Half the Tales of the Valiant books are downstairs. The rest is still stacked in the upstairs hall. No open shelf space left anywhere. A5E is already in five boxes in the garage, and I am not rearranging the house again to make room for another set that won't get opened.
The PDFs are fine. I can open a file, pull a monster, and run a night. That part works. The hardcovers are still mine. They are still in the house. They are just not the ones I am carrying to the table.
I keep asking what would actually change that.
More shelves are not the answer. I have moved enough books this year. The games that stay out are the ones that turn into play without much setup, or the ones that already live together on the same wall. ToV does not need a ceremonial slot just because I still like the system. Kobold Press did the work with the chassis they inherited. The core is playable, and the PDFs make it easy. None of that has made me reach for the physical Player’s Guide when I sit down.
The same problem is still there. The quarry fight with the goblins and the dire wolves still sits in my head. Good terrain, a clock, hazards, elevation. The party never felt like it could lose. I started missing on purpose so we could all go home. The hardcover did not fix that. The PDF does not fix it either. Same chassis, same long rounds, same feeling that I built a decent scene and the system paid me back with a grind.
So what would pull these books out of the boxes?
A book that makes the table feel different might do it. Not another talent or a new lineage. Something that shortens the accounting and makes the fight matter without me lying to the dice. A monster book I open every session because the creatures hit and die on a schedule that fits a night of play. An adventure that is better in paper because the maps and the reference pages stay on the table and everyone can see them. I have cleared space for games that do that. I have not done it for ToV lately.
Or it could be smaller. A stretch of sessions where the physical books are simply more convenient than tabs and screens. Shared rules. A group that does not want devices out. A campaign that lasts long enough for the hardcover to earn its weight. Those are the nights the books used to come out. They have not happened in a while.
Right now the PDFs are doing the job. The hardcovers are waiting. They have waited before. A5E is already in the garage, and I am not losing sleep over it, and I have those PDFs too. ToV is closer than that. It is still in the house. I just cannot name the thing that would make me move furniture for it.
If you have an idea, I am listening. I am not looking for another reason to like the system. I already do. I am looking for the reason these particular books are out again.
But, then again, if all you do is play by PDF, that is the world I am entering. I am just not keeping my books on display anymore. Maybe this is the better place for me, where there is no pressure to play, no shelf guilt, and the only books I can point to are the ones on my computer.
