Is TTRPGing an "Expensive Hobby"

[overgeeked]

I think I could have gotten all of the classic mystery novels I wanted through interlibrary loan at my university, but I'm not sure about the local public library.

Yeah, your local library almost certainly has interlibrary loan and is part of WorldCAT.

Between the library and legal ebook sites like Project Gutenberg, if someone's a reader they're effectively set for life without ever having to spend a dime on their hobby.

If you're a movie watcher or a TV watcher, your local library more than likely has you set as well. While not as good as a streaming service in selection, most decently-sized libraries will have collections of movies and TV shows as well. Several of them also have streaming and mobile apps. Like Hoopla and the Libby App, which is used by 90% of libraries in the USA.

One part of this that keeps being skipped over is how much you can actually engage with the hobby for the price of admission. You're playing D&D on the cheap, cool. But how much do you actually get to play? Your average game is what, once a month? Most people here are diehard fans so, at a guess, the average is closer to once a week. But the diehard fans here are also certainly not playing on the cheap. So you're playing what, 5 hours a week with those hundreds of dollars of books. That's great.

You can engage with other hobbies more often and for less money. But that doesn't send anyone scrambling to those hobbies, does it?

Which was one of the points I was trying to make initially. Doing a cost-benefit analysis of hobbies isn't actually convincing to anyone. Take, for example, the above bits about libraries and reading for free for the rest of your life. Unless you were already an avid reader, you're not suddenly going to jump on reading as a hobby because you can do it cheaply. So it's literally a pointless thing to say.

Another part of this that was lost in the move, cost in dollars is objective but how expensive that feels to someone is entirely subjective. If you have $500 in the bank, a $50 book for a game you might never play is outrageously expensive. If you have $5000 in the bank, a $50 book for a game you might never play is a literal drop in the bucket. If you have $50,000 in the bank, you might not even notice that you've bought the entire official line of D&D books for at or near full-retail price.

 

[TheSword]

Yeah, your local library almost certainly has interlibrary loan and is part of WorldCAT.

Between the library and legal ebook sites like Project Gutenberg, if someone's a reader they're effectively set for life without ever having to spend a dime on their hobby.

If you're a movie watcher or a TV watcher, your local library more than likely has you set as well. While not as good as a streaming service in selection, most decently-sized libraries will have collections of movies and TV shows as well. Several of them also have streaming and mobile apps. Like Hoopla and the Libby App, which is used by 90% of libraries in the USA.

One part of this that keeps being skipped over is how much you can actually engage with the hobby for the price of admission. You're playing D&D on the cheap, cool. But how much do you actually get to play? Your average game is what, once a month? Most people here are diehard fans so, at a guess, the average is closer to once a week. But the diehard fans here are also certainly not playing on the cheap. So you're playing what, 5 hours a week with those hundreds of dollars of books. That's great.

You can engage with other hobbies more often and for less money. But that doesn't send anyone scrambling to those hobbies, does it?

Which was one of the points I was trying to make initially. Doing a cost-benefit analysis of hobbies isn't actually convincing to anyone. Take, for example, the above bits about libraries and reading for free for the rest of your life. Unless you were already an avid reader, you're not suddenly going to jump on reading as a hobby because you can do it cheaply. So it's literally a pointless thing to say.

Another part of this that was lost in the move, cost in dollars is objective but how expensive that feels to someone is entirely subjective. If you have $500 in the bank, a $50 book for a game you might never play is outrageously expensive. If you have $5000 in the bank, a $50 book for a game you might never play is a literal drop in the bucket. If you have $50,000 in the bank, you might not even notice that you've bought the entire official line of D&D books for at or near full-retail price.

I’m not sure that’s realistically how most people view purchasing… deciding hobby purchase based on how much they have sat in a bank account somewhere. You seem to viewing accessibility as whether people overcome a particular threshold financially.

Purchasing power comes down to disposable income. It’s not whether you can afford it. For most people $50 for the core book you need to play is certainly within reach. It’s whether you chose to spend your disposable income on that rather than whisky, cigarettes, your car, clothing, dinners out, holidays or the cinema.

TTRPGs are not only within the disposable income of most people, they are also extremely good value for money from a cost benefit point of view if you play them regularly and can be sold on for a good proportion of what you paid. They’re a win all round.

 

[overgeeked]

I’m not sure that’s realistically how most people view purchasing… deciding hobby purchase based on how much they have sat in a bank account somewhere. You seem to viewing accessibility as whether people overcome a particular threshold financially.

For me, my disposable income is what's sat in a bank account after bills are paid. So yeah, that's literally how I think of it.

