# How big is your RPG collection?



## Mercurius (Nov 17, 2010)

A very simple poll: How big is your RPG collection? I'm talking about books and other paper, readable products like box sets, modules, etc. Please do not include PDFs as it would just get confusing - unless you printed out a PDF and have it on your shelf. I'm curious as to how many physical products people own (and I'm not including dice, dungeon tiles, miniatures, etc).

Feel free to include a description - how you store your books, etc.

Me: All tolled I have about 300 products, maybe a bit more. My collection has fluctuated over the years and at one point dwindled to a single milk crate three or four years ago during a hiatus from gaming. Then I finally accepted the fact that I was always going to love RPGs and went on a collecting binge over the last couple years, especially last year, which has slowed down a bit over the last year. I have them stored in a six-foot tall bookshelf in my office, on five shelves plus the top...the collection is starting to spill over.


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## billd91 (Nov 17, 2010)

I have a 6 foot tall, 4 foot wide bookshelf full of RPG stuff, plus a couple of milk crates, a 3 foot tall thin bookshelf, a large rubbermaid box (full of Traveller stuff), and 3 or 4 magazine boxes full of Dragons, Dungeons, Traveller's Digests, Shadis, and Challenge magazines. So I'm pretty sure I have over 500 items in my collection. I'm no completist by any stretch of the imagination, but over 30 years things tend to build up.


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## Umbran (Nov 17, 2010)

Size doesn't matter.  It's how you use it that counts.


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## Ahzad (Nov 17, 2010)

I used to be  in the 1,000+ category (might still be I quit counting at 800 and still had stuff to go. Yea I had to go counting when I saw the poll. I was curious.), but I've had 2 big sell offs since 2000 and getting ready to do another smaller one. It's just to much stuff that's beginning to take up to much space. Folks have seen the milk crate bookshelf pics I've posted in another thread. I've taken to getting pdf's of stuff that I rarely look at and get rid of the physical copies, well actually most stuff except the stuff that's near and dear. It's a sickness  but one I've really enjoyed over the past 30 odd years.


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## TerraDave (Nov 17, 2010)

By restricting my purchases and doing the occassional prune back I have kept in the large range. Currently kept on book shelves in the attic. 

Of course, thats not really counting old dragons, minis, or boxes of my own notes. Or other hobby games. 

I am a borderline case


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## crazy_cat (Nov 17, 2010)

Gargantuan. 700+ items I think. It just all adds up over time - what with D&D (various flavours - AD&D 1e & 2e (modules and boxed sets including Al Qadim, DL, Dark Sun, and Planescape etc), Dungeon magazine, Basic, Compendium, 3.5, FR, Eberrron, DL, D20 OGL, Pathfinder, Conan, AE, IH, Castles & Crusades, OSRIC), Cthulhu (Call and Trail), Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader and Deathwatch, True 20, Traveller, Mage, Savage Worlds, WFRP 1e and 2e, various indie games, D20 B5, D20 Modern, Serenity, Space 1889, Dragon Warriors,  Tunnels and Trolls, Fate, and Savage Worlds.

What I need is a gaming room, what I get is some very squashed shelf space.


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## Huw (Nov 17, 2010)

To my shame, I seem to be the first to click "Colossal". However, over half of them would be magazines, fanzines and other such stuff. My collection of books used to take up two large bookcases, box sets were all in one cupboard, and those publications in several large boxes. They cover nearly all incarnations of D&D, Runequest and Rolemaster, plus various others.

Now nearly all are banished to the garage in boxes, where they still take up a lot of room. Occasionally I take some out to read, or, if I now find them boring, put them on eBay. I'm keeping all the monster books though


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## Crothian (Nov 17, 2010)

Easily over a thousand.  I was an ENnie Judge for many years and have gotten a lot of books for review purposes in addition to buying many books for the past three decades.  I've scaled down the collection tremendously over the years and still have over a hundred books or more I'm looking to get rid of.


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## Agamon (Nov 17, 2010)

Hmmm.  I said "Large", thinking just about my books, but I forgot to consider adventures and magazines, which easily takes me to Gargantuan.  Then there's my 1000+ plastic and metal minis....


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## El Mahdi (Nov 17, 2010)

It used to be Huge, but I've since paired it down to a happy Medium.


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## Katana_Geldar (Nov 17, 2010)

I have about three different systems that I play or run: Star Wars Saga, Paranoia and D&D 4E. The majority of my books are D&D, really because the others require less and I have lots of Star Wars PDFs. I also have a few Paranoia adventures as well as D&D ones.
I also have two 2nd Edition sourcebooks (fantastic for roleplaying), a printed PDF of the original Tomb of Horrors.

I know you didn't want to talk about minis, but I have the D&D ones as it was rather pointless getting SW ones as another guy has them and brings them when we play.


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## Mercurius (Nov 17, 2010)

Huw, there is no shame in being Colossal .

Katana, I'm happy to hear about minis and such, I just didn't want them to be included in the poll.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Nov 17, 2010)

Call me Colossal!

The collection fills 3 6"+ bookcases (with more stcked on top), a few 5' tall Elfa carts, and a collection of Dragon dating back to #44 up to the last physical issue in nice plastic tubs.

And that's after selling off some stuff.


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## Treebore (Nov 18, 2010)

I know I am in excess of 600. Judging by looking at what I am not counting there is a very good chance I might break 1,000. I never get rid of any RPG stuff, but I also have plenty of book shelves and 50 gallon storage bins.


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## DaveMage (Nov 18, 2010)

Colossal.

Heck, just Dragon + Dungeon magazine is about 400.


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## warushiru (Nov 18, 2010)

I am in the colossal category, much to my wife's dismay.


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## Theo R Cwithin (Nov 18, 2010)

Small.   

I've got the core rules for a handful of systems, a few old adventures and a handful of supplements.  I'm pretty bare bones.  

Really, I hardly use the stuff anymore.  In the last several years, I've relied almost exclusively on online content and a handful of pdfs.  Moving and traveling around so much has necessitated that.


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## karlindel (Nov 18, 2010)

My collection is Gargantuan.  I have a 6' x 4' book shelf full of books.  The five shelves are filled with RPG books (with a little room on a couple of the shelves).  Each shelf has about a hundred books, with the 4e D&D shelf being slightly lower due to the hardbacks and the 3e D&D shelf being a bit higher due to paizo modules and softcover supplements.  

Here are the systems that take up more than 1/3 of a shelf (and combined make up about 3/4 of the collection):
Ars Magica
Deadlands
Fading Suns
D&D (3e and 4e can each make the cut on their own)
HERO (including Champions)
Shadowrun 
TORG
Warhammer (if you combine 2e and the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Boxed Set)


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## Stormonu (Nov 18, 2010)

Colossal.

I had to build a database to keep from buying duplicates.  As of my last update to the DB (which I stopped updating shortly before 4E), I have 1,246 products for D&D - and I need to add in a good bit for PF & some 4E.  This doesn't count Dragon or Dungeon magazine, which I have stretching back to #98 on Dragon and all but #1 for Dungeon.  As best as I am able, I have a complete collection of 1E & 2E products (thank you, ebay!).  I've got all the official D&D products for 3E up to the time the DMG2 came out, and then sporatic after that, and I bought up all the OGL/d20 material I could find before 3.5 came out (the only thing I didn't keep was my Fast Forward Entertainment books) - it started getting sporadic after 3.5.

