Greetings Collectors!

I'm not very active in forums, so let me give you a quick history of myself. I started playing D&D back in 1982 with the basic set and moved onto AD&D which I played up until 1990.

During that time period, I also played RuneQuest and Traveller.

In 1991, I 'grew up' and started a family. When I got back into D&D, It was right around the time they were switching from 3.0 to 3.5 (I actually am the idiot that bought the 3.0 books the month before my FLGS put out the 3.5 stuff - DOH!

So anyways, I have been playing since then and have all material from 4e that has been released.

When I switched to 4e, I sold all of my hardcover 3.x books (except for the Forgotten Realms ones). And over the last few years now I've been collecting the original basic D&D and AD&D books and modules.

Which brings me to where I am now. Mainly focusing on 1e and 4e stuff with a nice collection of 3.x modules and adventures (I am currently getting most of the Dungeon Crawl Classic modules now).

So, where should I go from here? I only have about, a half dozen or so 1e modules still to track down (with another dozen or so I'd like to upgrade) and a few misc. books from 1e (like the cover variants on MM and PHB, the original Deities & Demigods, etc.)... So 1e is just about done being 'collected' by me... as is 4e since I am buying everything as it comes out (I am only missing PHB2 right now).

I only play 4e because that is what is played in the area and that is what my oldest son is playing).

I kind of regret getting rid of all my 3e books now. I wasn't considering myself a 'collector' when I got rid of them. At least I made some people happy for selling them at good prices.

I am wondering about 2e. It looks like a good hunk of material there to be collected. I have never purchased anything from 2e before, ever! It was a window of time when I wasn't gaming...

Money is not a consern for me now, so I can pretty much start getting into anything I want. I looked on ebay for RuneQuest and can't find any of the stuff I used to play, just new Mongoose stuff (I was playing in the early to mid 80's so I am not sure which edition, but I would know by looking at it). Same with Traveller, I looked online for that, and there are just too many editions and versions. I am going to steer clear of Traveller.

I liked RuneQuest alot, but can't track down the items I had as a kid. I am considering the 3e books again or maybe getting into 2e (by the way, I should point out here that even though I have nobody to play the earlier editions with, I still love to read the books, modules, fluff, etc... so I would probably get a lot out of the 2e stuff since there is just a massive wealth of info there for me to dip into).

Any thoughts? If you were in my gaming group, and I was talking about this to you, what would you suggest, or what would you do in my situation?

Thanks all! Now that I am getting more into the collecting aspect of this, It will be nice to meet some people here in these forums.

D.

Thats a great idea. I like the Forgotten Realms setting the best (the reason I kept my 3.5 Forgotten Realms books). I think I'll probably start there and start to get the 2e stuff that has to do with that setting and move on from there.

Do most of the collector's here collect a specific edition or setting, or is it just all over the place with what people are in to?

D.

If you are thinking about collecting 2nd Ed stuff, I would look into the other campaign setting that they released to see if you are interested in any of them as well.

For nonTSR/WotC stuff I was usually informed about it, checked it out, then started collecting it. For TSR/WotC stuff it was either what I was playing at one point of my life that I now wanted to get everything for, or I never played and wanted to check out.
After Forgotten Realms, I'd personally recommend the Known World/Mystara/BECMI.

ShaneG.

Cardboard Carnage wrote:
I am wondering about 2e. It looks like a good hunk of material there to be collected. I have never purchased anything from 2e before, ever! It was a window of time when I wasn't gaming...

Money is not a consern for me now, so I can pretty much start getting into anything I want. I looked on ebay for RuneQuest and can't find any of the stuff I used to play, just new Mongoose stuff (I was playing in the early to mid 80's so I am not sure which edition, but I would know by looking at it). Same with Traveller, I looked online for that, and there are just too many editions and versions. I am going to steer clear of Traveller.

I liked RuneQuest alot, but can't track down the items I had as a kid. I am considering the 3e books again or maybe getting into 2e (by the way, I should point out here that even though I have nobody to play the earlier editions with, I still love to read the books, modules, fluff, etc... so I would probably get a lot out of the 2e stuff since there is just a massive wealth of info there for me to dip into).

Any thoughts? If you were in my gaming group, and I was talking about this to you, what would you suggest, or what would you do in my situation?

Thanks all! Now that I am getting more into the collecting aspect of this, It will be nice to meet some people here in these forums.

D.

2E is a good choice..a lot of it out there, most that can be had for very cheap. Look to buy a few "lots" and then concentrate on the few rare or hard to find items.  

For Runequest, you could get every item published, as there wasn't a lot, but the earlier 1st edition stuff can be very difficult to find.  Keep checking frequently on Ebay and some of the stuff will eventually pop up.  In the last year or so I've sold some very hard to find RQ items I ran across, so they do pop up.

For Traveller, a nice cut off point would be anything Megatraveller or beyond. That would mean nothing beyond the "little" books except for the Alien Modules. There is a ton of third party stuff for that one, also.  

If you are just getting into collecting for real, I'm going to recommend Lawrence Schick's Heroic Worlds, which is the last world on a reference work concerning pre-1990 RPGs. Pretty much everything ever published is listed, and it is invaluable for making lists.  That could cut down your search time by quite a bit once you know exactly what you are looking for.

Good Luck!

Mike B.

You should seek to collect anything I do not collect.

Anything made for 4th Edition for starters.
Easy choice since you are already into that........
Lots of various Sci-Fi things to search for too as has been stated above.
WarHammer 40k
Any Card Collecting/Gaming, like Magic.......
Or all things Dragon Lance or Mystera related.
Call of Cthulhu is a nice area to look for things as well.
And from just those few areas there is Plenty of stuff to search for.

Those collections alone should keep you busy for YEARS and YEARS and YEARS....  

Oh yeah.......  

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and ideas. I am going to probably start on 2e stuff and start off maybe trying to find a few large sized lots at reasonable prices, just to get a 'bulk' of stuff going, then move forward from there.

I know a lot of you are not into 3e or 4e. I play 4e now because it is what is being playing in my area and what my oldest son plays with his friends. I actually enjoy it and have a good time. When 3e was out, I did play it for many years, but that wasn't by choice. It was because it was the only option I had to play D&D. 3e is probably the worst release in my opinion.

1e (Basic D&D and AD&D) will always be my favorite, nothing I could play now would ever recapture those memories of playing in the early 80's with my old friends from High School (something my oldest son is doing now with 4e and his high school crowd), so to me D&D isn't just a game, or something to collect, but something that has a special place in my past.

D.

Cardboard Carnage wrote:I am also going to go through my 1e collection this coming weekend and make a definite list of what I am still needing. I know I am missing about a half dozen modules, and I'd estimate a good dozen or so more are in serious need of an upgrade.

You're doing better than I am! Good luck on the 2e: sounds like rapid progress thus far.

d.

Do what I do: buy anything that seems interesting. If you end up not liking it, sell it or trade it.