Have enough books?

I've been coming to a realization about my gaming materials over the last few weeks. I've got lots of gaming materials, and I think I have enough.

In terms of 3.x D&D/d20 Fantasy Books: 3.0 Core, 3.5 Core, Psionics Handbook, Expanded Psionics Handbook, Epic Level Handbook, Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, Unearthed Arcana, all 5 3.0 Something & Something-else Class Splatbooks, Book of Vile Darkness, Book of Exalted Deeds, Monster Manual II, Arms & Equipment Guide, Savage Species, Oriental Adventures, Deities & Demigods, Manual of the Planes, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Monsters of Faerun, Magic of Faerun, Races of Faerun, Faiths & Pantheons, Lords of Darkness, Player's Guide to Faerun, & Unapproachable East, Everquest d20 & Wheel of Time. I've also got all the D&D free mini-adventures downloaded, copies of the really good old web features like Spellbook, Dragon Magazines # 286 to #322, Dungeon #91 to #111 and all the product Web Enhancements (and the big 4-part map of the Realms from Dragon Magazine is up on my bedroom wall).

As for pre 3e/d20 books I own and still consider useful: Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog, Wizards Spell Compendium (all 4 Volumes), Priest's Spell Compendium (all 3 volumes), Faiths and Avatars, Powers and Pantheons, Drow of the Underdark, & Pages from the Mages, Warriors of Heaven, Oriental Adventures 1e, Guide to the Astral Plane & the Planewalker's Handbook, and all the free 1e/2e downloads on the WotC site. (And that's not counting probably 2 dozen 2e core/player's option books or the Complete Handbooks which were cheese of often limited usefullness)

That isn't even touching all my d20 Modern books, d20 Babylon 5 books, Spycraft, every d20 Star Wars book made, and then my dozens of d6 Star Wars books, a shelf full of World of Darkness, GURPS, Brave New World, almost everything made for Star Trek (Last Unicorn version) and Alternity Stardrive/Dark*Matter materials.

I've got more dice than I can hold in both hands cupped, probably at least a pound of them, with a dozen of even the little-used d12, and a d30 just to cap it all. I've got loads of plastic minis (back when HeroQuest was out I bought two copies of the core set and all 4 expansions released in the US, so I've got lots of simple minis and furniture), and probably around 100 or so mage knight & heroclix minis I picked up for cheap, and a handful of WotC collectable minis and a few metal minis that were cheaper to pick up than get the plastic collectable version (like a mind flayer). I've got a library of terrain tiles and battlemats reflecting different styles of terrain and modular room tiles I cut out of foamcore. Not to mention lots and lots of legos which include dozens of those little minifigs for using as modular minis for just about any setting.

Then it hit me. I'm done. I've got just about everything I could want. I've got more "Crunch" than I'd need to run any setting I could ever want to (especially since my interest is mostly in FR & Planescape for D&D, and Dark*Matter, Star Wars & Babylon 5 for other settings). I'm a prolific writer of homebrew classes/feats/spells, and have enough to fill at least one sourcebook if I wanted to. I've got all the setting materials I need for those settings to run a dozen campaigns in each one. I've got minis (or at least counters) for the monsters I want to use,

I realized I don't need MMIII or Frostburn to game, and Eberron doesn't interest me and I've got enough other things to plunder for ideas without it. I barely use MMII, and the DMG has rules for ice and snow, and I like the Realms too much to devote myself to a new setting just because it is new). I didn't need A&EG because Aurora's was far better. While I love the Realms, and I'm most knowledgable about realms lore among my entire gaming group even I can't keep up with the minutiae of every new book, so I'm just fine with what I have already. I already am running a homebrew blend of 3.0 & 3.5 with some d20 Modern elements and variants from UA thrown in and I really like it, so I've got no interest in the inevitable 4e or anything beyond. Moving to an incompatible 4e would just ensure I never buy another D&D product.

I'm not burnt out on gaming at all, I still run a game every week and want to game more often. I might pick up a nice mini if I can get it for really cheap and it would go well with my game, or if I see a nice book for cheap in a used-books pile at my FLGS. However, I seem satisfied with the gaming paraphenelia I have generally, I have no plans to buy any new books, and nothing out there just screams "buy me!". Of course the spiralling cost of new gaming books isn't helping at all, I've seen a few that seemed kinda interesting, only to look at the price and think it's just not worth it.

Is anyone else in a situation like this?
 
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Enough books? Yes and no. Like many people around here I have a few hundred gaming books if not more. And while I dod have a lot of books that cover a lot of areas, there are still books coming out that cover areas I don't have. Also, there are a few campaign setting that still running strong that I pick up books for. Now I could stop buying and have enough books to run games till the end of time. But I don't want to.
 

Need: Could have run games with srd, free wotc adventures, and an online dice roller.

I never bought the 3.5 core books.

However I have a little under 200 d20 products and more non or pre-d20 ones.

Satisfied? No, I still hunger after all the monster and class books I don't have, all the neat settings, and all the just fun stuff that I still don't have.

Will I use a tenth of what I have currently in game? No. Will I even read everything completely that I have now, probably not. But I still will enjoy getting more stuff.

So no, I'm not satisfied, even though I have more than enough and enjoy what I have.
 

Yes. I have way more than I need, and at this point, more than I want. Wanna buy some of my stuff? (don't be mislead by my sig, either, I do like d20 and am currently playing or DMing in 2 3.5e games.)

What I do not want:
More books that will sit on my shelf unused. That covers 80% of what I already have. I am too cheap to spend $35-$100 for a hardcover that I will use less than 5% of. How do I know I won't use more than 5% of a book? There simply isn't enough time in the day to get more use than that out of most books. The bulk of the material will just never see time at my table.

Please, save the arguments concerning "value for the dollar", I've decided that it is not worth it to me.
 
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wingsandsword said:
Is anyone else in a situation like this?
Of course.

I am very satisfied with what I own, and see little reason to get much else. Nowadays I only buy FR geographical accessories, Rokugan accessories, and adventures.

New rules supplements and campaign settings are entirely ignored.
 

This idea's come up before. I asked what rule sets do we need and I still see a few out there.

Prisons: A few sample prisons with NPCs.

Immortals: How do characters go from epic to immortal and what do they have to do in order to retain that?

Most other books are just icing on the cake but I still enjoy them. Still looking forward to many RPGs.
 


I have more than I will ever use, and yet I will continue to buy more. I love buying books, gaming and otherwise. Now that I have come to accept that I will never use all of my gaming books it makes it easier to just read them for pleasure, or to make a note of any cool ideas I might want to borrow at some point.

Although I am not going to stop buying books, I have cut way back on buying new books at full price. I keep an eye out for online deals, and on the Miniatures Trading and RPG Marketplace forum here. I've managed to pick up books that I have had my eye on for some time at prices so low it is embarassing.
 

Enough that I could run my game for a long time and not want for ideas or resources. Yeah.

Enough that I could never run across a product that would be a good addition to my game? Probably not.
 

I've got enough raw rules data for me to be perfectly happy. Pretty much the only thing i'm gonna buy from here on out are Dragonlance setting books, unless something else comes to grab my attention. I've got more than enough crunch for my taste, and never enough fluff.
 

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