Nor does this count my non-D&D RPGs, which take up 3 1/2 six foot tall bookshelves (after pruning).  Mostly L5R, 7th seas, d20 modern/compatible systems, Star Wars (back to West End days), Star Trek, Deadlands, Twilight 2000, Gamma World, Star Frontiers and other bits and pieces of game systems (had the whole oWoD line before I parred down to just the rulebooks alone).

(This photo was from a few years ago, and does not show the bookshelves that line the left and right walls).


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## Wereserpent (Nov 18, 2010)

I am in the Small category, but I would perhaps have more books if I had more money and space.


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## Knightfall (Nov 18, 2010)

I voted Huge. I'm over 450 physical books, boxed sets, and other references. And I didn't include my DRAGON and DUNGEON Magazines, which will put me way over 500.

I do need a room. I wish it was possible but not right now.

The scary part is that I continue to buy more gaming books. 

Knightfall's Roleplaying Game Collection List


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## Dark Mistress (Nov 18, 2010)

I vote the 100-300 though I might be over that. Not positive. Though to be fair I sold virtually all my old early 2e, AD&D and OD&D stuff around 2002 and bought a really nice car with the money. I had like 400-500 things I sold.


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## Orius (Nov 18, 2010)

Medium.  I know it's somewhere in the 20-100 range.  Mostly just the core 2e and 3.0 books, with an extensive collection of 2e splats and generic suppliments, a good chunk of the Planescape line, a handful of 3.0 releases and about 4-5 years worth of Dragon issues from the end of 2e.


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## GreyLord (Nov 18, 2010)

Knightfall said:


> I voted Huge. I'm over 450 physical books, boxed sets, and other references. And I didn't include my DRAGON and DUNGEON Magazines, which will put me way over 500.
> 
> I do need a room. I wish it was possible but not right now.
> 
> ...




This was part of my thoughts, am I one of the few with a colossal collection only including books?  (you start with mags and it gets astronomical, not just dragon and dungeon, but white dwarf and others as well!)


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## Argyle King (Nov 18, 2010)

I think I'd be in the colossal category.  

I have multiple foot lockers of D&D 3.5 books packed away in one of my closets.  When 4E came out, I picked up a small handful of books; I'd say I have around ten.  I then started learning AD&D, so I have a few books for that.  Finally, there are my GURPS 4E Books; I've started to amass a collection which is very quickly building.  I've also started picking up quite a few GURPS 3E books; it's fairly easy to convert between the two editions.


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## Redcrow (Nov 18, 2010)

I've probably sold or given away well over 1000+ rpg books over the years.  Nowadays the bulk of my rpg collection is in pdf form and I probably have only around 100 physical books.  Although if I counted pdfs my collection would quite easily be in the 1000+ range again.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Nov 18, 2010)

GreyLord said:


> This was part of my thoughts, am I one of the few with a colossal collection only including books?  (you start with mags and it gets astronomical, not just dragon and dungeon, but white dwarf and others as well!)



Nah, mine is colossal before adding in the magazines...and minis, boardgames multiple battlemaps and 2 trunks containing the M:tG cards that are not currently in decks- adding that stuff back in gets me into the stupidiculous range.

Most of my gaming collection is housed in a 450 sq. ft. secondary upstairs den, across from the bulk of my 5K+ CD collection...and my sci-fi/fantasy novels (another few thousand books).


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## Treebore (Nov 18, 2010)

Redcrow said:


> Although if I counted pdfs my collection would quite easily be in the 1000+ range again.





I have never counted my PDF's, I only know I cannot back them up to a 16 GB memory stick, I am 4 Gig over. So I backed most of it up to the memory stick, and then saved the rest to CD's.


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## Lanefan (Nov 18, 2010)

I've no idea how much gype I've got around here.  I'd guess in the 200-300 range, not including: minis, accessories (e.g. props, cards, etc.), stuff I wrote myself, and .pdfs (though I only have a dozen or so of those in any case).

At a complete guess: about 100 Dragon/Dungeon magazines, about 70 adventure modules, 35 or so hardcover books, 15 or so softcover books, 15 box sets, 0 space.

Lan-"and hundreds of minis; they multiply in the dark"-efan


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## Jan van Leyden (Nov 18, 2010)

At my last count I'd been at 476 or so ... and that was 13 years ago. This puts me in the Gargantuan class, but doesn't include magazines. With some 150 Dragon and 100 Dungeon issues I must be scraping Colossal.

My RPG stuff shares our game archive room, residing on two shelves with five floors each, standing in double rows.


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## Mark Hope (Nov 18, 2010)

Colossal.  Ouch.  Somewhere in the 900s of gaming books and adventures, around 350 magazines (mainly Dragon, Dungeon and White Dwarf) and then a bunch of peripherals like battlemats, minis, decks of cards etc.  Managed to have it all out on shelves once a few years back.  Usually it's in a variety of boxes.


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## Jon_Dahl (Nov 18, 2010)

I've got six books. 3 of Runequest (bought them), 3 of D&D 3.0 (gift from my players).


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## Kaiyanwang (Nov 18, 2010)

Roughly 35 of D&D 3.5, Rules Cyclopedia and 3-4 AD&D ones (in past times, most books we played with were not mine).

3 pathfinder, growing.


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## Ycore Rixle (Nov 18, 2010)

I put Huge, although that is a conservative estimate. I don't have time to count, but going by years subscribed I must have at least 200 Dragon and half or more that many Dungeon. Then I figure 100-200 other printed books. Don't plan to sell anything; I enjoy re-discovering old stuff while procrastinating cleaning the closet, etc.


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## Hand of Evil (Nov 18, 2010)

I may be a horder  (for gaming products) from 1977 to now and 20 GenCon, I have picked up a lot of stuff.


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## Whisper72 (Nov 18, 2010)

I voted Gargantuan, but have not actually counted. I own pretty much everything ever produced voor BECMI and 1st Ed and huge amounts of 2E (all hardcovers, most softcovers, all planescape, spelljammer, ravenloft and dragonlance stuff) pretty much all 3E Wotc books and adventures as well as many 3rd party products for 3E. about 200 dragon and dungeon mags. I prolly get close to 1,000 but doubt I actually go over it...


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## possum (Nov 18, 2010)

I voted withour looking and came up with medium.  Truth is, it's a lot more than that, I'm thinking.

I just counted and got around 150 without taking magazines (I have several Paizoe Dungeon and Dragon magazines as well as about seven White Dwarf issues).  I'd say about 200 total objects, the majority of it being D&D related.  Second largest system would be Old World of Darkness, thanks to a big garage sale lot I picked up during the summer.  Otherwise, it would be Star Wars.


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## evildmguy (Nov 18, 2010)

I voted Colossal and that might be pushing it but not by much.  I do have a room, which my wife is NEVER getting back, with a total of nine six foot bookshelves, with four of them or so gaming.  Not counting minis, which I have a lot of those as well (metal and plastic), I figured I am in the 900s with my magazine collections as well.  Further, I have printed off some PDFs and have lots of extras, such as campaign coins, fantasy money, item decks from Paizo and other RPG accessories.  Then, add in the two dozen or so board games I have, most RPG related some not, and I'm sure I'm still over a thousand.  

