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Seeking Advice About Theft

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21 Mar 2022 17:37 #331780 by Shellhead
As people get older and older, it gets harder for them to make new friends. And their social circle can even suffer some attrition, as people move away or move on to a different stage in life (like getting married or having kids) or even die. In 2018 and 2019, I made a conscious effort to address this by proactively making some new friends, actually a total of six new friends. All of them were already friends of my existing friends, so not complete strangers. 2019 was a very busy year, as I started a new job and also worked on some major home improvement projects that at different points in time required me to completely clear out the first floor or second floor of my house.

I was also starting to do some initial prep work for my next rpg campaign, and had a bunch of rules and supplements for two possible campaign piled up next to wherever my bed was during all of this. At one point, I got tired of bumping into that box and moved everything into a smaller box that just barely held everything, and moved it out of the way. I remember consciously thinking at the time, "I hope I remember where I put this," but don't remember what the box looked like or where I put it. I vaguely recall that the box was parked for a while in my dining room, near the entrance and also near the refrigerator. I haven't been able to find that box ever since. I have multiple collections (books, movies, comics, games, rpgs) as well as several storage totes of miscellaneous stuff that I have kept over the years. I have looked everywhere in the last two years, but only recently started searching in a systematic and organized manner.

It is beginning to appear that the box was stolen. I hosted a couple of board game events for friends on two separate occasions before lockdown. Most of the attendees are people that I have known and trusted for at least several years, but four of my six newer friends showed up to one or both of those events. We play on my big gaming table in the basement, but people go upstairs for drinks in the fridge or smoking outside or using the first floor bathroom if the basement one is in use.

The box contained a couple of hardcover comic volumes and newer rpg materials that can be readily replaced. It also contained a whole slew of rpg materials ranging from the early '80s to the late '90s, primarily for the Elric/Stormbringer game published by Chaosium. It's all out of print now, because Moorcock re-licensed the game setting exclusively to Mongoose Publishing. Supplements or modules that I bought for $8 to $20 each are now scarce as hell and selling for as much as $700 each. If somebody didn't know any better, they might not value the contents of that box much, but if they checked on eBay, they would have realized that they could turn a nice profit. So I can't realistically replace the missing Stormbringer stuff and it has me really feeling down. There used to be a site called The Hoard and later The Trove where people shared a huge collection of scanned rpg sourcebooks and adventures, but IP holders finally hunted that site down and made it go away. They had all but one of my missing Stormbringer books in scan form, but I didn't realize that my stuff was missing two years ago. I'm not a redditor, but I was first tipped off about the Horde by a friend who read about it on Reddit.

So I feel like I have only two options. One is to try to track down somebody who might have Stormbringer scans from the Hoard/Trove that they would be willing to share with me, a perfect stranger. The other would be to contact the new friends and very delicately inquire if they might have taken that box by mistake. Or if maybe they have some old Stormbringer stuff they might be willing to donate or sell to me at a reasonable price. I genuinely like all these people and stayed in touch with them through the pandemic despite my growing concern about the missing box, and a clumsy accusation this long after the fact is going to potentially trash some other friendships as collateral damage. Three of the four people are stable homeowners and I helped the fourth one land a new job in 2019.

I'm not going to do anything immediately. I am only 1/3 of the way through my exhaustive and systematic final search. But I feel like I have checked everywhere twice in the past, though there was a small possibility of stuff getting moved from one area to another to get out of the way of some deep cleaning or maintenance during the last two years.

tl;dr: Made some new friends and one of them may have stolen OOP game stuff from me. Seeking advice about obtaining scans or trying to get my stuff back.

