When to Cull Your Collection?

[abazaba]

I haven't owned a record player since the late 1980s, but I've been hauling around my records for almost 40 years now. Behold the jewell of my collection.

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Hey look, that's George Micheal in his younger years ! Not sure who the other fellow is though.

 

[Tigris]

Not ebooks, certainly, LLMs, I suppose.

What’s next: ebooks are also outdated because we have LLMs?

Do you prefer ChatGPt over a human DM?

Just curious how pro-tech you are to put things into context.

I never said ebooks were good. I literally said the opposite. Of course ebooks are outdated, they are literally an outdated medium (book) just read on a digital device.


I am not too fond of AI but I may just be too old to understand how to use it best, still it uses too much energy so I dont think thats efficient.

I like search engines, wikis, good videos (where one can adapt speed etc.) things which are made digital first.

 

[djotaku]

They aren't though. There are studies showing how the act of flipping to a certain section of a text is associated with how something is remembered and increases the memory retention.

If you have children I highly suggest you see just how much damage switching to a digital only environment is actually doing to learning. Digital is fine for when you know something but it's not as good for building memory and learning. I suspect in the case of an established learned area the ereader is less detrimental than books and an acceptable substitute but it's not as good for creating memories.

I'm of 2 minds with this - specifically for a reference book like TTRPG book. If I need to find something specific, nothing beats ctrl-F in a PDF. If I need to jump back and forth - say I'm running an adventure out of the book and need to jump between the map and the room description or something like that - physical is way easier/faster for me than PDF. Also, let's say I'm building up an adventure and flipping through the Midgard book, my mid-range when it was built a decade ago computer is slower to jump to random portions than a physical book, especially if I have bookmarked the pages with a slip of paper.

Also, while I'm talking about TTRPG PDFs, I know it takes a lot of work, but I wish they were better hyperlinked. Like any mention of an NPC or monster should take me to that NPC or monster's entry in the PDF. Same with regions of the country or rooms in the castle or whatever. And the ones that have bookmarks or whatever sometimes need a bit of work in what appears under what in a dropdown/subheading.

 

[MGibster]

If you have some time, I recommend going briefly down the hole of social media channels dedicated to people dealing with inheriting massive collections of things like Precious Moments, depression glass, Franklin Mint plates, old toys, etc. Somewhere out there, someone just inherited a library of RPG books that they don't want and can't afford to move.

I enjoy going to flea markets and the number of Franklin Mint collectable plates I see is astonishing. Plates with Elvis, Gone with the Wind, John Wayne, Star Trek, The King and I, etc., etc. selling at a fraction of what it originally sold for. There's still a good market for Depression Glass as it's a pretty popular collectible. Which makes sense.

A few years back I read an article from the Wall Street Journal (I think) about younger generations not wanting their grandmother's fur coats. Up until the 1960s, fur coats were seen as quite a status symbol, and their durable nature meant you could pass them down to your children. It's not even young women, we're talking about women in my age bracket and older who don't want to go through the trouble of maintaining something they'll never, ever wear that just sits in the closet.

The sad truth is that our heirs probably don't want our stuff. We may have some items that have sentimental value, but unless they share the same interests and tastes as you, they don't want your furniture, books, collectibles, or your kitchenwares.

The argument I get from telling people like that to look beyond pop culture for good media is always "that doesn't count," because they're remembering the popular media that survived from their particular era, not the trash that has always been around and has since been forgotten. So frustrating. For example, 1982 was a hell of a year for film but it also saw the release of MegaForce and Mazes & Monsters.

Come on, Mazes & Monsters was made-for-tv movie airing on CBS rather than a theatrical release like MegaForce. But it undermines your argument to use some of the best entertainment from 1982! Okay. You're right, we tend to remember the good and the bad goes into the dustbin of history.

 

[Thierry-Advent]

We have a fixed amount of space of shelving for gaming, and that space is 100% full. If something new comes in, something old must go. First, I try to sell it, then try to give it away. If that fails, I have no problem putting gaming stuff in the trash, in fact, I often find it liberating!

As I've said before, at a rate of $25 an hour, for a game that cost $100, if I play 4 hours, I've repaid myself in entertainment value. Reading the rules, glueing models and painting them is also entertainment. So, if it goes to the trash, and I've used it enough times to recoup my initial investment, it's all good.

 

[LordEntrails]

As I've said before, at a rate of $25 an hour, for a game that cost $100, if I play 4 hours, I've repaid myself in entertainment value. Reading the rules, glueing models and painting them is also entertainment. So, if it goes to the trash, and I've used it enough times to recoup my initial investment, it's all good.

I love this attitude. Very healthy!
We shouldn't get caught up in the small stuff. Enjoy, live, move on.

 

[Tigris]

I'm of 2 minds with this - specifically for a reference book like TTRPG book. If I need to find something specific, nothing beats ctrl-F in a PDF.

Yeah this makes things soooo much faster.

If I need to jump back and forth - say I'm running an adventure out of the book and need to jump between the map and the room description or something like that - physical is way easier/faster for me than PDF. Also, let's say I'm building up an adventure and flipping through the Midgard book, my mid-range when it was built a decade ago computer is slower to jump to random portions than a physical book, especially if I have bookmarked the pages with a slip of paper.

Well this is easier with paper, but mostly because we are more used to use bookmarks in real life than in PDFs (its possible but I also never use it), and well this may be less the computer but also a badly optimized PDF, but even a 10 year old computer should be able to do this fast normally.

