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A Visit to Stratochamp's Collection
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bclarkie
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 2:31 pm

stratochamp wrote in A Visit to Stratochamp's Collection:Bracton once mentioned that I'm a dedicated numerologist. So while I've mentioned these numbers before, putting them with this thread seemed best. As of tea time on 4/1/18 my collection contained the following singles:

7251 FRP Items
2552 FRP Magazines
189 Personal Manuscripts & Maps
114 Tournament Adventures

10,106 FRP Core Collection

220 TSR Internal Memos/Letters
134 VIG Letters
84 FRP Miscellaneous
126 Convention Items (not tournaments)
217 Call of Cthuhlu
452 Other

11,339 Total Collection

I've already told you this long ago I am sure, but your collection is magnificent. I do have one question though:

Outside of unique items and perhaps an occasional upgrade to an item that you own, is there anything out there that you *need* and don't have?

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." -Neitzche

stratochamp
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 3:41 pm

There are about 240 items I know of from my period (i.e. 1974-2003) that I don't have. Plus about 50 magazines.
I posted a want list in the Classifieds for the 15 Adventurers Guild items I need for example.
My goal is to get one of every paper based FRP item published in the English Language through 2003, so that does cover lots of ground...

Shrink is not a condition

bclarkie
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 4:33 pm

stratochamp wrote in A Visit to Stratochamp's Collection:There are about 240 items I know of from my period (i.e. 1974-2003) that I don't have. Plus about 50 magazines.
I posted a want list in the Classifieds for the 15 Adventurers Guild items I need for example.
My goal is to get one of every paper based FRP item published in the English Language through 2003, so that does cover lots of ground...

Adventure's Guild stuff is notoriously hard to come by and I'm not sure why. Not that I would ever say it was even close to being "common", but damn, outside of Adrian Newman and maybe Aaron Leeder (effectively by default), is there anyone you know that has had more than a few of these items at the same time? It's crazy, especially when you consider that it's actually 2nd edition. You'd almost think it would be easier to find than a lot of things, but it's quite obviously not.

With respect to the all items before 2003, just curious, but why 2003? 3rd Edition came out before that. Is it the 3.5 move? I don't know when 3.5 actually hit. I know it's close, but just not of the exact date. Or is it something else?

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." -Neitzche

stratochamp
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 5:19 pm

I started collecting in 1978. I began getting more and more things. I made the decision in 1987 to try and get "one of everything". Heroic Worlds came out in the fall of 1990 and helped tremendously in letting me know what I did not have. Dungeons & Dragons appeared in late January of 1974, so in 1993 I considered stopping the collection as of December 1993 (i.e. the first 20 years of FRP). Well then I extended it to 1998, then the End of the Millennium 12/31/2000 and then finally I settled on 12/31/2003 (the first 30 years of published FRP). So it just so happened that 3.5 had come out in August of 2003. I certainly do have many things after 2003 (including most of the rare items) but someone else can try to get "one of everything". And this makes my dear wife happy, as we are running out of rooms.

Shrink is not a condition

Thor
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 7:01 pm

stratochamp wrote in A Visit to Stratochamp's Collection:but someone else can try to get "one of everything". And this makes my dear wife happy, as we are running out of rooms.

Hahah, I bet =)

--Thor

stebehil
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Location: Schwerin, Germany

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 9:13 am

This is beyond impressive, it is magnificent.

Beyond the physical precautions taken, which I would like to read more about, did you (or the other collectors around) do anything like an insurance for your collections? Of course, unique items would be lost for good if some disaster struck, but decades of dedication towards a collection like that and then having a disaster strike and losing it all would be a crippling blow. I always think of this disaster when reading about book collections: Duchess Anna Amalia Library - Wikipedia I visited the rebuilt library a few years back, but this disaster won´t leave my mind ever since it happened.

nesbit37
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Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:39 am

Everyone should definitely get insurance if they can, I am behind on it myself and need to fix that asap. Accidents and nature do happen and things get lost. One of my first volunteer positions as a newly minted archivist was when the Cologne City Archives collapsed in 2009. We went over to Germany and were pulling archival documents out of underground water and (probably) sewage with the help of firefighters. This stuff happens

History in Ruins: Archive Collapse Disaster for Historians - SPIEGEL ONLINE

spinplasm
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Location: Chicago burbs

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 9:16 pm

Wow! That is amazing. My 5 bookshelves of mostly play quality and not very rare items feel inadequate :oops:

However, I am located in the Chicago area so maybe someday I can get a chance to see the collection!

I am curious about insurance though. I think there were some other threads that talked about how hard it is to get because there is not established "valuation" metrics for most of these items. Any insight in how people how done their insurance would be appreciated.

stratochamp
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 1:07 am

Drop me a line and come on by, Acaeumites are always welcome!

We've been known to have them join us for dinner too. And gaming, of course.

Shrink is not a condition

stebehil
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 3:03 pm

nesbit37 wrote in A Visit to Stratochamp's Collection:Everyone should definitely get insurance if they can, I am behind on it myself and need to fix that asap. Accidents and nature do happen and things get lost. One of my first volunteer positions as a newly minted archivist was when the Cologne City Archives collapsed in 2009. We went over to Germany and were pulling archival documents out of underground water and (probably) sewage with the help of firefighters. This stuff happens

History in Ruins: Archive Collapse Disaster for Historians - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Yep, that was the other disaster that made me think about this kind of things. Both disasters were manmade, not some natural catastrophe, which makes it even worse IMO.

stratochamp
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:56 pm

We should have pictures of the Dwarven Forge Steading of the Hill Giant lair lower level up here soon. My incomparable DM took some pictures recently...

Shrink is not a condition

Bracton
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:26 pm

OK, let's see if I can figure out how to upload pictures.....

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

"Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus."

Bracton
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:27 pm

You need to click on the images to get a real sense of the detail. Stratochamp doesn't do things half way. As anyone who has seen his collection in person can attest.

"Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus."

dbartman
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:35 pm

That's really cool!

I don't use DF so I have a question that might seem silly for those that do, but I'll ask it anyway. When you use these DF setups in your game, how do you cover up what has not been discovered yet? Do you use pieces of cardboard? Add sections as you go? It's so massive it doesn't seem easy to do and showing everything to the players would take some of the mystery out of it.

Bracton
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:41 pm

We used sheets to cover up the setup, and I pulled them back as the party explored around the complex. They frankly were too low level for this adventure, and managed to get in, rescue a few folks, and get out just in time. So they only made it through a small part of the level.

"Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus."

dbartman
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:49 pm

Ah, that would be a bit easier to manipulate. Would need a high thread-count and darker color sheets though.

stratochamp
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 3:14 pm

The lower of the two pictures is the view seen in the module if one wants to compare it to the source material.

It took me about 8 hours to set this up, because I was trying to get all the twists & turns of the caverns just right.

Shrink is not a condition

stratochamp
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 11:30 am

Sauromatian I thought you'd be happy to hear that my wife acquired the missing copy of Fantasy Wargaming that we did not have, namely the 1st printing done in the UK by Patrick Stephens Ltd. So now we all have all four different versions of that fine RPG.

Shrink is not a condition

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