In your humble (or not) opinion, What’s the correct way to organize a TTRPG library?
I’ve got four general categories:
Sci-Fi: since it is smaller than fantasy and bigger than any other genre, I group the systems along with their corresponding modules on one shelf. It’s small enough that I don’t need more structure than that. I put cyberpunk and future apocalypse here too.
Modules / Adventures: currently an agglomeration of settings and modules. I generally group them by system: MÖRK Borg, ShadowDark, OSE, Liminal Horror, Knave, Carin, and non-specific. Seems like OSE is the lingua franca of the OSR.
World & Adventure Building Tools: What you’d expect. Inspiration materials and books of tables like Monster Overhaul, the Dread Thingonomicon and, Tome of Adventure Design.
Systems: I took a cue from OSR Rule Families and line them up, more or less, by how far they are from 0D&D. At the center is 0D&D. Traveling rightward you move through D&D history to D&D2024. That collection isn’t complete and I’m not trying to complete it. To the left of 0D&D I start with the retro-clones through OSE, then Modern, Black Hacks, ItO, Knave, MÖRK Borg, Cairn and finally His Majesty the Worm.
It works for my brain and helps me find what I’m looking for quickly.
Here’s a picture of that shelf:
There’s another section dedicated to the games that aren’t d20, 6 stat systems. It includes EZD6, Crown and Skull, Heart, Numenera, FATE, Lord of the Rings The One Ring and a few others I’ve picked up.
The correct way to organize your roleplaying shelves is either
a) a whole library room dedicated to them, with feature shelves for running campaigns and the rest being ordered alphanumerically by company → title → release year
b) the way some people to manage their clothes, with everything used being filed in front and after a while you’re getting rid of the stuff at the back (blasphemy, I know)
Right now I’ve got most of my stuff in cardboard boxes somehwere, and the “few” shelves I have in this rather narrow home office/storage room are done by vague relationship (German RPGs / OSR games / HERO & GURPS / RuneQuest & other BRP / Misc.).
My digital ones are barely better, but at least Spotlight / fd / Everything help a lot there.
LOL Can’t say I ascribe to option A, way too detailed for my little collection. But option B means I forget what I have and then don’t look at it again.
My PDF collection has many more books and requires more detailed work since I’ve got to add author, publisher, year and tags to make it sing. I usually just stuff them on to the appropriate shelf where I’ll find it later.
I like to use Calibre to organize my PDF library. It’s a desktop application but there’s a self hosted version I’ve learned to setup and use.
Here’s the front page.
PDFs are organized into shelves, again drawn from the OSR Fmilies post above.
I’m using Calibre for regular fiction/non-fiction ebooks (including Kindle ones), but never quite liked it for my RPG collection. I think it did a seperate folder for each product, which bothered me for PDFs.
And of course there’s no equivalent of beets or CDDB for RPG book metadata.
Oh yeah, the extra files (2 page spread, maps, character sheets, etc) are tricky. Really wish I could have multiple files associated with a single item.
I bundle a zip file of everything and upload it as a different format. It’s an extra step, but keeps things tidy.
Haven’t looked at Beets, yet. I need something for my music. That looks good! (And yum for beets!)
For physical books, i have a spreadsheet of what i have and on what shelf should i look for it, and the bookshelves themselves are in a state of controlled chaos.
For digital, i have a HDD where i try to keep orderly folder structure and i navigate them by a generated tree diagram. Advantage being that i don’t need anything more then basic installation of operating system, so it should be resistant to a software becoming obsolete. I gave up on keeping the metadata complete locally, but when i find something that’s missing on the online databases, i try to update them.
For physical I usually do one shelf for active playing/read. One shelf for zines. One shelf for bigger ones.
Digital…I collect a lot so I went through a fairly extensive project to sort everything into specific genres (and tag the folder (with brackets as to not rely on an OS/Software) with [Author][Year Published][if applicable System Parent (ie Marked by the Odd, PbtA etc)][if applicable GM-less or Duet or Solo][if applicable Cards and/or Tarot and/or Diceless] because there’s so many specific games I figured taking the type to drill down into subgenre was worth it.
I ended up this with. What’s still to do is Adventures & some of the OSR/NuSR systems - might do something similar but in that folder - so this might not be totally relevant but I am proud-ish of the result
Y:\TTRPGS\GENRE SORTING
├── ACTION
| ├── 00.Action Cinematic
| ├── 00.Military Cinematic & GI Joes
| ├── 00.Pulp
| └── 00.Tactical Combat (Lancer Killers & 4e Descendents)
├── ANIMALS
| ├── 00.Animal Kingdom
| ├── 00.Birds
| ├── 00.Cats
| ├── 00.Dinosaurs
| ├── 00.Dogs
| ├── 00.Ferrets
| ├── 00.Fish
| ├── 00.Goose
| ├── 00.Insects
| ├── 00.Rabbits
| ├── 00.Rats
| ├── 00.Squirrels
| ├── 00.Undersea
| ├── 00.Urban Wildlife
| └── 00.Woodland Critters
├── CRIME & NOIR
| ├── 00.Assassins
| ├── 00.Bancho & Japanese Street Delinquents
| ├── 00.Conspiracies
| ├── 00.Corporate Espionage
| ├── 00.Crew
| ├── 00.Crime of All Levels
| ├── 00.Crimes of the Heart
| ├── 00.Drug Cartel
| ├── 00.Gangs
| ├── 00.Hackers
| ├── 00.Hardboiled Detectives & Pulp Noir
| ├── 00.Heists
| ├── 00.Holmes &
| ├── 00.Investigative Reporter
| ├── 00.Investigators, Not Boiled
| ├── 00.Meddling Kids
| ├── 00.Medieval Intrigue
| ├── 00.Minions & Lackeys
| ├── 00.Mobsters
| ├── 00.Murder Mystery
| ├── 00.Paranormal Investigations
| ├── 00.Police Procedural
| ├── 00.Prision Break
| ├── 00.True Detectives
| └── 00.Vengeance
├── EXPERIMENTAL
| ├── 00.Artgame
| ├── 00.Competitive Abstractness
| ├── 00.Games You Create
| ├── 00.Games You Play with your Pet & other Nonverbal Autonomous Beings
| ├── 00.I Have No Clue
| ├── 00.Meta Games ontop of the Game
| └── 00.RPG Injokes
├── FANTASY
| ├── 00.Anime, JRPG & Japanese VG Fantasy
| ├── 00.Arabian Fantasy
| ├── 00.Celtic Fantasy
| ├── 00.Chivalric Romance
| ├── 00.Comic Fantasy
| ├── 00.Dark Fantasy
| ├── 00.Draconic
| ├── 00.FKR
| ├── 00.Goblinoids & Orcs
| ├── 00.Grimdark Fantasy
| ├── 00.High Fantasy
| ├── 00.Historical Fantasy
| ├── 00.Hopeful & Eco-Fantasy
| ├── 00.Low Fantasy
| ├── 00.Medieval European Fantasy
| ├── 00.Non-setting Specific Systems for Fantasy
| ├── 00.Old School Vibes
| ├── 00.Samurai & Ninjas
| ├── 00.Souls-like
| ├── 00.Swashbuckling
| ├── 00.Sword & Sorcery
| ├── 00.Tiny Adventurers
| ├── 00.Trolls
| └── 00.Wuxia & Marital Arts Fantasy
├── HORROR
| ├── 00.Arctic Horror
| ├── 00.Boarding School
| ├── 00.Body Horror
| ├── 00.Cosmic Horror & Cthulhu-at-Large
| ├── 00.Folk Horror
| ├── 00.Forest Horror
| ├── 00.Halloween
| ├── 00.Haunted House
| ├── 00.Horror Anthologies
| ├── 00.Horror Movies
| ├── 00.Hospital Horror
| ├── 00.Liminal & Abandoned
| ├── 00.Nautical Horror
| ├── 00.Personal Horror & Narrative Horror
| ├── 00.Puppet & Doll Horror
| ├── 00.Remote Village Horror
| ├── 00.Ritual Horror
| ├── 00.Slasher & Serial Killer Horror
| ├── 00.Small Town Horror
| ├── 00.Space Horror
| ├── 00.Summer Camp Horror
| └── 00.Survival Horror
├── MYTHOLOGY & FOLKLORE
| ├── 00.Ancient Age of Myths
| ├── 00.Chinese Mythology
| ├── 00.Christianity
| ├── 00.Christmas
| ├── 00.Created Culture
| ├── 00.Discordianism
| ├── 00.Egyptian Mythology
| ├── 00.Fairy Tales & Classic Children's Novels
