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Owning multiple copies of RPG books

MerricB

Eternal Optimist
Supporter
Do you own multiple copies of some of your RPG books?

In my case, there's a few I own two or more copies of. I own seven copies of the AD&D Player's Handbook, most of which I bought recently, so that I can lend them to my players whenever I want to run AD&D.

And then there's the four copies of the Isle of Dread, which is mainly due to it being part of a group of books on ebay where I really want the other ones (and one copy was just to get the older blue cover which has some different text).

I think I also own 3 or 4 copies of Keep on the Borderlands...

Three copies of the Moldvay Basic rules...

Three copies of Mongoose Traveller Core Rules (it was on special, so I wanted to get extra copies if I ever get to run a game).

How about you?
 

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No, I won't go there, at least not intentionally.

The only exceptions are:

- multiple copies of the Player's Guide to Ptolus; they came as part of the pre-order deal.

- two copies of a certain L5R module, due to oversight

- two copies of the first three core books for 4e. A friend of one of my players grew disgruntled with the system and gave his books to him, who, in turn, handed the over to me.

I usually don't do package deals at ebay or wherever, so the danger of obtaining doubles or triples is pretty low. And I'm very happy that I can resist collecting RPG stuff - otherwise it would be a very expensive hobby for me. :)
 

I do own several multiples, but then again, I'm often serving as the "group librarian."

Regardless, I typically buy or otherwise acquire multiples of the books that I expect to see the heaviest use. Just off the top of my head, I have duplicates of:

  1. The 1Ed, 2Ed, 3Ed and 3.5Ed DMGs & PHBs, plus 3ED's Oriental Adventures
  2. RIFTS basic rulebook
  3. Champions/HERO rulebooks dating from the first through the 6th editions
  4. Mutants & Masterminds basic rulebook
  5. Arcana Unearthed and Arcana Evolved basic rulebooks
  6. Space:1889 core rulebooks
 
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I picked up multiple copies of the 1e Oriental Adventures books for my players to use. I would nab them at used bookstores whenever I saw them in the 1990s. Very few people seemed to have it in their collection.
 

I own 3 copies of BESM d20 (not including the stingy gamer edition, and the "corrected" revised edition).
-- 1 "Deluxe" edition (purchased)
-- 1 signed "Deluxe" edition (won in a contest :cool:)
-- 1 BESM d20 Revised Edition's 1st Printing*

When a book has a deluxe edition, I sometimes purchase the deluxe as well as the regular edition (regular goes on the table or travels with me).

I often tend to get the PDF of a book, then purchase the hardcover. I then place a copy of the pdf in dropbox, my pc, my laptop, and my xoom.

*Guardians of Order sent out the wrong file to the printer during the first run. They did not discover their error until after all their books shipped to the customers. The annoying thing about the error was that you couldn't return the book since the changes between editions were so few that GoO solved the issue by literally sending stickers with the revisions. :hmm:
 

I own two copies of the Star Wars D20 Revised Core Rule Book. Our group was making do with two rulebooks, and having a spare speeded things up. That's the only one, though.
 


2 copies of Moldvay Basic D&D, 2 copies of Isle of Dread - had one since the '80s, one came with the copy of Mentzer Expert D&D I bought a few years ago. I keep my 1st & 2nd printings of Labyrinth Lord. I think that's it.

So for me multi-copies is clearly a B/X thing. :)
 


I managed to buy two copies of the Hornsaw: Forest of Blood from drivethrurpg.com. :confused: Still a little annoyed about that one. I bought a RPG package from American Science and Surplus that arrived with multiple copies of Dragon Kings and the Buck Rogers game; I don't know if I still have multiples. Besides that, I've been pretty good about staying multiple free.
 

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