Shelfie Life & Death

I've been meaning to make this post for a while, ever since I joined a new Facebook RPG group and got inundated with 'shelfies' of hundreds to over a thousand RPG books.

Here's my hot take - collecting RPGs without playing or reading them, especially if you're past the half century mark like me, is a sickness for the individual, a bane to the next generation of roleplayers, and probably a hassle for your family as well.

I will admit to having had hundreds of RPG books in Japan, and doing what Japanese call 'tsundoku' or buying 'unread books that pile up.' I had tons of Stormbringer, Cthulhu, and random vintage games. But when my Japan life fell apart, I gave 90% away to friends. I think 'tsundoku' is good for novels, which are solitary affairs, but a waste of potential for the social space of gaming.

In Newfoundland, I bought a few more games and settled in. However, I found that my hometown had no place for me, so left Newfoundland for Vancouver. Again, I sold or gave away 90% of my game books.

In early 2025 I had a financial crisis, and sold off two boxes of vintage Stormbringer, Ars Magica, and Runequest books. Although I miss them in a way, the experience taught me a few things about collecting RPG books.

How Many Books Do You Need?

Here is what my current shelfie looks like:

My Facebook marketplace finds. Very happy to have Mummy, Monster of the Week, and Serenity. Cowboy Bebop was from the Kickstarter.

Pristine affordable Japanese Stormbringer (I miss Mercari), filthy and overpriced Canadian edition.

Alien 1E from Marketplace, and Green Knight for FREE.

By the standards of most men my age, my collection is pathetic. On the other hand, it is also limited to games I love (Alien, Stormbringer, Serenity & Monster of the Week, Bebop), actual treasures (my Amano Japanese Stormbringer boxed set), and other things I am either dying to read or run.

All killer, no filler.

In a sense, I have all the books I need to make myself happy. I would love my Stormbringer collection back, but prices have doubled the past year, I have no space for new books, and I have some PDFs for reference.

So, if you are old and have a dragon's hoard of dusty roleplaying tomes, here are a few things I'd like you to consider.

Are You Getting These Books To Table?

I have made the supreme effort to get books to the table since moving to Vancouver. And this makes me MUCH happier than having a larger collection that I never used. All the books I have now will definitely get read, and a majority will get played.

So look at your collection, see what you'll never play, and find someone who will run them.

One of my high school students is playing in the school gaming club, which is dominated by 5E. I happened to have 2 copies of Savage Worlds, so I gifted him one.

He was ecstatic to read it! So I have helped break up a corporate gaming monopoly and spread the word about a fun game system to people who will be playing long after I am gone. Win win.

Would You Spread The Joy?

Although on the surface selling my big BRP collection was a tragedy, one amazing thing did happen. A young man who bought my books was overjoyed to have them, and paid a fair price. Now out there in Vancouver somewhere is a twentysomething with a crate of pristine Stormbringer, Ars Magica, and Call of Cthulhu books, with the energy and free time to read and run them. Considering the glut of 5E products and the concentration of these older games in older hands, and their increasingly unreachable prices, I am glad to have passed them on to the younger generation.

You could volunteer to run games for youth in your community, and gift or sell cheaply books your players like. This is how gaming is passed on to the next generation.

Do You Need The Money That Badly?

I think a lot of people are looking at their collection and seeing it as an investment. But if you have the money to acquire and house a large collection, you probably don't need the money or hassle of haggling over Ebay or Marketplace. Find a local gaming club and pass them on, donate to a library, or run a few games and gift them to a younger gamer who appreciates them.

What Happens After You Are Gone?

Coming back to North America, I can see that people are literally drowning in things and trying to downsize. I have furnished our apartment with furniture from sharing sites, and clothed sonny the same way. Recently, I have been looking at an auction site, and it is a cornucopia of amazing things being sold for pennies because the owners have died or moved into a smaller home or facility.

I haven't seen any gamebooks yet, but I have seen collections of dice and minis. The minis are unpainted, the dice unopened. If they go unsold, they go in the trash. And that is sad for something someone once loved and shared with others at the table.

The Kids Are Alright

One last thing to consider is how grateful young people are when you share older games. My student at school was moved and gave me a hug, the young fellow who purchased my books paid extra and thanked me profusely, and the young man who gifted me The Green Knight refused he few dollars I offered out of gratitude/guilt. Young people are turning to board games and video games because RPGs, especially classics, have become too pricey for them. If you love your games, you should consider passing that love on.