| ├── 00.Filipino Mythology
| ├── 00.Germanic Mythology
| ├── 00.Gnostic
| ├── 00.Greek Mythology
| ├── 00.Indian Mythology
| ├── 00.Indigenous People of The Now USA Mythology
| ├── 00.Inuit Mythology
| ├── 00.Japanese Mythology
| ├── 00.Judaism
| ├── 00.Lost Kingdoms Found
| ├── 00.Maori Mythology
| ├── 00.Mesoamerican Religion
| ├── 00.Monomyth
| ├── 00.Norse Mythology
| ├── 00.Prehistoric Legend
| ├── 00.Roman Mythology
| ├── 00.Russian Mythology
| └── 00.USAmerican Mythology
├── POLITICS
| ├── 00.Activism
| ├── 00.Alienation & Isolation
| ├── 00.Campaigning
| ├── 00.Consumerism
| ├── 00.Contemplations on Colonism
| ├── 00.Contemplations on War
| ├── 00.Courtroom
| ├── 00.Ecological & Climate Change
| ├── 00.Feminism
| ├── 00.Governing Official
| ├── 00.Housing Crisis
| ├── 00.Meta Commentary on RPG Industry
| ├── 00.Oppression & Loss of Freedoms
| ├── 00.Rage Against Society
| ├── 00.Surveillance
| ├── 00.Think & Art Against Society
| └── 00.Worker Solidarity
├── POP CULTURE
| ├── 00.70s Exploitation
| ├── 00.80s Blockblusters
| ├── 00.B-Movies
| ├── 00.Computer Games
| ├── 00.Fanfic
| ├── 00.Reality TV
| ├── 00.Shakespeare
| ├── 00.Sitcom
| ├── 00.Toons
| └── 00.Variety Show
├── POST-APOC
| ├── 00.During the Apocalypse
| ├── 00.Escaping
| ├── 00.Fallout-likes
| ├── 00.Gated City
| ├── 00.Gonzocalypse
| ├── 00.Interstellar Collapse
| ├── 00.Magical Wasteland
| ├── 00.Motorcyclepunk
| ├── 00.Postdiluvian
| ├── 00.Society Run by Children
| ├── 00.Wander the Wasteland
| ├── 00.We Can Rebuild
| └── 00.Zombies
├── PROFESSIONS & JOBS
| ├── 00.Academia
| ├── 00.Adaptor
| ├── 00.Animal Rescue
| ├── 00.Archaeology & Tomb Robbing
| ├── 00.Bookstore
| ├── 00.Clown
| ├── 00.Customer Service Reps
| ├── 00.Doctors & Nurses
| ├── 00.Espionage
| ├── 00.Farming
| ├── 00.Fast Food Worker
| ├── 00.Fiance Fuck
| ├── 00.Gambling
| ├── 00.Generic Workplace
| ├── 00.Grandma
| ├── 00.IT
| ├── 00.Lifeguard
| ├── 00.Magicians (Gobmaxxing)
| ├── 00.Mall
| ├── 00.Musicians
| ├── 00.Office Workers
| ├── 00.Oil Baron
| ├── 00.Restaurant
| ├── 00.Sex Workers
| ├── 00.Streamer
| └── 00.Trucker
├── REALM-MANAGEMENT & WORLDBUILDING
| ├── 00.Creature-making
| ├── 00.Deciding on Tenets of Faith
| ├── 00.PvP Worldbuilding
| ├── 00.Realms & Management & Colonies
| └── 00.World-making & City-building
├── SCIENCE FICTION
| ├── 00.Aliens
| ├── 00.Astral Beings
| ├── 00.Bounty Hunters
| ├── 00.Dark Fantasy Sci-Fi
| ├── 00.Feudal Sci-Fi
| ├── 00.Lethal Companies
| ├── 00.Low Sci-Fi
| ├── 00.Mecha
| ├── 00.Military Science Fiction
| ├── 00.Non-setting Specific Sci-Fi
| ├── 00.Pastoral Science Fiction
| ├── 00.Planetary Romance
| ├── 00.Robots
| ├── 00.Space Criminals
| ├── 00.Space Noir
| ├── 00.Space Opera
| ├── 00.Space Westerns
| ├── 00.Thought Experiment
| └── 00.Young and In Space
├── SOCIAL & REAL WORLD THEMES
| ├── 00.Adjusting
| ├── 00.Adulthood
| ├── 00.Ancestry
| ├── 00.Authourship
| ├── 00.Babies
| ├── 00.Broken Heart
| ├── 00.Childhood
| ├── 00.Community Ending
| ├── 00.Cooking
| ├── 00.Dancing
