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."