I just threw away 100+ RPG books

[Jd Smith1]

A full (probably) set of War Hammer FRPG 1e and 3e, a large amount of Rolemaster, and some odds and ends, plus several binders from campaigns long past. It represented about 60% of my remaining print RPG library. I quit buying hard copy a long time ago, with the exception of WH 3e, and have discarded, sold on Ebay (when it first came out) and given away the rest. Sometime soon I will purge the remainder, only keeping autographed books, stuff from my first days in gaming (1979-80), and a couple I enjoy reading (Astate, Blue Planet, City of Lies).

I'm not quitting gaming; in fact, I'm gaming more than ever, but online, and I only use pdfs. But I'm tired of all the clutter associated with physical gaming. I packed away all my dice and the various prop items I used into a handy little parts container.

It is time to recognize that the hobby, for me, has forever changed. I switched to pdfs years ago, VTT not long after, and now online gaming, which is far superior to any gaming I had ever done in the past.

I will miss the joy of visiting a well-run gaming store, but I haven't done that in a dozen years, and there hasn't been one within three hours' drive (at least) in the last decade.

 

[Cadence]

I'm glad you have a way to play you enjoy and get to do it a lot!!

 

[J.Quondam]

Congrats. It's always nice to de-clutter, free up space, and still be able to enjoy the things you enjoy, probably even more so now without all the extra baggage in the way. I've done that (in general, not RPG-specific) every 10 years or so, and it's always liberating.

 

[payn]

I have been using PDFs for sometime. Since pandemmy im on VTT now too. I dont really miss the physical books. I do miss the physical face to face gaming.

 

[Sacrosanct]

About a year or two ago, I did the same. Well, I gave them away rather than threw them away, but yeah. I had to make the hard choice of "How often do I actually use these?" vs "How much space are they taking up?" Let someone else enjoy them. 95% of the stuff was from the early 80s to mid 90s, including Dragon Magazines #30ish to 200ish, all the 1e hardcover books, a ton of palladium (including TMNT, Robotech, and others), a ton of modules, a couple b/x boxes sets, etc.

I only kept a few. My still-in-shrinkwrap Holmes basic, my 5e stuff that I just got, one set of the 1e core 3 books, and some modules. That's about it.

 

[Blue Orange]

Pity there aren't repositories you can leave these at for indigent gamers or something.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Pity there aren't repositories you can leave these at for indigent gamers or something.

Even if there were, I wouldn't. Better a clean demise than to fall into the hands of people who write in margins or dog-ear page corners.

 

[Retreater]

This hurts my librarian heart.

 

[Blue Orange]

This hurts my librarian heart.

Yeah, I don't know. There are a lot of old books people are getting rid of and there are a lot of people who can't afford new releases. Lots of people like to play the older versions of games. Is this just one of those things where one half of the country has a drought and the other half is getting flooded but it's not feasible to get the water from one end to the other?

 

[Cadence]

It wasn't all destruction thankfully:

" ... have discarded, sold on Ebay (when it first came out) and given away the rest."

 

[HippyCraig]

There are places like noble knight that will buy your older books so other people can enjoy them than just throwing it away

 

[Mezuka]

This winter I gave away many RPG books to the charity store. I figured less fortunate kids would be happy to play games at the fraction of the cost.

 

[Jd Smith1]

There are places like noble knight that will buy your older books so other people can enjoy them than just throwing it away

Frankly, the prices you get are not worth the effort. If Goodwill would take books (other than paperback novels), or if we still had any used book stores, I would donate them, but those options no longer exist in my area.

 

[Reynard]

I think the actual books are less of a loss than the notebooks and journals. I feel like we need a national repository for that stuff from players and GMs. There's history in there.

 

[Blue]

I'm all for purging. Not as much for the throwing away. As a college student I brought a big box of my RPGs I wouldn't get a chance to play, from Cyborg Commando (Gygax post D&D) to older Champions editons to a friend who ran a different game every night of the week and told him that he and any of his gamer friends could have anything they wanted. I've been doing that since. Most recent with RPG was giving away a large number of my D&D 3.x, 4e, and old AD&D books. Those last were hard because of all the formative memories, but I literally had opened one once in the previous decade, to show the art to one of my kids (who play 5e), so I let them go. It seemed like to a good place as well where students would get to play.

I do the same with physical books. When my shelves get too overflowing (as opposed to normal overflowing) I'll go through and grab all the books I won't be rereading again but are worth reading and let friends at them. My car currently has seven bags of books I bagged up pre-covid and then sat in my spare room. I'll make a trip to my friend who said he wants them over the weekend.

But I'm lucky to have lots of people in my area who game and who share my taste in books so I can pass them on. But just decluttering is a good thing - I'm such a packrat at times.

 

[schneeland]

I don't think I'm as radical as you - I'm not sure how much you are actually throwing away instead of selling or gifting, but that's something I don't consider. Still, I sold 1/3 of my physical collection over the last years, and am currently planning to sell off about the same number of books (the last batch will probably take a bit longer).
And in general I agree with you: as much as I like the energy of a good in-person game, I don't see that coming back. And with solid tablets, PDFs and a growing number of VTTs, online games are the best chance for me to keep playing (I have had more sessions in the last 2 years than in the 5 years before). And they also greatly increase the chance to play something else than the most popular systems.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I don't think I'm as radical as you - I'm not sure how much you are actually throwing away

Over100 RPG books. About 60 more to go when I get around to it.

 

[TheSword]

I got so much money for my 1e and 2e WFRP books. Enough to pay for all my 4e books.

Selling the old to pay for new is not a bad idea. Rpg books hold their value really well it seems. Particularly as they frequently go out of print.

 

[Retreater]

I think the actual books are less of a loss than the notebooks and journals. I feel like we need a national repository for that stuff from players and GMs. There's history in there.

I still have files of my old campaigns. Maps, character sketches from a player who now is a pro comic artist, the last character sheet from a player who sadly passed away during the campaign.
But I'm a nostalgic sap, so I understand why others don't value things like that.

 

[delericho]

I think the actual books are less of a loss than the notebooks and journals. I feel like we need a national repository for that stuff from players and GMs. There's history in there.

A few years ago I went through an exercise of scanning all my old notes, character sheets, and the like - 30+ years of personal gaming history. But... while there was some good stuff in there, honestly they wouldn't have been any great loss to the world.