This is after three major purges of 200 books each time.  Although, maybe I can't call them major anymore, at least as a percentage of the whole I had.  

Further, this is not counting any books that I use for gaming but aren't gaming books, such as gun reference books or history books on the Inca or Mayan for my Dark Sun campaign.  That gets me more as well.  Further, I also have some other handout type things, such as beads for gems.  So, counting physical items, even not individually, the coins and other items add up.  

Most of it is DND or related, in terms of setting books but I only kept 3E rule books and a few other rules books here and there, such as Rules Cyclopedia.  

After that, it's White Wolf and it might be close between WoD that I kept (mostly Dark Ages) and nWoD and Exalted to the DND stuff.  

I also have some misc stuff, like Star Wars Saga and various other d20 or other game systems.  I have tried to pare it down to WW and DND as those are the systems I play the most but I did keep my Alternity stuff as well.  

I can't use a lot of it at once, unfortunately, but I have used most of it and am glad I do have it when I run those games!


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## jaerdaph (Nov 18, 2010)

I have well over 1,000 books and boxed sets (after 30+ years of gaming). And this was before I switched to buying PDFs only.


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## Goonalan (Nov 18, 2010)

I voted for the 500-1000 and then started to sweat up, clammy hands, skin reddening, there's something I've forgotten...

Oh yeah, the 2500+ Wizards minis I own which I've had to store in labelled packing cases in the loft because I've outgrown my 'room', damn!

That would be colossal then.


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## crazy_monkey1956 (Nov 18, 2010)

Large at precisely 267 items (I keep an inventory database file).  

I have relunctantly sold off quite a number of things over the years during times of financial duress, lost my entire collection of AD&D 2nd Edition, Palladium, and (old) World of Darkness items during a move in 2000, and had more than half of my collection of Dragon magazines stolen (everything from the 1st 3E issue up to 322, though I've since managed to reacquire most from 309 on).

I'm currently in an "expansion phase" trying to rebuild my collections of (old) World of Darkness, and the various editions of D&D, as well as staying current with Pathfinder hardcovers and D&D Essentials products.


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## grufflehead (Nov 18, 2010)

Too big.

Or not big enough.

Depends on my mood.


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## CharlesRyan (Nov 18, 2010)

I tend to over around the Gargantuan/Colossal line; when it gets too Colossal I tend to purge it down. I voted Colossal this time, but that might not be correct.


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## The_Baldman (Nov 18, 2010)

Easily over 1K. My D&D collection alone takes up 7 book cases now (6 feet high and 21 feet wide - one whole wall of my den). If you ever see it for sale then please call the police - my falling down the stairs was not an accident as my wife claims (as she knows that is the only way it will ever leave my possession and she can spend the money).

Dave C
The Baldman


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## Piratecat (Nov 18, 2010)

I'm in the couple thousand range. Digital distribution is finally saving me shelf space!


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## Zelda Themelin (Nov 18, 2010)

Used to have second biggest collection in Finland. Really. But that was 15 years ago, when I was still active in rpg clubs/larps etc. Then people compared their collections. Nowdays I really don't have any idea. Prolly not biggest unless other people sold their stuff, I never sold anything.  I now buy lot less. So growing speed has slowed.

Yeh I get pdf:s too but real books for products I like. I like to read in comfy positions and when I actually play I prefer to use pdf:s. Quicker to find stuff with search on computer than search my 75 m3.

And they are not only thing I collect. When I moved from my much smaller house to my current one I threw away over 200 big plastic bags of various staff. Happened very late at night and some russian immigrant was looting garbage boxes. Well at least it went to needy. 

Ah my only vice, obsessive collecting. No wonder I have have money for it. Nah, never been broke and in debt. I might be crazy but I am still wise.


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## the Jester (Nov 18, 2010)

Huge. I have approx. 330 products on my gaming shelf and a couple hundred more in storage. 

Add to that several boxes packed with minis and a gigantic collection of dice, not to mention tons of other weird accessories, many of which were not originally intended for gaming.


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## Harlander (Nov 19, 2010)

My collection is Small (but perfectly formed )

I only came out of the mooching (off the RPG club's books, or borrowing a friend's) phase a few years ago. As it stands, the system I've the most books for is Shadowrun.


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## Jhaelen (Nov 19, 2010)

I'm surprised there are so many owning 1000+ products. I always thought my collection was pretty big, but it is only a couple of hundred books. I never collected any rpg magazines though, so it's just books and a couple of boxes.


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## Xyanthon (Nov 19, 2010)

I haven't counted but know my collection is well over 300 (possibly 500 - like I said I'd have to count and take inventory).  I have two 7 foot book shelves that are 4' wide with six shelves that are full with another 7' book shelve that is about two feet wide that is about half full of RPGs.  Most of this collection is for Dungeons and Dragons products (I have every edition from the 3 LBB OD&D through 4th edition).


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## The Shaman (Nov 19, 2010)

I'm not exactly sure, but I guessed around a hundred - almost all of it is _Traveller_, though, with maybe twenty or thirty other gaming products.

I tend to buy a lot of history books for gaming, however; my collection of material on 17th century France is easily forty or fifty volumes at this point.


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## kitsune9 (Nov 19, 2010)

I would probably say I'm in the 300 range.


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## Canor Morum (Nov 20, 2010)

Stormonu said:


> Colossal.





Is that Dark Tower on top of the third shelf from the right?  The old board game with the electronic tower that spins around?  I loved that game when I was a kid!


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## Achan hiArusa (Nov 20, 2010)

Colossal.  Most of what I own are RPG books.  But after moving eight times in the past three years I am getting really tired of it all.  I only use a small fraction of it.


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## Stormonu (Nov 20, 2010)

Canor Morum said:


> Is that Dark Tower on top of the third shelf from the right?  The old board game with the electronic tower that spins around?  I loved that game when I was a kid!




Oh yes.  Sitting on top of it is a copy of MB heroquest (and on top of that is Dragon Strike, and below it the Dungeon Boardgame).

One of my other favorite things is the 21st century mini copies of the 1e books (each small enough to fit in a shirt pocket), sitting on the right set of shelves, middle bookcase, 2nd shelf down (the orange band with the light blue mini expert set on the far left, and the boxed set of mini dragonlance modules in the black case to their right).

Here's a closer look at the bookshelves on the right...






As a side note, in the furthest right bookshelf, on the bottom visible row at the far left is a pre-3E copy of Kingdoms of Kalamar - I picked it up about 1994 or so. I also had a copy of Empire of the Petal Throne (partly visible in the lower left full-sized bookshelf), but I sold it.  I also managed to latch onto a copy of the Citystate of the Invincible Overlord and some associated modules/boxed sets (also half-visible on the bottom shelf of the leftmost full-sized bookcase).


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## Canor Morum (Nov 20, 2010)

So jealous right now.


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## nerfherder (Nov 21, 2010)

Agamon said:


> Hmmm.  I said "Large", thinking just about my books, but I forgot to consider adventures and magazines, which easily takes me to Gargantuan.  Then there's my 1000+ plastic and metal minis....




Oh yeah, I never thought to include magazines.  That pops me up from Large to Huge, at least.

Of course, right now I'm suffering because of it - I'm in the middle of packing up my house contents to move.


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## thalmin (Nov 21, 2010)

I marked colossal because astronomical wasn't on the list.


