RPGs and preservation

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Gabriel

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Is there anything like a preservation library for the role playing game hobby?

I'm not talking about web archives that just store a ton of PDFs. I'm talking about any sort of preservation effort for the actual physical publications? I guess kind of like a library of RPG history?

I know there are a few such efforts for videogames and home computing history. I'm unaware of anything similar for RPGs.
 
I haven't heard of anything like that. It would be a good idea to get going before all the early stuff disappears.
 
As Black Leaf says I think that certain academic libaries are probably best for this. I know MIT publishes academic books on rpgs and other games so they may have a proper archive.
 
I haven't heard of anything like that. It would be a good idea to get going before all the early stuff disappears.

It's honestly why I have no problem with pirates when it specifically comes to long out of print stuff that isn't available through any current store or only through collectors. I just don't want all that work to disappear or be unavailable to most people.

(Obviously pirating stuff you can buy currently in stores or through drivethru is not the same :tongue:)
 
I expect the Library of Congress will have a copy of most everything.
 
There is a gentleman named Bill Meinhardt who has collected about 11,500 RPGs so far. I only know this because he helped Goodman Games out with an obscure Grimtooth-themed fan module from an early 80s tournament.
 
I expect the Library of Congress will have a copy of most everything.

That is something of a myth. They don't really function as a storehouse for all published books in the U.S. They have massive holdings, but there are a lot of things that have never made it into their collections, including things published recently.
 
To the best of my knowledge, there is no large focused archival collections of physical copies of rpgs. It gets down to funding, in the end.

The RPG industry doesn't have a well-funded, active industry group, or any sort of group in general that has the funds necessary to create, maintain, and staff an rpg museum. WOTC could do it, but they don't really have any reason to spend money on something that highlights the games of other companies.

A handful of dedicated individual collectors like Bill Meinhardt (as @Gringr said) have the closest thing to an archive. That is the case for a lot of different types of collections. Archives, libraries, and museums have to constantly pursue funding, so they often end up with collections that are focused on what a lot of people want access to (ex. public libraries), things that people will pay to see (museums), governments, private donors, universities, etc. A lot of archives in particular are connected in some way to universities.

As a result, individual collectors are often the real experts - and archivists - in particular subject areas. For example, one of the big vacuum cleaner companies ended up tracking down a guy who had a warehouse full of vaccum cleaners he had collected over decades. The company lacked records on some of the early models, so they found one of the few people who had a lot of them.
 
To the best of my knowledge, there is no large focused archival collections of physical copies of rpgs. It gets down to funding, in the end.

The RPG industry doesn't have a well-funded, active industry group, or any sort of group in general that has the funds necessary to create, maintain, and staff an rpg museum. WOTC could do it, but they don't really have any reason to spend money on something that highlights the games of other companies.

A handful of dedicated individual collectors like Bill Meinhardt (as @Gringr said) have the closest thing to an archive. That is the case for a lot of different types of collections. Archives, libraries, and museums have to constantly pursue funding, so they often end up with collections that are focused on what a lot of people want access to (ex. public libraries), things that people will pay to see (museums), governments, private donors, universities, etc. A lot of archives in particular are connected in some way to universities.

As a result, individual collectors are often the real experts - and archivists - in particular subject areas. For example, one of the big vacuum cleaner companies ended up tracking down a guy who had a warehouse full of vaccum cleaners he had collected over decades. The company lacked records on some of the early models, so they found one of the few people who had a lot of them.
It's a bummer Paul Allen passed away. I think he's one of those guys who could have been convinced to fund something like that. His sister doesn't seem as into the geeky stuff and she's in charge now
 
Another issue I forgot to mention is that of actually setting up the collection for a dedicated archive. Many archives have relied on donations from collectors to build up the bulk of their collection. In the past, that sort of donation was a way for collectors to make sure that their collections survived them and stayed together. That isn't always the safest way to go about things these days, though, particularly with university budget cuts and drops in funding overall.

For example, I have a massive collection of material related to the history of sexual minority communities, with a strong focus on pre-1980s ephemera. There are a handful of people out there who have collections of that size or larger, in related sub-sub-niches, and most of us have either met or are aware of each other. There are a couple of universities that might take all or part of those collections, but some of them (particularly the Kinsey Institute) make it difficult for non-academics to get access to the materials. There are two long-term non-profits that focus on the BDSM side of such things, which is what makes up the core of my collection. My goal was to eventually donate the whole thing to one of those.

Recently, though, the continued existence of the smaller of the two is looking less likely. The larger one has more behind it in the way of funding, and is a larger scale effort, but even at their best they aren't really able to keep up with anything more than storage and cataloging (and I get the impression they are way behind on that). One bad year could shut them down, and the materials would most likely be auctioned off to pay bills or donated in pieces to other institutions that don't share their focus.

