Buying to not use

[Professor Murder]

So I am curious.
Disposable income is a resource and being a TTRGP hobbyist is often about managing that resource. I am curious as to how my spending compares to others.
Specifically, I buy RPG books knowing that my real use of them in a game may not exist. I have games in my collection, mostly PDFs, that are for games I honestly can't expect to ever run, while others I may only run a handful of times. Even for games which I actively play, like DnD and CoC, I own books that I expect to never use more than a handful of pages of in any meaningful way.
So why do I buy them? Two fold.
1) I buy books to read them, for me. I do homebrewing and I benefit from reading materials and taking in new ideas and approaches, even if I am not going to use them directly.
2) I want to support my hobby. This matters more for small publishers and kickstarters but also most content in charity bundles I pick up. I vote with my dollar.

What about you? Do you only buy materials you intend to use at your table? Do you buy materials just to read or just to push the hobby in directions you appreciate?

 

[the Jester]

I buy as much rpg stuff for inspiration and reading enjoyment as I do for actual use in game. For instance, I buy older edition material still; I buy a few setting and adventure books that I know I'll never use (I'm an inveterate homebrewer); heck, I buy entire games I'll never play because they look or sound interesting (Blue Rose, hello there).

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I won't lie, buying games became my way of compensating for not being able to play them during the first two years of the pandemic, so I kind of broke my own rules. But here's my list, do not that some of these categories overlap.

• There's games I intend to run. My bookcase is full of them. I have the luck of working with other people that have similar interest and so access to a large pool of players, it's very easy to find players.
• There's games which books are fun to read, and I might buy the books to read the flavor, the lore, look at the art. I buy them for the same reason you'd buy an art book, they're beautiful objects.
• There's games that I don't intend to play, but out of professional curiosity I want to read through to stay up to date, be exposed to new mechanics and just have fun theorizing about its mechanics.

If a product does not fit one of these categories, I tend not to buy it. Where I fail at being responsible with my disposable income is in splatbooks and sourcebooks. I tend to buy additional books for systems I haven't ran yet. I bought literally product for Forbidden Lands because I've been excited to run it for months, but I ended up not being too crazy about the system. Yeah, that feels bad.

Also, I don't really buy products just to support someone or a certain genre of games. It's rarely been a factor in my purchase decisions.

 

[Ulfgeir]

I buy books for different reasons. Sometimes because it feels interesting, and might have mechanics that are novel, or an interesting setting. I also buy the books that I have helped proofread (very seldom have I been given copies of them, think that has happened only 2 or 3 times). Or I have nostalgic reasons for something that I have had fun playing. And Yes, I buy books even if I am only a player and not the gm.

 

[FriendlyFiend]

I'm a writer/story editor; often I'll buy a game book (or a pdf bundle) knowing I probably won't get to play it but being equally sure that something in there - not the crunch, more the way the material is approached - will spark a thought I can use in the day job. That said, I've bought many, many books desperately hoping to get to play them sometime ... even if, years later, I'm still waiting for that time to arise. Right now, any actual gaming is pretty much Ironsworn and the occasional foray into D&D 5E.

 

[Yora]

A lot of the books I bought over the years were just to butcher them for choice pieces and then discard.
I don't do that much anymore as the amount of actually interesting stuff I actually found wasn't worth it most of the time.

 

[Morrus]

I've definitely bought stuff to read. A new TTRPG comes out every day; even if I played a new game every single day, I'd never be able to catch up with them.

 

[payn]

I prefer PDF for running games, but do enjoy books to toss on the shelf or for reading. I have been jumping on kick starters that give me both which is really nice! When that's not an option, I usually buy PDFs of stuff I know I'm gonna run, and buy physical for stuff that I really like but likely wont run. Despite having disposable income, I'm guessing I'm on the lower end of hobby spending for my age group.
I share some similarities to the OP. I like to support the hobby economically and mine for ideas too.

 

[Professor Murder]

tend not to buy it. Where I fail at being responsible with my disposable income is in splatbooks and sourcebooks. I tend to buy additional books for systems I haven't ran yet. I bought literally product for Forbidden Lands because I've been excited to run it for months, but I ended up not being too crazy about the system. Yeah, that feels bad.

The impulse to engage in completionism is strong. Definitely have bought things I should not have bothered with as a result. Or just dipping deeper into a game or setting because, "well if I did run it, I would want rules for X". Hell, most White Wolf purchases I made were for this reason.

 

[Alzrius]

I buy a lot of RPGs for their potential use, i.e. that I might use them in the future. I might not be running a desert campaign now, nor do I plan to anytime in the foreseeable future, but I might someday, and since bestiaries, compendiums of spells and items, environmental supplements, etc. all have a long bookshelf-life (see what I did there?), I figure "why not?"