For most of my life, ever since leaving home at 18 years, my hobby stuff – the roleplaying games, board games, card games, and wargames I have collected – existed in various mixed stacks which sat on the floor in the places I’ve lived in. On Saturday, for the first time, those stacks were moved onto shelves and I feel like I’ve rediscovered my collection.
There have been two big impacts on my experience of those books and games. The first is that, having brought order out of chaos, I feel calmer when I enter that room and contemplate what’s on the shelves. The second is that I can see what is there and comprehend the collection.
This is about two-thirds of what was living in the disorganised stacks about 18 months ago. Having bought this old house, we began a process of decluttering alongside a very slow repair and redecoration project of the whole place. Many titles were given away, sold off, or thrown out. While we’ve yet to fix up the hobby room, we’re glad we’ve got those books and games in one place.
Curating the shelves will be a pleasant (if slow) process I’ll begin in the coming weeks. Yesterday I took a look through the GURPS collection and reorganised it, only to realise just how dearly I love that old Third Edition. Seeing and being able to easily access the books was like unlocking joy and curiosity.
I am grateful for my gaming hobby to a profound depth. Roleplaying games in particular hold a special place in my heart because they connected me to my earliest friends and then opened up a continuous stream of community contact throughout my adult life. Those shelves represent connection and imagination between human beings.
Game on!
Roleplay Rescue’s Blog 
Man, you have a lot of stuff. I have almost nothing from pre-2014 gaming life. It must be liberating to see all those books on shelves and feel some semblance of control over it all. Great job, Che!
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Technically speaking, stacks are better for the life of your books. just sayin’ 🙂
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Well, if that’s the case… how come libraries have shelves?
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probably for ease of use and because they arent archiving the books. I’ll have to ask my librarian friend.
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As someone who MUST have their RPG collection shelved, visible and ordered it’s good to see yours on display. I find it inspirational having my books on display as if I’m looking for something often a book I’ve forgotten about but could help me catches my eye.
Now you just need to get yours ordered and get the RQ books in the most prominent position 😉
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I am so looking forwards to putting all my games and supplements on shelves. First order of the day though is to stop renting and to buy our own house .
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We found this to be true also: buying the house, instead of renting, unlocked the desire to bring greater order. Strange though it seems, it never really occurred to me prior to this.
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Wait! Who’s that? Tom Baker? We’ll have to call The Doctor … 😉
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That’s a great collection.
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