How Many RPG Books Do You Own?

[John Desmarais]

I’ve never counted, but I am in the process of moving right now so I’ve boxed up the majority of them. Fifteen banker boxes currently contain the bulk of them. (The exception being that I have not yet boxed up most of the Hero System and Call of Cthulhu books as those are the two games I’m actively running right now, and there’s a small stack of recent purchases that didn’t get boxed up).

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Over the last year, my RPG book collection has dwindled. Now, I'm down to just D&D5e WotC books (of which I have all of them) and my Savage Worlds stuff.

I've even culled my PDF stuff.

Weird, because I used to have a metric butt load of books.

How does one cull their PDF stuff? Apart from a few PDFs that I've bought from now defunct companies, the rest I could delete from my computer and re-download from my account at a later date without any issue.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I find I spend a lot of time debuting stuff from eBay I used to own and regret letting go.

I'm a bit of a pack-rat in general, but I have made a couple of small culls to my collection. Mostly the 3E core rulebooks and some 3rd party books I bought as part of the d20 glut that turned out to be very average books.

I'm thinking about culling back some of my 3.5E collection as I've got 40 WotC rules supplements and another 10 WotC adventures, but I just can't seem to pull the trigger, despite having played 5E exclusively for about 3 years now. I've even decided what the first 3-5 books would be that I would cull. I think it's the potential regret that's holding me back.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

At a guess, a few hundred.

I'm surprised. I expected you to have a lot more.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I’ve never counted, but I am in the process of moving right now so I’ve boxed up the majority of them. Fifteen banker boxes currently contain the bulk of them. (The exception being that I have not yet boxed up most of the Hero System and Call of Cthulhu books as those are the two games I’m actively running right now, and there’s a small stack of recent purchases that didn’t get boxed up).

I do not look forward to ever having to move my collection. I can only imagine how many separate boxes I'd have to spread the books across.

 

[pogre]

I sell systems I have not played in a year with rare exceptions. I own almost everything for 5e. I own everything for WFRP 2e and the new WFRP rulebook. I own a few books for Ars Magika. So I have a few dozen books.

Purging my "collection" on a regular basis is a cathartic release for me.

Now terrain and miniatures on the other hand....

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I sell systems I have not played in a year with rare exceptions. I own almost everything for 5e. I own everything for WFRP 2e and the new WFRP rulebook. I own a few books for Ars Magika. So I have a few dozen books.

Purging my "collection" on a regular basis is a cathartic release for me.

Now terrain and miniatures on the other hand....

How many painted minis do you have in your collection? I think I’ve seen you paint over 100 minis in the time I’ve been following your painted minis thread.

 

[amethal]

According to LibraryThing I have 2,572 RPG books.

Admittedly that is a bit misleading because it includes 140-odd individual issues of Dungeon, and also Lone Wolf gamebooks, map packs and the like.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

According to LibraryThing I have 2,572 RPG books.

Admittedly that is a bit misleading because it includes 140-odd individual issues of Dungeon, and also Lone Wolf gamebooks, map packs and the like.

That’s quite a few!

Yeah, I’d be at 400+ if I included Dragon and Dungeon mags.

 

[johndesmarais]

I do not look forward to ever having to move my collection. I can only imagine how many separate boxes I'd have to spread the books across.

I've actually been looking forward to this move. I'm still finding more boxes of RPG stuff in my attic as I've never had enough shelf space to have it all accessible at once - but in the new house my office has floor to ceiling book shelves covering two walls and more shelf space in a weird little side room attached to the office. I'm pretty excited to get it all shelved where I get to it.

 

[pogre]

How many painted minis do you have in your collection? I think I’ve seen you paint over 100 minis in the time I’ve been following your painted minis thread.

Well, keep in mind I have been collecting and painting miniatures since the mid-1980s. I do not have an exact number, but it's in the thousands of miniatures I have personally painted. Probably 70% of those are fantasy related with the rest being historicals (mostly Dark Ages).

