Welcome to My Game World, Part Five

    Last week, I detailed the remaining places where I had bought TTRPGs.  However, in my quest to get other products, I looked at many other places.  While I found stuff there, I didn't buy anything, for various reasons.  Here are those last few places, listed in approximate chronological order.

• Readmore book store, Prestonsburg:  I think I remember seeing V:tM here with its iconic cover (green marble, artificial rose, ankh necklace) well before I got interested in the WoD. However, I do know I saw some of the novels there.  I even looked through one M:tAs book.  I really wasn't interested in the fiction, although I would later pick up a few novels, but this one gave hints about the game world that I hadn't explored before.  Unfortunately, it was the last book in a trilogy, so that made me wary of buying it.  By the time I thought I would get it, the book was no longer there.  I think it is still available as a PDF, along with the rest of the trilogy, but I am not really that interested in getting it anymore.  Readmore closed early this year. [I don't remember seeing any WoD material at the Pikeville/Coal Run location.]
• Waldenbooks, Huntington Mall:  Considering how fortunate I would be at the Lexington location, I was surprised how little the selection was here.  I mostly saw books I already had or weren't too interested in.  When the store went out of business, in 98 or 99, I almost got a W:tO book that I finally decided to pick up.  They had had it for a while, but I had wanted to wait until I got other books in the line first.  My mom convinced me that wait would be too long and that I should just check out Borders instead.  I believe that I may have picked up a supplement that day, but I still regret not picking up a major supplement that I had the opportunity to pick up.  Sure, I would have lost it in the 2003 flood, but I still would have had it.
• Hobbytown USA, Regency Center, Lexington:  When I was looking for books, I did internet searches at the library.  There were about four collectables/hobby stores in Lexington that were listed.  This one was the easiest one to get to, as it was along the normal road we still take for most shopping trips. (There is still a Micheal's and Krogers there.) The internet search was correct; they did have many books.  Most of them were for W:tO and C:tD though, and not really anything that I wanted. Older stuff. I mean, some of the C:tD stuff wasn't even being used any more for second edition playing.  There was this one W:tO book that I couldn't gotten, but I had seen some bad reviews for it, so I passed.  The strange thing is the C:tD books would be very valuable now, and they would have been safe from the flood with the part of my collection that was just out of the water. The location would close soon after and merge with the city's other site.  I haven't been keeping up with my Lexington searches lately, as the odds of me moving there have gotten very slim, so I don't know if the other site is still open.
• Cavalier Comics, Pound/Norton VA:  In my searches, I discovered this comic shop right across the border in Virginia.  I printed a map for the directions and convinced my mom that we should go there for the first time in years, just so I could stop there and check this place out.  We stopped there on the way back from the shopping center complexes in Norton.  It was slightly easier to get to on the return trip.  The store turned out to be slightly smaller than Page 3 was, at the time.  There TTRPG section in the back room was sparse.  Only two WoD products, and I had them both.  I didn't stop there again, at least the relatively few times in went back to Virginia.  Flash forward to the mid-2010s. I had started going back to Norton a few times a year.  I had noticed that Cavalier had moved/opened a second location at the shopping centers.  I strongly believe it was the former, as they had a small selection of CoD books, which had stopped being published for physical stores a few years previously.  They even had one of the last WoD books, which had come out over ten years before by then.  There wasn't anything I particularly was looking for, and I felt awkward to ask if they had anything else not currently on display.  I was just too close to Page 3 to ask.  I stopped in to the new location (about the size of Page 3's second site) a few times before I stopped the Norton trips in 2019, partially due to the pandemic.  Also, the shopping centers just didn't have the same feel any more after a few too many stores went out. I still think they are open though.

        In my searches, I went to many other collectables, hobby, and book stores, but these were the only other ones that I definitively saw my TTRPG products.  Noticeably missing is CK Gaming, Fayette Mall, Lexington.  While one wouldn't expect a store so new to have such older products, I have yet seen any WoD fifth edition products or even the limited-run print copies of WoD20/CoD/Exalted either.  Now, they might have a used/older product service that I don't know about and am too awkward to ask about, but the newer stuff lack is unusual.  Lexington felt like a hotbed for WoD back in the day.  Either the owners don't like the newer material or that thrill has left the area.  At least for their target shopper base.  I still look out for any older material to get a physical replacement for what I lost or missed out on, even though digital copies are available. I just wish I could find my own thrill again, or someone closer to share my hobby with.

    This has been my game world.