Food For Thought

I hope this post gives some people food for thought. I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty, just realize that our treasures could easily sparkle for younger gamers, So between sharing older games and creating new ones, I am much happier than I would be with a dragon's hoard of unused gamebooks.

AI & RPGs

So...

 Is it just me, or does it seem that AI is attempting to find its way into the world of RPGs? The past few years have seen numerous AI controversies, the latest shitstorm being an article by 4 Pillar Games (who?)  about the late great Greg Stafford. Chaosium issued a rebuke, citing the lack of 'human care and creativity' in the piece, while acknowledging the growing use of AI tools in content creation.

And Chaosium is totally right to point this out, and have put their money where their mouth is by issuing a strict no AI policy for RPG art and content.

But the tide of AI slop will keep trying to seep into the once welcoming alehouse of roleplaying games. How can we fight this trend?

We have to know what to look out for.

Danger #1 The Corporate Boardroom

Of course, the ones pushing AI are corporations and the billionaires behind them. The CEO of D&D took flak in 2022 for complaining that the game was 'undermonetized'. Since then, D&D editions have split into more costly books, with proposed subscription plans designed to make players into the golden goose. But 'monetization' in the age of AI means getting machines to do for free what humans do for pay, and AI is being positioned to replace the unpaid labour of the DM. Just look at the proliferation of AI SaaS to run a game for you, which is still in the slop stage, but getting better by learning from those brave enough to try it.

We've seen this pattern before with tech, of people wielding the tools that are later used to destroy their livelihood. I myself paid off my MA student loans translating communications for Japanese car makers, but the Trados database I was forced to compile was later sold to corporations to train LLMs. When the 'translate' button appeared on my workplace email in Japan in 2020, I was happy to save hours reading Japanese and letting AI do all the work for me, but knew I could never make a dime translating as I once did.

These corporate types don't realize that one of the joys of D&D or any roleplaying game is making your own content and not being limited to game company products. I would say that the often mentioned shortage of DMs is due to the thankless work of mastering the games rules and a scenario of varying quality, while also paying for costly books. With AI, instead of a group sitting around a table, they offer to cut you off and let you play anywhere, anytime, which like many AI developments, seems to both shoot itself in the foot by eliminating paying customers, while totally misunderstanding the human or social aspect of what they are replacing.

Speaking of tools...

Danger #2 Technical Tools

Besides the corporate pressure to use AI to play games, AI in tools used for art and composition are almost impossible to avoid these days. Readers may recall that I had an AI scare where a designer's Photoshop that incorporated AI tools had added an extra finger to a character in a cover. The designer apologized, refunded payment, and explained that with image manipulation, AI is impossible to avoid unless you turn off lots of functions, which defeats the purpose of the software.

Note that the designer was a friend who I knew for decades and trust implicitly. He is also a graphic designer who has worked in magazines that are in a downward spiral of cutting costs and personnel, and my friend has stayed employed by staying atop of his design craft and tools.

Which leads us to my next point...

Danger # 3 The Pressure To Be Professional

Looking at RPGs on Kickstarter or from game studios, I can say that RPG art has never been more polished. I myself have felt the pressure and doubted that my self-taught illustration skills, coming from a family of professional self-taught indigenous artists, would complement my game.

Now, I am staunchly confident in my 'outsider art' as perfect for NUNA. I am a fan of UK game designer Tanya Floaker, whose great indie zine style games are a treat to read, and something I hope to get to a gaming table soonish. The OSR has already proven that individual creators can make a go of it with compelling works, and Old School Essentials seems to have found its niche doing so. And since I've turned into a game designer, I have met so many indie designers working on their own game and pushing the envelope in ways that an AI never could.

Onward!

Danger # 4 Slop RPGS

At some point, an AI generated RPG will hit the market. If it hasn't happened already and gone unnoticed, I am sure it will happen soon, whether its producer (I won't call them creator) announces the fact or not.

I get a lot of RPG ads, and I have to say, lots of them LOOK like they are made or influenced by AI. There are generic fantasy RPGs that sound like every other fantasy heartbreaker out there, without any of the verve or passion of the OSR when it first started spitting out retroclones over a decade ago. Then there is the art, largely figures or portraits of faces without much expression, and devoid of the kinetic or frenzied action of early RPG amateur art.

