How do you organize your RPGs books?

[R_J_K75]

Yeah. The only thing I think (but may be mistaken) that is missing from that strategy, is that it does not mention the need for keeping multiple 'versions' of the same file. Even for files you do not modify yourself, like static PDF files.

For example, if pdf file 'A' gets corrupted, it will be considered 'modified' as far as the computer can tell. If this is the 'original' copy, then that corrupt copy will get backed-up (overwritten) on all your other backup copies. You need to keep an 'x' amount of 'previous' (supposedly uncorrupted)'versions' of the same document to account for that. So that when your 'original copy' goes corrupt - and all of the backup copies of that corrupted file - you have a backup that lets you go 'back' to the 'previous version' that was still good and not corrupted.

The 3-2-1 Backup Strategy seems a little much for my needs. Honestly there is only 1 file that if I lost would be really bad, so I back it up regularly. This past February my laptop crashed and never turned back on. I couldn't get the hard drive out of it because I couldn't find the right size torx screwdriver to remove the cover. I bought a new laptop and when I first powered it on and inputted my Microsoft/Windows user information it automatically downloaded all my files, apps, settings and favortites. So, in the end I didn't lose anything.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My collection is organized by specific game, in edition order. Duplicates of specific products are placed next to each other.

After that, they’re placed on whichever shelf has space for them.

 

[guachi]

Chronological by game and edition and type. So my hardback books for D&D are on the top of my shelf from 1e to 5e. Then softback perfect bound supplements, then adventures with those removable covers. After that are all my boxed sets. And after that are my non-D&D books.

 

[VashVet]

I organize them by how many arguments they start on ENworld, which basically means D&D first but I put 4th edition at the beginning.

 

[jdrakeh]

Most of my RPG books are in PDF. So, alphabetically by title and by date modified, depending upon what I'm looking for.

 

[Stormonu]

Had to think for a moment...

one bookshelf for 5E

• top shelf (rulebooks), alphabetical
• 2nd shelf (adventures), WotC alphabetic, then non-WotC alphabetical
• 3rd shelf (5E adjacent), alphabetic
• bottom shelf (5E campaign worlds), alphabetic

one bookshelf for older D&D

• on top 1 (3E non-core including pathfinder), alphabetic
• on top 2 (Boxed sets) by campaign world then alphabetic
• top shelf (1E, 2E, 3E, Pathfinder, Castles & Crusades core books), by edition, then alphabetic
• 2nd shelf (BECMI, 1E/2E/3E adventures) , by edition then alphabetic by series number (A1, C1, etc.)
• 3rd shelf (D& D starter sets), by edition
• 4th shelf (1E/2E/3E campaign worlds, cont.) alphabetic starting with Greyhawk

one bookshelf for non-D&D games

• top, 2nd, 3rd shelf: alphabetic
• 4th shelf (1E/2E/3E campaign worlds) alphabetic up to Forgotten Realms

one bookshelf for Wargames/Other

• top & 2nd shelf: alphabetic wargames
• 3rd shelf: 7th sea on the right (1E then 2E) order by edition, then Core Rulebook, Countries, Secret Society then boxed set; to L5R on the left by Core Book (4E), Starter Set (FFG version), hardcovers, Clans then boxed sets; Burning Sands in the middle between the two games
• 4th shelf: non D20 fantasy, alphabetical

I then have a smaller bookshelf for my A5 sized RPGs, alphabetic

Finally, I have a cube in a 6-cube bookshelf with my favorite non-D&D A5 sized rpgs (Pirate Borg, Outgunned, Savage Worlds).

Then I have a storage unit with two shelves of 2E & 3E books, an additional shelf full of "prior" edition non-D&D RPGs and older wargames, but they're scattered about on the shelves and not organized at the moment.

 

[MNblockhead]

With my recent move I downsized my physical possessions greatly including many TTRPGs and board games. I've only kept the ones I most enjoy, ones I know I will use in play in the next few years or those I at least enjoy looking through fairly frequently. For these, I put (or will put them, once the moving company delivers my stuff) on the book shelf by system with the core books first followed by other rule books and then adventure books in whatever order I grab them.

Most of my material is digital. These are in google drive, foldered by system and subfoldered by Rule Books, Adventures, Assets, and folders for each campaign (for campaign specific notes). Search, sorting, and gemini make even that level of organization unnecessary, but old habits die hard.

VTT assets pretty much self organize with purchased content, but otherwise my compendia and assets are organized similar to how I organize things in Google Drive. But, again, I depend more on search and cross linking in Foundry than on meticulous filing. Compendia and folder organization is more about making world storage management easier than it is about finding things.

 

[NetDND]

#6, I guess one day I could organize the collection, but after these many decades not being organized that would take the fun out of having to search for it.

 

[Byrd]

For hardcover books and boxed sets:
#4 By Games system: 1d20, d6s pool, etc.

Thin softcover books might go into a magazine binder, which is shelved.

Adventures, supplements, accessories, etc. go into banker's boxes. (More or less unsorted.)

 

[SlyFlourish]

The basic idea is that you have multiple copies of the same thing, so that when one copy fails/gets corrupt you still have the other intact one.

I believe that @SlyFlourish has a whole backup strategy for it, but I cannot seem to find a link to that right now.

The 3-2-1 Backup!

Have three copies of the thing you want to save, two differnet types of media (like internal SSD versus spinning disk external) and one off-site (like a cloud backup).

For example, on my mac, I have all files downloaded to my macbook air, I have a time-machine drive that I rotate with another (so techncially two drives with one offline), and I use icloud to back it up in the cloud. That's four but you get the idea.

Have files saved locally on your machine, use some type of cloud backup, and have a separate exteral disk you back up to regularly.