Welcome to My Game World, Part Four

    This week, I will be covering the other places where I have picked up my RPGs.  While none of these stores come close to the numbers as the previous three, each one holds a special place for me, albeit for differing reasons.  Here is the list, bulleted as always.

• Read-a-lot bookstore, Paintsville.  I usually make a pre-Christmas shopping trip around Thanksgiving.  Mostly before, be sometimes after.  For November 1998, that trip was to the Huntington Mall.  As tradition, we stopped off in Painstville for groceries and here.  I bought an exercise magazine and two books:  the Player's Guide to the Sabbat for V:tM and Mage:  the Ascension, 2nd ed (M:tAs), which would become my most favorite game line in the WoD. (I liked it so much that it was the only older rule book I tried to get back after the 2003 flood.) I would stop back here after every trip to the Huntington Mall, and whenever I could sneak off on my trips taking my mom to work.  I would look at their small selection, but I never could make myself buy anything.  I was just too unsure about wanting any particular book. However, after the 2000 pre-Christmas trip, I found out the store had closed.  I'm sure it was only a coincidence that one of the books I had been looking at turned up at Page 3 in a used condition, along with a bunch of other recent trade-ins.
• Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Lexington.  I used to make shopping trips around my birthday, sometime between mid-January and early February. (I have since moved these trips to late February to avoid the worst of the cold weather and to get early Easter treats.) The trip to Lexington in 1998 was cold, but otherwise clear.  That morning I picked up Changeling: the Dreaming 2nd ed (C:tD) as my next game line. It was the only one in color, at the time. (Turns out, all of the 1st ed books for the line had been in color. The treatment ended after this book came out.) The summer trip brought out the biggest catch ever with Beyond the Barriers: The Book of Worlds for M:tAs, my most favorite supplement of all time.  It was also the largest paperback supplement they ever published.  I actually had my mom drive much of the way back, just so I could look at my books [see next entry].   For my birthday trip in 99, I just missed hailstorms in the morning and the threat of rain all afternoon, but I was able to pick up three supplements for C:tD and W:tO that afternoon. The 2000 summer trip brought me two books for V:tM and the Revised ed of M:tAs, which Page 3 somehow missed for me again. It wouldn't be until 2003 that I would pick up any more books from here, as I was able to get a few replacement after the flood. The final book I would get there would be a CoD core book, Mage:  the Awakening, M:tAw. Again, missed order from Page 3. After that, the selection really started to wain, even before the books left physical stores.  I guess the employee who was into  RPGs, the WoD specifically, had left.  As of my latest visit there, they had very few RPGs, basically some stuff for D + D, and the books were shelved under reference and no with games.  Odd choice, but at least they had some.
• Waldenbooks, Fayette Mall, Lexington.  I had looked at a few WoD books here before, but it wouldn't be until they moved next to the Apple Store, that I would find something there in the summer of 98.  After getting Book of Worlds that morning [see above], I would get Wraith: the Oblivion 2nd ed (W:tO) early that afternoon.  It was the last of the first games that I needed to get.  I would look through it while my mom was shopping and trying things on. (I'm now the one who seems to be doing more of that nowadays.) In 99, my luck would continue, getting Wraith:  the Great War (W:tGW) in the summer and Hunter: the Reckoning (H:tR) at Thanksgiving. Again, missed orders from Page 3. After that, my luck ran out.  For while they still carried WoD through the end of the line in 2004, I never did find anything I wanted.  By the time of the Thanksgiving trip that fall, Waldenbooks had gone out of business.  I'm actually surprised it lasted so much longer than other sites.  I miss not being able to get anything to look at though, while waiting around for others to finish their shopping.
• Borders and BAM, Huntington Mall.  I'm combing these two, because neither one had that many books that I got.  When a bunch of store closed to allow Borders to come in (including a hobby store that probably had RPGs, but it closed before I started collecting them), I was thrilled that the Mall finally had a mega-book store similar to Joseph-Beth in Lexington. Sure, the smaller ones the Mall had were okay, but I thought Borders would be much better.  Well, it was, sort of. I would get one M:tAs supplement in the summer of 99, and another in the fall.  [I think I made extra trips that year to help mom look for a new dress for one of her 'off-year' reunions.] I would find other books, but I would mostly buy them elsewhere. The only time I had a great haul there was in 2003 when I bought over $80 worth of replacement books from the flood, the most I ever spent at a book store ever. (I may have bought a mag or two as well, I can't remember the full details.) When Borders went out and BAM came in, the selection remained about the same.  By then, I was pretty much getting everything through my store, so I was just there to see what was out.  The only time I actually bought something was in 2010 when I discovered the last books that were coming out physically from White Wolf. I had somehow missed the notice that they are out. I would buy one of them and looked at it a bit while shopping.  To this day, it is the last time I bough a book on a shopping trip.  As of the last time I stopped there, BAM still had a selection of RPGs, including some V5 books.  At least one of them had been there since it came out.  However, all of the books appeared to be first printings from the original publisher, not the current one.  How a store could still have books that are six years old, replenishing stock and not new, is beyond me.

