Annual RPG and Games Budget?

[Mercurius]

Like many, the vast majority of game books I buy are not for use in a game session, but for some combination of campaign inspiration and reading pleasure. Sometimes I'll buy a book just because the game looks cool, and I want to see what it is about (e.g. recently the game Nibiru).

I have culled the herd many times over the years, most recently sending a big box of about 35 books to Noble Knight for....store credit, which I used to buy seven (new) books, none of which I'm likely to directly use in a game session.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Man...I spend pretty freely:

First it was board games...stacks. Always get the new D&D edition. Well, 1st was used but then third, skipped 2nd, 3rd, skipped 3.5, bought 4th and played once! And now have most 5th.

but for me that is not the money sink.

I buy prepainted minis and terrain for tabletop Wargamers/D&D as well as tools to craft them like my table Hotwire cutter.

I spend hundreds a year I am sure. And there are big purchases. I bought a game table from Geek Chic back in the day (still love it!) and glass display cabinets for minis.

I buy most of what I want but temper it. So would say an average of 1200 a year, maybe.

however, I don’t hunt; I don’t play sports, (paintball equipment but it’s old now), I don’t ride motorcycles, don’t get into expensive clothes.

so games are my priority. I like to drive a faster car, so that is extra hobby money I guess (not a Lamborghini! More like a WRX) and go to a few heavy metal concerts a year with shirts and beers on site.

but otherwise games are it. Oh yeah video games...but most of that is for the kids. Mostly.

I justify it thusly: I work very hard. My job is stressful. And I prefer D&D and related toys to anything.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

I buy most of what I want but temper it. So would say an average of 1200 a year, maybe.

Mmm just for curiosity... let me see the money.xls... then from Jan2020 to Oct2020....

WTF! 2100 €....

Ok.... I MUST STOP

MORRUS you are jointly responsible of my ruin. Stop kickstarting. NOW

 

[Stormonu]

About two, maybe three years ago I had a game room with six bookshelves dedicated to D&D alone - along with three other bookshelves for other RPGs and two more shelves for wargames.

We had to have our roof redone because of water leaks, and some work done on the ceiling on the game room. So I took the opportunity to weed down the excess. Went down to one bookshelf for D&D, one for other RPGs and kept one for wargames (though I added two for the actual miniatures). Other stuff went off to storage with the intent to sell it off as I could.

Some D&D and RPG stuff has come back, making the game shelves more than a bit crowded, but still limited to one apiece. Where possible, I've transferred to PDF books instead of hard copies. I did manage to sell some of the old books, but just a handful - the remainder is still in storage, and I'd like to get rid of it (sorta).

Unfortunately, my budget for games is still out of control. I'd curbed it at the start of the Covid crisis, but things around here have mostly returned to normal jobwise, so I've been spending again. Worst of all, I bought a resin 3D printer...

I really would like to buckle down, empty the storage unit and perform another game purge - but I feel like I'm at the level I'm comfortable with. Mayhaps I'll stop adding to my collections soon (as they're pretty well rounded out now), and I can start looking at letting some things go.

 

[MNblockhead]

Kickstarter has been my downfall. It mixes my interest in interesting, unique, items with supporting creators directly. I stopped buying adventures and new systems for the most part a couple years ago. I have more gaming material than I have time to play given my work and travel schedule. So most of my spend was on physical items like table dressing, maps, and various other cool at-table toys. But a year ago I took a job that required a being away from home more than not and then COVID comes along and now all my games are run on a VTT. I finally found the VTT I like and I'm running a mega dungeon that will take another year or more to complete and I have plenty of content after that.

So now I am only paying for my subscriptions to DnD Beyond and The Forge (which hosts my Foundry license). I'll occasionally back a Kickstarter for a known creator, but that is pretty much limited to new Lost Lands setting books.

I'm estimating my annual spend in TTRPG stuff going forward will be about: $796/year. I'm trying to bring that down as I really don't need to buy more stuff and I don't have the time to get my moneys worth out of my World Anvil subscription. I could stick with my subscriptions to The Forge, DnD Beyond, and Virtual Tabletop Assets. I should just keep away from Kickstarter. I don't have time to use the gaming stuff I'm buying on Kickstarter. If I cut all Kickstarter purchases and World Anvil, I'll bring my annual gaming spend to $421.

DnD Beyond: $55 a year
* Essential, I won't be ending any time soon.

World Anvil Subscription (Grandmaster Worldsmith level): $105/ year
* Not sure worth it for me as I'm not actively using it to worldbuild. I mainly have it because I subscribe to Lost Lands setting in World Anvil. I'll reassess when it comes to renew. I can see myself not renewing.

The Forge (Story Teller Level): $96/year, but I may need to upgrade to the World Builder level at $140/year

• this is the service I use for hosting my Foundry license
• worth every cent

Virtual Tabletop Assets (tools for Foundry VTT): $60/year ($5/month Patreon)

• add-on to Foundry that enable importing of D&D Beyond content that you subscribe to
• some other stuff, but I subscribe for the D&D Beyond importing tools
• I'll subscribe as long as the tools work and are not blocked by DnD Beyond, unless a better tool comes along, but this is by far the best tool for brining DnD Beyond content into Foundry that I've seen

Kickstarter: $480 a year

• I have $570 worth of Kickstarter projects scheduled to deliver from November through May 2021.
• So, about $81/month on Kickstarter. But that is high because many were items bought before COVID, I'm hardly backing any new Kickstarters now. So I halved my estimated annual Kickstarer spend from estimated $960/year to $480. Which is still too much. I expect that unless my lifestyle changes and I can start running games in person again, that my Kickstarter spend on games will drastically decrease.