RPG Supply Rental Business?

[DamionW]

Hello ENWorld!

I've been out of the hobby for awhile and yet it's always in the back of my mind. Recently, I've been on an entrepreneurial kick and had an idea. I wonder why no business model seems to be out there for RPG supply (map, miniatures, books, dice) rental, only retail. It seems a fair share of the stuff ends up used a limited number of times (really, how often do you need to break out that black dragon mini or the Temple of Lolth map?) and then either ends up on a shelf or back on eBay. Has anybody seen a supply rental operation and if one existed (picture DnD Netflix or Gamefly), would you avail yourself of it instead of buying new or used? Just trying to gauge market interest.

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[Umbran]

No, I wouldn't use such a service - broadly speaking, if I want gaming materials, I generally want them for an entire campaign, not for a single session.

I would expect rental to be a difficult service to make work. The variety of stock you'd need to keep on hand would be large, but the overall population of gamers in a given area is generally small. And dealing with folks outside your local area would be an issue if someone didn't return goods.

 

[delericho]

Yep, I agree with Umbran. I'm interested in rental for things that (1) I only have occasional need for, and (2) are sufficiently expensive that they're impractical just to own.

But if I were to rent RPG supplies, I'd be looking to use these once every 2 weeks for, potentially, a year (failing criterion 1). And the items in question are things like books, dice, or minis - although the cumulative value is high, each item is quite cheap, and since I don't need to buy them all at once, that fails criterion 2.

Now, if my accumulated library of RPG materials were destroyed in a fire and you were able to offer rental of a full set of 3e rulebooks and minis then I might be interested.

(The other model I might be interested to isn't a rental but rather a subscription - something like the DDI where I would have access to a full library of materials without needing the books. But there are only three recent games for which that would be worthwhile, I already have the books for 3e, I'm not interested in 4e, and the PF equivalent is online for free already. So I'm afraid that doesn't work for me, either.)

 

[DamionW]

Thanks for the feedback. My thought is less that any particular piece is expensive, and more that it gets expensive to provide variety as a whole. This is particularly true as a Dm, it seems. If you want a campaign with a climactic fight with fire giants in a volcano in one adventure and an aboleth in an underwater grotto in the next adventure, you seem to have to stockpile minis and maps to provide the visual aids. Granted, you can always play without any, but the product are available retail for a reason: players like the realism. But I thought a web-based service where you could obtain materials for a given adventure just long enough to run it might be better than having to horde things just in case you might use them.

 

[delericho]

But I thought a web-based service where you could obtain materials for a given adventure just long enough to run it might be better than having to horde things just in case you might use them.

Works in theory. In practice, though, I either have the stockpile that I've built up over several years, or I'll make do without.

 

[gamerprinter]

I could see a game store that has tables in place for games run in the store, offer a rental fee for things like cardboard kit buildings, those prefabricated metal or resin dungeon tiles (with walls, floors, doorways, statuary, etc.), or foam terrain. I only see daily rental for this. For low cost items like dice, I'd only sell them. A rented die can too easily disappear into a pocket - not to say your customers will be thieves, but the ease of such theft makes renting such impractical. Again all this comes from the idea that the rented material won't leave the premises - use of such items rented or free is only available in store.

 

[Umbran]

But I thought a web-based service where you could obtain materials for a given adventure just long enough to run it might be better than having to horde things just in case you might use them.

A web-based service? So, you are shipping materials to people by UPS, or the like?

What do you do when they don't send them back on time? That's going to be a headache, especially for small things like minis and dice that can easily disappear. Businesses generally rent locally, so that recovering wayward inventory isn't too burdensome.

 

[DamionW]

A web-based service? So, you are shipping materials to people by UPS, or the like?

What do you do when they don't send them back on time? That's going to be a headache, especially for small things like minis and dice that can easily disappear. Businesses generally rent locally, so that recovering wayward inventory isn't too burdensome.

My plan is you rent it out long enough, it's charged as a purchase and I replace the stock, kind of like redbox. You order at a weekly rate, and after a certain number of weeks, you keep the supply and are charged for it. Dice is an afterthought I threw in, I'm mainly thinking of minis and terrain (particularly the exotic stuff you don't use every campaign) and possibly adventure modules.

My general goal is to target the DM that wants variety in the props to support different campaigns, but doesn't want to be a collector. I'm not a collector. I don't want to curate a huge stock of minis and maps. But if, for example, I wanted to run an adventure where the players fight fire giants in a volcano, it'd be cool to have it long enough to run the sessions where the fight happens, and then send it back when I'm done. If I could do that at even 10% off the cost to purchase (which might be possible if I'm making revenue off each rental. I only have to buy it once to rent it out over and over), I'd utilize the service. I just didn't know if I was alone. Maybe everybody else wants the ownership, wants to be a collector, whatever the cost. Hence the pursuit of feedback before I crunch any numbers

 

[monsters.rent]

Hey this is a good idea, sorry, I accidentally posted twice so check out my real post below.

 

[monsters.rent]

Hello ENWorld!

I've been out of the hobby for awhile and yet it's always in the back of my mind. Recently, I've been on an entrepreneurial kick and had an idea. I wonder why no business model seems to be out there for RPG supply (map, miniatures, books, dice) rental, only retail. It seems a fair share of the stuff ends up used a limited number of times (really, how often do you need to break out that black dragon mini or the Temple of Lolth map?) and then either ends up on a shelf or back on eBay. Has anybody seen a supply rental operation and if one existed (picture DnD Netflix or Gamefly), would you avail yourself of it instead of buying new or used? Just trying to gauge market interest.

Thanks for any feedback.

Actually, that's the exact service we just launched: Monsters.Rent

It's still new and we're still getting it up off the ground but is this what you meant?
We're going to move into also renting terrain pieces and things like that as well.
Any feedback would be appreciated too