The D20 Purge

Most of us are book hoarders by nature. Gamers, that is. We never want to let a book go for fear of the knowledge being lost forever. Especially for us fans of the Dead Games Society, disposing of a any RPG game book or comic book, even one we have never played or would ever re-read, is hard.

But reality is reality, and limitations on physical space is an absolute truth.

This Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I could take it no longer. My rpg/comics book collection finally reached critical mass. The books were piled high in front of the bookcase. Things were crammed in willy-nilly. I had to do something. 

Going through ones book collection is exhausting, because every volume you pull out you want to stop and reminisce about. It took me three days to do anything but make piles of books in various categories. Pulp RPG, Cyberpunk RPG, Green Lantern graphic novels, Batman crossovers... The piles just got taller, and I was getting nowhere. I couldn't decide what to cleanse!

Found this between two books. Clearly the purge was decades overdue.

Then it came to me: The D20 Splats of the 2000's. I would cleanse my bookshelves of the D20 Splatfest that was 2000-2010, and see if that solved my problem.

It sure as hell did.

Now, I admit a lot of good writing occurred during the D20 onslaught of the early 'aughts, starting with 3e D&D and... well, never  quite ending... (looking at you, Pathfinder). But the D20 OGL rulesets were all basically the same, the rules are easily remembered, and the pdfs easily recoverable. So I purged them ALL (well, except Adventure D20 and Starship Troopers, they got a pass). And you know what, I ended up with bookcase room to spare!

Organized bookshelves. They are a thing of beauty. If you've got your own overflowing bookshelf and can't decide what to do then I have a suggestion... simply purge the D20. It's a critical HIT!