Just as AI children's books have appeared and distributed soulless, derivative works into the hands (and minds) of babes, the danger of AI is not only profiting off gamers, but also poisoning the well of imagination and community by switching over from human creations & social games to pale AI imitations that isolate gamers even more.

Danger # 5 Commoditizing A Social Space

Between the corporate pressure to use AI to play games, its invisible seep into tools, the pressure to use AI to look professional while keeping costs low, and the inevitable appearance of Slop the RPG, all this leads to the danger of losing roleplaying as a valuable social space. I have so many conversations with fellow Stormbringer enthusiasts about how online gaming is a pale substitute for sitting around a table, weaving tales and rolling dice together. What will be even worse is if people are playing RPGs run by AI whose only programming is to flatter the ego and pastiche all that has come before, and that was scraped from human works without permission or payment. I am happy that Free League AND Goodman Games will be making their own Stormbringer games, as both companies excel in getting people back to the gaming tables with their high quality, human-designed products that epitomize love for the game and gamers.

Conclusion - Folk Resistance

When I started this blog back 13 years ago as the first wave of the OSR abated, I was doing it mostly out of nostalgia and an unfulfilled creative urge. Now, I see it as both a creative outlet for me, as well as a source of deeply sociological games that represent people who have been portrayed stereotypically in media, such as indigenous people and the Japanese.

Now I am happy to consider my efforts in making a game as an additional part of the folk resistance against an unnecessary and exploitative technology that is being rammed down our throats in ways that destroy both our social bonds, natural environment, and economic viability.

Viva la resistance!

Sources

"Statement from Suzanne Stafford and Chaosium regarding a recent AI-generated article about Chaosium founder Greg Stafford." chaosium.com

https://www.chaosium.com/blogstatement-from-suzanne-stafford-and-chaosium-regarding-a-recent-aigenerated-article-about-chaosium-founder-greg-stafford/?srsltid=AfmBOoqJjAlPemRnG4GhbaPND0mk6nlFs2nS9BOC9H48F9GG1luDoxku

Wizards of the Coast Believes D&D Is "Under-Monetized" 80lv.

https://80.lv/articles/wizards-of-the-coast-believes-d-d-is-under-monetized

"I Tried AI D&D So You Don't Have To."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGn0SagCkQ

Chaosium no AI policyhttps://www.chaosium.com/blogfrom-the-qa-our-creator-contracts-require-work-submitted-to-be-creators-original-work-and-not-contain-any-ai-generated-art-or-text/?srsltid=AfmBOorjFhgE1Kn72HyfXV1CHMwCWPBdaBPip7mY3091PZwKMJEVWVxo

Want to understand Moorcock? Understand the New Wave

 Great analysis of a movement that still influences us today

HERE

NUNA & Indigenous Education

So I just went to BEAUTIFUL Victoria BC for a workshop on Indigenous Education for my school.

Not only did I learn lots of useful things for my classes, it made me reflect on how this plays out in NUNA

BACK TO YOUR ROOTS

In NUNA, all of the peoples (Inuit, Viking, and Rigger) all survive by going back to their roots. The Northern Inuit have re-mastered the pre-colombian skills of hunting with handmade weapons (I will NOT say primitive as they are very sophisticated), the Southern Inuit use reliable early 20th century devices, and the Riggers all cling to the different cultures their ancestors brought with them working on the rigs, from Maori Whalers to Portuguese swordsmen.

I learned that Canada in general, and BC in particular, is reconnecting and recognizing the people rooted in this land, and are trying to survive as a pluralistic nation by doing so.

PREHISTORIC RECONNECTION

Even the Scientists of NUNA are reconnecting back to the lost roots of humanity. Although the Inuit often say they have always been on the land, the genetic Thule strain of modern Inuit, according to recent research, spread from Far Eastern Russia only a 1000 years ago, and was proceeded by the now extinct Dorset Inuit, and possibly the mythical Tuniit giants before them. So it is true to say that Inuit peoples have lived in the North from time immemorial, without bogging down in genetics. I pay homage to the Tuniit by having them as returning mystic giants in NUNA, hiding in caves where they hang upside down and give aid or prophecy for those brave and foolish enough to seek them out.

REST & RECUPERATION

As for me, the workshop was a chance for me to learn more about the First People's English course I am teaching, as well as enjoy so long needed R&R with sonny. Now I am back to the fatherhood + work + NUNA grind, but with summer vacation, the end of the tunnel is finally in sight.

