Patlin said:15 to 20 hardcover books at $20 to $30 each, plus subscriptions to Dungeon and Dragon. And I thought I bought a lot of stuff...
My wife plays too and justy uses my stuff.
I just did this math on another forum:
At a rough count, I own 225 books from 3.0 or 3.5 (including third-party material). If we assume an average price of $20, I've got about $4,500 sunk in 3rd Edition. (Perhaps a little less, since I've also got my reference comp copies of some of my freelance work mixed into
that count.)
I also own roughly 140 books from previous editions of (A)D&D. Which actually surprises me. I hadn't realized that my 3rd Edition collection had so vastly dwarfed my (A)D&D material. My (A)D&D collection always felt larger to me. But that's probably because my (A)D&D collection was largely purchased during grade school and high school, whereas 3rd Edition has been primarily post-college now. (So the difference is one of percentage of income. I scraped for every penny I could to buy books for (A)D&D back in the day.)
Now that I think on it, I guess I've been actively playing 3rd Edition for longer than previous editions, too. I came to the game in 1989 and by 1994, IIRC, I had largely abandoned the game. I was definitely no longer an AD&D player when the Player's Option and were coming out (1995). So that's 4-5 years of player vs. 8 years of play to date (since I first started playing 3rd Edition when Ryan Dancey sent my playtest material in 1999).
Justin Alexander
http://www.thealexandrian.net