TTRPGs are not only within the disposable income of most people, they are also extremely good value for money from a cost benefit point of view if you play them regularly and can be sold on for a good proportion of what you paid. They’re a win all round.

I wish you'd have read the rest of my post.

 

[FrogReaver]

But the question is RPG gaming expensive. If fifty dollars is a major worry, then it’s not that gaming is expensive, it’s that any hobby is expensive at that point.

Not really any, but probably most.

You can’t claim something is expensive when it’s as cheap or cheaper than many other options.

You really can. The cheapest high end luxury car is still expensive.

 

[Cadence]

Not really any, but probably most.

You really can. The cheapest high end luxury car is still expensive.

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[Thomas Shey]

I would say that a majority of the people I've gamed with over the better part of 40 years haven't spent money on anything more than transport and dice.

Yeah, I've heard that from other people over the years.

In my current group of myself plus seven, I'm the only significant spender. I have two players who will buy the core books for whatever game I run, and will occasionally purchase other systems of interest to themselves. Another doesn't spend money on the systems I run, but does have a bit of material for running games with his kids. That leaves three that have never bought an RPG rulebook in their lives, plus one who has bought a couple games of particular interest to himself. I think most of them have acquired their own dice at some point, although it's common for players to just grab from my giant pile.

Back in earlier days, when money was tighter, I didn't expect anyone at the table other than myself to have a copy of the rules -- you bought rules for games you planned to run, that was it. There are people who want to spend more money, and there are groups were the expectation is that everyone buys a copy of the rules, but it's certainly not the case that this is necessary.

In my case its been a my estimate of the person involved. I had one player for literally decades who was chronically skating along the edge of becoming a street person (only reason it didn't happen was he was astonishingly frugal); I never expected him to get anything except the occasional new die (and half the time I'd buy them for him). On the other hand, I played with a number of people who had not only more money than me, but considerably more. They could at least buy core books as far as I was concerned (and would get less-than-amused if they kept trying to borrow mine).

 

[MichaelSomething]

It is possible to generate money playing TTRPGs. Well, running them to be more precise. You can run paid campaigns on startplaying.games to turn your hobby into a side hustle. If the cost of an TTRPG book is that big of a financial burden on you, then you can turn that burden into an engine of opportunity.

 

[SableWyvern]

Yeah, I've heard that from other people over the years.



In my case its been a my estimate of the person involved. I had one player for literally decades who was chronically skating along the edge of becoming a street person (only reason it didn't happen was he was astonishingly frugal); I never expected him to get anything except the occasional new die (and half the time I'd buy them for him). On the other hand, I played with a number of people who had not only more money than me, but considerably more. They could at least buy core books as far as I was concerned (and would get less-than-amused if they kept trying to borrow mine).

I've never found a lack of books to be a practical issue at the table, so have felt no need to try and pressure anyone into buying anything.

Back when I was less solvent than I am now, my players have chipped in for minis and scenery, and would gladly have done more if I'd needed it and asked. The reason they're not buying books isn't because they're freeloaders or poor, they're just not needed and for some of my players it's just not a priority.

 

[MNblockhead]

It can get spendy, I have seen people drop a thousand on custom dice at gencon.

This is a good example of why this discussion can get complicated. "TTRPGs" can encompass a lot of side hobbies. Collecting dice can become an expensive hobby but it is not required to have expensive or even multiple sets of dice to play. If you stick with just what you need to play, an RPG is quite inexpensive as hobbies go. But for those who get really into TTRPGs, many expand the hobby into many side hobbies. A lot of the expenses I see discussed seem to be more "collector" hobbies. If you buy games that you don't play, you are just collecting them. Just about any TTRPG that you buy and actually play for a few sessions is quite cheap.

As many RPGs, esp. D&D move to more of an on-line and play-by-VTT subscription model, then it becomes more akin to streaming services. I think that changes the calculus.

You can get a TTRPG PDF for free or very cheap and, if it is a popular system, there will be lots of free fan-content online. But I would guess this isn't what most players are doing. I'm not even sure that most players are still playing using only physical books and pencil and paper.

I would be very interested in seeing a poll focused on just D&D that asks how much folks are paying for D&D Beyond and/or VTT subscriptions. Then compare that moving streaming service and video game spend. Also ask whether DMs are fronting all the subscription costs or if their group cost shares.

 

[MNblockhead]

The three core books on their own are cheap by comparison....unless you're looking to play an older edition e.g. 1e, where the books and some of the adventures are getting up there in price.

Older editions of D&D are cheap unless you want an original printing, in which case you are a collector, not just buying a game to play.

1e player's handbook is $10 for the PDF on DMs Guild.
Standard color hardcover print on demand is $18.
Premium color hardcover print on demand is $30.