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

[Morrus]

I get annoyed if I'm the only one who has a PHB and my book is being shared by an entire group. It gets even worse when peple want to borrow it to take home.

I do think that it's good manners for people to buy at the very least a PHB. After all, I'm hosting them, running a game for them, supplying numerous other books, etc.

 

[Desdichado]

Our groups main requirement from players is a commitment to pay regularly.

Yeah, how can I keep GMing if I can't get my players to pay my salary? GMs have to eat too, y'know!

 

[RFisher]

If you don't know the rules because you don't have the book, why, as a DM, should I let you slow down the rest of the players to see how the skill Sleight of Hand works?

Why does a player need to know how the skill Sleight of Hand works?

All a player needs to know is whether his character has the skill and what his modifier is. (Which is on their character record.)

The player just tells the DM what his character tries to do. The DM then decides whether Sleight of Hand is appropriate and how to use it.

The player might ask the DM what his character thinks of his chances for success at a particular action. Again, the player doesn't need to know any rules for that.

Well, that's what works for me. I like players who are knowledgable about the rules because they can help me remember things and make cogent arguments about how to handle gray areas. I don't expect that players need to know the rules, though. In fact, sometimes I wish a player who knows the rules would forget them: Don't worry about rules, just tell me what your character does.

 

[EricNoah]

I don't think we'd play a game if everyone wasn't on board enough to buy the core book. For additional rules, there needs to be a copy present for reference but I don't care if it's mine or someone else's.

 

[Farland]

I do require all of my players to buy a PHB. The reason is that that way they have it at home to look it over. Otherwise they never have any clue how anything works, and that irritates me.

 

[bubbalin]

My groups DM/GM philosophy is to require everyone playing to buy and bring their own core rulebook.

Basically, if you aren't dedicated enough to the game to purchase your own book, then you aren't dedicated enough to play in the game.

Back in high school we had issues with players photocopying entire books, or slowing the game down by passing them around the table because all the players but one or two were too cheap to buy the book on their own.

If its a matter of income, you get a pass. But some people in my group are making over 80K a year and still photocopy or pirate stuff off the net. I for one appreciate the hard work that the RPG writers put into their work so I put my foot down and now require actual purchased copies of any rulebook that will be used in play.

I have found that my players are more serious once they have invested money in a game. And the game itself speeds up when passing the lone rulebook around the table is no longer a problem.

What do you do in your game and why?

I wish I could get this going in my group...
There is a lack of dedication all around...
Unfortunately we're all students, so... but the day will come...

 

[MerricB]

I strongly advise that each of my players has their own copy of the PHB 3.5E (I had two players join six months before 3.5E came out, and we advised them to hold off until it came out).

In the case that they don't have a copy, I require they have a copy of the spells they can cast from the 3.5E SRD. (I'll normally run off a copy for them).

With regards to supplements, I only allow a feat or prestige class to be taken if both the player and I have a copy of the book from which it comes. As I have pretty much all of the official D&D non-setting books, that isn't much of a problem from my end, and I don't use much d20 material except some Malhavoc books in my game.

Cheers!

 

[Buttercup]

Let's see...I have two couples at my gaming table. They each have one PHB between them. Another player has his own. Yet another player has a PHB that is on long-term loan from me, because there was a money issue. The last player, my husband, has his own. As do I. So we have 6 PHBs among 8 people. So far this has been fine.

 

[NiTessine]

I require that all my players have a PHB and bring it to sessions. We do cut some slack to newbies, though, since we're just poor students. In the past, we've pooled our cash to buy members of the group a new PHB for Christmas or birthday present.

 

[clark411]

We don't have hard and fast rules in my group, but I know that when I"m playing, i find it very disjointing to be asked to drop out of the lala land of fantasy and let someone borrow my PHB. I use mine to roll on as a bit of superstition, and rarely look anything up in it unless asked to, but it still throws me off momentarily and I'd rather do without it.

Mostly this is the case as I've never seen someone actually borrow a book for 1 minute. Generally, they leave the book open to the page they need for a good half hour, don't give it back, and if you do get it back for a few minutes, they ask for it again almost immediately to again flip it to their page and leave it open beside them.

Yes J. I'm talking about you.