How do you like your martial characters?

[Hussar]

/snip

I wonder what proportion of game books are actually sold to people who play the game regularly and make real use of that book when doing so? It's probably shockingly low.

I think that the second part there, "make real use of that book" is where you're going to find a vanishingly small percentage of any given book use outside of core. Makes sense really. How often do you use a given module? Once? Twice? For maybe eight to ten weeks. Then it sits on your shelf for the rest of the time. And that's for a module which is meant to be used heavily in play. Books like the Complete X or, even smaller niche like the Environmental books in 3e are even less used. It was that realization when the 3e to 3.5 switch happened caused me to seriously curtail my RPG book budget. I had a fair decent 3e collection. My 3.5 collection is significantly smaller and my 4e actual physical book collection consists of the core three only. Plus a DDI account.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I'd grant that running through a module is 'making real use of it.'

But, yeah, a lot of supplements you pull maybe a few thing for one character from and they sit on the shelf.

I honestly think the first part is pretty significant, too. I've known a lot of gamers who loved a system, collected all the books, and never find anyone interested in playing it.

 

[Bluenose]

Same here. In fact for 4E, I've not bothered at all, I just use the compendium and online tools.

Over the years, I have my own game world, my own plot-lines, and my own rationale for how it all fits together. It's nowhere near as complete as any D&D published book, but I'm very comfortable running campaigns in that setting, and can get inspiration for fantasy stories from plenty of other sources.

My 4e collection consists of the core books, Martial Power 1, Heroes of the Feywild, and the Dark Sun books. Plus a DDI subscription. I don't miss hard copies of anything.

I'd say my own campaign world is considerably more complete than most campaign settings, especially in the areas which I've used most for game. Since it's been going since 1980 that's hardly a surprise. Mind you, I think many D&D setting books are terrible, since they provide lots of trivia and yet in many cases it's very hard to extract actually useful information about how people live in an area.

 

[jadrax]

I wonder what proportion of game books are actually sold to people who play the game regularly and make real use of that book when doing so? It's probably shockingly low.

A few years ago, I saw some data gathered by an RPG firm that estimated only around 20% of their customer base actually used their products to play the game.

 

[Hussar]

A few years ago, I saw some data gathered by an RPG firm that estimated only around 20% of their customer base actually used their products to play the game.

And, really, it all depends on how you define "use". Does that mean that a single element gets used in a single campaign, or does it mean that the book is referenced in some fashion in a certain number of sessions over a period of time?

I imagine that "use" is likely closer to the former than the latter.

 

[jadrax]

And, really, it all depends on how you define "use". Does that mean that a single element gets used in a single campaign, or does it mean that the book is referenced in some fashion in a certain number of sessions over a period of time?

I imagine that "use" is likely closer to the former than the latter.

From the conversation at the time, we pretty much assumed it meant that 80% of the customers were essentially non-gamers. In hindsight, I am not sure in that was actually what it was saying and I do not have access to the document to check what actual questions were asked.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Non-gamers or gamers who never get to game?

 

[jadrax]

Non-gamers or gamers who never get to game?

From what I remember the conversation we had indicated the latter, but again I don't know if that was explicitly supported by the customer research or was speculation.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

I like them medium well, roasting, on a stick.

In the game, I want them to kick butt.