Secondly this also has to do how PDFs are just made after books and not as a standalone, which makes people put a lot less things in than would be possible:

Also, while I'm talking about TTRPG PDFs, I know it takes a lot of work, but I wish they were better hyperlinked. Like any mention of an NPC or monster should take me to that NPC or monster's entry in the PDF. Same with regions of the country or rooms in the castle or whatever. And the ones that have bookmarks or whatever sometimes need a bit of work in what appears under what in a dropdown/subheading.

Yeah this is what I mean. Its just the fault of "books first", if books would be finally extinct, PDFs could be sooo much better:

In an ideal world (without books) a PDF could be sooo good:

• You choose in the beginning of the formfillable PDF how many players you have and what the party level is (and if you want to scale everything automatic to level). And then the adventure works for your level no need to do monster scaling yourself or choose an adventure according to your parties current level and all encounters in the book have the number of enemies scaled for your party size as well as scaled loot.
  • With an additional "difficulty adjustor" in case you have a weeker/stronger than normal party.
• Every reference is linked in the PDF and there is a back button (and forward button), so you can easily look something up, click the back button and are where you were before.
• The PDF is single column and endless scrolling (like WEBTOON ). Ideally to read no page turning or needing to zoom in because text is too small because not made for this format. Like a webtoon:
• Everything is in bright and full colours including the border, because you dont care about what colours can be printed and cost and needing empty borders.
• Every monster needed in an encounter and every spell a monster has is directly in the encounter (or linked with 1 click), because there is no page limit. Its perfectly fine to have the monsters and spells in here directly even though they are already in the PHB and or Monster Manual.
• Every single room is also in big on a single page with a correct grid. You can with 1 click apply a filter to switch between GM sight and player sight. And you can choose between full colour and "print friendly mode" with another switch. So you can just print the room on a A4 paper and directly use that to play on.
• Every single room/encounter has everything needed for it written in the same page and you can click on the small map to get it full screen, same with the monsters and you can with an ex close it again. So no need to turn pages.
• You can track on the monsters directly the ressources (spells etc.) they used, and if you want even their health.
• And if you dont have dice, no problem, you can from the monsters roll their attack and damage in the pdf by clicking on them.
  • You can even have special monsters with "loaded dice" as in they can roll any distribution not just what dice can do!
• You can track decisions the player made (like killing character X or not helping the village), and the PDF automatically shows on the pages following the texts and maps for these decisions.
  • Like you did not help the village, now on the part describing the village, there are some burned buildings in the map and the text is adapted.
• You can have 1 PDF for each party you run it with, and with the above and the ability to "cross of" things done, you have directly a "journal" on what is done, and you can even see what was done "last time", no need to take extra notes.
  • You could even after the adventure print from it a "journal" which shows them what they did to have a document to remember the campaign and highlights better.
• You have in the colourfull sidebar quick links to go back to the chapter selection and other shortcuts to help navigation on top of the links.
• You have images of locations, and of puzzle elements etc. as full screen images, (same as maps) and can toggle the "player mode" to be able to just show the pdf to the players for this picture, without spoiling them.

This would make running adventurers a lot easier and better than with paper.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm of 2 minds with this - specifically for a reference book like TTRPG book. If I need to find something specific, nothing beats ctrl-F in a PDF. If I need to jump back and forth - say I'm running an adventure out of the book and need to jump between the map and the room description or something like that - physical is way easier/faster for me than PDF. Also, let's say I'm building up an adventure and flipping through the Midgard book, my mid-range when it was built a decade ago computer is slower to jump to random portions than a physical book, especially if I have bookmarked the pages with a slip of paper.

The solution to that if you've got the right software is to keep both sections open in different tabs.

(I don't entirely disagree though; sometimes finding things in a book I'm very familiar with is easier than locating it digitally, just because its unpredictable how the text search will interact with fonts and such. Its why the one thing I still tend to buy physical copies of are corebooks for games I actually am planning to run. Though if more games did things like the Eclipse Phase 2e online compendium does, it'd spoil heck out of my. But its unusually well set up).

Also, while I'm talking about TTRPG PDFs, I know it takes a lot of work, but I wish they were better hyperlinked. Like any mention of an NPC or monster should take me to that NPC or monster's entry in the PDF. Same with regions of the country or rooms in the castle or whatever. And the ones that have bookmarks or whatever sometimes need a bit of work in what appears under what in a dropdown/subheading.

Yeah, it seems like even with games they've done that (EP2e in fact) sometimes the hyperlinking is erratic too.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you're just going to boldly assert falsehoods, no one's going to want to talk with you. Goodbye.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/00346543231216463

And none of my falsehoods was as extreme as yours claiming "studies showed people learn better with reading books", when the study is about reading comprehension depending on leasure time reading which is far far far away from your statement.

Also reading comprehension was tested with the PISA test (at least in the first study cited), which uses static texts for testing... https://www.oecd.org/en/about/programmes/pisa/pisa-test.html

Yes some of these texts do look a bit like really old static websites, but its still static text. Its not even chat on a mobile phone with scroll, or subtitles in 4x speed to japanese cartoons.

And again, its just reading comprehension (and that only for static text), no tests of video comprehension, audio comprehension, game comprehension, short video comprehension etc.


Well how do professionals in jobs in companies who have time stress get information, via books or digital? I think this alone answers clearly what is more efficient.

Mod Note:

Rule #1 of ENWorld is keep it civil. Public accusations of spreading falsehoods isn’t civil. If you think someone is lying, find a better way to deal with them than calling them a liar.

 

[abazaba]

I haven't owned a record player since the late 1980s, but I've been hauling around my records for almost 40 years now. Behold the jewell of my collection.

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And now you made me look up the Wikipedia article on WHAM!, which in turn made me listen to 'Everything She Wants'; a song I have not heard in decades, and I even (still) like it.