[POLL] Multiple RPG Books in Your Group?

[Justin D. Jacobson]

I was considering what books to roll out for a product line I'm developing, and I got to thinking.... You will hear many publishers warn against doing GM-only books, notably adventure modules. The thinking goes that you are limiting in advance your potential market. However, in my group, other than the core books, we rarely purchase multiple copies of any books. If one player gets a cool PC-oriented book, the others won't run out and buy it but, rather, look through it before or after the session or borrow it until the next one.

What's your multiple-book situation?

 

[DaveMage]

My "group" consists of people who sometimes (though not often) play in other groups so we all have copies of the same books - some for players and some for DMs.

 

[Thanee]

Lots of copies here, especially the core books are owned by at least four different players, but also many of the others.

Bye
Thanee

 

[diaglo]

i have multiple copies of some books.

and all the other players have books too.

so yeah, we have more books than cents.

 

[IronWolf]

Lots of copies here. The core books are certainly in abundance as well as a fair number of other source books.

 

[Frostflame]

Our group has multiple core books (all twice) the rest only once but those are mostely mine and a friend of mine's (we two own 11 of the 16 books).

 

[Wombat]

Only duplicates of the core (AU in our case).

Then again, we aren't using a really wide range of books...

 

[Red Chapel]

Can't afford multiple copies

One of our players/DMs has tons of books from WotC and other companies. We depend on him for most of our books. Some of us have 'special interests', so we'll be the one to buy a certain subset of materials (relieving him of some of the burden). Overall, most of us just don't have the money to put into getting multiple copies so everyone has one (that darned mortgage payment!); when 3.5 came out, not everyone even bothered with getting the PH, let alone all 3 core books. There's just a limit to how much you can buy -- and shelve.

Red Chapel

 

[Arnwyn]

Only multiple copies of the PHB in our group.

You will hear many publishers warn against doing GM-only books, notably adventure modules. The thinking goes that you are limiting in advance your potential market.

While that may be true, I consider it a laughable position when my experience (and the - now older - WotC marketing survey) is taken into account. IME, the GM out-buys the players by more then 50 to 1. Combined with the fact that for our group, the GM approves all material that enters the game (and the GM must own a copy), it's pointless for the players to just go out an buy player-oriented material for that particular game. And rightfully so.

But, that's just my anecdotal experience.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Our group has multiple core books, as well as multiple copies of other books. However, that's because there's at least 2 of us that DM our own D&D games. In some cases, we'll only have 1 copy of a particular book (like the Complete series stuff), but for the most part, it's a safe bet to guess that there'll be a copy of a core book as well as a copy of another rules book (like Arms & Equipment, Unearthed Arcana, Manual of the Planes, Book of Vile Darkness/Exalted Deeds, etc.).