As it is now, if a historian or other person really needed to get a scan of some obscure thing, they could contact one of the two archives or one of the people with a large collection. If either or both of those archives were to go away, they could still contact one of the collectors, if that person had not previously donated everything to an archive. After seeing what has happened over the past decade to some specialty archives and libraries of various sorts (not just things related to sexual minorities), I am hesitant to donate the bulk of my collection to one. It has taken 20+ years to put together, and has historical value that exceeds the sum of its parts.

You would get the same situation with an rpg archive. It would either have to be well-funded enough to go out and purchase the bulk of its collection, or rely on a couple of big donations from the major collectors. The latter would most likely require them to prove that they have serious funding and staying power, and have a collection development policy that keeps those collections together. Without a very dedicated, wealthy funding source, that is unlikely.
 
The Strong: National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY, has a collection of RPGs. This is what their website has to say about it:
The museum holds more than 4,000 examples of role-playing games, a genre whose popularity peaked during the 1980s. Role-playing games are important for their contribution to video games and the many role-playing options now common in that medium. This collection covers a highly representative sample of all major manufacturers and types and is particularly strong in works by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, founders of TSR. These men are considered pivotal in the development of role-playing games, and their firm’s products are among the best known. The collection includes important examples of those as well as special games made available only at conferences. Examples range from the earliest beginnings of the form, in the mid-1970s, to the present.

I'd say that 'popularity peaked in the 1980s' is out-of-date now, but I'm not sure when that part of the website was written.

The Browne Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green State University holds some RPGs and more RPG magazines, fanzines, etc.
 
Another issue I forgot to mention is that of actually setting up the collection for a dedicated archive. Many archives have relied on donations from collectors to build up the bulk of their collection. In the past, that sort of donation was a way for collectors to make sure that their collections survived them and stayed together. That isn't always the safest way to go about things these days, though, particularly with university budget cuts and drops in funding overall.

For example, I have a massive collection of material related to the history of sexual minority communities, with a strong focus on pre-1980s ephemera. There are a handful of people out there who have collections of that size or larger, in related sub-sub-niches, and most of us have either met or are aware of each other. There are a couple of universities that might take all or part of those collections, but some of them (particularly the Kinsey Institute) make it difficult for non-academics to get access to the materials. There are two long-term non-profits that focus on the BDSM side of such things, which is what makes up the core of my collection. My goal was to eventually donate the whole thing to one of those.

Recently, though, the continued existence of the smaller of the two is looking less likely. The larger one has more behind it in the way of funding, and is a larger scale effort, but even at their best they aren't really able to keep up with anything more than storage and cataloging (and I get the impression they are way behind on that). One bad year could shut them down, and the materials would most likely be auctioned off to pay bills or donated in pieces to other institutions that don't share their focus.

As it is now, if a historian or other person really needed to get a scan of some obscure thing, they could contact one of the two archives or one of the people with a large collection. If either or both of those archives were to go away, they could still contact one of the collectors, if that person had not previously donated everything to an archive. After seeing what has happened over the past decade to some specialty archives and libraries of various sorts (not just things related to sexual minorities), I am hesitant to donate the bulk of my collection to one. It has taken 20+ years to put together, and has historical value that exceeds the sum of its parts.

You would get the same situation with an rpg archive. It would either have to be well-funded enough to go out and purchase the bulk of its collection, or rely on a couple of big donations from the major collectors. The latter would most likely require them to prove that they have serious funding and staying power, and have a collection development policy that keeps those collections together. Without a very dedicated, wealthy funding source, that is unlikely.

I've fundraised for libraries and archives at universities and the biggest issue is the setting of 'priorities' in fundraising goals by admin. Most admin just don't care about fundraising for long-term, non-flashy goals and that is pretty much the definition of archives.

Most university libraries have accepted valuable music collections but aside from space the bigger issue is having the resources to catalogue them. So there are collections that were donated 10-20 years ago that have just been collecting dust.

I explained to donors who wanted to donate their collections that if they wanted it to actually be used it would be best to also include a percentage of their estate towards the expenses of transporting and cataloguing and if possible archiving the material. Even your average middle class person ends up with enough of an estate that makes this more viable than one may think.

I don't think it requires massively wealthy donors, alumni associations are a great resource to support libraries and archives for instance, but again admin and internal politics in terms of priortizing those goals are the bigger hurdle.
 
Most admin just don't care about fundraising for long-term, non-flashy goals and that is pretty much the definition of archives.

Yes, that is most definitely a big issue. You see the same thing in public libraries, even. City councils are more likely to provide extra money for flashy stuff that they can claim to have helped with than some of the deeper needs of the library and the collection.

Most university libraries have accepted valuable music collections but aside from space the bigger issue is having the resources to catalogue them. So there are collections that were donated 10-20 years ago that have just been collecting dust.