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## Greg K (Nov 21, 2010)

Without doing an actual count, I think that, these days, I am near the top of the medium range or just over (thanks to Dragon Magazines).


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## Dannyalcatraz (Nov 22, 2010)

Got a question for those with great big...RPG collections:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/297251-why-do-you-have-colossal.html


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## Olaf the Stout (Nov 22, 2010)

I voted Large (100-300), but I think that if I include Dragon and Dungeon magazines then I'm actually in the Huge (300-500) category.

I've got about a dozen AD&D books, a dozen WotC 3.0E books, around 40 or so WotC 3.5E books, 70-ish Dungeon issues, 50-ish Dragon issues, 70-ish d20 or OGL books, 25 Paranoia books, 15 Feng Shui books, 15 Pathfinder books and maybe another half-dozen miscellaneous RPG books.

On top of that is a couple of thousand D&D prepainted minis, around 50 metal minis, around 20 packs of Dungeon Tiles, 20-ish sets of Dice and 30-ish D&D themed comic books.

Of course, if you look at PDF's (which I often buy instead of print products, to save on shipping costs to Australia) then you can probably close to double my numbers.  It would definitely be the case if you counted the Dragon Magazine CD Archive as 250-odd separate products!

It gets a little scary once you actually stop to count them all.  My wife would probably be thinking "Garage Sale" if I actually told her just how many books I own!  I have, at least, slowed down my purchases since 4E came out, basically just taking advantage of super-sales and rounding out my 3.xE collection.  I'd probably have at least another dozen books in the collection if I was playing 4E

I don't plan on paring my collection down by any significant amount any time soon though (much to my wife's disappointment ).  In fact, for my 30th birthday I have asked for a bookcase, just so I can better house a lot of my RPG books!

Olaf the Stout


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## Ulrick (Nov 22, 2010)

I have around 500 RPG books, magazines, modules, boxed sets, etc. This doesn't count the 2,000+ miniature collection and terrain I have for both D&D, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and historical wargaming. 

Yet it would be larger. But I sell things off from time to time (especially when moving day approaches). I used to have a large World of Darkness collection. But since I hardly ever played WoD, I sold it. A lot of 3rd party D&D stuff went by the wayside too. I bought and sold 4e stuff within 6 months. I'd probably purge by Star Wars d6 stuff if it weren't so sentimental. 

So many books, so little time. 

Yet to each his own...


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## jdrakeh (Nov 22, 2010)

At one time, it was Colossal. Now it's Medium. It will probably be small by the end of the year. I realized a while back that: 

A. I was never going to play _all_ of the games that I had accumulated. 
B. Most role playing games aren't actually worth much as collectibles. 

This being the case, my Colossal collection was more a testament to wasted money than anything else. In the future, I plan to spend my money more productively.


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## megamania (Nov 22, 2010)

1st edition
2nd edition
3rd edition
4th edition

Torg
Champions
Rifts
CoC

metal figures
plastic figures
toys

dragon magazine
dungeon magazine
white dwarf magazine

dungeon tiles
battle mats
maps

trading cards

movies
cds



yeah.... fairly sure I'm up there.


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## megamania (Nov 22, 2010)

ack!


novels
I forgot the novels

yup  spent waaaaay too much on a dieing hobby.


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## Wereserpent (Nov 22, 2010)

If you count novels for game settings, then I would definitely be in the "Large" category.


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## Mercurius (Nov 22, 2010)

Wow...41 Colossal Collections and counting. I knew these folks were out there, but I didn't realize how many: 25% of the 167 votes so far. Yeah, I know that is a small sample size, but I was expecting a larger percentage in the Large-to-Gargantuan range. It makes me, with a Huge collection, feel rather humble .

I probably should have clarified no magazines or novels, but I guess there is nothing wrong with counting those. Where before I was teetering between Large and Huge, my box of old Dragon magazines puts me squarely into Huge.


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## HeavensThunderHammer (Nov 22, 2010)

I have approximately 140 books. Some of my Exalted and Ars Magica books are currently on loan. I have sold some of my Mage: The Ascension, Vampire: The Masquerade, Stargate: the RPG and my Exalted 1E collection. If I hadn't have sold those, I think my collection would be more on the order of 200 books. Damn.

I store them on a bookshelf next to my computer, out of the way of my wife.


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## Echohawk (Nov 22, 2010)

I have roughly 1800 RPG books, about 850 periodicals and exactly 5762 minis.

But surprisingly few dice. I still use my original set of dice dating back to about 1985.


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## freebfrost (Nov 23, 2010)

Colossal D&D collection.

1453 books, boxed sets, and modules - all OD&D through 3.5.  Not including the magazines, D&D board games, stickers, coloring books, etc. or non-D&D items.


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## megamania (Nov 24, 2010)

Mercurius said:


> Wow...41 Colossal Collections and counting. I knew these folks were out there, but I didn't realize how many: 25% of the 167 votes so far. Yeah, I know that is a small sample size, but I was expecting a larger percentage in the Large-to-Gargantuan range. It makes me, with a Huge collection, feel rather humble ..




I figured a more balanced grouping also.   But then again.... I'm not that surprised...




Mercurius said:


> I probably should have clarified no magazines or novels, but I guess there is nothing wrong with counting those. Where before I was teetering between Large and Huge, my box of old Dragon magazines puts me squarely into Huge.





Even without those I suspect I'm over the thousands.   The magazines sometimes have more usable stuff within them than a few of the books I've gotten over the years.   As for the novels.... Darksun I reread all the 2e novels several times and entered them into my timetable. I have a general idea of when Rikus fought Hamanu in Urik and when Agis fought a charmed giant and when Pavek tried to kill himself before Hamnanu came for him.  They have as much campaign ideas / material as many accessory books.

Its all about how you use them.


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## megamania (Nov 24, 2010)

Echohawk said:


> I have roughly 1800 RPG books, about 850 periodicals and exactly 5762 minis.
> 
> But surprisingly few dice. I still use my original set of dice dating back to about 1985.




DICE!

30 sets......

Players hate it when I pull out the red pearled dice.... my first set.   They roll well when I need them to.


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## Treebore (Nov 24, 2010)

Last time I counted dice I had over 1285 of them. It looked to me like I had at least 200 more to go. I have bought over 300 dice since then, so I might have over 2,000 dice. I am very close to that if not there.

Miniatures I do not have a lot of. I might break 200. I went the token route. They take up much less space. Tokens I have thousands of, mostly because I ran several mass battles, so I needed a lot, even as units rather than singles.


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## MonsterMash (Nov 24, 2010)

About 70-80 books and printed magazines. There is plenty for me to game with and I don't have a blazing urge to add much more.


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## Scurvy_Platypus (Nov 25, 2010)

I own 253 games. It doesn't include pdfs of various things I own. There's a few things that I haven't gotten around to adding, but it's at least confirmed at 253+  

rpg.net actually has a thing where you can tap into their rpg index. My list is here:
Scurvy_Platypus Game Collection - RPGnet RPG Game Index

Having a list like this is handy... if something ever happens to your collection and you've got insurance, it's awfully nice to be able to simply hand it over.

Plus, it's sort of the rpg equivalent of dogs sniffing each other... "Hey dude..." *sniff* *sniff* "Ooooh. Nice. I see you've got Talislanta." *sniff* *sniff* "And... Battlelords of the 23rd Century? Interesting."


