Have Your RPG Purchased Dropped Off?

[francisca]

I have way too much that I haven't used or had time to fully absorb, so my spending on RPGs has radically nose-dived since 3.5 came out. And I have not bought any of the WotC minis. My last purchases were UA and the Conan RPG. Unless something really great comes out, I'm unlikely to buy more than one or two titles the rest of the year.

On the other hand, I have picked up some pdf products, and been quite happy with them. But I've spent about 15% of what I was spending on printed material, overall.

Things I will most proabably buy:
The new basic set

Things I am interested in and hope they are good, becase I want to buy them:
Conan RPG add-ons
C&C Society OGL game books

Things I am interested in, and if are real good will probably buy:
Advanced series from Green Ronin
City-State stuff from Necro/JG

Things that will have to generate a lot of positve buzz, get great reviews, and look useful for me to even give a first look:
Complete and Race series from WotC
Classic Play stuff from Mongoose

Stuff I will not be buying at all:
Anything Ebberon (nothing against it, just don't want/need another setting)
Anything Psi (no Psi in my game)
Anything centered around new races

 

[Maerdwyn]

I've greatly reduced spending on RPGs - we've begun some pretty ambitious savings programs for kids' college and our retirement and such, and what we once thought was purely disposable income, it turns out, isn't . I haven't bought 3.5, and probably won't for the foreseeable future, and haven't gotten any hardcovers since before Arcana Unearthed came out.

I still pick up OOP and used items (some old Judges Guild Traveller items for $2@ most recently), and I'm saving up for Conan.

 

[satori01]

My spending has gone way down since 3.0 inception. The main reason of course is with the big 3 books bought, manual of the planes, and Deities and Demigods, anything else is non-essential, and thus has to strike my fancy.

A couple of trends with me:

1) I felt burned by WOTC with SS and Races of Faerun,(even though I only paid a fraction of cover price on RoF). RoF was mainly a reprint of SS rules, and had incongruous mechanics. SS was made obsolete w? 3.5 for the most part. Wizards had the benefit of the doubt from me before when straddling the fence, not any more. Draconomicon was my last WOTC purchase, I refuse to buy their complete line, as I do not want to buy revised versions of things I already own.
This trend will continue.

2) I am right now in the middle of a very enjoyable campaign. As has happened many times in the past, when I am playing, I buy less, as I find myself creating more, rather than adapting. Buying is like playing vacariously when I do not have a game going.

3) I like PDFs, and the lower costs. AU and the AU adventures,(Plague of Dreams, Ebonring), were the last physical adventures bought. Malhavoc PDFs are generally bought, and almost always satisfy me. I just got burned on a couple third party materials recently from RPG.now, but at low prices I just dont mind too much.

4) With the inevitable release of 4ed being closer rather than farther away, I just do not see the need to buy more fluff, unless it is very compelling. The 3.5 update left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, I do not want that to happen with 4.0.

 

[Razuur]

It has remined the same - and gone up sometimes because the products are more expensive nowadays.

I find the stuff coming out now is the stuff I wanted to come out when I heard of D20.

There are companies out there making PRIMO stuff nowadays, and I want it, real bad.

Razuur

 

[Piratecat]

My spending has gone down, and I'm a lot more choosy. The only book I've bought recently is Mearls' Portals and Planes, and I'm eager to pick up the XPH. Other than that, I haven't seen as much that has really excited me.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I remain constant.

This is one of the reasons I have a $40/month cap on my gaming buys. It keeps the feeling of anticiaption going and it forces me to read the books instead of flipping through, getting my fix, and moving on.

 

[Remus Lupin]

When 3.0 first came out, I was spending probably $50-100 a month. After I got married, I cut back to a designated $50 a month (which I sometimes violated). These days, my "official limit" is around $30-40 a month, but the truth is, I can seldom find enough to buy to hit that limit.

Truth be told, I'm not really interested in buying 3.5 related materials. I have the SRD on my computer, so I can house-rule anything I like or else use it in lieu of the books if I'm playing somebody else's 3.5 game. I may by them eventually, but there's not much point unless I'm in a regular 3.5 game.

So this leaves me in a situation where there are only a very few products that really interest me: Arcana Unearthed books and minis, largely. Maybe some spycraft, and perhaps some Conan. None of these publish with enough frequency to make me run out on the first of the month to buy.

As it stands right now, I'm picking up AU minis on a fairly regular basis, and waiting for something to catch my imagination.

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

At one point, in the early days, i was picking up most hard covers and modules. Now i have almost completely stopped picking up any books. There are very few books that interest me as there are already way too many class/options/races books to even bother with - there is a limit to the number of options a game needs
It makes a lot more sense for me to spend the time planning for the next session than to read over a book to find something useful.

What i have purchased are items that help me plan and organize better and enhance the gaming experience. These items seem to deliver a lot more value to the game than any suppliments i can purchase.These include:

1. Minis
2. Programs that make planning/ creating easier (mostly pdf. maps, GM tools and free downloads - i think i have gotten more utility out of Jamies character/treasure generators and the free maps found on line than anything i have ever purchased).
3.Music
4.PDFs like the book of templates which help me customize/ create.

 

[Arnwyn]

My spending has taken a nose-dive. I'm not very interested in what's coming out lately, and nowadays I only really care about adventures. I pretty much ignore WotC (Draconomicon and Underdark were my last 2 books from them), and while I used to buy everything FR, even that has dropped off (PGtF was the straw that broke the camel's back) - I'll be evaluating carefully every FR book that comes out in the future.

These days, I pretty much only buy adventures, almost exclusively from Necro Games and Dungeon Mag (I used to buy everything NG as well, but I even stopped doing that since they released campaign setting and other accessory-type stuff) as well as everything Rokugan... and that's about it.

Finally, I steer far clear from anything feat or PrC related, and I don't do "revisions".

 

[Neo]

For myself I would say that although the amount of purchases I make hasn't reduced. I have however become more selective in what I buy. Originally I would but any book that sounded interesting regardless of whether it would see play or not.. now however I tend to buy only what I know will be used, with the very rare foray into "Impulse Buy" territory.

Miniature wise, I haven't bought any for years though I have a failry extensive collection anyway. Mostly I havent bought any because they're not easy to get hold of particularly or because they're not ideal or specific enough for what I want anymore.

Some things I dont buy are the likes of Dice, Adventure modules etc.. and that is largely because I have more dice than I ever use already and we dont play published modules. (except as part of a playtest).

But there are things I always buy.. Anything with Forgotten Realms on it, my relationship with that campaign setting goes back to its first release and my group and I are so familiar with it after playing in it for many years that its more like an old friend though its true I buy most books from Wizards when able for D&D, Star Wars and Modern..

I also tend to buy a lot of material from Green Ronin as they continually produce books not only of good quality but of interest. Likewise I tend to buy quite a bit from Mongoose Publishing, Bastion Press and Fantasy Flight Games.. this is not to say I exclude from other publishers, merely that I find myself buying more books from the above companies on a reguar basis as they tend to provide source of the sort I'm looking for.

So not less for sure, but certainly more selective