Is TTRPGing an "Expensive Hobby"

[Thomas Shey]

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To each their own but this certainly sounded more like a casual game rather than one where it was understood that it was a requirement to paint their armies. But, I may be wrong.

I'd suggest that to a large number of miniatures gamers "casual game" means something different than it does to you here.

 

[R_J_K75]

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I'd suggest that to a large number of miniatures gamers "casual game" means something different than it does to you here.

That could be the case.

 

[R_J_K75]

Enjoy

I may just try this on one of the days we decided to play a beer and pretzels game (no pun intended) instead of playing our regularly scheduled RPG.

 

[Laurefindel]

As far as hobbies go, it's certainly among the cheapest although it CAN get expensive (like most hobbies) when you go beyond the strict necessities. But even then, it's still cheap compared to other hobbies.

I have friends whose hobby is "walking". They spend hundreds of dollars on shoes and trips to go walk to (park access here, gas or bus ticket there; no plane tickets or hotel stay).

My father-in-law is a amateur gardener. His gardening budget is several times mine on a yearly basis.

I've known a few (amateur) hockey players. They spend in a year what I probably spent on TTRPG in my whole life.

My wife owns horses. I don't even want to compare (partially because I might have a heart attack otherwise).

 

[Bedrockgames]

One of the appeals of RPGs is they generally are less expensive than other hobbies. But this is why people get upset when prices go up or books feel like a cash grab. Not everyone has the same amount of money to spend on casual activities. 50, 60 or 70 bucks for a book may seem small to some but it is a big consideration for others. I have occasionally had to charge 50 for a printed book and that is a tough call to make. Lately it has been harder to keep things affordable because costs overall are going up but I think most people don’t feel like they have more disposable income to match those rising costs

 

[Mannahnin]

For a lot of miniature-based wargame players, it's a serious point of etiquette to show up at a table with a fully painted and finished army. It may not be as formal as wearing white at Wimbledon, but it can be a big deal. Part of the appeal of the game for the players (and spectators) is a visually arresting/appropriate army and if you're not going to bring one, you might as well be bringing paper counters.

To each their own but this certainly sounded more like a casual game rather than one where it was understood that it was a requirement to paint their armies. But, I may be wrong.

I'd suggest that to a large number of miniatures gamers "casual game" means something different than it does to you here.

Yup. Every one of those historical wargamers I mentioned who I've ever met at a store was a more casual player than the tournament Warhammer crowd I usually played with. Easygoing and chill.

But fielding an attractive (and often historically accurate, in terms of uniform colors and markings) force was a core part of their hobby, so to them showing up for a casual game with unpainted units would be like a showing up to a fancy dinner with a stained t-shirt on, or to a casual hockey game with no skates. A big part of why they're THERE is how cool everything looks on the table, though they're often super casual about the game play and who wins or loses.

One of the appeals of RPGs is they generally are less expensive than other hobbies. But this is why people get upset when prices go up or books feel like a cash grab. Not everyone has the same amount of money to spend on casual activities. 50, 60 or 70 bucks for a book may seem small to some but it is a big consideration for others. I have occasionally had to charge 50 for a printed book and that is a tough call to make. Lately it has been harder to keep things affordable because costs overall are going up but I think most people don’t feel like they have more disposable income to match those rising costs

We want to be sensitive to folks who are genuinely feeling economically pinched. But...
1. It's still a discretionary hobby.
2. IME nearly every game can be bought cheaper (and some cases free!), whether that's by getting it in PDF for indie/OSR games, or discounted on Amazon for bigger publishers like WotC.
3. Half the complaints about price I've ever seen are clearly from people who haven't bothered to pull up an inflation calculator.

The AD&D 1E DMG was $13 in 1979. $13 in November 1979 is the equivalent of $52.83 today.

When you include discounters like Amazon, D&D is cheaper today than it ever has been. And that's not even accounting for the 5E Basic rules being a free PDF, or various retroclone and OSR games (like BFRPG or The Nightmares Underneath) which are available for free download. Or the ability to access most of the rules just using D&D Beyond or an SRD. (and some retroclones that way too)

 

[Bedrockgames]

We want to be sensitive to folks who are genuinely feeling economically pinched. But...
1. It's still a discretionary hobby.

Sure, I don't see how that justifies dismissing peoples concern about cost.