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## HeavensThunderHammer (Nov 26, 2010)

I think this thread makes it obvious that the RPG industry really makes its money on the collectors.


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## Treebore (Nov 26, 2010)

HeavensThunderHammer said:


> I think this thread makes it obvious that the RPG industry really makes its money on the collectors.




Why do you think WOTC made it so big in the first place? They knew how powerful "You gotta collect them all!" is.


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## spades1013 (Nov 28, 2010)

No idea exactly how many.  I'd guess I rank either Gargantuan or Colossal.


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## spades1013 (Nov 28, 2010)

And, this was last year, I've since removed anything not RPG related and filled the space with new books.


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## HeavensThunderHammer (Nov 28, 2010)

spades1013 said:


> And, this was last year, I've since removed anything not RPG related and filled the space with new books.




Well... I believe that is probably colossal. Good chance of it anyhow, and I'm a statistician by profession. 

So out of curiosity, how much do you spend per month on gaming books?


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## spades1013 (Nov 29, 2010)

HeavensThunderHammer said:


> Well... I believe that is probably colossal. Good chance of it anyhow, and I'm a statistician by profession.
> 
> So out of curiosity, how much do you spend per month on gaming books?





Not much right now, really.  I've been accumulating since '83, worked for a game company for a while and now my wife and I own a used bookstore. 

Lately, I've just been filling in gaps fairly cheaply.

I'd say, maybe $20-$30 a month.


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## PaulofCthulhu (Nov 30, 2010)

My collection used to be extensive back in the 80s - it's where a lot of my pocket money went.   D&D, Traveller, Runequest, Gamma World, Chivalry & Sorcery etc.

Then I had a great cull in the early 90s and reduced it to just a couple of systems (i wasn't playing that many of them after a while - all depending on when the groups could play).

Now I have one primary system and very much like to play others on occasion. I've just been given a copy of _Lamentations of the Flame Princess_ and it looks like some good OSR fun!


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## grodog (Dec 1, 2010)

Most of my collection is boxed up right now, but like spades1013, I've been playing a long time (1977), and actively collecting older stuff since I learned that Dragon sold back issues way back when.  

My shelves are somewhat thinned out, and better organized now, but these pics from 2008, 2009, and June of 2010 give a good sense of about 60% of my collection:  they don't picture many of my miniatures sets, or the stuff that's boxed up in the attic (magazine collections of Dragon, Polyhedron, Dungeon, White Wolf, Different Worlds; additional wargames; etc.)

So, without further ado, here are the older and more current pics (newer toward the end):








This pic (above) is to show off my wife's "dust guard/make the gaming stuff look less ugly in our bedroom" tapestries; there's one on each of the two 48"x80" bookshelves in the room.  







My modern rpgs shelf (same one picture above, just with the tapestry rod removed, which is what I usually need to do while looking for a title).  This includes my Call of Cthulhu, Ars Magica, RuneQuest, Star Wars, 3.5/d20 stuff (mostly WotC and NG), Fading Suns, and White Wolf Storyteller stuff (mostly 1e WW, some 2e I suppose).  






This is the opposite wall of the room, to help share the awesome disarray of my stuff  ---some of which is caused by the various baby boxes in front of the gaming stuff in front of the fireplace (the picture is sitting on the fireplace lintel), but I just haven't made the time to get it as organized as I need to yet.  I do have another week of paternity leave coming up, though, so I'm hoping to make some good headway then.











The above two are some of the boxes in front of the fireplace, and the table between the fireplace and the other bookshelf.  











These two are the bookshelf at the right-hand side of our bed (my side).  This is where some of the non-TSR D&D is (top shelf), most of the rarer non-TSR stuff, my AD&D stuff, and the Greyhawk campaigning binders, RJK/EGG correspondence/manuscripts/etc.











These are views into our turret room, which is on the front of our house, and off of our bedroom; we'd originally envisioned this room being a baby nursery, but it's been storage since we moved in.  There are 4 standard-sized bookshelves along the right wall, and lots of boxes piled around in front.  Many TSR boardgames and other misc. boardgames I don't want in the kids' reach in the basement are here too.  The shelf closest to the window has gaming magazines, the next shelf has one shelf of overflow magazines, and three shelves of my HPL and related fiction (the rest of my regular fiction bookshelves are also in the basement); the next shelf is Moorcock stuff; the final shelf was supposed to be Neil Gaiman stuff, but got taken over by various and sundry medicines, shampoos, tissues, and other extended-bathroom supply stuff since our bedroom bathroom is pretty small and has essentially zero storage.  So, the Gaiman books are boxed up on the floor, along with all of my miniatures, a few boxes of AH/misc. wargames, and some other bric-a-brac.  
















These last three pics are the HPL and MM shelves.

My collection is making good progress:  I've spent several weekends organizing, sorting, and such, and am nearly done with that stage of things!  If you scroll back earlier in the thread, you'll see the mess that our bedroom and my storage closet were; things have definitely improved, in the bedroom in particular, where most of the extra boxes have been organized, consolidated, grouped, packed up, labelled, and migrated to the attic:






The boxes remaining in front of the fireplace are AD&D hardcovers and modules (still need to be sorted and grouped beyond shrink/non-shrink), as well as the more-valuable non-manuscript items like OCEs and supplements, Tractics sets, quarto-sized non-TSRs, and wargaming magazines.  

Both of the big bookcases are now focused on my immediate research and writing needs (i.e., Greyhawk, dungeon design, Gygax, Kuntz, etc.), and the other rpgs I'm most-likely to play besides D&D in the near term (Call of Cthulhu, Ars Magica, Paranoia, etc.).  Both have some open space that I'm still in process of re-sorting to a more-optimal configuration, and I still need to spend more time with the CoC materials to better organize them too.  

The closet room is also much-improved, though still a bit of a mess, which is mostly caused by my boxes of minis that aren't as nicely organized as I'd like, and the Moorcock and Gaimon books that I boxed up to make room for shelving/sorting space.  The closet will improve once I start to cull the duplicates and unwanteds in earnest!:






and






and






One more weekend of work, and I think I'll be good-to-go!






This last image is the main board/war games shelf in the basement, although some of this has also been packed up more recently, too.


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## Almacov (Dec 1, 2010)

I _think_ I'm in the Medium category, but I may be leaning into Large.

Counting Dragon, Dungeon, and Polyhedron magazines though, I'd definitely be in at least Large territory.

I'm not really interested in having a collection that is too massive, because I'd never have time to read it all, let alone put it to use. 
I do adore books in general though...


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## DaveMage (Dec 1, 2010)

Ok, grodog wins...

...but only because he has the "Six Million Dollar Man" game.


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## scruffygrognard (Dec 1, 2010)

I underestimated my geek library!  

Turns out I have over 400 books.  My wife, who's a librarian, has been cataloging them and came up with 413 books that can be easily cataloged and 40 or so that I'll have to manually enter into Library Thing:

My Geek Book Collection

BTW, LibraryThing is awesome for cataloging your collection.  Enter or scan in the ISBN and it plugs in the book data for you.  Goodman Games stuff, for some reason has been a pain to enter because the ISBNs aren't in the system.


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## scruffygrognard (Dec 1, 2010)

Holy crap... that's some collection Grodog!

