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Scars Unseen
Acolyte
Japan
16 Posts |
 Posted - 27 Dec 2013 : 14:20:35
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Once upon a time I got introduced to D&D by a friend. My parents had gotten divorced, and I had been sent to live with my aunt in a city far away from my home. Having previously lived in the middle of a 90 acre forest, I was unaccustomed to the presence of others, and found myself somewhat disturbed and intimidated by the crowds that people seemed to naturally gather into. To this day, I tend to find friends on the fringes of society - misfits and loners - and it is through this tendency that I discovered tabletop roleplaying.
When my future stepmother(and then not and then so again... it's complicated) heard about my interest in the game, she gave me her son's discarded AD&D 2nd Edition books... and the Forgotten Realms Grey Box. With an underdeveloped social life and little need to study for school, I spent much time reading through these books, and came to love the Realms in particular(though oddly, the only D&D novels I read at the time were set in Dragonlance and Ravenloft).
As I grew older, I collected more books for the setting, eventually to the point where many of them never actually saw utility in actual play; I had begun to collect for the sake of expanding my collection. 3rd Edition D&D had been announced, but the group I played with was thoroughly content with 2nd Edition(heavily house ruled naturally) and had no immediate plans to switch.
And then I moved.
I had left my friends behind to pursue a computer tech support job in the Dallas area. It was a good decision(my home town being somewhat bereft of decent job opportunities) marred by two rather disastrous complications. First, the apartment that had approved my lease previously changed their minds at the last minute, leaving me with no place to stay. I had to put my belongings(including my AD&D collection) into storage while I lived in a tiny efficiency apartment(the sort that makes you pay by the week).
Second, someone broke into my storage locker and stole everything I owned.
Now this complication did have some arguably positive effects. Having to rebuild my gaming collection and find a new gaming group sort of forced me to switch to 3E, and all told, that hasn't been a bad thing. I enjoyed collecting new Realms books, I finally got into reading the novels, and I've generally had a good time(though I still hate 3E's version of multiclassing).
But then came along 4th Edition. Now I won't get into the mechanics of that edition because they aren't really relevant here. And even though I wasn't fond of the changes made to the Realms(to put it very mildly), I could have possibly lived with them if WotC had replaced what they took away with... something. I continue to enjoy Legend of the Five Rings despite the constant changes because there is always new content to replace the old. WotC's support of the Realms in 4E was... well it mostly wasn't. Not in comparison to previous efforts.
Now it seems that WotC is looking to turn that around in 5E(or whatever they end up calling it), and if they are, then great! Sign me up! But the collector bug has been nipping at me lately and frankly, I doubt that any support WotC drums up will compare to the TSR era. So I've decided to start recollecting my lost books from that era, and possibly expand upon it. I probably won't use them with AD&D again(even though I did buy the 2E reprints), but I might end up adapting them to 5E(if I like the final result), Castles & Crusades(if I want to go semi-retro with it) or something wilder(Fantasy Craft and a heavily modified version of the Edge of the Empire ruleset come to mind). Either way, I'm planning on collecting these books with the intention to use them in play.
As I am currently fairly poor, this is going to be a fairly slow build up, but I thought I'd chronicle my ongoing collection here, possibly with small retrospect reviews or thoughts on how to use them in whatever system I end up with.
I have already gotten the cornerstone to my new collection: the original Grey Box. I thought it appropriate to go back to the beginning and buy the product that drew me into the setting in the first place. Not a lot to say about this one other than that this box set belongs in every Realms book collection no matter what edition you play. It came before the "NPC glut" that some people hate the setting for and is just a really good vision of what the Realms are when you strip it down to its basics(unlike the failed attempt at the same that 4E tried). Condition: the books are pretty much perfect, but the box is kind of a disaster held together by tape. I can't complain though; I bought it for around $10 on ebay.
I've got two more cheap ones on their way from Amazon: Elves of Evermeet and The Drow of the Underdark. A nice balance if you like elves. I'll let you know how they turn out when I get them(plus I never owned the Drow book before, so that'll be a completely new read for me).
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The Arcanamach
Master of Realmslore
1882 Posts |
Posted - 27 Dec 2013 : 23:38:18
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| Good to see someone dedicated to the setting. I've built my collection to 100% except for some old Dragon issues I still need. Good luck to you, it's a labor of years you're in for. |
I have a dream that one day, all game worlds will exist as one. |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 27 Dec 2013 : 23:47:12
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| Good luck. Looking forward to your next post. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36896 Posts |
Posted - 28 Dec 2013 : 03:55:03
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As someone who has had to build his FR collection twice, I feel your pain... For me, eBay was a most useful resource.
And don't be afraid to not rebuild what you had... I lost a lot more gaming stuff than I replaced. Just sticking with D&D stuff, I had all of the hardcovers from 1E and 2E, except for the Kingdoms of Kalamar one. And when I say all, I mean I had them all -- including the Cthulhu mythos Deities & Demigods, in really good shape.
I've looked for that one a couple times since them, and seen people asking way too much for copies that aren't in nearly the shape mine was in... So I decided to not replace that one, and by extension, to not have all of the 1E and 2E hardcovers again. I've bought some of the reprints, but that's about it.
I also didn't bother with most of the World of Darkness stuff I had before the fire, or with most of the BattleTech books -- I had almost all of those, too, but I didn't replace much more than the Technical Readouts. I made a point of buying all of the TROs again -- originals with the Unseen and Revised, but that was about it.
Did you have any sort of renter's insurance? When I put my stuff in storage, I opted against the insurance... Luckily, the storage unit was in my wife's (then-girlfriend) name, and she was legally living at her mom's house. Her mom had insurance on the house, and that including a provision for offsite storage. So we got money through that. |
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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 28 Dec 2013 03:57:52 |
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Rebuilding the Hoard
