Game Purchase Priorities (Or are Gamers Broke?)

[BSF]

I am a gamer and I am fickle.

I don't like to spend money on questionable product. I want to buy stuff that I will get use out of. Many times, I will be looking at stuff I can get use out of soon. Stuff I am planning on dropping into the current campaign is a higher priority. Lately, I have also been looking at mini-games, and games that would make good one-shots. This month was Feng Shui. My birthday present money went toward things like Grimm, Spellslinger, and Virtual. I imagine I will be looking at the new Paranoia Hardcover soon too.

I allocate ~ $50/month for gaming stuff. I could spend more (and I often do), but I need a place to cut myself off at.

It's a tough gig to sell to somebody like me. But one of the things that catches my eye is interesting, new ideas. On the Fluff/Crunch count, I like good crunch. I also like good fluff, even if I don't *need* it. I hate badly thought out mechanics. Plain vanilla PrCs are junk as well. If you need a new PrC, at least make it with Prestige. If that means you have to wrap it up in cool fluff that I can use for story hooks, all the better. I may not like the exact way you put it together, but I appreciate the effort for a well made PrC as opposed to a cheap kit masquerading as a PrC. I run a homebrew so I make up most of my own PrCs anyway. But I allow some book PrCs. I also make up a lot of my own fluff, but I am not above snarfing cool ideas.

There are a lot of interesting looking books out there that I know I will never use. Heck, I don't even have a copy of Eberron. (Nor Midnight, Dawnforge, much Scarred Lands, etc.) I don't really need them. I like to see the diversity out there because I think the range of ideas is good. But I don't need a lot of the books, so yes I sometimes feel like you Joe.

 

[Umbran]

I'm a gamer, a student, and basically broke. One of the great things about gaming is that, when you're broke, you can still have good solid fun wihtout purchasing anything at all!

That being said, I think in the past year my gaming purchases amount to... under $200.

 

[Lord Foul]

When I was a kid all I could afford was the Players Handbook and some dice. My friends and I would go to the hobby shop every week and I would watch them spend all sorts of money on D&D stuff.

Now that I'm older and have a good job I find myself spending lots of money on RPGs. Most of the stuff I hope to use sometime. The rest I bought just because I didn't want to leave the store empty-handed. Maybe I'm making up for what I couldn't buy earlier in life. For now that's ok, but if my job situation were to change then I would have to cut back and make better choices.

But until then.........

 

[The Lemon Merchant]

I used to spend about $100 a month on game books, but then we went from a double income family to a single income and things changed. I have a pretty solid collection, most of which I don't even use, so it's not that I need to purchase more. Now I just have a list and I update and prioritze it regularly and give it to my wife (the single income) I figure if I get a book, great.

 

[Galethorn]

I spend about $0-50 a month on RPG stuff, which accounts for about 0-80% of my income in a given month.

That said, I'm a teenager without a job. What I make is an allowance, and the occasional 'extra' work I get for doing less-than-steady work, like moving, yard work, and that other sort of stuff that parents hire out their kids to friends for.

So, as soon as I start making real money (which might be a while from now, since I live on an island where there's so few jobs that most people commute into seattle), I think I might start getting more hard-back books and less cheap/free PDFs. But, then again, I have gotten print versions of everything I actually put into use in actual gaming, rather than the stuff I just want to look at, which I might as well be looking at a friend's copy of, or skimming in the FNSLGS (friendly not-so-local game store).

 

[trancejeremy]

To a certain extent, video games have also pushed out gaming books. I generally only have $100-150 a month to spend on entertainment. From here until January, there are so many video games coming out that I want to buy, I probably won't be buying any more gaming books this year.

I used to buy RPG books just to review them, but I've decided, well, screw that.

 

[Chaos Drake]

I've toned down my spending to roughly 50-100 a month. There's still tons of stuff I never use and can't justify the space. I do look out for old modules, such as Ars Magica stuff. It's incredible the deals you can find on eBay to satisfy that spending sphincter.

 

[Turanil]

Most of my gaming purchases will only take space on the shelf after a casual read. I well know it, but still I plan to buy a few other books scheduled for 2005...

I have everything I need for my campaign. I also have a bad habit of buying stuff and not read it, or just read some of the pages, maybe 15%-30%. Nonetheless, I am waiting for buying Castles & Crusades PHB and MM, Beyond Countless Doorways, Gloriana, D20 Past, and maybe Dragonlance Monsterbook. Of these, only Beyond Countless Doorways and Dragonlance Monsterbook are really going to see a (little) use.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I'm in a pretty good position. All told, between gaming (in which I include trading card games...mmm...Vs...and miniatures), X-Box games, comic books and PS2 games, I generally get to slap down about $300/month on just crap.

For a long time I was pretty limited in fundage. Now, though, it's all good.

Now if only I could lay my hands on Fable. Must. Wait. But I'm buyin' it the day it comes out, by cracky!

 

[Whisper72]

Well... for me it is not so much an issue of funds as it is of 'already have so much stuff I'll prolly never really use'. I am not a hard core collector of RPG games, so unless I get some good use of it, I will not buy it.

Already having books covering anything I'd ever want, I really don't see the need for yet more material. Dragon and Dungeon magazines are imho the best way to keep track of select new tidbits without having to shell out major cash for books of which I might use maybe three pages worth of material...