Back in January I posted about my 2024 RPG collecting goal: acquiring the complete game lines for Ars Magica, Delta Green, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, and Dune: Adventures in the Imperium. Things are coming along pretty well!
Here’s where I’m at with each game, starting on the top shelf and then going left to right on the bottom shelf:
- RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha: I haven’t picked up Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way yet, and I just added MIG3: The Meints Index to Glorantha and the POD reprints of Pavis and Big Rubble (which are for older editions) to the list, but apart from that I’m caught up.
- Dune: Adventures in the Imperium: Not only am I at 100% here, excluding the stuff like dice and journals that I don’t care about, but I haven’t heard any word of upcoming releases. On the one hand, having an Adventure Compendium Vol. I implies a planned Adventure Compendium Vol. II, but on the other hand a recent release being titled Fall of the Imperium feels like a “We’re Done Here” sign. I wouldn’t be shocked if Modiphius was quietly done with Dune.
- Delta Green: I’m at 15/31 here, with some fuzz factor for OOP stuff like the screen where I have the PDF and don’t feel like I need a print copy. This is the only game among these four that I’m currently running. My sporadic campaign has been going since September 2023 and just hit eleven sessions. It’s been a blast. Funnily enough, having an immediate need for books has made me focus less on this game line since fair-sized chunks of it aren’t relevant to my campaign (1990s scenarios, stuff that assumes the PCs are Majestic rather than DG, etc.).
- Ars Magica: My print count here is 31/59, and I’ve hit the point where I have almost every book I’m excited about. What’s left is mainly stuff for older editions that didn’t get reprinted, including a couple that are notably pricey. Naturally, those are the OOP books I want most: Heirs to Merlin: The Stonehenge Tribunal, which covers England — my favorite country when it comes to medieval history, and half of my heritage — and Sanctuary of Ice: The Greater Alps Tribunal, which is the last of the never-got-a-5E-treatment tribunals I need.
It’s fun collecting game lines as they come out, but I get a different kind of collecting joy from hunting for cheap copies of older stuff and OOP books at prices that don’t make my eyes bleed. Half Price Books has been my biggest source of Ars Magica hardcovers, since when they’re actually half price they’re a fantastic deal — and as hardcovers, they can take a licking before their condition starts to get too sketchy for me.
With less than six months left in the year, I don’t expect to actually reach my goal of 100% across all four of these game lines. And that’s okay! It’s already been a fun few months, and I expect to enjoy the rest of the journey however long it takes.