I'd need a second house to contain such a collection.


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## thastygliax (Dec 1, 2010)

I've just spent the past two hours updating my gaming library lists and counting books. 

The total comes to around 180-190 (Large). That's not including magazines (only a handful after the last purge), books that belong to my wife (she recently edged into Medium), hard copies of PDFs (dozens), and stuff I've culled but haven't yet disposed of (which take up a shelf by themselves). 

We have a 6' shelf that holds most of it, with 1-2 shelves' worth of overflow elsewhere. D&D and GURPS dominate my collection, with about 60 books each, with Call of Cthulhu and True20 next at 15-20 each. (The CoC stuff rounds out my 2 shelves of Lovecraftiana.) My D&D collection used to be much bigger, before I got rid of almost all of my pre-3E books; by the time 3.5 came out, I knew I wasn't ever going to play those older editions again.

Next to the RPG bookshelf is another 6' shelf that is packed to bursting with my LEGO collection. Several years ago, I decided that I couldn't afford to build up a decent-sized collection of conventional minis, so I got sold most of them and started building LEGO minis for my games--I was going to keep buying LEGO regardless.


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## thastygliax (Dec 1, 2010)

p.s. These Colossal collections truly amaze me. I've been gaming for almost 30 years, and GMing for most of that, but even if I had the money and space for to buy them, I could never see myself owning _that _many RPG books--where would I ever find the time to read them all?!?


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## Stormonu (Dec 1, 2010)

A question for those with the Gargantuan collections - do yo do a lot of DMing/GMing?  Do you primarily use your own home brew world or a published world?

My answers:

[sblock]
I DM about 90% of the time or more, and have an expansive home brew.
[/sblock]


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## crazy_monkey1956 (Dec 1, 2010)

Stormonu said:


> A question for those with the Gargantuan collections - do yo do a lot of DMing/GMing?  Do you primarily use your own home brew world or a published world?
> 
> My answers:
> 
> ...




My collection wishes it was Gargantuan so I'll answer anyway.  

I DM about 95% of the time when I'm gaming.  I homebrew almost exclusively and use published campaign setting material for ideas and inspiration.


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## DaveMage (Dec 1, 2010)

Stormonu said:


> A question for those with the Gargantuan collections - do yo do a lot of DMing/GMing?  Do you primarily use your own home brew world or a published world?




For many, many years, I mostly DMed - it's only lately that I'm finally a player.

I would not have anywhere near as large a collection if I did not DM.


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## SethDrebitko (Dec 2, 2010)

I own very little physical products. I own my Alternity books, Dangerous journeys books, 2 third party 3.5 books, Besm books...thats it. Come to think of it since I prefer M20 I don't even own standard 3.5 books anymore.


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## Crazy Jerome (Dec 2, 2010)

I'm in the large group, but not sure I would make it if it weren't for the 50 odd Dungeon magazine issues.  I'd be close without them, but I tend to give away or otherwise get rid of stuff that I no longer use, especially older editions that are effectively superseded by later stuff.  I've also lost several things over the years, for various reasons.


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## grodog (Dec 2, 2010)

cperkins said:


> Holy crap... that's some collection Grodog!
> 
> I'd need a second house to contain such a collection.




When we bought a house, I was able to move a good chunk of the collection there from my parents' home in NJ:  most of my minis were still there, along with other boxes of stuff, too.  I probably owned ~60% of it prior to 10 years ago, and accumulated the rest as I worked to complete my Greyhawk and Pagan Publishing collections, picked up spares here and there in lots, etc.  I hope to purge ~30% or so, perhaps more, once I finished getting organized (and I'll be using the $$$ to help fund more Black Blade books  ). 



thastygliax said:


> p.s. These Colossal collections truly amaze me. I've been gaming for almost 30 years, and GMing for most of that, but even if I had the money and space for to buy them, I could never see myself owning _that _many RPG books--where would I ever find the time to read them all?!?




I can't say I've read all of the books, but I have read many of them.  And I've been a collector on some level almost since I started playing, since I began looking for older issues of The Dragon soon after I discovered a bookstore that carried it, so that I could get the scoop on those old Greyhawk articles.



Stormonu said:


> A question for those with the Gargantuan collections - do yo do a lot of DMing/GMing?  Do you primarily use your own home brew world or a published world?




I DM most of the time, although I haven't for the past 2 long campaigns I've been involved in (I'm not our current DM, and when I was still living in CA, I DM'd a short 3.0 GH campaign, but then another GH DM took over the reins around the time of 3.5's release).  

I play in (wait for it  ) Greyhawk predominantly, but I also have a homebrew work that's Greyhawk's "sister world" (they're planarally "close").  In the past,  I have played many non-D&D RPGs, so I've done a lot of homebrewing or world building across many systems.  I also like good settings, so even if I don't play a game (a statement usually appearing with "yet" after it), I'll buy the rules/setting in the hope of a) getting good ideas to steal for other games, and b) playing it later.  Eclipse Phase falls solidly into that latter category for me (it and Sunward sit on my bedside table for nighttime reading, among others).



DaveMage said:


> Ok, grodog wins...
> 
> ...but only because he has the "Six Million Dollar Man" game.




Thanks Dave:  that's actually a gift for my brother, so thanks for the reminder that I need to pack it to take to NJ for Christmas


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## Scurvy_Platypus (Dec 2, 2010)

HeavensThunderHammer said:


> I think this thread makes it obvious that the RPG industry really makes its money on the collectors.




To a certain extent, perhaps. Probably more _now_ than it used to be.

However, the secondary market throws a big spanner into the works. For example, a fair chunk of my books came from scrounging deals on EBay and other stuff like that. So while the book value is a decent amount for my collection, the actual dollars paid is significantly less. And the rpg companies don't see a dime of the secondary market sales, so some stuff has been passed around a few times.

Digital distribution of product is changing (to an extent) the nature of the collectors as well. While some people truly embrace the digital (I don't buy physical product anymore, instead I used my Ipad), a larger percentage of the digital population is just cheap; they buy pdfs because it's cheaper but have a variety of reasons for why they turn around and print out the product themselves.

So where you'd have collectors previously that were more about the "I believe in supporting this game line because I love it so much" or they desire to have a "complete collection", collectors these days appear to either have been collecting for a decent chunk of time and that's how they've built up their collection, or the collecting of rpgs is itself part of (or a replacement for) their rpg hobby. They've either got money to burn so they collect, or they collect because they used to play/GM a bunch but with where they are now in life, playing rpgs just isn't possible. So their collection allows them to still feel connected to the hobby regardless of whether they get to play/GM or not.


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## spades1013 (Dec 2, 2010)

Grodog, you and I both know you have always had one of the largest (and best) private collections on the planet.  

In fact, I believe we've done business together on some OD&D books a few years ago.

I just have to say, your collection seems to get more impressive by the day.

The only reason I've slacked off is that I have no interest in 4E and, otherwise, I've got just about everything I've ever wanted (and a wife who will allow the bedroom to look like a library)


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## spades1013 (Dec 2, 2010)

Stormonu said:


> A question for those with the Gargantuan collections - do yo do a lot of DMing/GMing?  Do you primarily use your own home brew world or a published world?
> 
> My answers:
> 
> ...





I DM a Ptolus campaign with my wife and whoever walks in.  

