Books?

[Nine Hands]

Do any of you out there feel like that you have too many books?

I recently counted my books and found that I had 62 print books for D&D 3.0/3.5E plus another 36 books in PDF form. In addition to that I have a couple of year’s worth of issues of both Dungeon & Dragon Magazines (almost all 3.0E onwards) as well as the Dragon Magazine Archive.

This is just for D&D 3.x. I have many 2E AD&D books and PDF’s as well as pretty much all the books for Feng Shui and Paranoia XP.

I know a lot of people on these boards have many, many more books than that. The point of this thread is not to make this into some sort of competition. I just look at the number of books that I have and think, “Why do I need so many?” At the same time there are a number (albeit very small number) of books out there that I want to buy, such as “Bard’s Gate”, “Rappan Athuk Reloaded”, “A Magical Society: Silk Road”, “PHB 2”, etc.

I don’t understand why, on one hand, I have more books than I could ever possibly use yet, at the same time I want to buy more. Is it modern age materialism? Ddo I want to explore as many different options as possible in the game? Are there just too many cool products out there? Or am I simply just plain greedy?

I don’t know the answer to that question or the one that I posed at the top of my post. Maybe it is a combination of a lot of reasons, rather than just one thing. I just find it strange. Does anyone else feel the same way or have any thoughts on this issue?

Olaf the Stout

I have more books than my local gaming store. Really...I'm not joking...Oh and more dice too....

Sadly I never have a chance to actually read them. Lots of good stuff too, sadly I'm way too busy to ever use them like I should.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Hey there,

In one sense I do have too many RPG books. I have many, many old D&D items (e.g. the various boxed rule sets, the GAZ series of gazateers, the BA, EX, etc. adventure modules). I rarely look at these anymore, and I guess I keep them more out of sentiment than actual use potential. I did use a bit from Rahasia in a home-brew adventure a couple of years ago, though.

I also have many 2nd Edition D&D rulebooks. I really should sell these, but I just don't have the motivation to go through the trouble right now.

My biggest vice, though, is 3.x books. At present, I have every WotC D&D rulebook published for 3.x except for many of the FR books (I think I have around 5 FR books). I even have those Diablo II D&D books.... So, I have the 3.0 and 3.5 core rules, all the splat books, all the supplements, all the Eberron books, etc. I used to read through all of them as soon as I got them, but lately I don't have the time to do that so I skim through them all and read the interesting parts for now. On top of WotC stuff I have books from a few other publishers (e.g. Arcana Evolved, Tome of Horros II and III, and I'm getting Ptolus).

But there is method to my book-buying madness. I intend to get all of WotC's 3.x D&D books (except for FR) to have as reference material, and then stop buying any D&D once 4.0 comes out. My plan is to stick with 3.x for the rest of my gaming life, and have all of that material available for possible use. I hope to get my child interested in the hobby when the age is right, and I'd love to be able to spend years and years creating campaigns for her and her friends (and people my own age, too!).

My theory is that, because of the OGL, 3.x will be nigh-forever useful and relevant, even if a 4.whatever comes out eventually. Plus, as long as I stick to my plan, I'll stop spending so much money on D&D, eventually.

Crazy theory, eh?

Later,

Atavar

-----

"If God is everywhere, then how can you say that He is at chruches but not at brothels? And if He is at brothels, then why do I have to go to church?" - Some poet from Def Poetry

Sure you say that now, but when the time comes you'll cave in. The monster which is the WotC marketing department will not be defeated. As if they need a marketing department with the amout of "Look...shiny!" gamers there are around the place like myself

Olaf the Stout

 

[raif11152]

Except if you move

Heh I just moved last month. I keep all my Role Playing books in a monster collection of totes except the 10 books or so i use constantly, so packing wasn't a problem. The breakdown was when all my friends showed up and immediately stated that any books are mine to move alone.

I ended up giving 4 totes away to my best friend that day.

I didn't need my palladium or battletech collection anyway.

 

[catsclaw227]

The funny thing is the pack rat in me doesn't want to get rid of any of the books that I currently have, even if there is a high chance that I'll never even open them up again. I want to hold onto them just in case I need it one day!

Me too. I have about 120+ d20 books and about 300+ PDfs of d20 material. And I can't get enough. Last night I was acutally doing a "what am I missing" list. Absurd, because while going though my bookshelf, I could point out MANY books I haven't read or have only skimmed. And I still have RA Reloaded and Ptolus on pre-order.

So I was thinking I still needed:

Tome of Horrors III
Complete Psionic
Renegade Cleric's Tome
Unapproachable East
A few of the Necromancer/Kenzer adventure titles, like Six Spheres of Zailhesh.
A bunch more of the Goodman Games DCC adventures