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Seriously, I wouldn’t tell you to do something that I wouldn’t do myself. Don’t collect RPG books – use them. Forget mint condition – mint condition means nothing if you aren’t enjoying using them.
Awesomize!
Don’t Collect – AWESOMIZE!
Add notes! Add adventures! Put in your own footnotes. Keep having issues finding stuff in the book? Add notes to the index too. Original edition Vampire: the Masquerade had one of the key systems for new players hidden away under “Systems, Physical, Hunting”. Open the index and add it under H for Hunting and maybe again under F for Feeding. Don’t be afraid to show your love for the game by updating it to how you want it and how you use it!
Have issues with this? Buy yourself a copy of Dyson’s Delves. Open it up, pick a dungeon (like I did above with the Winter Fortress) and stock it. Right there. In the book. Get over your fear of marking up your books – you aren’t defacing them, you are making them MORE awesome.
As a footnote regarding Dyson’s Delves – in the next couple of days I will be taking down the limited edition hardcover version and replacing it with a standard edition hardcover which will not contain “The Twisted Halls of Mornard’s Revenge” adventure. That adventure & map will never be posted to the blog.
i promise i will turn my copy into awesome
Just ordered Dyson’s Delves and you better believe I’ll be marking that baby
I see students’ jaws drop when I tell them to mark up books. In my Honors 10 English class, we often purchase thrift editions of classic texts and then I make students write all over them. Not only does it personalize the book, but this sort of annotation also helps you better understand and delve into what you’re working with. I think for an RPG this is just as valuable, because as you understand a rule, internalize a concept or make a connection between different elements of the game, the short note you make becomes instrumental in your later gameplay.
I agree with you completely! Awesome away…
What’s just as awesome is when you get a book like this and you have not only the original book but the amusement and edification of all that marginalia!
I have to admit I’ve had great difficulty in life with “awesomizing” books. I’m that guy who bought a moleskin and refused to write in it for almost a year because internally I believed I would be defacing it.
Thanks to this and the Stonewerks blog I’ve finally gotten around to filling the pages with all sorts of geomorphs, dungeon layouts and various drawings.
I am also very grateful that you put your work up on LuLu. I did purchase a copy of the Limited Edition and it shipped yesterday. I’m super excited about getting it in my hands.
Thanks for the inspiration and the encouragement to “awesomize” our books and really make them ours.
Keep up the excellent work!
Personally I’m so glad I never “awesomized” my older books. I used to buy piles of RPG modules and books years ago and used them extensively. I’ve been able to sell off my older, less useful purchases on eBay at great prices due to keeping them in new condition.