Do You Write In Or Modify Your Game Manuals?

[Ed_Laprade]

I (lightly) penciled some homebrew stuff into to my 1e D&DG once, but that's about it.

 

[Odhanan]

By that, I mean ... besides putting your name in the book, do you write in, dog-ear, attach labels, remove pages, or any other type of modification to your game manuals / rule books?

Usually not, because I keep my houserules, modifications and notes in their own dedicated notebooks, and official errata are usually nitpicky BS to me. When I got a problem while running the game, I make a ruling on the spot. If the ruling comes back regularly, I make it an actual written houserule. This method never failed me. It's nice to be aware of issues, typos etc with the game, but I usually don't make a big deal out of it.

I can think of two major exceptions, however. I did write down all the Iron Heroes errata and various interpretations of Adam Windsor in the original rulebook before there was a Revised edition of the game, mainly because at the time I had to keep up with whatever was the Official version of the game, as an admin of the Iron League (the fan group of IH players and GMs).

The second exception is the Star Wars Saga rulebook, which had significantly few rules, and a clearly unified mechanic throughout, that made some of the errors glaringly obvious. I thus annotated the book where that needed to be done.

 

[El Mahdi]

Oh Yeah!

I'll write-in notes in pencil, unless it's a houserule that's survived for a considerable enough period of time to become permanent in our games, then it gets written in ink. I'll use a highlighter for some sections or rules so they are easier to see. And, I also attach plastic page tags to find chapters and sections easier.

My books look a bit like Frankenstein's Monster after a while.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I took a sharpie to my Monster Manual 1 to update monster damage. I'm a much happier person now. My MM1 is useful again!

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I can only assume you have never had any of your books stolen by any of your fellow gamers.

Nope, I sure haven't. I don't put myself in a position to game with anyone who would steal from me. Seems to have worked for me.

 

[Psion]

I used to. My old 1e DMG has lots of underlined and highlighted stuff.

I could see doing that to my currently played game if there was some frequently missed passage. But overall, I'm happy to mark things with post-it notes and flags.

In this day and age, if I want to make up mods to a book, I can write a doc for it. I can even use my PDF extractor program and make an integrated customized copy.

I have marked names in books. Stealing books is seldom a problem (and putting a name in a book might not help that much anyways), but there's a simple matter of confusion over which book belongs to who.

 

[Camelot]

I used to. My old 1e DMG has lots of underlined and highlighted stuff.

I could see doing that to my currently played game if there was some frequently missed passage. But overall, I'm happy to mark things with post-it notes and flags.

In this day and age, if I want to make up mods to a book, I can write a doc for it. I can even use my PDF extractor program and make an integrated customized copy.

I have marked names in books. Stealing books is seldom a problem (and putting a name in a book might not help that much anyways), but there's a simple matter of confusion over which book belongs to who.

Man, I wish I could edit my PDFs, or at least put in some e-post-it notes. I want to stick in the errata for my Dragon magazine articles.

 

[IronWolf]

It seems that a lot of people write their names in. In case this interests you: making own ex libris is fairly easy and cheap, and it really looks better. There are two main ways to go around to it: if you want monochromatic - a stamp,

Nice idea!

I do a few things to my books:

If it's a book I expect to take to public play, I will write my last name on the page edges (top, side and bottom). This makes it easy to spot if I loan this to someone at the table.

In all my books, I write my name inside the cover and on page 25. I like the stamp above, I may consider going to that method.

Very similar to my method and for the same reasons. I don't use page 25 though...

I don't put myself in a position to game with anyone who would steal from me.

I definitely trust my local gaming group and I never label books if they are only seeing play there. Going to conventions is a different matter though. I label any book I plan on using at the table. More to avoid any potential confusion if I were to loan a book to a person I had not met prior to gaming at that table.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

By that, I mean ... besides putting your name in the book, do you write in, dog-ear, attach labels, remove pages, or any other type of modification to your game manuals / rule books?

Sure, all the time. They're basically technical manuals or reference books, so I highlight in them, mark them up with pencil and/or pen, put sticky notes on important pages, sticky tab dividers to call out specific sections, write my name in them, etc. I see no reason not to mark up the ones I use.

 

[Festivus]

This is something I've never done, and would never do. Personally, I don't see the point, though I know people like to do it.

It only took one book of mine that someone either stole or accidentally took of mine to inspire me to write in black sharpie on the edges of the pages so I could spot it from just about anywhere. As I mentioned, really only do this with books I take for public play... namely my 3.5 PHB, 4E PHB, and Pathfinder books.... and soon to be rules compendium book.