RPGs - Collecting Only

Anyone buy RPGs simply to read or collect? I really only game DCC anymore, but I'm ordering The One Ring and Numenera to read if anything else. It's sort of got me wanting to go back and collect the RPGs that I really spent time with and played, but sold over the years. There's just something about thumbing through an RPG book that brings me joy. Maybe it's nostalgia though. Still, when I go to game shops, I tend to spend more time picking up and flipping through RPG books more than I do in any other game section. Maybe it's the nature of the product and I can actually 'look inside'. I dunno.

Anyway, what can bring more gaming joy than having these on the shelf?

I used to. I collect miniature game rules, more or less. I'm not so much collecting as seeking the One True Ruleset.

I would like to get back into Shadowrun but that would be impossible given my local situation. I'd like to get the books just to imagine how cool it would be to play again, so I could be depressed that I don't have any friends that would play.

I used to, but not anymore. I got tired of spending money on things I'll never get to the table.

I used to buy a bunch of RPG books and the intent was to play them, though that rarely happened. It took more time with RPGs than it did with board games to really find what I like, so any attempts to play many of them resulted in losing interest very quickly. I hate continuously rifing through board game rules, I certainly don't have the patience for it with a 300+ page book.

I can happily say that I've bought into 3 RPGs in the last year and I have extinsivy played 2 of them (D&D 5e and Edge of the Empire) and tried the other (Dungeon World, which is close to perfect for me but there's a few things that completely sink it). I just picked up Monster of the Week, which is getting played throughout the Halloween season.

I have various collections, including rpgs, but I never collect simply for the sake of collecting. I now realize that I will never get around to running campaigns or even adventures in a bunch of games that I own, but I do enjoy reading through them for fresh ideas to use in the games that I do run. Even the artwork in the better rpg books can serve as a springboard for ideas in other games. Mr. White, if you don't already have them, I recommend that you pick up these rpgs for your collection:

All Flesh Must Be Eaten
The Dying Earth
Feng Shui
Legend of the Five Rings (first edition)
Nephilim
Paranoia (first edition)

I only ran a lengthy campaign for one of the above games, but all of them were interesting to read.

Yeah, I doubt I'd play many of the games, but indeed mining for ideas is fun.

I currently own:
DCC RPG
Shadowrun 2nd
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st

Games I want to buy because I have a lot of memories with them and would like to have them on the shelf again (I have so much room now with so few boardgames):
AD&D (PHB, DMG, MM)
Feng Shui
Conan (Mongoose - big maybe)
Street Fighter the Storyteller Game (White Wolf)
Dragon Warriors (Mongoose edition)
(Star Frontiers, Top Secret, and Marvel Heroes are unlikely because I'd rather only have books than box sets at this time. Though I feel those box sets are the best actual deals in roleplaying)

Games I've never played, but I really like the look of them and want to read and possibly even run:
Numenera
The One Ring
Beyond the Wall (the character creation in this looks to be the best I've ever seen)
Pendragon (I've always been curious about this title...TGPC will never get played at this point for sure...)
Dark Conspiracy (Even though I love the Minion Hunter boardgame, I've never read any of the proper rpg books)

Games I'll probably buy because I might want to actually play with the kids:
Pokemon Jr Adventure Game
ICONS - Assembled Edition

I've considered doing a 'my history with rpgs' sort of blog post. I've have a love hate relationship with role-playing over the years, so not sure how interesting it would be.

EDIT: Looking at this list typed out...it's quite a bit. Though I fully understand owning most of these rpgs would be to simply read and enjoy rather than play, I don't want to trade choking on boardgames for choking on rpgs. I may need to reconsider this course over the next few days. Maybe whittle it down some.

Josh Look wrote: I can happily say that I've bought into 3 RPGs in the last year and I have extinsivy played 2 of them (D&D 5e and Edge of the Empire)

These are both modern takes on classic lines. I'd love to read more about your thoughts on them. How they were able to bring you into actually playing rpgs, what you've done with them, etc.

Also, Shellhead, I guess I always figured you were a White Wolf guy. I only ever played one session of Werewolf....oh and the Street Fighter rpg (which was a lot of fun). In fact, I had a lot more fun with SF the RPG than Conan, so Conan is getting bumped. Ahhh...the days of our crew fighting out of the Fishsticks Fighting Club.

EDIT: Isn't there a Feng Shui 2 out? Feng Shui is one of my favorite rpgs as I still use many rules and ideas from that book. It changed the way I ran/run rpgs. I alos dug all the AT movie quotes and references throughout the book. Any idea if FS 2 is worth owning over the first?

Yeah, this is me. I don't have many, but I have a couple: Song of Ice and Fire RPG by Green Ronin, the old Star Wars revised core book, I have Mouse Guard somewhere around here too. I'll get warhammer 2nd edition someday but that's probably it.

Mr. White wrote: Also, Shellhead, I guess I always figured you were a White Wolf guy. I only ever played one session of Werewolf....oh and the Street Fighter rpg (which was a lot of fun). In fact, I had a lot more fun with SF the RPG than Conan, so Conan is getting bumped. Ahhh...the days of our crew fighting out of the Fishsticks Fighting Club.

EDIT: Isn't there a Feng Shui 2 out? Feng Shui is one of my favorite rpgs as I still use many rules and ideas from that book. It changed the way I ran/run rpgs. I alos dug all the AT movie quotes and references throughout the book. Any idea if FS 2 is worth owning over the first?