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21 Mar 2022 19:35 #331781 by ChristopherMD
If you don't know where you put it then you lost it. Something lost can't be stolen, it just stays lost.
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21 Mar 2022 19:49 #331782 by hotseatgames
Too much time has passed to make any kind of accusation. Just tell your friends (including the suspects) that you lost this stuff and ask them if they have copies to let you photocopy or something.
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21 Mar 2022 20:55 #331783 by dysjunct
Replied by dysjunct on topic Seeking Advice About Theft
Some of The Trove survives on archive.org.
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21 Mar 2022 22:01 #331784 by Sagrilarus
It's in one of the other boxes.
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21 Mar 2022 22:07 #331785 by Shellhead
Due to my collecting tendencies, I never donate or throw things out unless they are broken, completely obsolete, or otherwise useless to me. When my ex left me last year, we parted as (and remain as) friends, and none of the missing stuff would have interested her anyway. And she still hasn't even moved most of her stuff out of my house yet. So there is no chance that this stuff left my house except as theft. What I haven't quite established to my satisfaction yet is that I have left absolutely no stone unturned within my house.

One reason I think this box of rpg stuff might have attracted attention was that I believe I might have put them in a magazine box, of a type that is similar to a comic book short box except wider. Any patron of the large game/comic shop near my home would have recognized that type of box immediately and been potentially intrigued.

If it turns out that this stuff was stolen, there is an additional aspect to this situation that I would need to weigh. Do I drop all four friends? Or do I take the chance that nothing like this will ever happen again? Or do I just exclude the four from all future gatherings at my house? Ironically, I saw all four of them as potential players in my next rpg campaign.

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21 Mar 2022 22:10 #331786 by Shellhead

dysjunct wrote: Some of The Trove survives on archive.org.


The search engine at that site seems dysfunctional.

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21 Mar 2022 22:17 #331787 by jason10mm
Not to make light of this because I know how much this thing sucks but you really should invite all your suspects over for a rpg one shot whodunit about a cache of ancient scrolls that go missing.... then see who sweats :p
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22 Mar 2022 08:21 #331790 by Legomancer
I would mention to everyone that you can't find the box, ask if any of them recall seeing it, let them know that it's hard to replace stuff that goes for a lot on eBay.

Maybe someone saw it.

Maybe someone took it and will feel guilty and return it.

Maybe someone took it and will try to sell it. Look at eBay auctions.

Without knowing more, I don't know if I'd accuse anyone or drop anyone. Even if the search doesn't turn anything up, there's just nothing to go on and you'd almost certainly be losing innocent friends. If something else were to go missing, then it might be an issue to confront.

If you let me know titles, I know some dudes who do some PDF collecting and acquiring, and may be able to get you scans.
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22 Mar 2022 09:54 #331792 by Cranberries
If it was stolen, then they've stolen your peace of mind and trust, which is the greater lost.

As someone with ADHD and who knows what other goodies that are lurking in this hunk of meat at the end of my spinal column, I lose crap all the time then blame my wife, then find it where I left it. So joining with the others, I would do an exhaustive search before moving to the Colombo scenario.

Having a poor memory is like living doing crappy Memento larping every day.
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22 Mar 2022 10:00 #331793 by Shellhead

Legomancer wrote: If you let me know titles, I know some dudes who do some PDF collecting and acquiring, and may be able to get you scans.


I'm going to finish the systematic search on Saturday and inventory the stuff that isn't missing. Then I can come up with a list of the missing stuff that I want to replace. I've had some time to reflect upon this, and much of the early Stormbringer product line isn't worth replacing. The best supplements were published around 1990.

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22 Mar 2022 10:04 #331794 by Rliyen
Replied by Rliyen on topic Seeking Advice About Theft

Shellhead wrote: As people get older and older, it gets harder for them to make new friends. And their social circle can even suffer some attrition, as people move away or move on to a different stage in life (like getting married or having kids) or even die. In 2018 and 2019, I made a conscious effort to address this by proactively making some new friends, actually a total of six new friends. All of them were already friends of my existing friends, so not complete strangers. 2019 was a very busy year, as I started a new job and also worked on some major home improvement projects that at different points in time required me to completely clear out the first floor or second floor of my house.

