I was thinking the other day. Everybody including myself were posting cool pictures and posts about getting various Kickstarter fulfillments.; mostly Old School Essentials and Swords & Wizardry. And I’m pretty sure some are also thinking about the 3rd Edition of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Kickstarter.

I got mine and probably like most I basically have all of the material in all of those. I’ve got hard copies and PDF’s of Swords & Wizardry Complete as well as the other versions of the core rules. I’ve PDF’s of the extra monster books. For OSE, I’ve the “core” set from when it changed branding. I’ve also got plenty of other BX clones and material for them that I really didn’t need the latest Advanced Books. I’ve got PDF’s of Hyperborea, I just haven’t gotten a hard copy yet. So maybe that’s up in air but do I really need it? Looking at my physical and virtual bookshelves, I’ve got OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, original TSR editions, Basic Fantasy, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Low Fantasy Gaming, ACKS plus many more lesser known retroclones too. I’ve got all sorts of supplements, monster books, and adventures that are all largely cross compatible.

So I have to ask myself, how much of this stuff is just gathering dust? How much will I actually use or even play? And then looking at Kickstarters, I’ve starting to ask myself the very same questions plus does this Kickstarter actually add or significantly modify anything that’s already at my disposal? Do I really need an “official” version of a monster or class?

I’m not begrudging anyone who wants to collect, have specifically tailored material, or supporting who they like. If fans want it then there’s nothing wrong with publishers supplying it. But I really have to step back for a second and look at some things that I’ve got sitting around and what’s coming out and wonder.