Cleaning House

Ok every so often I go through and clear out games that I don't use. Sometimes it is not so good as I end up re-buying some. Still if I kept every rpg I ever owned I would be at over 100 games and closer to 200. I mean after 40 years of rpging I have played a lot.

So I find myself at that point again. taking stock of what I have and what I believe I will use. I mean just in PDFs I have well over 200 RPGs.

My current list of one I own (Physical copies) are (by memory not checking every one)

Tiny d6 (Multiple games)
Dragon Age
Fantasy Age
Blue Rose
D&D 5th
Barebones Fantasy
Covert Ops
Robotech
Mekton all 3 editions
Mecha
Battletech
D6 (Fantasy, Adventure and Space)
BESM
Star Wars (FFG all 3)
Renegade Legions
Star Trek (LUG and the Newest one)
Savage Worlds
FrontierSpace
Oncedice (many versions)
WWII White Box
and I am sure I am missing some.

So I was wondering do you ever go through and decide what games to get rid of or do you keep them all. If you do get rid of games what criteria do you use?

I sell them on Facebook (Board Game Exchange and a few others). Has worked out well so far. My criteria is simple. If I feel like I "should" play a game since it's there, then it goes. I have to want to play it.

I generally don't buy a physical copy of a book until I have played/know I like it and want to play it again (or find it "culturally" important for RPGs as hobby - so yea I may be a bit of a collector...). When I get rid of physical books, it's pretty much exclusively for one of the following reasons:

1. There's a new edition of the system issued (and I know I like it better than the older one and plan to migrate to it completely).

OR

2. There's some sort of anthology or anniversary release that has combined (and maybe errataed) the content of multiple books I already have that are old maybe beat up or something (Deadlands Classic 20th Anniversary being a recent real life example).

I don't think I've ever sold something because "I have to much.", there is no such thing, sir!

I have the incredible Fortune of living in a city that has a tremendous public library. My library has board games and RPGs to check out. I also live up the street from game store that does Saturday night adult games. I haven't felt the need to purchase a new board game in years and have slowly sold all of the games that I did have. My theory is that anyone I know who wants to play a game with me also owns games themselves

I hoard. I have a pretty big collection of RPG books, and books in general. I would never get rid of any RPGs. My bookshelves for all books are probably 20+ feet wide and floor to ceiling. My wife is also an enabler.

Yeah, hoarder here too. O.o Although I find that the older I get, the less likely I am to go back to anything thats more mechanically crunchy, so eventually I may purge all that stuff.

Selling my games? NEVER!

Lordy... I have so many RPG resources now. Got some from old college friends and some thrift stores even. I have pretty much WAYYYYY more material than I could ever learn or play. :/ haha

It greatly depends on your personal outlook in my opinion -- I used be part of a Thursday night game club and many of the folks owned numerous games which was great -- and one of them used to be a play tester for various board game companies and he has probably a room full of games -- all I know is it took him 2 white panel van loads to move just his games the last time he moved

So if you have lots of games get a club going so that you can share them -- he did

As for RPGs I have gone to electronic media, being a software engineer makes that rather fluid, as I tend to be a Storyteller more often than just a player and/or I end up playing one of these games because someone else has a good game to play in.

Lastly the electronic media corresponds with the fact that I am now nearly 100% PbP as getting an FtF group together is not as easy as it used to be -- and I actually enjoy writing and that helps me practice that more as well

My loft holds a collection going back almost 40 years. I don't think I've ever gotten rid of any even though I barely play over the table any more.

also a book hoarder. but I'm a librarian so...

I'm in an apartment now and have very little room, so if I can find a pdf, I get rid of the book. It's not my preference, but needs must....

I hoard, it's a passion. I get enjoyment just looking at my collection. I would rather die and leave my collection to my daughter than to sell it. Also I don't like PDFs so I have lots of books.

In my 42-year collection, I have about 35 different physical game systems (systems; my individual books number in the hundreds), and well over 1500 PDFs of games and supplements. Just off the top of my head, I have physical copies of:

Original D&D
BECMI (Basic/Expert/Companion/Masters/Immortals)
Holmesian D&D
Moldvay D&D
AD&D
AD&D 2e
D&D 3.5
D&D 4th
D&D 5E
Star Trek Adventures
Star Trek from Last Unicorn Games
Star Trek (FASA)
Mutants & Masterminds
Spycraft
Star Wars: Age of Rebellion and Edge of the Empire
Star Wars (d6 System)
d6 System
Marvel Super-Heroes
DC Heroes
Savage Worlds
Traveller
Villains & Vigilantes
Mighty Protectors (V&V3)
GURPS
Polyhedral Dungeon
True 20
Blue Rose
d20 Modern/Future
Big Eyes, Small Mouth (original and d20 versions)
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Mutant Crawl Classics
Gamma World
Boot Hill
Star Frontiers
Top Secret
Top Secret/S.I.
Legend of the Five Rings
Pathfinder (1st and 2nd editions)
Starfinder
Call of Cthulhu
Elfquest
Man, Myth, and Magic
FATE
and others that elude my failing memory at the moment.