Have Your RPG Purchased Dropped Off?

[Buttercup]

I've become more selective than I used to be, but my spending has stayed constant. I have a better idea of what I like & need now, so there are some things that I won't even consider, that I might have bought 2 years ago. For instance, I no longer buy Forgotten Realms or Scarred Lands titles. I realized that these settings hold no interest for me, and in the case of Scarred Lands, I've even gotten rid of some of them (thanks for trading, Crothian!).

On the other hand, I've now made a commitment to purchase all Green Ronin titles, along with my long standing commitment to Necromancer (including the Judge's Guild stuff). I'm a fan of Ed Cha's work, so I'll buy anything with his name on it, sight unseen. For everyone other than these three, I look before I buy. Still, I seem to end up buying 3 or 4 books a month.

My husband would probably like it if I would slow down, because we have d20 stuff piled up all over the house, but I'm still finding so much cool and useful stuff.

 

[Crothian]

MY buying habits have decreases. I still pick up a book or two a month, but it used to be a few books a week. I did pick up Grim and GR's demon/devil book. Both are high quality and I knew I'd like them. I have also been looking more at the discount places around here and on line.

 

[jaerdaph]

Yes, my d20 purchasing has dropped in the last year or so.

I mostly buy d20 products directly related to d20 Modern now, or "traditional" d20 products that I feel I can easily use in a d20 Modern campaign (monster collections primarily, but some select other stuff as well). And anything with the name "Mearls" on it usually gets my attention and my buck!

A WotC title is no longer an automatic buy for me, including d20 Modern now (I haven't felt the need to pick up Weapons Locker yet, but I probably will eventually). I lost interest in Forgotten Realms some time ago (more due to time rather than any lack of quality), so I no longer buy 3e/3.5e FR material. I don't own the 3.5 core rulebooks, but I will probably pick them up at some point, along with Unearthed Arcana.

I stopped collecting d20 Ravenloft when the quality of the material and rules started to sink due to poor product line development and a general lack of knowledge of the Ravenloft setting and the d20 rules system at Arthaus.

I still faithfully collect AEG's Swashbuckling Adventures (d20 7th Sea), and some of the money I haven't been spending on d20 goes to picking up older pre-d20 7th Sea titles. Swashbuckling Adventures still uses 3e rules - they have no plans at the moment to upgrade to 3.5e.

I also purchase more PDF products than I did in the past, mostly for d20 Modern.

 

[Gothmog]

My spending has stayed about the same on game items, although I am buying fewer books now than when 3E came out. The difference I am spending on Reaper and LotR minis. Basically, if a book is by one of the following companies, I'll usually buy it sight unseen if it interests me: Green Ronin, FFG, Mystic Eye, Conan RPG stuff (and some other Mongoose titles), and Necromancer games. Every other company has to get a lookthrough, and only if it looks superb do I even bother with it. I've passed on quite a bit of the Wizards stuff, becasue frankly its subpar compared to many of the 3rd party publishers now.

 

[Gospog]

Yes, definately spending less these days. After a flood of cool RPG books, I made myself cut way back, due to the expense.

Also, since I've devoted a lot more time to my sculpting lately, I buy a lot less minis. If I'm sculpting in my free time, and running my two RPG sessions, I don't have time to paint them.

I also don't have time to read all the cool books I get, so I eased on buying more.

The exception being Dying Earth. I have kept up with thier new releases. In fact, does the Poll Originator plan on contacting me for a game this month or what?
I have designs on including a certain buckaneering feline and a well-known indy game designer as well. E-mail me.

Oh, and I also buy all the new Iron Kingdoms RPG new releases. That saves me a lot of money.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Well in purchasing of books I am down a bit. I was buying everything Kalamar up until 6 months ago when I figured I am never going to play it so I stopped. But I am a collecter also so I will pick up the rest on sale someday.

I still get 1-2 books a month though and I am hooked on the crack-like mini's so my overall spending is about the same. I just go UA and if the Dragonlance book is still on sale at Amazon tomorrow I will get it.

 

[maddman75]

I'm both slowing down and spreading out. I pretty much have what I need for D&D. Plus I see no need to convert to 3.5, meaning a new book is going to have to be extra-extra special to get me to buy it. And we've just started up an All Flesh Must Be Eaten campaign, which rocks on toast. I'm much more likely to buy some Eden books than anything d20. I have tons that I haven't gotten to really use yet.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'm spending less. It's partly a matter of having certain niches filled on my gaming shelf - Vampires? I got Fang & Fury and Lords of the Night: Vampires. Sea sourcebook? I got Broadsides and Seafarers Handbook. Witches? I got the Witches Handbook. I don't need any more of those genres, the need has been filled.

There's been less out there that simply interests me recently, though I think that's going to change somewhat with the Iron Kingdoms books coming out and the XPH, Ebberon, Complete Divine, etc. The last few times I've gone up to Games Plus, I've walked out without buying anything, or I bought stuff that had been out for years (the two En Route books, for example). Nothing has grabbed me recently, and I only buy stuff that seems likely to inspire me or give me useful bits for my own game.

 

[Umbran]

My spending has remained stable at a very low level. I'm one of the "small budget" RPG players, and can really only afford an occasional book.

Soon after 3e was released, there was a glut of products on the market. And if you were buying lots of it, you'd probalby quickly find you had more material than you could ever use. You'd find little need for new books covering the same topics. In order for a new book to catch your eye, it'd have to have a very new twist on things, or cover material not seen elsewhere. Or, like Unearthed Arcana and Complete Warriror, gather up material from many different sources.

 

[Mercule]

A bit of both, actually. I spent the entire year of 2003 unemployed. During that time, I bought the three 3.5 books, but I got them for a total of like $12. Otherwise, I doubt I would have done so.

In January, I started at a new job and my purchases picked up significantly. In 2004 (or late 2003), I bought:

• Complete Warrior
• Draconomicon
• Book of Exalted Deeds
• Gamma World (as a gift for a friend)
• Unearthed Arcana

I intend to buy in the near future:

• Expanded Psionics Handbook
• Complete Divine
• d20 Modern
• The new WoD books (you asked about RPG, not d20)

And I'll look at Eberron, but it won't likely interest me.

I think that what I've bought so far this year has almost doubled my d20 collection. Historically, I buy maybe four books a year (I'm excluding the core books, here). I've bought that many in 2004.

I may end up slowing down, though. At least with regard to d20. A couple of weeks ago, I made a list of all the feats available to me and their source. I ended up with a list of roughtly 660 feats. That's absurd. It doesn't surprise me that my players never wanted to look anywhere besides the Player's Handbook. I honestly don't need any more feats. My only reason for getting new sources is to replace legacy feats with more balanced or interesting ones. I'm currently in the process of paring down the list available to players to a managible quantity. I'd imagine that my lists of PrCs, monsters, etc. are similarly bloated and in need of pruning.

Right now, what I want are more "soft" rules (soggy crunch?). These are things like advice on how to deal with good/evil such as is in BoED & BoVD, environmental rules, setting definition (Aria Worlds d20?), etc.

Anyone who could put together a book that would actually help me develop my own planar cosmology, deities, creation myths, etc. would immediately get my money, even if it was a $60 book. Both DDG and MotP fell short on this because they each amounted to a list of "look at what we came up with" where the "how-to" was an afterthought. The caveat to this is that I don't want to be limited to someone else's vision of how gods, etc. work -- Primal Order d20 isn't likely to get a second look from me.