2. IME nearly every game can be bought cheaper (and some cases free!), whether that's by getting it in PDF for indie/OSR games, or discounted on Amazon for bigger publishers like WotC.

Often this is the case. It depends on the game. I think most people like being able to buy the core book at a price that feels good to them. What they are willing to spend is a factor publishers have to consider.

3. Half the complaints about price I've ever seen are clearly from people who haven't bothered to pull up an inflation calculator.

The AD&D 1E DMG was $13 in 1979. $13 in November 1979 is the equivalent of $52.83 today.

When you include discounters like Amazon, D&D is cheaper today than it ever has been. And that's not even accounting for the 5E Basic rules being a free PDF, or various retroclone and OSR games (like BFRPG or The Nightmares Underneath) which are available for free download. Or the ability to access most of the rules just using D&D Beyond or an SRD. (and some retroclones that way too)

Sure inflation is real. But it also doesn't matter if a person has adapted all their purchases to RPG books costing a certain amount. Whether inflation is the cause or not, to a lot of people, who don't feel their salaries have gone up with the cost of inflation, such changes are going to hurt. I am not saying companies are bad for charging more. I recently had to charge 50 bucks for a 270 sandbox adventure. I wanted to charge 29.99 or 39.99 at the very most. But it just wasn't feasible. However if people tell me it is not affordable, I understand. I don't spend that kind of money on a book casually myself

And I am not singling out D&D as being expensive. I just think in these conversations the argument that people shouldn't worry about the cost is dismissive. People in this hobby vary considerably in their financial situation and there are a lot of people who make less money than others, or who have other expenses they need to prioritize. We shouldn't be telling people they ought to buy a book because somebody else thinks the price is reasonable. If they find the price unreasonable, they find it unreasonable

 

[Willie the Duck]

Note: I read through this thread and noted people for quoting. By the time I was finished, I had so many quotes that no one would read a full response to everyone. So I am going to talk in generalities. That does mean I am going to repeat a lot of what others have said.

Is TTRPGing an "Expensive Hobby"​

I think the question runs headlong into a number of issues:

1. Gaming has always had a large contingent of kids saving allowances/teenagers spending summer job money/young adults living with 3 roommates and eating ramen most meals. It also has a large contingent of doctors/lawyers/middle+ managers/principle software developers/other highly compensated positions (or just 50 year olds at the peak of whatever career they have). There is simply never going to be a consensus on what a lot of money (in general, or to spend on a given hobby) even is.
2. Gaming has always had people who get their dice, core ruleset, and maybe a battlemap and then the rest is their own imagination. It also has always had people that have to have most-to-all of the material printed for a given system, possibly including multiple iterations of the same game. Even moreso, there are people who consistently pick up new systems, meaning they are collecting multiple game systems at once. How much is needed to game is not an answer with a single answer
3. Like many hobbies, the game also has secondary markets of add-ons/additional ways to spend money. These range from the semi-trivial (battlemats, a miniature per character), the the potentially excessive (miniatures for every potential monster and terrain for every potential scenario will add up quickly), to the gratuitous/conspicuous consumption (custom gaming tables and the like). Which of these 'count' towards the expense of the game vs. a general trend* in consumer goods is an open question. *kind of the 'does the existence of $500 running shoes or gold plated pens speak to the expense of jogging or writing?' question, writ large

In general, my position is that the game is not expensive. It does, however, engender a lot of FOMO-esque impulses which cause a lot of people to spend a lot on it.

 

[MGibster]

50 dollars for anything was very expensive for most of my life. Its only in the last 5 years or so that I’m to a point that 50 dollars seems trivial.

I hate to be a pedant (I love it, really), but inexpensive isn't the same as trivial. In 1996, the Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying game retailed for $40 ($80 in today's money). I was in my early twenties at the time, and although I didn't consider the book to be expensive, the cost certainly wasn't trivial. At that point in my life, I had to weigh the price against my other needs including rent, food, clothing, etc., etc. Purchasing that book represented a good portion of my entertainment budget for that pay period. I wouldn't be able to purchase another RPG until the next pay period at the earliest. And sometimes I just didn't have the budget for any game, period. But I stil ldidn't think of RPGs as an expensive hobby.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Deleted. Completed misread the game title lol