 

[Doc_Klueless]

How does one cull their PDF stuff? Apart from a few PDFs that I've bought from now defunct companies, the rest I could delete from my computer and re-download from my account at a later date without any issue.

I have sooooo many PDFs of so many RPGs that I don't even know where I got them all. I'm sure some of them (a lot even?) are pirated PDFs that I got to see if I'd like a game before buying it and then never deleted it/them.

In fact, my PDF collection got so large that I was having troubles finding things and/or having multiple copies of a PDF because I forgot I had it and/or where it was at.

So I spent a weekend going through the Terabyte storage I have just deleting things. It didn't actually change things physically, but it made me feel better somehow.

 

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

This thread is making me want to do a detailed inventory of all my RPG stuff, plus reorganizing all my RPG PDFs. I have a crapload of physical books because I prefer those at the table, but my PDFs outstrip that by far, unless you don't include short stuff like you'd get on the DMs' Guild.

I'll have to do some counting tonight.

 

[Zardnaar]

Probably around 300.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Probably around 300.

Good bunch of guys to guard your stuff, no matter how many books you have,

 

[Blue]

I've purged several times over my lifetime, giving boxes of games to friends or getting rid of obsolete versions. I've also helped a friend after a house fire. I usually don't exceed a tall bookcase worth.

Right now I have:

• A shelf of RPG boxes, mostly old stuff, but it also include the old battletech/citytech/etc. as boxes so it's not just RPGs. (I have a milk crate for my old Star Fleet Battles, maybe I should move those to another one.)
• A shelf+ of the 3.5 that I haven't found a home for yet. And the few 3.0 that were more setting so I kept. Actually, some of the 3.x setting material I probably won't rehome unless it's somethign people are explicitly looking for.
• 1/3 of a shelf of 4e - after a while I got the subscription instead of trying to keep up to a book a month. Eh, also 1/3 of a shelf of WotC's Dungeon Tiles, don't know if that counts.
• 1/3 of a shelf of AD&D 2ed including some classic modules.
• 1/2 a shelf of Hero system, which includes multiple generations up to 6th though I have purged anything older then BBB. But I can't bear to part with my BBB (the binding is even good on this copy of it) after all the years of fun.
• What would be 1/4 of a shelf of 5e if I took it the player-oriented books out of my gaming backpack. Basically everything except adventures.
• A shelf of misc other, from 13th Age, Paranoia, Shadowrun, FATE, Star Wars, old World of Darkness, Warhammer Fantasy, and single books for a title I'm too lazy to list.

 

[pemerton]

I think I've got about 5 shelves of stuff on a 1.2 m bookcase, so 6 metres worth: a mix of hardback and softbacks for a range of systems. I have close to complete collections for Rolemaster/Spacemaster (including most of the Shadow World modules) and D&D 4e, and of AD&D (1st ed) hardbacks as well as many of the classic modules.

I'm not sure how many systems I have books for - definitely more than 20, but I'm pretty sure fewer than 50.

 

[D351]

Not as many as some other posters but enough to know that I don't want to actually think too hard about a specific number.

 

[jmucchiello]

I have about 7 linear feet of bookshelf dedicate to gaming. Plus a few boxes full of old Dragon Mags (59-200+), Polyhedrons, and old TSR modules. I also have 3 feet of old boxed sets (from TSR and FGU mostly except for the 20 small original traveler books. But calling them books in this context seems off.)

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I have about 7 linear feet of bookshelf dedicate to gaming. Plus a few boxes full of old Dragon Mags (59-200+), Polyhedrons, and old TSR modules. I also have 3 feet of old boxed sets (from TSR and FGU mostly except for the 20 small original traveler books. But calling them books in this context seems off.)

Yeah, I've got about 60 Dragon Mags plus 70 Dungeon Mags that I didn't count in my initial post. They add up really quick!