For me they’re aspirational. I haven’t played a pen and paper RPG in over 20 years, but like to imagine I’ll find the time. With a baby on the way, in about 8 to 12 years I’ll have a captive audience to play with, between her and my wife.
It’s the same with our giant shelf of board games that are better with 3 players. We’re playing the long game here.
I’m hoping for the same thing. I can’t wait to DM for my kids one day!
It’s even better when the DM for you!
Just started My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria with my wife and 7yo daughter - it’s a blast!
I have the D&D 3.5 core rulebooks on my shelf in the nerd nook. I know that I’m never going to play 3.5 again, but it’s the system I first got into the hobby with. It would feel wrong to get rid of my personal history of nerdship.
@Bougie_Birdie Can confirm this instinct of yours - I got into the game in the 2e AD&D days, and I have spent good money reacquiring things, because I missed them and needed them on my gaming shelf, knowing full well I’ll never use them in play again.
My husband’s computer recently died and he was very scared about the possibility of losing 40 plus gigs of digital RPG rule books. I did manage to save the drive so all was good.
Someone needs an external drive for Christmas
I turned the old drive into an external for now. Baby steps before learning to build my own server.
Even if I don’t directly use each book, I might find ideas and inspiration in them that I can bring back to the games I do run. This has happened plenty of times. Besides, they can be fun to read. This goes for old books too. Numerous times I’ve adapted old material for new games.
A good DM knows the rules for the system he is running, a great DM steals from every RPG in arms reach.
There are so many advances in game systems since the Palladium system I use, so I have stolen shamelessly to make combat last less than 1 game session rather than the two or three under standard rules
The universe is good, the rules are ancient
I do have a shelf of books though for Rifts, TMNT, after the bomb
I can’t afford that many paper books, man, sorry
Do I have every book for DND pirated as a PDF so that I can reference them, though? maybe
Do I have a digital backup of the Cyberpunk books? totally
Do I have an esoteric collection of random magic items and mobs I’ve seen as I browse over the last 15 years? oh fuck actually did I accidentally delete this folder I literally just realized as I typed this oh no
Hell, be an rpg hero and make it a lending library to your actively playing associates.
The only parts of my collection that I don’t lend out are the absurdly difficult to replace box kits. Even then, I’ll make copies of the material. My kid’s d&d group plays 5e, but the DM has borrowed some of my 3.x books for ideas, and has (with full supervision because I’m a little protective) had access to my spelljammer box (before they redid it).
Besides, I may end up running a game again. Most of my regular players have expressed interest, and it’s only scheduling that keeps it from happening. Shit, I might even do a game with the original rule materials some day, the way I used to do ad&d short games (a few months of a story, or breaking out a module) when we were playing 3.x
Looks wistfully at L5R, Shadowrun, Deadlands, and a shitload D&D 3.0
I have a vampire the masquerade v20 book and some supplements, not because I’m interested in running it, but because I think it’s the most compelling vampire fiction ever written.