Welcome to My Game World, Part Three

    When White Wolf made the decision to stop selling their RPGs through physical retail stores, I was devastated, since I owned a book store, but I didn't have a computer.  I tried to keep up with the new releases for a while, but I stopped after a year or two, just as the White Wolf business was retired by the name's new owner.  Many of the original developers formed a new company, Onyx Path Publishing (OPP), and moved from Atlanta to Pennsylvania. Sometime around 2017, or early 2018, I started to get back into my RPGs, mostly when I finally joined social media.  I couldn't believe about everything that happened in my time away.  I found out that Paradox, a Norwegian video company that now owned the IP for WOD, as well as COD and Exalted,  was coming out with a fifth edition of V:tM, although through a different publisher.  There were a few hiccups, including going through multiple publishers, but there is a flow of new WOD5 products, not that I am completely interested in them.  I was much more interested in what OPP was doing with the 20th Anniversary editions of the old WOD game lines.  In early 2019, I found out that OPPs partner in distributing the PDF and print-on-demand (POD) versions of their products, Drivethrurpg.com, was having a sale.  Since I now had a computer, and a credit card (don't judge me), I decided to buy all six of the 20th editions of the core books that had been released (Vampire:  The Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Mage: the Ascension, Wraith: the Oblivion, Changeling: the Dreaming, and Vampire: the Dark Ages). [V:tM, W:tA, M:tAs, W:tO,C:tD, and V:DA respectively] It felt a little naughty buying those PDFs, but it was worth it.  It was also much cheaper than buying the PODs and having to wait a few weeks to have them delivered.  Probably to my store, which would have been awkward. Strangely enough, the PODs would have been made by Lightning Source, which might just be the parent company of Drivethrurpg.com, as well as a possible division of Ingram at one time and maybe still.  I glanced through the PDFs that night and the next day, but I never fully read them.  I didn't have the time and reading digital screens too long hurts my eyes.  However, I was hooked again.  I would end up slowly buying PDFs of the "20s" books whenever a sale came on.  Most of them were funded through crowdsourcing, including the core books.  As bonuses, I could have gotten PDFs of many of the books I lost in the 2003 flood, if I had only known.  I would later join in the campaigns for a few new books in the line.  Unfortunately, the bonuses I got were mostly the new books.  The older books I was able to add-on were either ones I was fortunate enough to get replacements for or ones I didn't get the first time around. I even almost joined the campaigns for special V5 supplements that OPP got the chance to publish, but I passed over on one and chickened out at the last minute on the other.  Literally, there were only about ten minutes left when I decided not to do it. I just felt unsure about the process.  I did start with the next available campaign in 2020 though.  Now, I have just about bought all of the 20th Anniversary books that have been made, and I am starting on the older, original books that I lost in 2003.  I might start going to books I missed out on after that, if I can make it that long.  See, I am scared that another show is getting ready to drop.  There are only three supplements scheduled to come out, and after that, nothing.  There hasn't been anything announced for COD either for months, although Exalted still has plenty in the pipeline. (I'm not getting either line, as I was never as hot for them as I was for WOD.) I'm thinking that Paradox doesn't want the competition, especially since the new WOD5 material coming out is dividing the fanbase, with many older fans like myself not liking them so much.  Plus, the changes Paradox has been forcing on the WOD20 material has been harsh at times.  I'm afraid that they will stop allowing the products to be available, forcing people to pick up their fifth edition or else go without. I haven't been downloading all of my purchases, as I'm afraid that I won't have enough memory on my computer to hold everything. In fact, I think that memory drain helped kill my old one. I also don't have outside storage, or know how to use it.  Printing off everything would be tricky as well, as the core books have hundreds of pages each. Still, I'm looking forward for my last three new books.  One could be out by the end of the year. I just hope my new digital collection doesn't fade away any time soon.