I was also starting to do some initial prep work for my next rpg campaign, and had a bunch of rules and supplements for two possible campaign piled up next to wherever my bed was during all of this. At one point, I got tired of bumping into that box and moved everything into a smaller box that just barely held everything, and moved it out of the way. I remember consciously thinking at the time, "I hope I remember where I put this," but don't remember what the box looked like or where I put it. I vaguely recall that the box was parked for a while in my dining room, near the entrance and also near the refrigerator. I haven't been able to find that box ever since. I have multiple collections (books, movies, comics, games, rpgs) as well as several storage totes of miscellaneous stuff that I have kept over the years. I have looked everywhere in the last two years, but only recently started searching in a systematic and organized manner.

It is beginning to appear that the box was stolen. I hosted a couple of board game events for friends on two separate occasions before lockdown. Most of the attendees are people that I have known and trusted for at least several years, but four of my six newer friends showed up to one or both of those events. We play on my big gaming table in the basement, but people go upstairs for drinks in the fridge or smoking outside or using the first floor bathroom if the basement one is in use.

The box contained a couple of hardcover comic volumes and newer rpg materials that can be readily replaced. It also contained a whole slew of rpg materials ranging from the early '80s to the late '90s, primarily for the Elric/Stormbringer game published by Chaosium. It's all out of print now, because Moorcock re-licensed the game setting exclusively to Mongoose Publishing. Supplements or modules that I bought for $8 to $20 each are now scarce as hell and selling for as much as $700 each. If somebody didn't know any better, they might not value the contents of that box much, but if they checked on eBay, they would have realized that they could turn a nice profit. So I can't realistically replace the missing Stormbringer stuff and it has me really feeling down. There used to be a site called The Hoard and later The Trove where people shared a huge collection of scanned rpg sourcebooks and adventures, but IP holders finally hunted that site down and made it go away. They had all but one of my missing Stormbringer books in scan form, but I didn't realize that my stuff was missing two years ago. I'm not a redditor, but I was first tipped off about the Horde by a friend who read about it on Reddit.

So I feel like I have only two options. One is to try to track down somebody who might have Stormbringer scans from the Hoard/Trove that they would be willing to share with me, a perfect stranger. The other would be to contact the new friends and very delicately inquire if they might have taken that box by mistake. Or if maybe they have some old Stormbringer stuff they might be willing to donate or sell to me at a reasonable price. I genuinely like all these people and stayed in touch with them through the pandemic despite my growing concern about the missing box, and a clumsy accusation this long after the fact is going to potentially trash some other friendships as collateral damage. Three of the four people are stable homeowners and I helped the fourth one land a new job in 2019.

I'm not going to do anything immediately. I am only 1/3 of the way through my exhaustive and systematic final search. But I feel like I have checked everywhere twice in the past, though there was a small possibility of stuff getting moved from one area to another to get out of the way of some deep cleaning or maintenance during the last two years.

tl;dr: Made some new friends and one of them may have stolen OOP game stuff from me. Seeking advice about obtaining scans or trying to get my stuff back.


Hope this helps, my brother:

The Eye's repository



This place has a trove of other RPG stuff, too.
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22 Mar 2022 10:37 #331796 by Shellhead

Rliyen wrote: Hope this helps, my brother:

The Eye's repository



This place has a trove of other RPG stuff, too.


Wow! That's exactly the set of scans that I was hoping to find. That includes everything that I really missed with the exception of one old supplement: White Wolf : Temples, Demons, and Ships of War, by the late Stewart Wieck.
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22 Mar 2022 14:01 #331798 by southernman
I would probably be quite open, but not down the theft track, and say to them all - probably in a global email - that you think that during your house renovation era you think you asked someone to look after a box or two of old gaming stuff that needed storing and with all the shit of the last two years you have forgotten all about it.
And agree with everyone else that far too late to even think about mentioning the T word.
Hopefully you have found all the scans.
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22 Mar 2022 14:15 #331799 by ChristopherMD
Someone passive-aggressively accusing me of theft would end that friendship. Someone outright accusing me would have the same result. I don't need you or your suspicions in my life.

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