Boccob's Blessed Blog

Directly across from the chaos of the exhibit hall at Gen Con 2018 was a quiet sanctuary of pure awesomeness. The Alexandria RPG library was a room with about ten tables piled with RPG books, as well several well-stocked shelves of gaming treasures. Today we sit down with the chief librarian to learn more about this amazing find.

What can you tell us about Alexandria RPG?

– We are a nonprofit lending library that shares RPGs with as many people as we can via events.  We also work with teens, PTSD service members, and soon senior citizens.

What was the impetus for starting an RPG library?

– I have been the deputy manager of gaming at Emerald City Comicon for a few years new and tossed the idea out to fill space.  The manger thought it sounded fun and a few weeks before ECCC 2017 I was asked if I could still do the library.  I ran out and bought some exrat books to fill in holes and add a wider variety dropping like $2000 in a couple days.  Then was laid off the next month.  But that first event we had like 400 books or so and people loved it. We got kids playing RPGs for the first time and had people asking if I would come to their show.  Part way through that first show we got a box of donations from an old friend of mine in Iowa.  He mailed them out when he heard what we we’re doing.

Needless to say people loved the idea so we put our heads down and ran forward with it. We are now near 1800 books and over a 100 different systems.

If you could roleplay with one historical figure, who would it be and why?

-Thomas Jefferson.  I figure he was super smart, self taught, and well read. I bet he had a wild imagination that he kept locked away.

Do you think Andrew Johnson would cheat on his rolls?

– As in the 17th President? Sure he would, he was a politician.

What is your favorite book in the collection?

– My first book is in the Library, my AD&D players handbook my brother and I bought at Sears in 1982. It still has the price tag on it $10.57.   That book has tons of memories for me and the comic shop my family had.

Which cons will you be attending in the near future?

– Friday we will be at PAX West last year was huge there for us, we hosted 100 games in four days. I only brought GMs for 6. The rest we’re people that just wanted to play.

We just did Dragonflight 39 last weekend

We will be at RenCon two weekends after PAX West

Working on trying to get to PAX Unplugged

Jan we have OrcaCon

How can people help Alexandria RPG?

We have a Patreon people can pledge to even a $1 a month helps get us a van rental or new boxes. They can donate funds via PayPal on our website or via our email donations@alexandriarpg.com.  we also take book donations. They can reach us at the donation email for information on sending books

Also follow us on social media because that helps too. We have a YouTube channel and if we can get enough followers we can make a buck or two off videos there as well.

Money is always needed. I have put a couple thousand dollars into the library this year and a couple of other people have as well.

As a reminder we are a 501c3 and registered as a charity in Washington state.

You can learn more about Alexandria RPG at their website: https://www.alexandriarpg.com/

This entry was posted on September 19, 2018 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, GURPS, Interview, Pathfinder, Star Wars with tags Alexandria RPG, Gen Con 2018, RPG Library. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.