| ├── 00.Erotica
| ├── 00.Family History
| ├── 00.Finding Home
| ├── 00.Getting Old
| ├── 00.Grief
| ├── 00.High School
| ├── 00.Honour
| ├── 00.Internet Culture
| ├── 00.Kink & Furries
| ├── 00.Letter Writing
| ├── 00.Loneliness
| ├── 00.Mental Illness
| ├── 00.Nostalgia & What was lost
| ├── 00.On the Run
| ├── 00.Queerness
| ├── 00.Romance of Platonic & Spicy
| ├── 00.Saving Someone
| ├── 00.Self Discovery, Self Growth & Enlightenment
| ├── 00.Sex, Thoughfully
| ├── 00.Small Town Livin'
| ├── 00.Social Club
| ├── 00.Summer Camp
| ├── 00.Telling Tales
| ├── 00.Toxic Masculinity
| └── 00.Waterpark
├── SPORTS & FIGHTING
| ├── 00.Baseball
| ├── 00.Basketball
| ├── 00.Bowling
| ├── 00.Boxing
| ├── 00.Breakdancing
| ├── 00.Fighting Video Games
| ├── 00.Fishing
| ├── 00.Football
| ├── 00.Gladiatorial
| ├── 00.Golf
| ├── 00.Madeup Sports
| ├── 00.Mixed Martial Arts
| ├── 00.Racing & Cars
| ├── 00.Skateboarding
| ├── 00.Sports Drama
| ├── 00.Sword Dueling
| └── 00.Wrestling
├── STEAMPUNK & OTHER PUNKS
| ├── 00.Aetherpunk
| ├── 00.Cattlepunk
| ├── 00.Clockpunk
| ├── 00.Decopunk
| ├── 00.Dieselpunk
| ├── 00.Dreadpunk
| ├── 00.Dungeon Punk
| ├── 00.Gaslamp Fantasy
| ├── 00.Gothic Punk & Steampunk Horror
| ├── 00.Lunarpunk
| ├── 00.Steam Fantasy
| ├── 00.Steampunk
| ├── 00.Stonepunk
| ├── 00.Stormpunk
| ├── 00.Teslapunk
| ├── 00.War of the Worlds
| └── 00.Whalepunk
├── SUPERNATURAL & SENTIENT NON-SENTIENTS
| ├── 00.Alchemists, Sorcerers & Esoteric Magicians
| ├── 00.Angels & Celestials
| ├── 00.Children Befriending the Strange & Monsterous
| ├── 00.Creepypasta & Urban Legends
| ├── 00.Cultists
| ├── 00.Demons & Hell
| ├── 00.Dolls & Toy Tales
| ├── 00.Fey
| ├── 00.Gods & Demigods
| ├── 00.Gothic Horror
| ├── 00.Grim Reaping
| ├── 00.Immortals
| ├── 00.Imposters, Changelings, & Mimics
| ├── 00.Magic Item Shops
| ├── 00.Magic School
| ├── 00.Magical Girls
| ├── 00.Magical Horses
| ├── 00.Mermaids
| ├── 00.Minotaurs
| ├── 00.Modern Urban Fantasy
| ├── 00.Monster Catching & Symbosis
| ├── 00.Monster Hunting
| ├── 00.Monstorous
| ├── 00.Neckbeards
| ├── 00.Parasites
| ├── 00.Psionics
| ├── 00.Sentitent Plants
| ├── 00.Spirits & Ghosts
| ├── 00.Summoner
| ├── 00.Twin Peaking
| ├── 00.Undead Non-Apocalypse
| ├── 00.Vampires
| ├── 00.Werewolves
| ├── 00.Witches
| └── 00.Wizards & Mages
├── SUPES
| ├── 00.(1938 – 1956) Golden Age
| ├── 00.British Supes
| ├── 00.Campy Supes
| ├── 00.Caped Kiddos
| ├── 00.Conspiracy Around Supes
| ├── 00.D-Rank Supes
| ├── 00.Everyday Life of a Supe
| ├── 00.Existing IP & Created IP
| ├── 00.Fame, Media, & Celebrity Supes
| ├── 00.Future Supes
| ├── 00.Generic Supers Systems
| ├── 00.Gritty Supes
| ├── 00.Heroes in a Half Shells & Other Forms
| ├── 00.Mutants & Supe-othering
| ├── 00.No Time to Die Long Goodbye Supes
| ├── 00.Senior Supesitzens
| ├── 00.Sentai
| ├── 00.Super Agents
| ├── 00.Superpets
| ├── 00.Supes Academy
| ├── 00.Vigilantes
| ├── 00.Villains
| └── 00.Young Supes
├── TECHNOFUTURE & OTHER PUNKS
| ├── 00.Biopunk
| ├── 00.Cyperfantasy
| ├── 00.Ecopunk