    [I should add that I've gotten other digital books from other sources. Some of the first V5 products had codes for the free PDF copies, but they were lost on my old computer, as well as some other free materials provided by Paradox.  I have downloaded a few other new things, including wallpapers, but I don't really care for most of them, but they were free. I am currently contemplating purchasing a bundle of WOD5 products for a very low price.  I don't want many of them, but the thought of getting some rarer products cheap might be too hard to pass up.  The next products I get will push my past 350 total books, so I am considering things very tightly.]

    Next week, I go over the other places where I have gotten books, just not in the sheer numbers as these first three spots.  Every one was equally important.

Welcome to My Game World, Part Two

    By 1999, my mom was sick and tired about me being unemployed, so she forced me to open up my own business, even though I had experience in retail.  I ultimately decided to open a book store, Booknotes. (We were originally supposed to be a music store as well, but that part never came to fruition.) I wanted to open a book store, in part, so I would have an easier time getting my RPGs more readily.  Unfortunately, the book distributor my mom chose to be the primary one, Koen, turned out not to carry my WOD games, only their novels. They carried other RPGs, just not the ones I wanted.  Fortunately, our secondary distributor, Ingram, the largest one in the country, did carry my games.  We opened the store on October 7, 2000.  A month later, I would order my first book from them, Mediums:  Speakers with the Dead for the Wraith: the Oblivion (W:tO) game line.  I had scoured the microfiche for any old products I was missing, and this was the only one they had left from the recently ended game. (Yes, they still sent out microfiche at that time.  The process was discontinued a few years after we opened.) I would go on to order many older products, as well as newer ones that I had changed my mind on and didn't originally order from Page 3. Yes, I also wound up getting books from Ingram that I already pre-ordered from Page 3. I got greedy sometimes on the prospect of getting my books a little earlier, especially if Page 3 missed my order.  I felt guilty when I had to decline an order that I had already gotten, but it couldn't be helped.  I once got six new books in one shipment, all because they were released early to stores. When I lost most of my books in the 2003 flood, I was able to get many of the core books back due to Ingram. Not all of them, but the bare basics.  When White Wolf ended the WOD and started what would become the COD in 2004, I got my first books through my store.  I almost went to Page 3 to show them off, but thought better about it.  In 2005, Koen was experiencing some financial trouble, forcing us to get a new primary distributor, Baker and Taylor (B+T), and they were carrying both COD and Exalted, making my life the more easier. I would get most of my RPGs through my store with this, getting most through B+T with the occasional orders through Ingram whenever I needed to, especially after Page 3 missed almost an entire year with my orders. (Koen would come back later in 2005 as Koen-Levy, only to permanently folding in 2007.)  Though late 2009, I starting noticing a delay in my books from B+T. This would be the first hints of how White Wolf would switch to online products in late 2010.  I wound up ordering most of the last of my physical books in early 2011.  I missed out on one last book.  It was only available at a different warehouse when I placed the order.  In an effort to save money, I decided to wait until it was back at one of our designated locations, but it never came back. It still irks me that I missed out on that last book.  Nothing much happened on this point until 2018, when Paradox, the current owner of the WOD IP, as well as COD and Exalted, decided to come out with a Fifth Edition of the games.  While I would get Vampire:  the Masquerade (V5) from Page 3, I would get other supplements through Ingram. (In the intervening years, B+T would be bought out/merged with another distributor, Follet.  In 2019, the company decided to leave the North American retail market, to focus on libraries and parts of the international market. Many employees and customers weren't aware that this was happening until the public announcement went out.  The two companies have since split again, with Follet focusing on public libraries again, and with B+T focusing on institutional libraries, such as universities. I think they still have some presence in international retail, but I don't believe they have made any commitments to the North American market.) I was planning on a return on getting my books through Ingram again, supplemented perhaps with Page 3, when a blow came in January 2022.  That's when Ingram stopped carrying products from Renegade Game Studios, the publisher Paradox chose to design the new books, the third one to do so after problems with the previous two.  This left me with no reliable outlet for new books again. Sure, I still order other books for myself.  And Booknotes is now the only general book store in a twenty-five to thirty mile radius, or so.  Still, having the main reason why I opened the place gone again is still heart-breaking in many ways. I hoping that I will get another outlet again one day, but it is very doubtful.

    Come back next week to see where I've been getting the majority of my game books for the last few years.  One of the words in the previous sentence needed to be in quotes. 

[Edit: A few days after I originally posted this, I found out the Ingram does still offer a few of my WOD RPGs.  Not the biggest selection, and most of them are newer books, but they are offering some.]

