Your RPG $$$s

[Dioltach]

The only thing I still need to buy is a group of friends willing to commit to a twice-weekly game so we can actually complete one of our campaigns.

Oh, and the time and energy to commit to a twice-weekly game.

That said, over the past year my interest has shifted to boardgames. Treasure Island, Nemesis and War of the Ring FTW!

 

[Salamandyr]

I've been gradually amassing all the OD&D and AD&D material that I lusted for as a child and teen but couldn't have. Along the way I fell back in love with the editions I grew up on.

 

[ccs]

Where does my "Hobby Budget" get spent each year....

GenCon/gaming conventions.
This is the largest % of the yearly Hobby Budget - mostly due to hotel rooms.

Miniatures/Miniature Wargaming.
The second largest slice of the pie.
Mostly spent on miniatures, but terrain & carry bags from Battlfoam add up.

Between these two we're at about 85% of the budget most years.

Board Games.
I'll usually add about 3 games/year.

D&D/other RPGs.
Despite playing regularly I don't really buy much in the way of RPG materiel anymore.
2019 was a heavy year - Avernus (5e), Ebberron (5e), the 4 PF2 books currently out, & The Slumbering Tsar Saga adventure for PF (a gargantuan tome, but too good a price to pass on).
But usually it's only 1, maybe two books.

DICE.
Not a huge %, but $ does get spent in this category.
*Very often when I get to sit on the player side of the screen I'll buy a set of dice for that character.
After nearly 40 years of playing these games I don't really need to do this. I've got plenty of dice....
So about 1 new set of dice/year on average.
*A few months back the shop got in a selection of large (about 2.5x normal size) metal dice - silver edges/#s, assorted colors in the facings. They're waaay to heavy to roll decently (I tried), but damn the bright orange ones look cool. So now there's a big metal silver/orange D20 on my desk.
*The other year I invested in a very nice dice tray (mostly for use by a particular player in our Sunday game - but it's come in handy since)
*I'm also a miniature wargamer. If it's true that I don't need any more "D&D" dice, then it's many times as true concerning d6s.... But EVERY army I have, & EVERY army I'll build in the future, has it's own set of dice in its' carry case. A tape measure too. When possible I also like the dice to have the factions flag/symbol/unit insignia on the 6. Each army also has a large (2") brightly colored d6 with it - used as the turn counter.

 

[bedir than]

A big, framed wall mounted map

 

[pemerton]

I spent a lot of money on 4e D&D books when those were being published, as I played that system regularly for over 6 years and it is a list-heavy system (being D&D) and WotC charged fairly heavily for the lists!

When I started a Classic Traveller campaign a couple of years ago I bought a dozen or so PDFs to complement the dozen or so books I already owned. This was around $40 US, so at that time a bit over $50 Australian.

At the moment I am mostly playing Prince Valiant - I backed the Kickstarter for this and got two Prince Valiant PDFs plus a Pendragon PDF.

Looking at my DriveThruRPG library, the last PDF I purchased there was Harlem Unbound. I've read bits of it but not used it in play. I also bought a few PDFs more recently from itch.io, for maybe $10 Australian in total.

The last physical book I remember buying was the revised/corrected version of Burning Wheel Gold (including shipping this was around $80 Australian). I am GMing one Burning Wheel game and playing another - both are active if currently sporadic due to time issues.

Since I ceased purchasing 4e books I would therefore say that my most extensive RPGing outlay has been on food for sessions! I don't anticipate any change in my spending habits in the near future, as the next two games I would like to run are Wuthering Heights (free download) and Apocalypse World (purchased by me years ago from Lumpley games as part of a PDF package that I paid $25 US for at a time when the USD and AUD were close to parity).

 

[Voadam]

For me the vast majority is PDFs. I have a large collection of RPGs in both print and PDFs and not a lot of room for more physical books so I only buy the occasional physical thing I could use (battle maps and the Ravenloft Tarokka deck have come up recently). I play in a group that has done various systems but is mostly 5e now and I am currently running a 5e Carrion Crown converted adventure path homebrewed game. I am interested in a ton of materials as reference, but have more than I will ever read or use as it is. So I do not have an intense desire for most specific things even though I have an interest in getting lots of stuff.

So I get things I am interested in on sale, generally in bundles. Mostly gothic horror-themed stuff (Ravenloft, Ustalav, Leagues of Horror, etc.), monster books, interesting settings, god books, viking-themed stuff, fey-themed stuff, demon/devil/fiend-themed stuff, undead-themed stuff, neat adventures, and quirky stuff that looks fun (Doctor Who sourcebooks have been an interest).

 

[Zaukrie]

I like to give my money to people like Matt Colville, in thanks for all the great youtube videos......and Kobold Press because I really like reading their stuff......and some random person that created a psionics PDF on DMSGUILD (or drivethru). Basically, I'm currently giving my money to smaller companies. Of course, I'm currently unemployed, so I'm not spending as much as I was.

If I had money to burn again, I'd buy more minis (I sold a thousand or so when we moved) and a lot more terrain....a lot more terrain. And, I'd buy a lot more PDFs from random people, because they work hard on those things and deserve some reward.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Let's say that you are, unlike me, someone with real, bona fide disposable income that you can afford to spend on TTRPG related stuff. Good for you! What do you want to spend it on?

This is one reason the RPG industry has a problem. I have disposable income and I am a TTRPG gamer with a shelf full of books. But what do I really want to get? My two latest acquistions have been a book full of battle maps and a good quality wooden dice tower.

Seriously, I have shelves full of RPG books for systems I'm never going to run - and I have several Bones Kickstarter deliveries of minis I'm unlikely to paint. I'm on the lookout for something that makes me see the world in a new way or a system that makes me think a new way about either gaming or its setting. But ultimately I have enough material to run two or three games a week for years, and only buy when things catch my specific interest.

Yes, this is a problem when it comes to the RPG industry.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

About the only thing I spend money on D&D or RPG related is miniatures and dungeon terrain. I run S&W and its one book, and after spending 50 on the adventure I'm running, Rappan Athuck, I haven't purchased anything else in the past couple years.

 

[CleverNickName]

If dice and dice-related accessories are off the table, I tend to spend my RPG money on:

• HeroForge custom minis.
• Primer, paint, and brushes.
• New battle mats.
• Easel-sized pads of 1" ruled graph paper.
• Wet-erase markers (we go through these like crazy).
• Rarely, some reusable 3D scenery. Like this boat from Etsy: