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Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: Mr. White on 26 March 2021, 02:00:16 PM
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Anyone have books that they don't ever really intend to play, even in the best, ideal circumstances, but hold on to anyway?
I've got a few:
1) Shadowrun 2nd ed - This is an rpg book, but I just love the older setting here. The Bradstreet and Laubenstein art within is iconic to me. I recently replayed the early 90s SNES video game, and this book on hand was a perfect companion piece. I know SR isn't _pure_ cyberpunk, but it's my favorite flavor of cyberpunk and I would like a newer, fast playing version of the game, but set in this older 2050s era.
2) Warhammer Fantasy Battles 3rd ed - This book has it all. game rules, painting tutorial, terrain and table making guides, multiple army lists, great fluff, incredible art, and my favorite... Rick Priestly selecting his models and paying his money! heh. I love everything about old school GW and will not make an attempt to track down expensive hard to find minis, but I will keep this book on hand. It's a joy to leaf through.
3) Blood Bowl 2nd ed Companion and Star Player books - BB is the game I've played the longest, 2nd ed the version I've played the least, but these books have, to me, the iconic BB art. The 'Did you know...' tidbits are also great. Yeah, this set of rules has too much (werewolves running off with treeman legs) but it's fun to read through and imagine all of this playing out on the pitch. Newer versions of the game do play a lot smoother, and I prefer them for it, but this is the version that's set the tone of the game.
I have NM copies of all of the hardbacks above and with no intent on ever playing them, they'll still be some of the last books to ever leave my collection.
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Babylon's Burning - it's a stodgy, convoluted, overly complex game... But it was the first game I encountered after Games Workshop, and the setting holds a special place in my heart!
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3rd edition Warhammer 40k Rulebook. Bought it from Ebay with no intention of ever playing that edition again, but it was my first glimpse into Warhammer 40k back in the days and there are just so many small bits and pieces of fluff. And I find the black and white artworks just brilliant (something I came to connect with Warhammer 40k and miss in the newer puplications).
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A few years ago I had a major cull on unwanted wargame and rpg rulebooks, offered them on here and other sites free for just shipping cost but ended up dumping virtually all of them in the recycle as no takers.
The ones I kept from that were all the Confrontation/Cadwallon Hardbacks, LotR SBG and LotR War of the Ring (the big blue books), 1st ed Infinity, Shadowrun 2nd & 3rd editions and have since added Moonstone. I keep them just to look through as they are so pretty.
I also have a load of rulebooks that I will never use as systems but freely pinch ideas, mechanics or scenario ideas from:
Cyberspace, Hardwired and Rezolution between them (with "Black Ice" my own hacking system) make up my version of Shadowrun for tabletop skirmish.
Republic to Empire and a printed bound pdf of Republique provide the C&C bolt on to my Volley & Bayonet games.
Pretty much all the Rapid Fire campaign and scenario books.
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Loads, books don’t take up that much space, especially wargames rules. Definitions of ‘that much’ may vary between me and my wife...
I’ve re-bought a few rule books that I had back in the day (operation warboard, and Bruce Quarie WW2 rules)- which are good from a nostalgia point not so much from wanting to play the games again.
I did get rid of a lot of RPG stuff a few years ago - these were all quite big books, sold a bit, gave others away to my gaming group. But kept the core AD&D books - Players Handbook, DMG and Monster Manual.
Largely I’m a pack rat!
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I keep almost all the rule books I buy. A rule book actually has to work a bit to make it into the discard pile (SPQR recently achieved that distinction...).
At this point I still have enough room on the shelves, so not much incentive to cull the herd.
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I have to admit that collecting the paraphenelia around gaming has become a major part of the hobby for me, and books are a big part of that. As fred up there remarked; books don't take up that much space (individually :D ), and most are just plain nice to leaf through every now and then.
I believe it was the Necromongers who lived by the rule 'You keep what you buy' (or something along those lines), and I tend to follow that tenet.
In fact, I am going out of my way to complete certain series of books, even though I will very probably never use their rules. And this goes for older editions of rules as well. In fact, it's safe to say that it's mostly the older books that hold my attention.
For instance, I have all rulebooks, codices, sourcebooks, compilations, Chapter Approveds etc for 40K, from Rogue Trader up to 5th edition, and the rulebooks only for 6th, 7th and 8th, a good few editions of WHFB with assorted armybooks, all Citadel catalogues from 1998 up to 2010. All Warmachine and Hordes books (bought at a thriftshop for just €1,- a piece, which was a steal, even when considering I don't even play Hordes ::) ). All editions of Infinity and Confrontation, a good chunk of the Osprey Blue Series, all editions of Dropzone and Dropfleet, half a shelf of RPG books, and the list goes on and on with many, many assorted other rule- and sourcebooks.
Not to mention several decades of White Dwarfs, years of No Quarter, WSS, WI and other mags.
It's my rule to not throw any books out. Ever. I must have been heavily imprinted by my first job after school hours, at the municipal library, but this has become a code I've lived by ever since. Trust me; my gaming books only make up a tiny portion of my book collection.
Which basically means that whenever my personal library outgrows its available space, we move to a bigger house... lol
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Oh yes. I collect rulesets. I have dozens.
For their background fluff but also for their specific mechanics. I often introduce things into the rulesets I do play from other sets, like the sentry rules from Black Ops for example.
I rarely sell them except when it turns out there is nothing remarkable about them.
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I don't have much rulebooks in paperback format, and all those I have is from games that I don't play:
-Confrontation 3ed + Dogs of War expansion.
-Several army books from WHFB 6th ed.
-Orks Codex from ¿5th? edition of 40K.
-1st edition of In Her Majesty's Name.
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I rarely get a chance to play games so most of the books I own (and I own a lot) are for games I dont play. Like others I like reading rulebooks as a hobby in itself. After all the greatest games are the ones you play in your head right?
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I have a few rule books I still hope to play some day. Purged quite a few rule books and rpg games though over the last year on ebay and facebook along with kits and miniatures. Last month I culled my non gaming books for the first time in a decade. While it is strange to see nothing stacked on the floor in my hobby room it's really weird to have empty space on my book shelves.
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I've kept Chef de Bataillon as a warning to future generations.
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Warhammer 1st, 2nd and third edition and likewise with 40k.
Middle earth battle game and war of the ring rules.
The big one for me is inquisitor - I haven't played it since i was about 7 but I keep the book to pour over, amazed at what could have been and trying to figure out how I'd redo it if i had the chance.
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Rules I've never played but I keep it:
- Rules for Wargaming (Arthur Taylor) I bought it in a bookshop in England when I was a teenager, I was fascinated it was on a bookshelf between books about gardening and fishing and other hobbies as if it were a normal adult activity, this was unthinkable in France at that time. Never played it, it's unplayable, but the fact that it existed and that I owned it opened a whole universe.
Rules I've played and no longer do, but I keep them anyway:
- Charges antiques et médiévales, Les Aigles, DBA, DBM, Hordes of the Things...
(Not mentioning RPGs)
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The list of rules I have that I don't use is sooo much longer than the list of rule books that I do use I would have to take the time to catalogue them before posting further on this thread. :D
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A few, lol . And have turfed a few out or given them to friends. However I will never throw out my vast Glorantha collection :)
Like Daeothar ,my wife and I have a lot of books*,and multiple interests,books are sacrosanct,some rule books are just too good to toss out; Age of Arthur,Mordeim,Call of Cthulhu the list goes on... What I actually play; Rapid Fire , Mad Maximilian and my own multiple period rules loosely based on Mordeim crossed with Rapid Fire with one or two added tweaks (for example hero points for fantasy and pulp).
*Have to keep culling my kindle too!
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I would say I spend far more time reading and collecting rule books and browsing forums and blogs than painting or playing with the collection.
My bookcases and Kindle are full of them, most of which I'll never play, but each and every one feeds my imagination and my favourites are constantly looked at and re-read.
As to culling them, no. Never.
My wife jokes of a Viking Funeral - me on the lake with a blazing heap of books, metal and plastic.
The wargaming hobby covers a lot of collecting styles, personalities and qwirks. More power to it, I say.
Must dash, I'm off to read an early copy of Wagames Illustrated amongst the gigabytes worth of copies downloaded during my subscription period :)
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I have a theory that 90% of gaming books are never played - and of those a large number are never even read.
but we all like having them, either for the artwork, the ideas, or just on the off chance that that project we started 5 years ago might finally get finished.
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Shelves of the things :(
The only problem is that enerytime I think "it's time for a clearout", I always find a reason to keep them.
There are plenty of digital ones as well, which is something I really need to catalogue at some point...
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.... and my own multiple period rules loosely based on Mordeim crossed with Rapid Fire with one or two added tweaks (for example hero points for fantasy and pulp).
The mind boggles!
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At least one rulebook (DBM) will never leave my shelves because I love to reread it to remind me of how NOT to write rules. It might be a good game (if not my taste) but it is written like a 19th century lawbook. Atrocious. o_o
But aside from this one example of "reverse inspiration" most rulesets I keep will inspire me on occasion to add something to a game that makes it a better game.
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I have a theory that 90% of gaming books are never played - and of those a large number are never even read.
but we all like having them, either for the artwork, the ideas, or just on the off chance that that project we started 5 years ago might finally get finished.
[YODA]Much truth in this there is, hmm?[/YODA] :D
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I had a purge last year and got rid of a ton of rule sets that I realised I would never play again. Made quite a lot of space on the shelves!
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I was considering getting into Napoleonics as a kid, and my dad found a copy of Bruce Quarrie's Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature at the local base library. It hadn't been checked out in something like fifteen years, so he "lost it", paid the $10 or whatever and gave it to me as a birthday present.
A little cheeky, but it's a marvelous book. This was all pre-internet - so it wasn't something you could find at the time. Glorious book I keep till this day, even with no intention of ever gaming Napoleonics. It's got amazing content...and so much detail I can't even begin to fathom who games like this. Want to know the marching pace, in inches, of Prussian Landwehr? It's in there.
It has excellent maps of the major battles, and an eye-watering level of logistical detail, etc. Just amazing stuff...even if it's way over my head/interest.
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I do not have many commercial rule books. Those I have fall into 2 groups - the first are those bought when I was in club that was keen on competitions. I soon tired of them (competitions not the club) and they might be in a box somewhere or I have given them away. Don't know. The exception is Cthulhu Invictus that I use for the background information on Ancient Rome.
The second lot are those bought more recently for games that our grandchildren want to play - Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, Bolt Action, Zona Alfa. These do get used on Zoom while Covid restrictions get in the way.
So what do I use now? Virtually all are rules written by my friend Slim or myself. and date back to the 1960s and 70s with amendments and updates. At Christmas I was given "Infamy, Infamy!" and those have been played a few times again on Zoom.