What is, singularly, the best rpg-related purchase that you have ever made? I don't think that I could have honestly answered the question myself until earlier this afternoon, so I understand any uncertainty that may plague you. So, how do/i] I answer the question?

Well, earlier today, my copy of The Dicitionary of Imaginary Places arrived in the mail. . . this is easily the best rpg-related purchase that I have ever made (although I'm puzzled at the exclusion of places like Goatswood, while placed like Arkham are included). At any rate. . .

While thumbing through this book, I realized that it's effectively a huge collection of setting seeds -- all you need to add is a serviceable system, and you've got an instant game! And that rocks

since i tend to pull ideas from just about everything (lotsa genre jumping that i do), the best "related" purchase would be a good backpack to carry my stuff in

not exactly the answer you were looking for, i know.  but aside from sourcebooks & dice, i haven't found anything close that was so useful.  maybe an almanac . . . ?

Some time back Colonel Hardisson had two threads which may be relevent to this thread. Some really interesting responses in them.

http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3537

http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1372

Regards,
David R

Quote from: jdrakehWell, earlier today, my copy of The Dicitionary of Imaginary Places arrived in the mail. . . this is easily the best rpg-related purchase that I have ever made (although I'm puzzled at the exclusion of places like Goatswood, while placed like Arkham are included). At any rate. . .

Linkage?

General utility wise: My apartment. It's where we game.

Single Item: My wooden spools have come in immensely handy in the last six months, so for right now they rule.

Book wise: Shadowrun 3 main book. I own seven or so of them.

Quote from: Serious PaulLinkage?

Linkage

A computer with internet access.

Some of the online stuff I've found is so fucked up as to be worthless, but there is just so much crap out there that it is impossible to not find something worthwhile to use in a game.

Packs of 3 by 5 and 4 by 6 lined notecards.

 During games we use thgem for all sorts of things.  Mainly to pass important notes between the players and the GM, or from player to player. All the likely conversations and bits of "offstage" business that should happen get covered by using those cards.

 When running a Fantasy game last fall, we started byu accident to use a large map and a bit of miniatures - the back of those cards became the large rafts that the nasty/bad-guy Templars were riding on up the river.

 We also used them to keep track of weapons platforms and how many missiles had been used uip and exploded during a big battle. (Some of you might know which battle if you know my past campaign history)

 We have gotten so in habit of using them for private communications amonst us - that we got the lightly colored cards so that each player has his or mostly her own color.  We usually know who is sending a message  now at a glance. Tho I have wound up memorizing handwriting style unintentionally.

- Ed C.

Quote from: jeff37923A computer with internet access.

Yeah, I was thinking "my laptop". In addition to that, it allows me to organize and format my gaming data, make maps, store gaming material and products to take to the game, quickly search electronic game books, randomly generate data, provide background music, provide players with visual representations, communicate with the players outside of game time, research and make other gaming purchases, and so forth.

I'm with the computer guys.

Pencils?

Quote from: SosthenesPencils?

That, and paper.

In an emergency, Pizza boxes will do nicely.

caesar slaad mentioned the star wars visual dictionary in another thread.  if i was going to run *anything* in SW, those books would be a must "related" purchase.  

hell, i picked up super-cheap the galaxy-class starship deckplans from ST:tNG years ago (2 copies, even) to use as a game aid.  alas, they have yet to be used. . . .

Laptop. No more Kinko's for character sheets. I get to capture all those great images from the coffee table books I like and the old Sears catalogs I've bought and catalog and archive and re-compile all I want. The net is awfully valuable. Mapping programs are sweet.

I bought Po-Po the coconut monkey at the dollar store. He quickly became the Quarter Monkey, much to the chagrin of players who could not refrain from endless Star Trek/Star Wars/LotR/Monty freakin Python referrences.

Going from a backpack to a filebox with a nylon shoulder rig (with pockets and stuff) has been way more than $20 worth of beneficial. I had an overhead projector that I got cheap off a school. It served me well at cons (I had some overhead projector dice, also ) but I think I'm going to opt for a laptop projector in the future. I don't know. It's hard to isolate purchases. I mean--it was a big deal to me personally when I finally started earning enough to get a few extra bookcases for games, rather than the teetering mountain of milk crates. But I'm not sure I've ever had more genuine mileage out of anything besides dice and trusty spiral quadrille notebooks.

Thanks for the link. Interesting stuff.

Unrelated side note: We used to run our Shadowrun game from lap tops, with each player having one, networked to a system, with a big screen that we jacked in for maps and real time videos.

Alas the lap tops all belonged to one guy, and they all crapped out. We'd like to get a table set up again where each station has a chat/messenger function and keyboard and screen to use.

We've considered using "Online Game Chat" with microphones for games, like teamsspeak and the like.