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What to do with those old issues of Dungeon |  |
I subscribed to both Dungeon and Dragon for a while (and, thruthfully, I’d like to subscribe again but don’t have the funds), and I enjoyed them both immensely. There was a lot of stuff in them that seemed really usable; the problem was that I never really used any of it. Once I’d read an issue, I shelved it and never really thought about it again. Recently, in an attempt to clean out some shelf space, I started going through all those old issues again. I needed to Get Organized. I needed to Do Something. So I did. I went out to Staples and bought a 1 1/2″ binder and a bunch of sheet protectors. Then I brought them back home and began to systematically rip the adventures that I liked out of those back issues of Dungeon and organize them within the binder. Now, after about an hour’s worth of work, I have a nice collection of adventures, organized by low-, mid-, and high-level status, and alphabetized for easy reference. It’s great. I’m taking a second look at all those old adventures, and I plan on using elements of all of them in the future. It’s a great reference and I’m glad I did it.
Next, I’ll tackle Dragon, organizing it into categories like setting info, classes, feats, monsters, and other such things. I’m convinced it’ll be just as useful; I just need more sheet protectors.
September 29th, 2006 at 11:12 am
Holy cow man! That’s some balls. While I applaud your using the magazines more now that you’ve ripped them up.. wow.
I guess I’m still stuck in the keep-it-in-one-piece mentality that’s plauged me since an unfortunate incident in the library at a young age. Even in Art class I had difficulty with the project where you’d cut up a magazine for pictures and such. ANd it was a throw-away magazine. I’ve never been into damaging anything I’ve collected or bought like that. I just find it easier to make notes and reference the material when I need it.
Can you share with the group the best method you’ve found to tear the pages out without ruining them? I’m thinking X-acto knife or something… but I’ve never really gotten into that sort of thing, and I wouldn’t have a clue where to start if I did. Also, how do you handle the articles on 2 pages, but of different subject matter?
September 29th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Hi, Shank. Thanks for posting! I guess I just figured that, since they were basically collecting dust and taking up room, I might as well consolidate and do something potentially useful with them. Also, while I generally liked reading all the stuff in Dungeon, I think I’m only going to use 60% of what was in those magazines, if that. So I only kept the adventures that I liked, and recycled the rest. Even with that caveat, though, it’s a pretty weighty binder.
As to your questions: I basically just pulled the pages out. You could certainly use an X-acto knife, and you’d probably get somewhat more even results than I got. However, I found that, if you work on pulling out an entire adventure at a time rather than going page-by-page, it’s both fast and pretty neat. You actually wind up dislodging the pages from their binding in most cases, rather than actually ripping them. The problem of multiple articles sharing the front and back of the same page (if I’m understanding your question correctly) is a somewhat sticker wickett, though. When I could, I just made the adventures back to back. Honestly, though, I didn’t run into the problem all that often. Dungeon, at least, has enough ads that that particular issue doesn’t occur that often, or if it does you’re only really losing the full-page leading artwork, rather than the text of the adventure. A fair price for convenience and efficiency, in my opinion.
I actually think that this process is going to be easier with Dragon, even though I have about a metric ton of the magazines. See, a lot of the articles in Dragon are loads of fun to read, but aren’t imminently usable in the kinds of campaigns I tend to run. As such, once I’ve read them I have no more use for them, other than maybe sentimental value. I’ll probably use things like feats, spells, monsters, items, and maybe the occasional prestige class, but the monstrous ecology articles, and the articles on elven life, and all that kind of stuff is stuff that I’m not that broken up about parting with. Like I said, they were good reads, but I’d just as soon come up with that stuff myself in my own campaigns.
November 7th, 2006 at 10:28 am
You could always make a photocopy of any opposing sheets that needed to be in two places at once. It beats missing a page or buying another issue of the magazine in question.
In fact, some home printers now function as copiers, so with the right hardware, you wouldn’t even have to leave for the office supply place.
November 7th, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Very true. Good idea, Rick.
May 20th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
[...] or something a few years back, but the vast majority of published adventures that I own were torn from the pages of the aforementioned late, great magazine. And really, I don’t use them that [...]