I was at a short lived game store once and I saw a box that advertised the stuff in it was on sale because the owner was in prison.
I picked up LEGs "Aliens" RPG dirt cheap.
The Legend of the Five Rings 1st edition book appeared on one of my shelves some time before 2010. I have no idea where it came from, or why it was there. I do not remember buying it, and it was released in 1997, far too late for me to have been under some illegal drug. I had no interest in it, and gave it away immediately. It was in perfect condition, never having been cracked open, apparently. I admit to being baffled.
Does driving out in a near blizzard to try and find Champions count?
Frank
Quote from: ffilz;1001588Does driving out in a near blizzard to try and find Champions count?
Frank
I respect your dedication to being a gamer.:)
There were these 3 books lying on this rock columns. After the first one nearly sucked me into a vortex and the second one flew around and bit me, I acquired the 3rd book, which was...
...okay, I got nuthin'...:-)
I once was a huge Tunnels & Trolls fan (cooled on it over the last decade) and was searching for a deeply OOP and low print count German copy of the game from the early 80s. It came in a box and was retitled "Schwerter & Dämonen". So we're talking about a niche of a niche of a niche market product here. Seriously rare.
One day in 2010, I was visiting my then-girlfriend in Bavaria. I was in the process of taking a massive shit on her parents' toilet, while they were cleaning out their attic. Knowing of my fascination with RPGs, my girlfriend shouted that she found some weird RPG box from her father's childhood. When I asked her which one (still sitting on that toilet), she replied "Schwerter & Dämonen, or something".
I never wiped faster in my life.
An author send me the PDF after I'd participated in a discussion about the mechanics, and pointed out some things that might have become a problem;).
Quote from: Nerzenjäger;1001768I once was a huge Tunnels & Trolls fan (cooled on it over the last decade) and was searching for a deeply OOP and low print count German copy of the game from the early 80s. It came in a box and was retitled "Schwerter & Dämonen". So we're talking about a niche of a niche of a niche market product here. Seriously rare.
One day in 2010, I was visiting my then-girlfriend in Bavaria. I was in the process of taking a massive shit on her parents' toilet, while they were cleaning out their attic. Knowing of my fascination with RPGs, my girlfriend shouted that she found some weird RPG box from her father's childhood. When I asked her which one (still sitting on that toilet), she replied "Schwerter & Dämonen, or something".
I never wiped faster in my life.
Huh. A
real gamer wouldn't have stopped to wipe at all. :D
Quote from: Schwartzwald;1001708I respect your dedication to being a gamer.:)
I should clarify that I wasn't doing the driving, my friend was driving. We visited I think three different stores in the Albany/Schenectady New York area before we found it.
Not a physical game but a PDF. When I was in the Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space playtest I also somehow ended up in the playtest for Starblazer Adventures. I have never played Starblazer Adventures, I have never playtested Starblazer Adventures, but I got a free PDF and my name is in it as a playtester.
My wife used to work for a used bookstore chain.
One day, I came home from work to find an OD&D white box, including supplements I–IV, sitting on my bookshelf.
The store had bought it in from a customer, apparently without doing anywhere near enough research to realize its value, and before it had even been shelved, she spotted it and snatched it up for ten bucks.
Apparently, she had intended to hide it and give it to me on my birthday, but she just couldn't wait to see the look on my face. (And I'm told that it was worth it.)
I once found a 'proof' copy of The World Tree at a yard sale. The sort of thing that says 'Not For Sale' on the cover. I now own it.
1) I found the hardcover player's book (The "Actor's Book of Characters") for the utterly bizarre 80s oddity World Action and Adventure mixed in with the children's books at a library sale. It was twenty-five cents.
One night I hanging around with a friend before a game. He spotted the book on my shelf and, knowing of the game's infamy, wanted to roll up a character. He rolled a "Thief". He then had to roll what sub-type of thief he was. He got "Rapist".
2) I once found a copy of the Bunnies & Burrows rulebook and a Fantasy Trip module buried among the old "Head" magazines at a hippy-ish record store.
I have a copy of Wraeththu that showed up on my doorstep one day in the mail.
I did not order it.
none of my friends ordered it for me.
at the time I received it, only one person knew I'd even read the original trilogy, and I'd not seen her in 15 years, and she doesn't know where I live.
I've tried reading it, but I get as far as finishing the opening fiction and get so mad that I have to put the book away for another year.
Quote from: remial;1002490I have a copy of Wraeththu that showed up on my doorstep one day in the mail.
I did not order it.
none of my friends ordered it for me.
at the time I received it, only one person knew I'd even read the original trilogy, and I'd not seen her in 15 years, and she doesn't know where I live.
