I was surprised to hear someone recently talking about how gamers now treat their RPG books as "collectibles", and take care not to smudge them, bend pages, or especially (god forbid) write on them! And how this is different from the old days and the way "we" used to treat them "when we were kids".

So what's the story? Are gamers putting their books in plastic vacuum-seal?
Or do you still write notes in your RPG books?

RPGPundit

I dont think there is much point in vacuum sealing them since they are meant to be used regularly. Usually I am a bit careful with mine the first week or so I get then, but after a game session or two, i get comfortable with bending pages and wearing the book down.

I'm pretty careful with mine, not because they might turn out to be (or are) "collectible" but because I am pretty careful with all books. For example, I have paperback novels I bought in the 1960s when I was a kid that have been read many times and still look almost new.

People can handle their own books any way they want without comment from me. However, if you handle my books you had better handle them gently and with clean hands -- or you will not be handling them again.

I use them regularly but try to treat them well, and i don't write in them.
They're not study books and if i have to write house rules down etc. i do so in a small notebook i keep with my gaming materials.

Quote from: RandallS;612860People can handle their own books any way they want without comment from me. However, if you handle my books you had better handle them gently and with clean hands -- or you will not be handling them again.

To me is is a good rule of thumb for any personal possessions. The one that really gets me is folks borrowing a dvd or cd and just placing the disc on the floor or counter without putting it in the case.

When I was a kid I colored in every picture in the Fiend Folio with crayon. And as I aged from being a pre-teen to a teenager, I really regretted doing that. I never really wrote in any of my RPGs then - besides writing my name on the inside cover, or on the first page.

In your terms, I'd be classified as a "collector". I don't keep them in a hermetically-sealed chamber, or use white gloves to handle them and forceps to turn the pages. But, I do make an effort to keep them in good condition - I don't write in them, bend or fold pages, trash the spines. I treat textbooks like that, not RPGs.

If I feel the need to write up a houserule, "scribble" out a rule I dislike, or otherwise correct an RPG I don't write in the margins, or whatever. I'll write up these things in a WORD .doc , and distribute them with printed out chargen instructions, equipment and combat tables, etc. (I try to run sessions with a minimum of referencing a core book. Print out what I need, use a GM screen, if necessary).

Quote from: RPGPundit;612858Or do you still write notes in your RPG books?

Notes, diagrams, charts, even a sketch or two - they're manuals, not collectibles.

Quote from: RandallS;612860I'm pretty careful with mine, not because they might turn out to be (or are) "collectible" but because I am pretty careful with all books. For example, I have paperback novels I bought in the 1960s when I was a kid that have been read many times and still look almost new.

People can handle their own books any way they want without comment from me. However, if you handle my books you had better handle them gently and with clean hands -- or you will not be handling them again.

Same with me - I have paperbacks that date back to the fifties, and I still read them. I try to be careful with all books because I read and re-read them. Since I started gaming when I was an adult - 21 - All my books are subject to minimum wear and tear. I never wrote in any of them.

-clash

I treat all my stuff with care (RPG or otherwise) - why wreck something when you could just as easily not? I don't mind writing a few notes in modules and the like - it's kinda neat to see the grafitti I wrote in some 1980s books as a kid.

Do what you like to your stuff, don't wreck mine.

There was that one time when another player handled my 1e AD&D DMG with cheeto fingers - that was the last time he ever saw that book. He didn't see the big deal.

There was that other time when someone borrowed one of my new/not-at-all-collectable books. If I recall correctly, his daughter accidentally spilled water on it and the pages puffed up. He proactively bought me a new copy and we're all good.

I wonder if it's a birth order thing. Perhaps the eldest child is more protective of their stuff because the younger ones tend to destroy things. Younger kids get used hand-me-downs that aren't pristine and never had to defend their possessions. I can see this kind of behaviour with my kids.

Quote from: RandallS;612860I'm pretty careful with mine, not because they might turn out to be (or are) "collectible" but because I am pretty careful with all books. For example, I have paperback novels I bought in the 1960s when I was a kid that have been read many times and still look almost new.

People can handle their own books any way they want without comment from me. However, if you handle my books you had better handle them gently and with clean hands -- or you will not be handling them again.

+1.  This sums up my position.

Count me among those that treat their books very well but not for some collectible reason. I'm a bibliophile and treat every book I own like it's a rare gem of someone's collection. I just like books and I like them to look brand new, even if they are older.

Nearly every paperback I own looks like it has never been read.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;612868Notes, diagrams, charts, even a sketch or two - they're manuals, not collectibles.

Same here.

People who write in their books are nothing more than uncouth savages.

Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Notes in the Margins

Quote from: vytzka;612904People who write in their books are nothing more than uncouth savages.

Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson, Edger Allan Poe, Mark Twain, and just about everyone who was anyone in the 18th and 19th centuries.