Long Weekend Reading - The Skrayling Tree & The Meanderings of Late Moorcock

 

Wow.

This is a slow slog, more of a literary thesis turned into a novel than the muscular prose of an Eternal Champion book. Luckily, I have an MA in English and have been trained to read ANY book without feeling pain.

It is an interesting exercise of Moorcock trying to stitch the Eternal Champion into Walden and The Last Mohican. It is more an exploration of western literary tropes about indigenous North Americans than anything to do with real indigenous people.

Bit of a lost opportunity. Just imagine if Moorcock had gotten Eden Robinson to write about a Pacific Northwest indigenous champion, or Marlon James to create an African /  Caribbean one.

The mind boggles.

NUNA Research Friday

TGIF!

Other side of the continent from Labrador, but good just the same.

ENJOY

Dragonbane & Stormbringer

So I am reading the Dragonbane QuickStart to bone up on the system before it is used in Free League's Stormbringer.

And I am seeing a lot to like. Many Dragonbane rules would be awesome house rules in an old Stormbringer game. Here are a few I would definitely implement.

Boons & Banes

First, in Dragonbane, you roll D20 and try to get under your skill level for a success. This means it is roll under like Chaosium, but just reduces the number of die rolled.

The Dragonbane rules state that if you are under a Boon (blessing) you instead roll 2D20 and take the best result, while if you are under a Bane (curse), you roll 2D20 and take the worst result.

This would be so easy to port over, since you roll two die anyway. So if you roll a 9 and a 3, with a Boon you could reverse it to 39, with a higher chance of success depending on skill, while a Bane would keep it at 93, most likely a failure. In the case of rolling 4 and 0, it could be 04, probably a critical, or 40, on the line of success or failure in many cases.

Moreover, the idea of Boons and Banes is very in keeping with Moorcock's fantasy, and the Dragonbane rules often read as an homage to Stormbringer.

Monster Combat & Sundry

When I ran Stormbringer, I had to fill in lots of holes in combat, the main difference being how men and beasts or monsters are adjudicated. I ruled that monsters can do ALL their attacks AND have a Dodge, but can't Parry, while men choose one attack and Parry OR Dodge and Parry. This makes monsters or beasts largely not worth the trouble for sole adventurers and require teamwork to defeat or avoid. I find this fits well with Moorcock's writing, where Elric needs to summon a creature or use magic to defeat or escape from such creatures as Mist Giants or Oonai.

Dragonbane adds some great rules, such as monsters NEVER doing the same attack twice in a row, and not being able to Parry. These are all very evocative and add an element of chance.

For example, if we take the old Stormbringer dragon and map out its attacks like Dragonbane, this is what we get if we add in a few options.

1. Flame breath - 80%, does POW in damage (average 27)
2. Claw - 40%, 9D6 (this damage needs adjusting...)
3. Wing buffet - 60%, all human size foes must make a STRx1% roll or else be knocked to the ground and lose their attack this round.
4. Tail swipe - 30%, any foes behind or off to one side of the dragon take 1D8 damage and are knocked down.

The idea of defense as Reaction is interesting, but seems a bit fiddly and I prefer the Stormbringer rule of 'free' Parries that are reduced by 30% for extra attempt.

Critical Choices

I like that a critical attack (that Dragonbane calls a dragon) gives the player choices between double damage, taking another attack, or ignoring armour, and I actually implemented similar choices the last time I ran the game. I can only see these adding to the fun of Stormbringer combat.

D&Disms

I'm not sure about Dragonbane's D&Disms, such as levels, higher Hit Points, and Stretches or rests to recuperate Hit Points. But I am willing to give it all a chance based on what I have read so far to not repeat the mistakes of Dragon Princes of Melnibone.

Stormbringerisms

As I have written before, I am really enamored of Stormbringer's rules on Elementals & Gods, which don't have stats and are thus put such entities beyond any mortal attack. I think this differentiates Stormbringer from D&D, which gave Arioch stats, and thus marked a god as something to be fought physically, which I consider the antithesis of Moorcockean, where men can only attack gods indirectly or with supernatural aid.

I wouldn't want to lose any of the unique elements that Chaosium's Stormbringer got right.

Only time will tell how right or wrong Free League will get it.