youffie404

As I belong to the miserable majority  , my question is : how did you get this stuff ?

Picked up my 2nd print in Normal, Illinois in 97. It's a mid-size collage town right smack in the middle of the state. Bought it, a 5th, OCE's in varying condition, 2nd Original Basic and such…ranging right up into 2nd edition FR box sets. It was about 15 box sets all for $5 bucks each.
I also got a HUGE pile of minty varying 1st Ed AD&D modules, some rarer Non-TSR modules, some early fragmented JG, and a 1976 TSR in-house character sheet pad only missing a few pages thrown in to boot! Only paid a buck or two each on these.

I'll tell you the truth…back then I had no idea about printings, rare non-TSR items, or really anything as far as trying to build a "valuable or rare" RPG collection. I started with wanting to have every Grayhawk and Forgotten Realms items produced to date. At that time I was working off the Trivi-Athion, it was a mail in trivia contest that came with issue #227 of the Dragon in 1996, or free at game stores. One side was the trivia questions, but the back side was a complete checklist of every D&D and AD&D item to date… Oh how I remember how this got my heart pumping, now it was all right in front of you…not that check lists weren't available, it just somehow inspired me and several friends to start as we said "filling in the gaps".

After completing GH and FR, it of course spilled over into all of the other D&D settings, non-TSR D&D and the like. I was in a band and toured extensively throughout the US and Canada. So to sustain my mind, and keep the boredom of the road at bay, I would buy RPG's and read them while waiting out long stretches of highway. So after returning from tours I would have several boxes of treats to add to a growing pile, and my campaign ready for my group I played with at the time.

Shortly after that to help in "filling in the gaps" the internet was beginning to really take off and I found the rec.games.frp.marketplace newsgroup. Does anyone else remember looking through pages and pages of text adds for varying RPG's. Oh, there were no key word searches…the searching was you a scrolling.

Years latter, all of the above is what lead me to the Acaeum. We are a well-organized group of dedicated gamers who genuinely just like to play the games and paint miniatures. So we just kinda kept to ourselves. For years I never thought any of this had any real value. Now I knew a few things had some value… Deities W/C, I saw an OCE at the store for $50 bucks, etc. But I had no idea about what I really dragged across the country and back.          

I stumbled onto the Acaeum because of a 5th print palace just trying to figure out what it was. Not the obvious of it being an adventure, but me thinking after the local gamestore owner told me it was a first print.

killjoy32 wrote:

bclarkie wrote:WHAT?! BLASPHEMY!!!

sorry chummer what can i say? whilst i like all that kinda old stuff, there are other things which pique (sp?) my interest more than that does.....cant all be the same you know

now if someone sold me one for £100 then ok i would prb take it

I'm with Kill. Boxed sets of rules, Rulebooks, different printings, etc really dont' do anything for me.  I mean, if one fell into my lap it would be great.  But I wouldn't pay over, say, $100 for a Mint 1st print woodgrain.  Rulesets and Rulebooks just dont' do anything for me. I'm far more interested in scenarios, modules, adventures, etc, particularly non-TSR offerings of the time (since I didn't buy these when they came out).  These are what really bring me back and get the nostalgia machine in my mind going, especially when it's a 20+ year old scenario I've never read through before.  There was just something about the late 70's/early 80's and picking up a brand new module like G3 or D1 or S2 and tearing off the wrapper to read through and mentally fit your party into that adventure (oh, man, these new evil elves the Drow are going to KICK MY PARTY'S ASS!).  My group was run through practically all the "letter" series as soon as they came out, and that's what I still enjoy looking at. A first print PHB or DMG or MM, OCE set, woodgrain, etc, well they are undoubtedly worth quite a bit and fun to own, but personally I spend virtually no time looking at these items, while I have been known to pull out GDQ1-7 or T1-4 or the Slavers series and waste an hour or so re-reading and basking in past adventures.

Mike B.

youffie404,

You DMing or playing?

killjoy32 wrote:

Badmike wrote:I'm far more interested in scenarios, modules, adventures, etc, particularly non-TSR offerings of the time, Mike B.

you hit the nail right on the head there chummer. gimme modules and scenarios any day of the week over rulebooks. i make my own rules up anyway, so whatever

i read back over the old modules quite often and reminisce over the times they were played and consider the different styles i have seen them play/be DM'd. THAT is probably what has been my biggest passion of RPGing...the interpretation of the material and how it was all pieced together by others.

rulebooks to me, is like being back at college again, studying for exams

sod that for a game of soldiers

Al

I have to say guys, I'm in agreement.  I just LOVE taking out those old modules and poring over them.  ESPECIALLY my recently-acquired Lost Tamo!  

youffie404 wrote:

Badmike wrote:
A first print PHB or DMG or MM, OCE set, woodgrain, etc, well they are undoubtedly worth quite a bit and fun to own, but personally I spend virtually no time looking at these items, while I have been known to pull out GDQ1-7 or T1-4 or the Slavers series and waste an hour or so re-reading and basking in past adventures.

Mike B.

I am agree with that, even if i would be very excited to get one relic, i spend more time reading modules... because of lack of translation, i have played only a few of them. And the discovery is great.

This afternoon, we began UK2 the Sentinel. Great ! Those monsters from FFolio are so vicious -what, a symbiotic jelly?
Yes man!

Im envious, I love UK2/UK3 series, I've run them both a few times together and separately.  Last time I ran UK2 was a couple years ago, just used the lair of the Half orc bandits, it was the final foe of a low level party that was clearing out an island inhabited by pirates and bandits.  Great stuff!

Mike B.

Deadlord36 wrote:Don't you just love the Tamo cover art?

Swear to god, man, I've already spent more time looking at that module than any of the others.  It's incredible.  I'm not worthy!

Badmike wrote: ....I wouldn't pay over, say, $100 for a Mint 1st print woodgrain....

Man I would......  and then some......

I got my 3rd print woody last year off from ebay for 500something including Supplements 1-5, some of them 1st prints (Blackmoor was even signed by Mr. Arneson). All in Ex to VFine condition. Given those insane prices we have now for OCEs I wonder what a 3rd or 2nd print might bring now on ebay  :?

bbarsh wrote:I am afraid you are gonna have to pay big bucks for one now...or scramble high and low and become "lottery" style lucky to find one at a garage sale...therefore, for me anyway, luck is out the window, and I will have to lay out big bucks.

But, since I am mainly a 1st Ed. collector, I am not in a hurry to get one...but it would be nice.

I can't remember how I voted, but bbarsh brings up a good point.  If you don't pay big bucks for one of these, (or any other rare), the temptation to sell is always there, gnawing at you.  If you paid a hefty sum, you're more likely to hang onto it, I should think...