How Should RPG Books Be Organized - on your shelf?

[J.Quondam]

Having used some pretty low-quality shelves and improvised shelf-like structures over the years, I've learned (the hard way) that books should be organized by weight, with the heaviest books on the bottom, and lighter ones toward the top.

 

[aco175]

I had this for a while in college. Makes transport easy and they are strong, if a crime to have, like mail bins, if the milk industry catches up with you.

 

[overgeeked]

Having used some pretty low-quality shelves and improvised shelf-like structures over the years, I've learned (the hard way) that books should be organized by weight, with the heaviest books on the bottom, and lighter ones toward the top.

And heavier books on the ends with lighter books in the middle otherwise the shelves sag over time.

 

[Lanefan]

Organize?

What is this strange concept of which you speak?

 

[Umbran]

I had this for a while in college. Makes transport easy and they are strong, if a crime to have, like mail bins, if the milk industry catches up with you.

These days, plastic "milk crates" are available in Target, and many other fine college-student-serving establishments.

 

[aco175]

These days, plastic "milk crates" are available in Target, and many other fine college-student-serving establishments.

They were 'free' from behind the kitchen at college.

 

[MGibster]

I organize by books by game. i.e. All the Call of Cthulhu books are together, all the D&D books are together, all the Savage Worlds books are together, etc., etc.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Oh, for the room/space I desperately need....
When I had space, it was by system, then product lines, then release order. So the D20 era has a section that looks like 3.0 Core, 3.5 Core, 3.x WOTC supplements, 3.x 3PP1, 3.x 3PP2, etc.. Beyond that, the best I usually managed to do was keep a system's books together. So all my Blue Planet on this shelf, the WoD stuff over there, and so on. Now adays?

Piles. Piles of physical RPG books. No sorting, other than archeological deposit order. It's where-ever it fits/was last read. Maybe.

But my PDFs are sanely organized as above on my laptop's drive.

 

[Ulfgeir]

I have sort of organized mine by system, and size. So my bottom shelf is D&D and other d20-games, the shelf above them is Shadowrun, then I have one shelf with FATE and other games in a smaller format, and so on. All Call of Cthulhu-stuff together etc.

 

[aramis erak]

I'm well over 250. Traveller alone, given CT, MT, TNE, T4, and MGT1, plus some third party stuff for CT and MGT, pushes a hundred. (CT alone, no 3rd parties, is at least 50.) Traveller is, of need, across two crates.
I've a bunch of FASA-Trek - half a crate in with later Trek, and the rest in a smaller tub, because they were gifted to me by someone while the crate was still in a different state.
I suspect I'm close to 1000 physical books, most of which are game related. I keep them organized by system in milk crates (from defunct dairies). One crate is nothing but Dune novels and McCaffrey novels, all in hardcover.

Just in my current LoS are 35 NOT in use; two will see no use, either... the Marvel playtest and TOR 2e Collector Ed. The TOR 2e Starter Box has been opened, to put in the replacement dice... and looked through. Not going to see use, either. Just out of LoS, a crate of WFRP1e, with all of TEW in the consolidations, 4 of the 6 Doomstones volumes, the companion, both apocrypha volumes. Also, all 3 current volumes of ALien, plus the adventures, and Blade Runner and its starter, oh, and vaesen and the first adventure book. Plus, under the notebook, one of my hardcover D&D Rules Cyclopedia. (I've at least one more, maybe even 2 or 3 more. But they're in the storage along with most of the D&D Gazeteers.)
THis doesn't count boxed non-RPGs, either. Counting the two non-game books, we add a bible, a dozen manuals for various pieces of tech...

So, in my bedroom, about 50 books. And that's maybe 20%, if even that much, of the book count.

I organize my PDFs into folders by system, and if the system is used in multiple games, those are in subfolders; a few get cross-linked - STA is in the top level, but has symlinks in both the 2d20 and Trek folders.