I find that large, urban campaigns make one-on-one or walk in games easier.

I, generally, play 1E games.

Being that I no longer have a regular group, I tend to stick with the one-on-one 3E Ptolus game with my wife.


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## Darrell (Dec 3, 2010)

I used to be in the "Gargantuan" range; but I sold it all off.  Nowadays, I have only the "B/X" _D&D_ boxed sets, some basic Dungeon Tiles sets, and a small collection of D&D Miniatures ... and my homemade "shelf copies" of my permutation of _Microlite20_, if you want to count that ... less than 6 inches of bookshelf space (down from a maximum of five entire bookshelves back around 2003-ish).

Regards,
Darrell


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## coyote6 (Dec 4, 2010)

I voted Gargantuan, but it might be Colossal. It's mostly in boxes right now. I should've counted when I packed.


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## Treebore (Dec 4, 2010)

coyote6 said:


> I voted Gargantuan, but it might be Colossal. It's mostly in boxes right now. I should've counted when I packed.





I'm pretty sure your collection was Colossal when I gamed with you.


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## Punnuendo (Dec 8, 2010)

I picked medium with not a single DnD book in the collection.


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## grodog (Dec 8, 2010)

spades1013 said:


> Grodog, you and I both know you have always had one of the largest (and best) private collections on the planet. [snip] I just have to say, your collection seems to get more impressive by the day.




Thank you James, but knowing what I do about some of the other collections out there, I'm sure I'm not even in the top 20%  

On a slightly moribund note, I had to pack up the 650 linear feet of books and games this past weekend since the two big white bookshelves in our bedroom are being reclaimed by my in-laws.  So now almost all of my collection is boxed up in the attic *sigh*....



spades1013 said:


> In fact, I believe we've done business together on some OD&D books a few years ago.




Indeed!:  your OD&D books were the first pre-5th printings that I owned, and they have been well-loved ever since! 



spades1013 said:


> Being that I no longer have a regular group, I tend to stick with the one-on-one 3E Ptolus game with my wife.




I just picked up a copy of Ptolus from the UK for £37.75, but I won't see it for a little while (the seller shipped it to harami, since they won't ship out of the UK).  I'm looking forward to reading it, in particular how it interfaces with Banewarrens, which is one of my favorite 3.x era dungeons!


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## Dannyalcatraz (Dec 9, 2010)

Stormonu said:


> A question for those with the Gargantuan collections - do yo do a lot of DMing/GMing?  Do you primarily use your own home brew world or a published world?



I used to DM frequently, but haven't done much in the last decade: just a few short campaigns, with the exception of one that ran a year and a half.

Most of what I run is homebrew or heavily modified published material.


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## Zhaleskra (Dec 10, 2010)

Small and getting smaller as I cut down to what I really want, have a hope of running/playing, and resort to being less reliant on the imaginations of others. When possible I list the items I no longer want on eBay. Sometimes it works.


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## thastygliax (Dec 12, 2010)

Stormonu said:


> A question for those with the Gargantuan collections - do yo do a lot of DMing/GMing?  Do you primarily use your own home brew world or a published world?



Mine is only Large, but I'll chime in anyway. 

I do a lot of GMing. I rarely go for too long without running something--usually only a few months at most, though I did have about a year-long hiatus from GMing when we had our 2nd kid. (My hiatus from _playing _was only a couple months.) I enjoy world-building, so I usually prefer to use my own homebrew settings, and my longest campaigns have been my own settings.

The big exception to that has been Green Ronin's Freeport setting. I've used it for both a 3.0 campaign and a 3.5 campaign, and I've landed some proofreading, editing, and writing jobs with GR based on my fan pages for the setting. I msy run another Freeport campaign next year (system TBD), and I'm definitely going to try writing a Freeport LARP in 2011. Because of this investment in the setting, Freeport is the only collection I try to keep as complete as possible; I'm pretty sure the only items I don't own are the Freeport Companions for systems I'll never play, because they're pretty much just the same material converted over.


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## Talmek (May 29, 2015)

My collection is right at the medium/large range (just over 100 items) in physical books and box sets. Granted, I've only been playing/collecting since 2000 with D&D 3.0 and I've lost a good number of items over the years. Primarily my physical collection consists of D&D 3.5 items, with 4e and (now) 5e in there as well. Throw in a smattering of OWoD/NWoD systems and there you have it.


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## Cristian Andreu (May 29, 2015)

Somewhere around 450 as of last year's counting. I've been holding back on further acquisitions and getting only essential stuff (like 5e) or get-it-now-or-never (like the Numenera Reliquary), as I'm moving into a new home in December (bought the place in late 2013, but working had to be halted due to some legal issues with one of the previous owners of the plot). Once resettled, there are some collections I _need_ -yeah right- to complete.

I'd guess about 75% of the items are some fashion of D&D/Pathfinder.


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## Crothian (May 29, 2015)

I'm slowly slimming my collection down. It still in excess of a couple thousand books but last summer I did give away about 100 4e books and this summer I'm going to greatly trim down my 3e/Pathfinder collection.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 29, 2015)

My collection hasn't shrunk appreciably in the FIVE YEARS since I last posted in this thread.  

And it has started to grow again since the release of Numenera and its related products.  Have some SW products on my radar.  Yes, I also intend to get at least the Big 3 D&D books, too.


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## Scrivener of Doom (May 29, 2015)

My physical collection is merely Huge but my PDF collection is Colossal. It's amazing how many products I have bought from OBS over the years plus I have every book in my physical collection backed up as a PDF copy.

I must admit, I rarely use physical books these days. Most of my PDFs are at least OCR in quality so it's simply faster to use search to find what I need. That and the fact that I run 4E and use the DDi tools.


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## DM Howard (May 29, 2015)

My collection is very small now.  I've gotten rid of the books that just sit on my shelf never cracked even for inspiration.  Mainly play Traveller and Pathfinder these days and for Pathfinder all I have physically is the core rulebook.


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## Talmek (May 29, 2015)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> My collection hasn't shrunk appreciably in the FIVE YEARS since I last posted in this thread.
> 
> And it has started to grow again since the release of Numenera and its related products.  Have some SW products on my radar.  Yes, I also intend to get at least the Big 3 D&D books, too.




And with that...I have become _the most powerful necrothreadmancer in the WORLD!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_


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## Cristian Andreu (May 30, 2015)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> My collection hasn't shrunk appreciably in the FIVE YEARS since I last posted in this thread.
> 
> And it has started to grow again since the release of Numenera and its related products.  Have some SW products on my radar.  Yes, I also intend to get at least the Big 3 D&D books, too.




Considering a year in Internet time is like an eon of real time, this is like the ancient Egyptians showing up and saying "Our pyramids haven't shrunk appreciably in the last five millennia".


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 30, 2015)

Damn straight!  Show some RESPEKT!

~Pharaoh BubbaIMHOtep, a.k.a. Dannyalcatraz.


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## Agemegos (May 30, 2015)

Cristian Andreu said:


> Considering a year in Internet time is like an eon of real time, this is like the ancient Egyptians showing up and saying "Our pyramids haven't shrunk appreciably in the last five millennia".




Except that the Pyramids _have_ shrunk in the last five millennia, owing to their use as quarries to provide building material for Cairo.


