Are you required to bring your own books when you game?

[Li Shenron]

In our first gaming group in early 3rd edition days, I (the DM) was the only one owning the 3 corebooks, and no other books were used yet. I gave the players a few photocopies of the class they were playing + spell list, but nothing else - not even the race wes necessary. It was hard for the spells description only which we had to lookup very often, but mostly it was ok to play that way.

Nowadays, basically everyone in our latest group has its own PHB and most of us has also DMed sometimes and own more books.

In any case, I would never DEMAND players to buy the PHB, in any case. Although I suppose that it's obvious that if they like playing well they are all soon going to buy it and start exploring their characters options.

 

[Grazzt]

Lessee...

Of my 5 players, usually 1 or 2 of them bring a PHB with during any given session, but we just share around.

Yep- that's how its worked for us since the early days of 1e.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I require PHB's and if any player casts Monster Summoning type spells they had better have a MM. I don't see it as my responsibility to keep tabs on THEIR summoned creatures.

 

[glass]

In one of my groups, two guys (apart from me) have PHBs and 2 don't (well a third guy also doesn't, but due to work jerking him around, he doesn't come very often).

The other game, one other guy does and the remaining three don't. The one guy that does is common to both games.

I am also common to both (obviously), and have two!


glass.

 

[diaglo]

yeah in ye olde dayes i was the only one who had a copy of any books. most of my players didn't even have dice. they just had paper and a pen or pencil.

i don't require the players to have anything except...

a huge imagination and a willingness to have fun and provide fun for the others.

 

[Barak]

Well everyone in my group has a copy of the PHB. I don't think it's required, at least I've never been told it was (I'm the latest to join the group), it just seem to make sense (and we're all adults). However, I just started DMing a game of AU. I obviously have the book, and I was very pleasantly surprised when one of the players showed up with his own copy at the second session (I count making characters as the first session). Luckily, he happens to be playing the major spellcaster, so it's very convenient.

 

[Mystic_23]

Our group has several people who have the books, and pretty much anyone who has one will bring it around. But we don't require it. I guess it's because we've had too many players who we were introducing to the game. And a few who were what we call "gamer girlfriends"...that is, the girlfriends of one of the group who end up playing because their boyfriend plays. Most of the time this happened, the girlfriend liked playing, but didn't get into it enough to actually go out and buy the books.

 

[Desdichado]

We have no requirement. And 80k ain't what it used to be, either.

Then again, we only have one "fair weather" player who doesn't have one...

 

[Davelozzi]

I like when my players buy a copy of the book, and will encourage it by offering to pick one up for anyone who's interested on one of my frequent game store runs, but I don't require it.

Out of my seven players now:
-2 (wizard & psion) have PHBs (3.0) and a splatbook or two each
-2 (cleric & paladin) have PHBs (3.5)
-1 (rogue) has no books but makes extensive use of the SRD
-2 (both fighters) have nothing, and generally rely on me to tell them what changes occur when they level up. One of these two is my wife, so technically she has access to anything should she care to check it.
-And then I (the DM) have a huge library of game books, including a 3.5 PHB (which I use myself) and my old 3.0 PHB, which I leave out for other people to refer to during the game

This works pretty well for me. The spellcasters have 'em, which is good as they have to be familiar, or at least have ready access to their spells. The rogue knows his stuff well enough through the SRD to be well versed in all the rules that relate to his character. The fighters don't have books, but that's fine with me as so long as they have their attacks statted out, they're generally good to go. The extra PHB is nice to have on hand for when stuff does come up.

Generally, everyone who owns a book tries to bring it to the game, usually any one of them will happen to forget on a given session.

 

[Zappo]

Whoa... currently, between my entire group we have two full sets of 3.0 core rules and one full set of 3.5 rules. And the only reason we have duplicate 3.0 manuals is that one of the players is also the master of a campaign with another group. We would never dream of getting duplicates of anything except maybe the PHB. That money is better spent on new stuff, and dedication is better proved by contributing to the purchasing of the new stuff.