Troll Lord Games

Boy, does this apply to games!

This past week, I've tried reviewing at least one game at RPGNow/DTRpg that I've bought since 2003. After reading and reviewing an old file named "Goofballs," I'm beginning to realize that my tastes must have been really lousy over the past nine years. For every T&T 7.5 or C&C, I seem to have purchased a dozen Goofballs...

I am SO grateful that T&T and C&C are so functional, useful, and fun! And they each have such alliterative acronyms...!

I hate to judge quality of gaming materials, since so many opinions vary so much, but I'll say that I probably don't use 80-90% of my gaming stuff. I buy things that look cool in the store and more often then not I read part or all of it and am done with it. There really aren't too many games that I play over and over, and not too many gaming books that I re-read over and over.

C&C, T&T, OD&D, DCC. That's my short list.

Of course, I have the same problem with fiction. I tend to re-read a few classics (Elric, Barsoom, Conan, Lankhmar, Amber, Middle-earth) and otherwise most of my collection just sits there most of the time.

I'm in the same boat as fin. I don't play too many different kinds of games, and I buy way more than I'll ever play. That said, I try to be very picky when it comes to buying but I'm sure I have some duds in there, somewhere. I mainly focus on AD&D (1 & 2), D&D, d20, and C&C, but I have about 6-10 other systems I pick stuff up for, too. I've weeded out a lot of the crap I've bought, and interestingly enough (though not surprising) the system I've trimmed the fat from is from my d20 stuff. Doubtful I'll ever play anything other than D&D or C&C (and maybe GURPS) but I've got a freat source of reading material at my disposal!

My list of games I play is a bit larger than Finarvyn's: C&C, OD&D, T&T, Dinky Dungeons, Star Trek: The Role Playing Game, Classic Traveller or Mongoose Traveller. The list of games I own would take too long to list. However I have a 4-foot wide storage tote filled with books and a UHaul moving box with even more. That doesn't include the books I'm slowly weeding out.

Ive got some stinkers in my collection as well. There is a lot of stuff out there that I consider unworthy of my time and, sadly, I've spent hard earned cash on some of it. Nowadays I dont make much time for RPGs outside of C&C, Savage Worlds, and Dark Heresy (WH40k). Some games look like they have potential (like DCC), but my time is limited and I have made my gaming choices. They will stand for the foreseeable future.

I've bought some real stinkers, like 4th edition D&D, over the years, but nothing compared to my d20 glut. I was purchasing things left and right. Some of them were great, but 90% stunk. I kept all of my Scarred Lands campaign setting stuff in the hope that someday I'll run the campaign in another rule set. Right now I am running a B/X game for my wife and kids, but I am going to get them to convert over to C&C and invite a few more friends into our group now. 88% done with the C&C PHB now. Everything that isn't familiar sounds pretty good and what's familiar is just... like going home, I guess.

Yeah, I have a lot of 3.5 glut days adventure stuff. C&C is easy to convert on the fly so I can make use of it. I am finding that I use what I have but I just pick and choose what I use and what I do not use in modules. I use ideas.

If we are strictly talking about the d20 glut, I would have no idea. I never really liked D&D 3.5 rules. I bought it out of curiosity and thought it'd be fun to introduce my kids to rpg's. It turned out fine and I did buy other D&D 3.5 games like; The Game of Thrones; Gamma World and the; Warcraft game. I'm pretty sure that is it. I had no trouble with any of those games and on different levels enjoyed them as they were. Warcraft got a pretty big backlash, but it mostly from the Warcraft mmo people. I never really played the Warcraft mmo (I tried the 30 day free trial, but got bored out-of-my-mind after two weeks.) Having read the only, some of the books I didn't notice anything that would put me up-in-arms.

If we are talking rpg's as a whole, I would think that 90% is a tad high. Like finarvyn and Traveller I was once a gaming book collector and what I bought was usually pretty good. ( I even got the guy who created the; Burning Wheel system to send me the core books with the same number in the first limited run. ) Even with my large collection that extended back to the late 80's most of the books I enjoyed, but maybe my tolerance level was lower. I was one of the few that really enjoyed; The Amazing Engine system and; Everway. I love Vajra Enterprises worlds (Self contained and awesome worlds to game in.) I do, however, find the system to be cumbersome and in some cases unwieldy to deal with. But, not a waste of money. I currently own all of the books. Something like the Seige system would be a perfect match for what he originally tried to accomplish.

Off hand the one rpg that I just never got, and thought it wasn't all that great and a waste of money, was; Carnage Among the Stars that, for awhile, was a RPG.net darling.

Anecdotal evidence is not a good way to gauge anything, but my experience was quite different. I guess most of it can be attributed to the fact I mostly opted out of the whole d20 thing and went in a different direction. Maybe, if I had participated, my crap meter would probably have climbed.

I have too many shelves worth and am in the very slow process of reducing the collection. Ultimately, I would love to bring it down to a single book case (full size Billy bookcase from Ikea) -- it's currently spread out amongst 4 of them.

As for the d20 'glut' as people call it, I can easily say that the largest part of the collection is d20 but that doesn't mean it was crap either. Consider the World Builder series or other TLG offerings -- great stuff and I'm sure a bunch of people would jump of at the chance if I suddenly decided to part with the World Builder series. There were many gems from many companies but out during this phase but there is something to be said about repetition.

Example ... the Book of Templates (Goodman Games), Advanced Bestiary (Green Ronin), and the Monster's Handbook (Fantasy Flight Games) all did the some sort of thing. It just so happens that I have all three but the most I paid for any of them was along the lines of $5. They aren't crap though but likely these will eventually drop down to just one in the future -- my favorite being the Monster's Handbook. Because I have many thing I would like to see go to a better home (and possibly get a couple of bucks in the process) I try to sell them off in largely lots though which I suppose partially speaks to the problem of the massive amounts of material that was available at one point.

I like to think that I actually don't own a lot of crap but I do find that maybe my tastes have changed and will continue to change as different things come out. I don't consider C&C the be-all or end-all in gaming but it is within a the gaming current that I am gravitated to. For this reason, I will continue to buy and support new efforts that are similar in terms of 'feel'.

M

I hardly own anything RPG related. But, some of it I own simply because it is crap... or because it is rare crap, like ST1: Up The Garden Path.

I would not say that most the stuff I own is "crud," but I would not use it all... and certainly not all in the same game. Shadowrun, for example, I keep in its own little world... even though I could easily mix it with Chill (1st edition) or Dark Conspiracy or a ton(ne) of other possibilities. Others I find far more willingly adapted, like Talislanta (and its forerunner -- The Arcanum) or Arduin and I make much use of those because they "fit" anything I want to play. Maybe it's because I'm stuck on one style of game... or maybe I just really like them. But, that doesn't make the rest "crap." Just less fondled.