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## Dannyalcatraz (May 31, 2015)

He did qualify that with "appreciably".



...just like my collection went from over 100 different RPGs to just under 70, but is now growing again.


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## Agemegos (May 31, 2015)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> He did qualify that with "appreciably".




Rather than making a laboured joke about appreciating the appearance of the Pyramids more when they were clad in gleaming white limestone I shall instead concede that you are right and I was wrong.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 1, 2015)

Fair enough...likewise, I will concede that, unlike my RPG collection, the pyramids are NOT growing again.


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## delericho (Jun 1, 2015)

My best guess is around 500 (physical) items - all those Pathfinder, Dragon, and Dungeon issues quickly add up! Though I haven't done an exact count in many years.

One thing I do know, though, is that I spent some significant time over the weekend boxing up about half of it, because the shelves on which they were stored had collapsed under the weight. (Shockingly, my efforts to repair those shelves had failed utterly - possibly something to do with my utter lack of DIY skills.)


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jun 1, 2015)

I have some serious wooden bookshelves which are up to the task of supporting all that weight.  But if I were starting over, I'd probably invest in som Metro or InterMetro modular metal shelving from Container Store.  That is what I'm using in my kitchen for my cookbooks, and in other rooms for other stuff.

Why?  

Well, InterMetro is the slightly cheaper and less sturdy version of Metro...and Metro can hold @800lbs per shelf.  Pretty much, it will take anything you've got.


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## Dioltach (Jun 1, 2015)

My collection is both too big, and not big enough.


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## delericho (Jun 1, 2015)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> I have some serious wooden bookshelves which are up to the task of supporting all that weight.  But if I were starting over, I'd probably invest in som Metro or InterMetro modular metal shelving from Container Store.  That is what I'm using in my kitchen for my cookbooks, and in other rooms for other stuff.
> 
> Why?
> 
> Well, InterMetro is the slightly cheaper and less sturdy version of Metro...and Metro can hold @800lbs per shelf.  Pretty much, it will take anything you've got.




Yep. I've been using some cheap shelves that were then badly assembled, vastly overloaded, and then left to bear the weight for years. It's not really a surprise they've given up the ghost.

We're thinking of moving to a new place at the end of this year, so we'll hold off on getting new shelves until we get where we're going. Really, though, I should clear out some of my books - there are an awful lot there that I'll just never use again.


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## pickin_grinnin (Jun 1, 2015)

I have several hundred RPG books, most of which are separate systems, rather than lots of books all within the same few systems.  A lot of it is very obscure stuff going back into the 70s, when I first started buying RPGs.


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## Scrivener of Doom (Jun 1, 2015)

When I moved to the Third World a few years ago, I decided to reward myself with a purpose-built library/office so I have shelves that would hold at least 10,000 books and they can also take the weight.


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## Voadam (Jun 1, 2015)

Not entirely sure, I'll start to count.

Currently:

D&D
5e: 3 books
4e WotC: 29 
4e Non WotC: 14 
3.5 WotC: 50
3e WotC: 31
Officially Licensed 3e: 20
Paizo Dungeon and Dragon: 21
OGL: 235
d20 Modern: 4
WotC Other d20: 3
Arcana Unearthed: 3
Babylon 5 d20 RPG: 1
BESM d20: 1
Conan d20: 6
Deadlands d20: 2
Everquest RPG d20: 3
Iron Heroes: 1
Pathfinder 35
Mutants and Masterminds: 3
True20: 3
AD&D 2e: 153
Hackmaster: 11
AD&D 1e TSR: 68
AD&D Others: 20
Basic D&D: 28
Castles and Crusades: 4
Agone: 2
Armageddon: 1
Ars Magica: 13
Call of Cthulhu: 3
Conspiracy X: 1
Cthulhutech: 1
d6: 1
Deadlands: 2
Demon the Fallen: 1
Earthdawn: 4
Elric!: 1
Exalted: 16
GURPS: 43
Hero: 5
HeroQuest: 1
Hunter The Reckoning: 1
Hunter the Vigil: 1
In Nomine: 2
Kult: 1
Legend of the Five Rings: 1
Macross RPG: 2
Mage the Ascension: 12
Mage the Sorcerer's Crusade: 3
Marvel Super Heroes: 4
MERP: 5
Nightlife: 1
Palladium: 4
Pendragon: 2
Rifts: 8
Rolemaster: 9
Shadowrun: 18
Star Trek: 1
TMNT: 1
Tri-Stat: 4
Tunnels and Trolls: 1
Vampire the Masquerade: 14
Warhammer RPG: 3
Werewolf the Apocalypse: 13
Whispering Vault: 1
World of Darkness: 2
Statless: 7
Maps: 17
Mind's Eye Theatre: 2
Bladestorm: 1
Warhammer Fantasy Battles: 12
Warmachine: 3
Warzone: 1

So if my math is right that is 1,001.


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## Altamont Ravenard (Jun 2, 2015)

Medium, probably a little less than 100 products, excluding my minis collection (3000+)

AR


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## RevTurkey (Jun 5, 2015)

I have owned, read and tried hundreds of roleplaying games...at some points having cupboards full of them. However, I have now only got two systems (and just the core books of those). For the moment they seem to be enough to keep me happy.


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## delericho (Jun 5, 2015)

RevTurkey said:


> However, I have now only got two systems (and just the core books of those).




Which two?


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## RevTurkey (Jun 5, 2015)

I settled on Dungeon Crawl Classics and Castles & Crusades. I like the old school vibe but modern mechanics of both. They are more than enough for me as a DM to run the kind of games that I want. If I am interested in other games it is usually as a player so I buy a game, have a look and if I like what I see...I give it somebody else as a present in the hope that I might get to enjoy playing it sometime 

EDIT: I am of course not suggesting I will not move to something else but at the moment these two suit me just fine.


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## RevTurkey (Jun 1, 2017)

It's 2 years on...in that time I ran some DCC. I ran Shadow of the Demon Lord. I ran some Hollow Earth Expedition. I bought The Dark Eye and I am prepping to run that next. All the games I ran went well and all of them have now been sold. So...so much for only needing the two systems


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## Isida Kep'Tukari (Jun 1, 2017)

My book shelf spans a whole wall, though not top-to-bottom.  I have over 300 products, including the run of Dragon Magazine from the advent of 3.0 to its final issue, and a chunk of Dungeon Magazine to boot, most of Kobold Quarterly, probably 85% of all of WotC's 3.0/3.5 books (minus adventures and a few near the end of 3.5) including Forgotten Realms and Eberron, several shelves of 3rd-party products, and nearly all of the Cypher System (Numenera, The Strange, and others) to date.  Plus my 2.0 collection, some of which belonged to my father (who taught me how to game).  In addition, I have a buffet full of my maps and gaming tiles, and a wardrobe that is full of my props, but also includes one whole shelf of dice.

And I also have a wall of minis.

And another wall of props (which aren't official gaming products, but they add to the ambiance).  

Ok, ok, I have a full-on dedicated gaming room in my basement I call The Magic Tavern!


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## Aaron Whitchurch (Jun 3, 2017)

I'm a relatively new player (3 or 4 years) so my collection is medium. I have the entire All Flesh Must Be Eaten line (came for the zombies, stayed for the genre books), core books for most D&D editions, a few Pathfinder books, and some indie stuff.


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