Like many gamers, I’m something of a packrat when it comes to games — especially roleplaying games. After all, they’re just books. Compared to, say, big-boxed board games, they take up practically no space at all.
Unless you have hundreds of them.
In the interests of maintaining some room to walk between the shelves, I’ve been culling my collection recently, and it’s hard. While there are some that I can honestly say I will never play, and can let go without tears, there are plenty more that I just can’t bear to part with.
Nostalgia is a big part of it. I haven’t played Star Wars (D6), Night Life, or DC Heroes in years, but have great memories of past campaigns, and truly believe that I will play them again some day. (And of course that means I can’t get rid of my campaign notes from 12 years ago either.)
Professional interest also stays my hand. I can’t get rid of that book – I have a playtest credit in it. And while I’ve never actually read these books, they’ve got genre-defining game mechanics in them, and I may need to reference them while working on my own games. (Such thinking was justified this spring, when I was able to finally use that copy of Ars Magica I picked up back in 1996.)
But the biggest reason I can’t clear my bookshelves is the reason I picked up the games in the first place: I want to play these things. No, I haven’t yet actually run a game of Etherscope, or Vampire: the Requiem, or even Werewolf: the Wild West (from what, ten years ago now?) but I intend to. Eventually.
Since I’ve been intending to play some of these games for… well, a decade, a more reasonable person might conclude that I will never actually do so, and should just cut my losses and move on. But I’m not a reasonable person. I’m a gamer. And these unplayed, skimmed-through books are an inspiration. Just looking at them again today gave me a little thrill of excitement, a tingle down in my geek-heart that reminded me that there are cool worlds to explore and games to play. They’re here. They’re just waiting for me.
And I can’t give that up.
Was culling through memoria and actually succeeded in recalling memories thought long lost (accident back in ’96 damaged skull pretty well, sadly, but ANYways), involving gaming, a collegiate attempt, and a friend I hadn’t seen since.
Oddly enough, it led me here and to someone that seems awfully familiar. You.
Of course, I can’t be certain about this, unless you happened to be attending BSU in the early 90s and involved in various media (including gaming, as previously mentioned).
If so, it’s a pleasure to “see” you again, if not, it’s a pleasure to meet a gaming fan!
-thom
Yup, it’s me. Though it took some digging through your web pages to figure out that “Thom” was “Grr” back in… what? 1992? Wow. We’re old. 🙂
Good to hear from you!
Old is all a state of mind … although it is a “small world” in that we live in the same “area.”
(wow)
-t.
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