Traveller collection organization

[jfetters]

I happened to look at my Traveller collection this weekend and considered the amount of stuff on the shelf and began to wonder: how do others organize their Traveller stuff?

(Yes, random things like this come into my head with disturbing regularity)

So, in the spirit of this, have fun...

 

[Border Reiver]

Ok, I've only just organised my collection for the first time in 20 odd years (that doesn't include the time my mother organised it for me ).

It is a bit of a mish mash of systems. My LBB's sit on a single shelf in order; Books; Striker; Supplements; Adventures; Double Adventures; JTAS and Best of JTAS; Paranoid Press; Gamelords; FASA; FASA magazines; Digest sized Travellers Digest; other little books (BITS etc).

Above this sits large CT; MT; DGP's supplements (MT & CT); Travellers' Digest, Challenge; T4; GT; FFE reprints; T20.

Finally we have a shelf dedicated to T2K and 2300 though not really organised yet.

So I am not really that anal.

 

[jfetters]

Yeah, I just happened to notice that my TNE stuff was mostly arranged in order of the GDW sequence number, and the old CT stuff was in order of adventure (or whatever), so I thought it would be interesting to see how others did things.

The only real change is that I have my TD stuff off on its own, as I don't have a lot of the MT stuff arranged in any particular order...

 

[jfetters]

Interesting results so far -

Its split between organized by and within versions or complete chaos. Nothing in between.

I'm not sure what that says about us.

 

[Burocrate]

Chaotic mess from the outside turns out to be basically organized by ruleset/issue order. However space requires that some items be placed in unexpected locations.

"Yes dear, I am reading those few (8) books under the red sofa...reference material...yeah thats the ticket."

 

[JAFARR]

What I am using now is piled on top of what I used last. When I can't find the desk anymore, I return it to the shelf and start over.

 

[fredofmars]

I'm in the "organized by ruleset and sequence" group. When I move, these don't go in the moving truck, they go in the car with me.

 

[Icosahedron]

Mine are piled on a shelf wherever they will fit, most are still in the carrier bags I used to bring them from the games fairs (bags weren't biodegradable back then) My LBBs are in a cardboard box for easy transportation and my two lever arch files of house rules, deckplans, designs, characters, etc (arranged in no particular sequence) are kicking around the floor.
I also have some stuff on my hard drive and some on floppies lying about on the desk, shelf, windowsill, etc.
My one concession to organisation is my LBBs are in numerical order in their box. Well, usually. Ok, sometimes. Er - they're supposed to be, anyway.
I suppose If I added together all the time it takes me to find things, I'd have the time to organise it all. But what's the point? It'd never last.

 

[jfetters]

Hmmm, still split 50/50.

I do have to say that I have a tendency to pull stuff off my shelf and it tends to lay about on the desk (or off) while I am using it. So there is a bit of chaos in my order.

Of course, the rest of my desk is a raging mess, so I guess it doesn't matter that the Traveller collection is somewhat organized.

 

[aramis]

3 "piles"
Pile 1: The oversized ziplock with the "Travelling MT Set".

Pile 2: TTB, Bk5, Sup4, T20

Pile 3: 3 milk crates loosely organized by ruleset. 2 complete GDW-MT sets, 1 complete DGP-MT set. Sold my spares of S&A and V&V (still kicking myself over that one).

 

[Timerover51]

I am not sure why this one popped up, but it does pose a valid question.

 

[tinker123]

Really by campaign

It looks like things are arranged by ruleset, but actually they are by campaign-where-used. In most cases that's the same thing (rules + background + scenario + deckplans = game).
If I start using materials from one ruleset in a different game, they migrate to a new home.

On the hard drive they are rigoroursly organized by edition, and the game folders are in a separate directory (on a different backup regime, since they change).

Interesting side question: what material is useful across editions?
I can see that deckplans are generally useful (although with a risk that they breach the new rules, and no longer fly), and some stand-alone adventures may be. Sector maps would be, except for the intrusion of civil war, hard times, and other effects to render them useless.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Size matters

With limited shelf space I have arranged my books:
#1 By height (shortest to the left and going up in size)
#2 By Rule set (CT, MT, TNE. T5)
#3 File by pile (what I used last is on top of the pile on my desk or dresser to be sorted and stored later)

 

[inexorabletash]

Shelf 1: CT, MT, TNE, T4, T5

Shelf 2: Periodicals (JTAS, Challenge, TD, TTC, TI), Ephemera (posters, warrants, manuscripts, etc), T20, T1248, GT, MgT

... which makes me look appropriately OCD, I suppose. It only became that organized when Cirque arrived and I shuffled things around and evicted my Ace of Aces sets to make a formal spot for T5 books (plural!)

 

[robject]

Stuff I reference more often: toward the center.
Stuff I reference less often: toward the periphery.
Stuff I don't know what to do with: piled on top.

 

[Limburger59]

Two boxes...
One for the stuff I'd use & reference if I GM'ed a game tonight,
One for everything else.

 

[SanDragon]

Yes, what is this 'organization' of which you speak?

 

[Dagrill]

I happened to look at my Traveller collection this weekend and considered the amount of stuff on the shelf and began to wonder: how do others organize their Traveller stuff?

Hi,

My Mongoose Traveller is organised on the bookshelf behind me with core rules, alien modules in number order, career books in number order, supplements in number order and at the end I have adventures alphabetical.

My CT stuff is in it's and the Strike boxes in my games cupboard, as is my GURPS stuff. T5 and MT are on Disc and on my hard drive.

I also have files full of my game info.

Regards

David

 

[atpollard]

I placed my copy of The Traveller Book between "The Art Of Star Wars" and "Sir Banister Fletcher's: A History of Architecture" ... so organization is not a big issue for me.

Beyond that, I copied the FFE CDs that I own to my thumb drive.

 

[Hyphen]

What I am using now is piled on top of what I used last. When I can't find the desk anymore, I return it to the shelf and start over.

"I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity".

From my website...