Welcome to My Game World, Part One

    Back in the 90s, when I was unemployed, I would sometimes accompany my mom to work in Prestonsburg once or twice a month to break the monotony of staying at home.  I would spend the mornings at the library, reading the newspaper, working the crossword puzzle, looking at the stacks, and goofing off on the computers, once they were installed.  In the afternoons, I would go shopping.  Sometimes, I would sneak off to Paintsville just to see some of the stores there.  Other times, I would go to Pikeville to pick up my comic books at Page 3. While they would keep them for a few weeks, I still felt better picking them up more regularly when able.  This one time, in late September 1997, I went to pick up my comics, as well as something else. I had made the decision to finally get into RPGs, in particular World of Darkness (WOD).  I had learned enough about the game line from my gaming magazines (I was slightly into the Magic:  the Gathering trading card game at the time, although I didn't feel good enough to compete, only collect the cards.) to finally get one of the books.  However, on that day, Page 3 was out of the premiere game in the system, Vampire:  the Masquerade. (VtM) They did have the recently released historical version, Vampire:  the Dark Ages instead (VtDA), so I got it.  I'm glad I did, as I later found out the VtDA was a larger book with a wider range of material included than VtM.  I hid the book in the trunk of my car, so my mom wouldn't know of my Pikeville trip, and went back to Prestonsburg to pick her up.  The following day, I literally read that book cover to cover, writing credits to index.  I was overcome with the game world and systems.  Something about it just clicked with me. When I went back to Pikeville/Page 3 that following Saturday (I had to fake picking up my comics so my mom wouldn't get too suspicious) I picked up the Dark Ages Companion supplement just so that I could continue my experience. A month later, late October, I was back in Pikeville on one of my then monthly solo trips, this time to pick  up the Halloween candy. I stopped by Page 3 first thing that morning to pick up my comics.  They finally had VtM (2ed) back in stock, so I bought it. I would take peeks at it in between stops to shop and browse.  I couldn't believe how skinny the book was and how little it actually had in it. (I didn't know that it was the first book in the WOD line and many of the latter games, rules, and secondary features hadn't been thought up yet, so they weren't included.) I would stop back at Page 3 on my way out of town that afternoon and bought the Vampire Player's Guide (also 2ed) to get the wider experience.  Probably the only time I ever stopped and bought something twice in the same day there.  I would go on to get Werewolf:  the Apocalypse (WtA, 2ed) just before Christmas and some supplements for it after with Christmas money.  I would buy my first new book, Kindred of the East, the following spring there. I would go on to order many more new books, as well as some older ones,  to try and ensure that I would get them, starting with Mage:  the Sorcerer's Crusade that spring.  Sometimes, Page 3 wouldn't get my books in.  Other times, I would wind up buying a book I wasn't planning on getting, but I would buy it after looking it over. Unfortunately, I would sometimes get a book elsewhere and have to decline an order. I would get the Revised/Third edition of VtM there in the fall of 1998.  I would get the high-fantasy prequel spinoff game Exalted in 2001.  When the WOD game line ended, I would get many of the Chronicles of Darkness (COD) (originally called the 'new' World of Darkness) follow-up games there.  Sure, there was a gap of about a year when they missed every single special order I made, but I still made due.  I was able to pick up some used copies of books a lost in the 2003 flood there, most of them many years later.  I was even asked to join the store's game session a few times, but I politely refused.  I was unsure if I could play with strangers, not to mention having to drive almost thirty miles, at night, was not the best of ideas. When the current owners of the WOD property finally came out with a Fifth edition of VtM, I picked up my copy at Page 3.  I would go on to pick up other Fifth edition books there, including WtA.  In fact, if it wasn't for my pre-order discount and store credit, I wouldn't have bought WtA, as it turned out to be less than a perfect product. [I went into a very detailed review of W5 on an online forum.  Basically, it's an okay game for beginners, albeit one with many mistakes; it is not a great game for veteran players, especially to those of the older versions of the game.] As of now, Page 3 is the only retail location I can get physical copies of new books, if I chose to get them.  I've tried to order a few before the W5 fiasco, but they weren't able to get them. So, I am unsure what to do if I change my mind.  They are literally the only place in town to get the physical copies, but they can't always get them. It is kind of sad to see this happen, but if they get any more of the original, older stuff back, I am sure to look them over.

    [You may have noticed a few gaps in the timeline.  Future installments in this series will slowly fill these gaps in. Next week, I will cover a very special place to me, my own store. There is a reason why I own a book store after all.]