Buying to not use

[Fenris-77]

So, true talk now, we all buy these games because we're all waiting for that inevitable List all the games you own thread that comes up semi-regularly. Right?

 

[Thomas Shey]

Before every game purchase, I ask myself how likely it is that I'll actually put the product to use. If I deem it unlikely, I give it a pass, even if I think it's a good game. It's not that I can't afford a bunch of games, I just don't want my house cluttered with games I'll never play.

One of the advantages (and in my case, part of the initial reason I started) to buy in PDF.

 

[Thomas Shey]

So, true talk now, we all buy these games because we're all waiting for that inevitable List all the games you own thread that comes up semi-regularly. Right?

It'd be a long job to even do that. Though not everything in there is a game per se (character sheets, pullouts, various add-ons) Properties tells me my RPG folder (including all the subfolders sorting things in various ways) has nearly 75000 items in it, and that's not counting the hundred or so in my new-purchases-not-yet-sorted folder.

 

[Fenris-77]

It'd be a long job to even do that. Though not everything in there is a game per se (character sheets, pullouts, various add-ons) Properties tells me my RPG folder (including all the subfolders sorting things in various ways) has nearly 75000 items in it, and that's not counting the hundred or so in my new-purchases-not-yet-sorted folder.

We should have a club.

 

[Thomas Shey]

We should have a club.

Its kind of ridiculous when I look at it, but virtually everything there had a reason I got it at one time, and since I'm an archivist (which some people would no doubt argue is not easily distinguishable from a textual pack rat) and its space consumption is not excessive given my hard drive size, there they sit, including some I may literally never look at again that my wife will have to decide what to do with some day.

 

[Mage of Spellford]

I unapologetically buy a lot of books that I know I will never use in my game and I always have and I always will. I just turned sixty a couple of days ago. I've done the family thing and raised a great bunch of kids. Worked on tech since I was fourteen. Been all over the world. Ran my own business. I think that there are a lot worse ways of spending my $ and I love buying books. 'nuff said.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Why I buy/aquire RPG products:

1) to play the actual game in question, immanently

2) in hopes of playing that game eventually

3) to mine for ideas in systems I’m more likely to play

4) pure curiosity

Between those 4 motivating forces, I actually got to over 100 different RPG systems at one point, including playtests for games that were never released. I’ve culled that down to somewhere under 70 at this point. There’s a few out there on my Buy List, but I’m not in an active gaming group at the moment, so ( paraphrasing Rush’s “Hemispheres“) the urge to buy these fine things seems not to be so strong.

 

[aramis erak]

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?

I buy some for reading alone - usually in bundles so I get much of a line in PDF for the cost of the corebook.

The ones I buy dead tree are usually bought for use.

Many PDFs I buy on speculation of being able to run them.

Warlock, I picked up to see what someone else was on about... I then started grabbing the other books for it because, despite low probability of hitting the table, it's an interesting read. I like extracting setting from tables & Mechanics.

Blade Runner... both my groups want to try. I want the game. So, dining budget chopped for the month...

Talisman Adventures... bought the PDF, loved it, bought dead tree, ran it... advancement is a bit fast, but it's a fun low-prep. Plan to get the Dungeons supplement when it ships next month. It's a seriously quirky setting. I plan on it next,,, for one group or the other. It's also almost all player facing rolls... (exceptions: encounters, NPC damage to PCs)

I bought the Numenera bundle because I wanted to know why it's so hyped... and so despised... It clearly points to Monte Cook upping the Dying Earth influences quite a bit from his d20 system roots; the system has a very different approach to attributes; I find that interesting... but I don't have much interest in running it. If one of my groups asked nicely, I'd run it. I doubt they will.

Only three dead tree purchases in the last year are likely to not see play...
Neoclassical Greek Revival - was curious, was on sale, and the PDF+POD+Shipping was a few cents above the PDF usual price.
ACE core... price was right. Again, PDF+POD. A sale (possibly with errors) put it pennies more for PDF+POD. Too light, too constrained, but man, it reads well dead tree. I'm not averse to running it, but have no
TOR2e. thanks to the PDF, I know the offset printed one won't see play, nor will the PDF. I'll stick with 1E as a far better game and much further better Tolkien feel.

 

[delericho]

I used to get a whole lot of stuff just because it interested me - in some cases this included supplements for games I didn't own the core book for.

This then shifted to only considering supplements for games I actually owned, and then I took a conscious decision to only buy core books for games I actually intended to run. And at that point I divided games into two piles - those I'd buy everything for, and those I'd buy only (or almost only) the core book for.

This then got pared back further, to buying only those games I intended to run very soon. Which has now been pared back to only D&D 5e. And following "Storm King's Thunder" I've basically given up on their adventures, after "Tasha's Cauldron" I've given up on their rules expansions, and after "Van Richten's Guide" I'm not interested in their settings. So I'm running out of things to buy!

It's still not absolute - I backed the A5e Kickstarter despite knowing I'd never really get a chance to use it. But it's getting there.

And, in the meantime, I've now culled my collection twice. The first time saw me getting rid of an awful lot of dross - mostly those orphaned supplements and a lot of games I knew I'd never touch again. Oh, and a whole lot of third-party 3.5e supplements. The second time saw me get rid of all my Pathfinder 1e books apart from adventures - I'd decided PF just wasn't for me, and in any case I have a load of them in PDF should I change my mind.

The third cull, if it comes, will probably be old magazines - I'll probably keep Dragon and Dungeon, but probably not all those random issues of Arcane, and Backstab, and White Dwarf I have littering the place.

 

[aramis erak]

You just reminded me that the original Aliens RPG back in the 90s was published by Leading Edge Games and used a "simplified" version of the system they used for Phoenix Command.

I'm now imagining what their version of a Blade Runner RPG would have looked like...

LEG was more into tables than was ICE. Aliens Adventure Game was a chart hater's nightmare, and did remove more than 50% of the Phoenix Command tables, and shrtened the PC tables it did keep.