| ├── 00.Gothicyper
| ├── 00.Post-cyperpunk
| ├── 00.Solarpunk
| ├── 00.Technofuture
| ├── 00.Transhumanism & Matters of AI
| └── 00.Waterpunk & Ages of Waters
├── WAR & HISTORY
| ├── 00.Abolitionists
| ├── 00.Aerial Pilots
| ├── 00.American Revolution & Colonies
| ├── 00.Band of Mercenaries
| ├── 00.Belle Époque
| ├── 00.Cold War
| ├── 00.Colonial Latin America
| ├── 00.Colonial West
| ├── 00.Cosy History
| ├── 00.Edwardian Britain
| ├── 00.Elizabethan Era
| ├── 00.English Civil War
| ├── 00.Feudal Japan
| ├── 00.French Revolution
| ├── 00.Generic Military Combat
| ├── 00.Medieval
| ├── 00.Napoleonic Wars
| ├── 00.Near Future War
| ├── 00.Pulp Era
| ├── 00.Roman Empires
| ├── 00.Spanish Civil War
| ├── 00.Thirty Years War
| ├── 00.Tibetan uprising
| ├── 00.Victorian Era
| ├── 00.Vietnam
| ├── 00.Viking Age
| ├── 00.War on 'Terror'
| ├── 00.Warring States Period
| ├── 00.WW1
| └── 00.WWII
├── WEIRD & SURREAL
| ├── 00.Amnesia
| ├── 00.Becoming One
| ├── 00.Death
| ├── 00.Dreams
| ├── 00.Exploration of the Mind (Literally)
| ├── 00.Generational Play & Past Lives
| ├── 00.Group Playing One
| ├── 00.New Weird & Science Fantasy
| ├── 00.Soothsaying
| ├── 00.Time & Multiversal Travel
| ├── 00.Traversing Death
| ├── 00.Twisted Reality & The Surreal
| ├── 00.Virtual Reality
| ├── 00.Weird Desert
| └── 00.Wish Granting
├── WEIRD WEST
| ├── 00.Atomic West
| ├── 00.Fantasy West
| ├── 00.Occult Western
| ├── 00.Optional Weird
| ├── 00.Psionic West
| ├── 00.Religious West
| └── 00.Wild West & American Western Cinematic
├── xc.CHILDREN FOCUSED
├── xl.LARP
├── xw.WARGAMES & SKIRMISHING RULES
| ├── 00.Ancient Era
| ├── 00.Aviation
| ├── 00.Dystopian Future
| ├── 00.Fantasy
| ├── 00.LEGOs
| ├── 00.Military SciFi
| ├── 00.Modern Warfare
| ├── 00.OSR-adjacent
| ├── 00.Paper Minis
| ├── 00.Pirates
| ├── 00.Silly Premise
| ├── 00.Spies
| ├── 00.Supes
| ├── 00.Woodland Creatures
| └── 00.World War II
└── zz.SPECIAL CASES
├── 00.Anthologies
└── 00.Barebones & Prototypes
For physical, I don’t have enough books (yet?) that I need a system to locate the book I am searching for, so they are generally grouped by height for aesthetic reasons (with books by the same author/for the same system placed together).
For PDFs, I organise my library with Alfa eBooks Manager, using its “series” field for system, and its various other metadata fields and tags as appropriate (the data lives in a .sdf database file, with links pointing to the pdf files in their normal folder structure, where I try to group by system).
Electronically, it’s almost identical to your physical in the main categories. The adventures (fantasy, anyway) are subdivided by biome and theme (“forest,” “vanilla,” “horror,” “dying earth,” “swamp,” “hillbilly,” “Slavic,” “opium”), more-or-less, though some get yanked out and put into campaign folders.
The much smaller physical set is like-spines-with-like and the heavies what function as bookends at the extremities.
Haven’t looked at Beets, yet. I need something for my music. That looks good! (And yum for beets!)
