June 12, 2024: Scouring The Earth, One Mouse Click At A Time

I remember scouring the retail landscape of the early 2000s (whatever that looked like) for an affordable copy of Green and Pleasant Land – a Call of Cthulhu supplement that detailed the British Isles of the 1920s and 1930s. It was a book that was long out of print when I was searching for it. I eventually found a copy via some kind of community connectivity in October 2001 – maybe via the old Pyramid forums? (I still have the email!) I have dozens (if not hundreds) of other rare gaming goodies that were equally difficult to track down once I realized they existed.

So many aspects of this hunt have become easier in recent years, especially with the advent of POD technology. Hundreds of fans have taken advantage of the relatively recent release of the POD versions of the GURPS Basic Set to add those core books to their collection quickly and easily. (I suspect our international friends have particularly benefitted from having access to these tomes without needing to worry about the pain and expense of international shipping.) Steve Jackson's and Nick Schuessler's Game Design Vol. 1: Theory and Practice – out of print since the 1980s – is available as an affordable reproduction. The collected Ogrezine I & II can be had as a beautiful color volume or as an affordable black-and-white version, perfect for adding more gaming goodness to your Ogre antics.

Not everything can be kept in print indefinitely, of course, and there are challenges to these new possibilities. But it's still nice to make things easier for a lot of fans across the globe.

And Rich, if you're reading . . . thanks for your copy of Green and Pleasant Land! It has lived a fine life in its bookshelf home for 20+ years.

-- Steven Marsh