Absolutely. I have a long, long rant related to that type of thing that I won't go into here. It is too off-topic and too library-geeky to be of relevance in this situation, but it is a big problem in the archive, library, and museum world.

I explained to donors who wanted to donate their collections that if they wanted it to actually be used it would be best to also include a percentage of their estate towards the expenses of transporting and cataloguing and if possible archiving the material. Even your average middle class person ends up with enough of an estate that makes this more viable than one may think.

That is a good route to go, but you have to make sure there are iron-clad legal restrictions in place to make sure that creative admins don't find some way to reinterpret the rules about the disposition of the money. It helps if they leave behind relatives who keep an eye on that.

I don't think it requires massively wealthy donors, alumni associations are a great resource to support libraries and archives for instance, but again admin and internal politics in terms of priortizing those goals are the bigger hurdle.

It doesn't require them in general, but when it comes to a highly specialized collection that doesn't have widespread archive appeal, wealthy backers can help a lot.
 
The Strong: National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY, has a collection of RPGs.

That's good to know!

It looks like it was initially founded with a base comprised of a large personal collection, which is pretty common for specialty museums. It looks like they have been successful in getting large grants in recent years, too, which is a good sign.

One thing to note is that they are essentially an interactive children's museum, as well. Having the money available to expand into other areas of interest to the public should help them to keep their core collections intact. It looks like they were able to get a $700,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to make a new interactive space that they are currently building. They apparently have permission to do things with various children's shows and book characters, too.

Since their focus isn't on rpgs, though, there is always the chance that somewhere down the line they will sell off that rpg collection. They already redefined the mission of the museum, back in the 1990s, so they are more than willing to change with the times. That is good for them as an institution, but may end up not being a good thing for certain parts of their collection. That leads to part of the big conundrum when it comes to specialty collections. Big institutions can absorb large collections, and often have more funding available, but if the collection isn't a big part of their focus it may end up being sold off one day. More specialized museums and archives may be more dedicated to the collection, but are more likely to close at some point, unless they are able to secure finances, either in the form of an endowment or ongoing skill at getting donations and grants.
 
It doesn't require them in general, but when it comes to a highly specialized collection that doesn't have widespread archive appeal, wealthy backers can help a lot.

Wealthy backers are always a great way to go, they usually bring in at least 70 percent of donations but again the common issue is administrators with no background in fundraising who think they are the be-all and end-all of fundraising.

Over the past few decades the number of people who donate has been declining, I blame it on the short-sighted approach that focuses so obsessively on 'major donors' they've failed to cultivate the base of smaller donors that lead to those larger gifts over time. Estate gifts for instance don't usually come from major donors but long-term smaller donors.
 
I've fundraised for libraries and archives at universities and the biggest issue is the setting of 'priorities' in fundraising goals by admin. Most admin just don't care about fundraising for long-term, non-flashy goals and that is pretty much the definition of archives...

I don't think it requires massively wealthy donors, alumni associations are a great resource to support libraries and archives for instance, but again admin and internal politics in terms of priortizing those goals are the bigger hurdle.

I agree completely. I'm fairly active in a Friends group for an academic library, and one of the big hurdles we face is getting permission from the college's Development office to raise funds (beyond our annual appeal letter to members) or even to contact alumni. They are very protective of potential donors and don't want any possible competition. We've even had trouble publicizing our existence at the yearly Alumni Weekend.
 
I agree completely. I'm fairly active in a Friends group for an academic library, and one of the big hurdles we face is getting permission from the college's Development office to raise funds (beyond our annual appeal letter to members) or even to contact alumni. They are very protective of potential donors and don't want any possible competition. We've even had trouble publicizing our existence at the yearly Alumni Weekend.

The issue there I think is that all fundraising needs to go through the Development department, that is understandable to avoid confusion but of course the issue is that the Development staff are then told that the library is not a institutional priority so they can't spend any time helping you even if they wanted to!

In the past I worked with the library staff on applications, particularly for archives as they are so technical that a Devo staff member doing it on their own would be lost. But honestly I had to often do it off the side of my desk since I cared about it but my bosses didn't.
 
Everything with a copyright has a copy (or several copies) deposited with the appropriate national libraries - you sell a text in Scotland and a copy goes to the National Library.
 
Everything with a copyright has a copy (or several copies) deposited with the appropriate national libraries - you sell a text in Scotland and a copy goes to the National Library.
As has been mentioned, that isn't strictly true for the US.

Actually in fact, a lot of stuff that is copyrighted absolutely is NOT in any such library. In the US at least, this post of mine is copyrighted, and it almost certainly is not destined to be archived in the Library of Congress.

Frank
 
I’d be more inclined to get everything physical scanned and have the PDFs on several discs in several locations, maybe even have some buried in a vault somewhere just in case Mad Max happens.
 
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