It's true that I have a history with White Wolf, and a collector could specialize in just their rpgs and have plenty of targets to collect. But I didn't recommend them to you for a few reasons. One, their core system was crappy for a long time, until the big reboot about a decade ago. Second, some of their books are physically difficult to read because they tended to go overboard with elaborate page backgrounds and semi-legible fonts. Third, the overall cosmology of the World of Darkness was an incoherent mess before the reboot. The unpopular new World of Darkness actually has a better core system, and some great supplements. If you only bought one new WoD book, I would recommend Damnation City, which is packed with very interesting ideas about running urban campaigns in a modern setting. In fact, Damnation City has so many ideas crammed in there that they don't all even work together. Each chapter leads with a short fiction piece, which string together to tell a good story with memorable characters and a couple of twists that will shock all but the most jaded gamers.

Maybe there is a 3rd edition of Feng Shui now. First edition was from Daedalus, back during the height of the CCG boom. Second edition was a few years later, published by Atlas Games, but that was more than ten years ago. Actually, if you like Feng Shui, you might want to dig up Nexus the Infinite City, which is the precursor to both Feng Shui and Shadowfist. Different setting, featuring a cross-dimensional city similar to Cynosure from the Grimjack comics. Gives you an alternate way to mix and match lots of different powers and settings that doesn't involve the Secret War of the Feng Shui books.

While I wouldn't recommend the core system to a non-accountant, you might look into some of the GURPS supplements. Steve Jackson liked to hire writers with a specific aptitude for a given topic and then turn them loose to do a lot of research on the topic of the sourcebook. So even if you never bother running GURPS, their supplements tend to be good reads for specific topics.

I'm familiar with the Atlas Games edition of Feng Shui, but thought it was more a revised edition (though in b&w). I believe FS2 is a real thing.

www.atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG4020.php

There was a big KS last year on it, that had I known I may have jumped on.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/atlasgames/...by-robin/description

EDIT: Looks like they replaced that one future cyberpunk/dystopian setting with Mad Max. I never really used the official settings and ran my own universe with the game. Here's the blurb:

"Journey through time portals from contemporary Hong Kong to the Tang Dynasty, from the rebellion-soaked Opium Wars era to scorched, post-apocalyptic roadways."

Oh man, I've got this affliction bad. I LOVE picking up new RPGs to pick up new tips or learn new wrinkles from various systems. I try to resist buying anything new until I've at least read the last game I bought and prefer to get them to the table at least once but this doesn't always happen. I don't sell or trade off the games either so I've got most of the collection still in tact and it includes: Shadowrun 1st and 2nd edition, Marvel TSR, Earthdawn, Werewolf revised, Vampire the Masquerade, Aberrant, Legend of the Five Rings, Mutants & Masterminds 3rd edition, D&D 4E, Icons, WOTC Star Wars revised, Star Wars Saga Edition, Pathfinder, Marvel Heroes (Cortex), Edge of the Empire, Dungeon World, Savage Worlds, and Firefly.

These are also the games I have at least played or GM'ed once and represents 90% of my gaming history going all the way back to 1990. The list of games I own but have yet to play include: Exalted, Orkworld, Dresden Files, A Song of Ice and Fire, D&D 5th starter set, Worlds in Peril and Apocalypse World. I'll echo Shellhead and say I love owning the books I've never played for reference and inspiration for other games I'm crafting. Also, like Jeff White I really enjoy thumbing through RPG books more than anything and that's always the first section I check out when I'm at a book store or game retailer.

Josh Look wrote: I can happily say that I've bought into 3 RPGs in the last year and I have extinsivy played 2 of them (D&D 5e and Edge of the Empire) and tried the other (Dungeon World, which is close to perfect for me but there's a few things that completely sink it).

What kills Dungeon World for you, Josh?

My favorite idea from Feng Shui is the Mook Rule. All unnamed characters are mooks who get taken out by a single hit. The attacking character declares if he is killing the mook or just knocking him out. This allows for really big fights without bookkeeping hassles for the GM. Every role-playing game ever should use the Mook Rule.

Oh man, Savage Worlds.... The rpg that I have bought and sold, bought and sold, bought and sold, etc more times than any other gaming item. Every iteration of those rules have passed through my hands on multiple occasions.

I think the thing for me is that the game reads like it's going to be so fun, but when it actually comes down to it hauling around the required maps, benny tokens, cards, pc minis (or other representation), etc, becomes a chore. It starts to take on boardgame level of components.

I ran a few Deadlands one shots, but had the most fun with Necessary Evil (the setting where an alien invasion has successfully killed off Earth's superheroes, and the villians - incarcerated at the time of the invasion- are the ones that now rise up to defend earth during the alien occupation). It was actually pretty cool because the PCs had no idea what NE was and I ran a straight good guy supers game for about three sessions prior to. During character creation I had the players give me a brief run down on their hero's arch-rival. These arch-rivals were battled against for a few sessions, then I dropped the 'your heroes are now dead' via an email doctored up like a news bulletin. At the next session, they were handed character sheets of their heroes' arch-rivals.

We never finished the campaign (do we ever?) but of course from time to time I consider picking up a copy of the rules again (hardback, not awesome $10 explorer's edition) and trying out Solomon Kane.

Shellhead wrote: My favorite idea from Feng Shui is the Mook Rule. All unnamed characters are mooks who get taken out by a single hit. The attacking character declares if he is killing the mook or just knocking him out. This allows for really big fights without bookkeeping hassles for the GM. Every role-playing game ever should use the Mook Rule.

I agree. I use it in nearly every game.

I also like the rule where players contribute to describing the scene and the GM goes with it. This leads to fun surprises for me as the GM as well instead of having to worry about laying out every little detail of their surroundings.