I've tried reading it, but I get as far as finishing the opening fiction and get so mad that I have to put the book away for another year.
I would recommend not actually reading that fully. It might be a Key to a place best left locked.
Not a game, but I did receive a 2200point(3e rules) Sisters of Battle Army(40k) cuz the other guy had a hankering for donuts at 3am. Lucky for me Jolly Pirate Donuts in C-bus is open 24/7 and wasn't even 2 miles away.
Quote from: remial;1002490I have a copy of Wraeththu that showed up on my doorstep one day in the mail.
I did not order it.
none of my friends ordered it for me.
at the time I received it, only one person knew I'd even read the original trilogy, and I'd not seen her in 15 years, and she doesn't know where I live.
I've tried reading it, but I get as far as finishing the opening fiction and get so mad that I have to put the book away for another year.
It might have been Darren MacClennan. Wraethu is his favorite RPG.
I don't know that these are strange, but I got the complete Traveller boxed set (1977) from my older sister's boyfriend because he thought he had grown out of it, got an overstuffed boxed set of James Bond 007 (with Q Manual and Thrilling Cities jammed in, I think, or maybe For Your Information) at a garage sale for maybe $2 or $3, and have gotten a hold of a few cool out-of-print games at a local game store that has (or had, haven't been there in a couple of years) occasional gems hidden away on a used game shelf in the backroom where guys are playing elaborate miniatures games and sometimes kids are playing collectible card game tournaments. Met a few players there, too, over the years.
Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;10021081) I found the hardcover player's book (The "Actor's Book of Characters") for the utterly bizarre 80s oddity World Action and Adventure mixed in with the children's books at a library sale. It was twenty-five cents.
One night I hanging around with a friend before a game. He spotted the book on my shelf and, knowing of the game's infamy, wanted to roll up a character. He rolled a "Thief". He then had to roll what sub-type of thief he was. He got "Rapist".
The contrarian side of me wants to play that game now. That cracked me up.
(How on earth is "rapist" a "sub-type" of THIEF?)
Steals sex?
Quote from: Schwartzwald;1003082Steals sex?
It would seem to me then that thief was the sub-type of rapist...what an odd game.
Years and years ago Richard "apollo" Hatch was trying to recapture his year of happiness on the original battlestar Galactica and tried to create a sci fi opus called "the great war of Magellan", a schlocky SciFi setting even the SciFi channel wouldn't pick up.
Nonetheless he managed to get some comics, some videos, and even a RPG done. There was at least a few copies of the great war of Magellan RPG printed and I played a game of it at a convention Richard hatch was attending as a media guest.
Well, I was curious about it and looked it up later, and when i poked around the website I found a link to TGWOM.PDF and clicked on it. The link was right there in the open. I was not " hacking".
It downloaded the PDF of the rules book to my computer, just like that. No hacking, no stealing, just looking around the website.
It was a generic action SciFi setting, never got picked up. Still better than some of the shit the SFC did give a season to. I can't say I remember much except the concept of "shardite" which I might use someday.
Quote from: ffilz;1001588Does driving out in a near blizzard to try and find Champions count?
Frank
Much how I got
Conquest of the Empire: begging my mom to drive me to the store to get it, through a near blizzard.
She drove there, white-knuckled, muttering, "I cannot believe I let you talk me into this," over and over. :D
Quote from: Schwartzwald;1003084Years and years ago Richard "apollo" Hatch was trying to recapture his year of happiness on the original battlestar Galactica and tried to create a sci fi opus called "the great war of Magellan", a schlocky SciFi setting even the SciFi channel wouldn't pick up.
Nonetheless he managed to get some comics, some videos, and even a RPG done. There was at least a few copies of the great war of Magellan RPG printed and I played a game of it at a convention Richard hatch was attending as a media guest.
Well, I was curious about it and looked it up later, and when i poked around the website I found a link to TGWOM.PDF and clicked on it. The link was right there in the open. I was not " hacking".
It downloaded the PDF of the rules book to my computer, just like that. No hacking, no stealing, just looking around the website.
It was a generic action SciFi setting, never got picked up. Still better than some of the shit the SFC did give a season to. I can't say I remember much except the concept of "shardite" which I might use someday.
Schwartzwald, you should start a thread and tell us about this game and setting. I've never heard of it.
Quote from: Dumarest;1003083It would seem to me then that thief was the sub-type of rapist...what an odd game.
It's barely even a game. Character generation is basically just a random chart of "Jobs" (Like cowboy, teenager, astronaut, or rapist). The "System" is just a single "Roll high" mechanic. A weird vanity project self-published by some rich kid. The back cover has a photo of him in a polo shirt on the deck of his yacht. Worth reading if you can get it dirt cheap just for it's sheer oddness.
Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;1003127It's barely even a game. Character generation is basically just a random chart of "Jobs" (Like cowboy, teenager, astronaut, or rapist). The "System" is just a single "Roll high" mechanic. A weird vanity project self-published by some rich kid. The back cover has a photo of him in a polo shirt on the deck of his yacht. Worth reading if you can get it dirt cheap just for it's sheer oddness.
Wow.
Cleaning house a few weeks ago I discovered that I have a stapled print-out of the playtest rules for Exile, Mark Rein*Hagen's 1996 Dune-ish space opera game. It was supposed to be White Wolf's big follow-up to the World of Darkness but was scuttled by company politics and "Creative differences". I assume that I printed it off at the local university's computer lab (As I had no computer of my own at the time) , but I don't remember doing so.
It's really not bad at all. Shame it was stillborn.
Quote from: Dumarest;1003122Schwartzwald, you should start a thread and tell us about this game and setting. I've never heard of it.
This pretty much says it all... https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13253.phtml
There was a video made, here's what I found. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snL9eOWDBNY
To be honest the
only thing I remember now is shardite. Shardite was the impossible material of the game. It was a glowing blue crystalline element that produced unlimited but low level energy constantly. It produced a blue light just enough to read by and was used to charge power cells in weapons and other things. It had an oddly unique scientific explanation I remember.
Space is constantly expanding, according to modern science. Shardite was unique in that as space expanded it essentially "rubbed" against shardite at the quantum level in some way, and the interaction of ever expanding space "fabric" and shardite at the quantum level produced the energy shardite radiated constantly.
That's mostly the main thing i remember. It seemed fairly original. On the whole it was mostly a genetic sci fi mishmash of generic sf action and psuedo fantasy elements. Various "powers" substituting for magic, various technology substituting for magic, aliens like various fantasy races....get the idea?
I found the (new edition of) the Robotech RPG in a small bookstore in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania.
Hmm...
I found the Starships book (book 2?) of the original LBB Traveller, sitting on a table in what was basically an airport waiting room (but not, you know, actually IN the airport... keep reading and it might make sense...) in Afghanistan.
I'm pretty sure someone just randomly donated it as random reading material with no idea what it was... perhaps the other LBBs were included but didn't make it to this particular location?
I, of course, adopted it immediately. Poor thing was half starved and shivering.
Quote from: Spike;1003716Hmm...
I found the Starships book (book 2?) of the original LBB Traveller, sitting on a table in what was basically an airport waiting room (but not, you know, actually IN the airport... keep reading and it might make sense...) in Afghanistan.
I'm pretty sure someone just randomly donated it as random reading material with no idea what it was... perhaps the other LBBs were included but didn't make it to this particular location?
I, of course, adopted it immediately. Poor thing was half starved and shivering.
You're all heart.
unlikely, very few people know my mailing address. Hell even if you google me you can't find me.
A friend decided to run some Rules Cyclopedia DandD for us. He only ran it for us once. Later that week we met up at the FLGS and he just gave me his copy of the game...
The only other thing that comes even close to a 'strange' acquisition for me was one day finding the old (pre-mentzer) expert set, and it had a number of additional D&D modules inside it, at a "value village" (sort of like goodwill) for about $4.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1007912The only other thing that comes even close to a 'strange' acquisition for me was one day finding the old (pre-mentzer) expert set, and it had a number of additional D&D modules inside it, at a "value village" (sort of like goodwill) for about $4.
That reminds me of something odd. I have had the original Greyhawk boxed set for decades. At some point the books inside multiplied. As in, I have two of everything and I have no idea how.
* I'd been a writer for Gamelords (and as such, had a hand in on the final published TFT products), and a few of us lived in the Boston area. While Gamelords was moribund by 1985, Rich Meyer got a courtesy playtest copy of GURPS from SJG. Far more interested in APBA baseball and board games than in GMing at that point, and knowing that I was GMing TFT, he figured I'd get more use out of them and handed the cream and green spiral-bound notebooks off to me. So hot diggity, there I was, an uninvited playtester, got my name in the book, and went on from there to write stuff for GURPS. :)
* I was helping to run the gaming tracks (as well as moderate panels) for Worldcon in 1989. Shadowrun had just come out, and FASA sent a couple comp copies to the concom member in charge. No one else was interested, and while I wasn't interested in cyberpunk myself, I was fascinated by its production values, which at the time were by far the best the industry had ever seen. I never did run the game, but I got a few bucks for the book from Noble Knight a few years back.