How many people are buying less books for 4E than previous editions?

[Wombat]

I have been buying fewer rpgs in general of late, due to economic reasons. It's been a little rough in terms of free spending cash recently.

For 4e in particular, however, I only bought the first three ... and then sold them to a used bookstore after we dropped the game.

 

[malkav666]

I doubt Libris Mortis and the 'locale' books (the one about desert and on the sea, ec) did very well with the mixture of PC and DM information. While it would conceivably have "something for everyone", it just made it generally useless. 4e books may be trying to be "better for the buyer" to encourage them to buy, since the attempts at making books that everyone can use may have ended up with books that no one bothered to use.

Just as a side not to this comment. Those books about locale (Sandstorm, Forstburn, Stormwrack, etc.) were some of the finest offerings for 3.x IMO. They are long standing favorites with both of my groups, and I know at least 5-8 copies of each were bought between both groups (with every single member of both groups picking up Stormwarck I believe for its naval combat rules). Libris Mortis and Lords of Madness were also crowd favorites (with some of the Lords of Madness book being used as the root of a campaign one of my friends ran).

In general I found those splats in particular to be some of the most high quality produced 1st party for D&D 3.x. WOTC did make some bad 3.x splat material, but IMO those books were not among them, and it was not my general experience that they had poor sales. But YMMV, maybe they sucked in your neck of the woods, but they are pretty popular in my circles.

love,

malkav

 

[Dragonbait]

I have been buying fewer rpg items overall. This includes miniatures and the like. I'm starting to finally reach the point where I don't want to move on to the new and shiny editions. I think I'm going to be a grognard soon so I'd better start growing a neckbeard!

When 3.0 hit I started buying ANYTHING d20. I only used 3rd-party adventures and WoTC made rules.

With 3.5 I purchased ALL WoTC (yes.. All of them..) books and many setting books from companies that I liked. I think I used about 25% of what I owned, and never a 3rd-party book.

With 4.0 I purchase all PHBs, DMGs, MMs, and plan on buying setting books and monster books like Draconomicon and Libris Mortis. I stopped buying class-specific books since they lack the fluff that I want and just have the crunch that I can find on DDI. DDI has been a great purchase since I've used more Dungeon and Dragon content than I've ever used in the past and it's like buying all the books anyways.

 

[Ktulu]

I'm probably buying MORE than I did in previous editions. Before, I might buy a class/race book if it truly interested me, but I've found that the new setup (especially the new fluff that's starting to show up since Divine Power) has me eager to purchase and read. The increased Campaign Setting release, along with the multiple DMG's hasn't hurt the flow, either. And, all that would be moot if it wasn't for the high quality of the books. DMG2 is one of the best RPG books I've ever read. MM2 was stocked with great new and old monsters.

I'm not quite to a book a month, but i'm buying more books than I ever did. Minis, on the other hand, have slowed a bit. I haven't bought them as much; considering I have almost 2,000, I really don't have a harsh need to do so.

 

[OchreJelly]

I am buying MORE wotc books in 4E era, even with the DDI membership. When you exclude buying core twice (3.0 and 3.5), I didn't purchase much past that. I think it was partly because I was really turned off by the quality of the early splats (Sword and Fist, I'm looking at you), but also because I rarely purchase much past core in any edition.

In this edition I have been really impressed with splat/theme books such as open grave, and the various power books. In fact, I specifically bought Martial Power to weigh the quality control as one of the first splats past core release. That said, I'm now at my "buy less" phase of the edition. I'll probably go heavy again when DS is out, but I don't expect to buy more than adventures for a while.

On the flip side I haven't bought any of the high quality third party products that I enjoyed in the past. Products such as Iron Heroes, Ptolus, and Midnight I enjoyed greatly. At the risk of sparking any ire, I will say I haven't felt the need for 3PP in 4E. As I write this, I find that most of my 3PP purchases in the past were done specifically to change-up or address things about the 3X rules I didn't like. No such issues this go-around

 

[Jhaelen]

I'm probably buying MORE than I did in previous editions.

That's true for me, as well. And I don't even play 4E (yet)!

I'm not a DDI subscriber, though, so maybe that's why I feel I need to buy so many books

Then again, I think, I'll not buy the second round of X Power books. I'll definitely continue buying PHBX, DMGX, and MMX, though.

 

[Tarrl]

I am buying more 4e than all previous editions. I have just about all the books and DDI. I am an older gamer so I like to have the books in hand to read, but love the fact I can get on the computer and look stuff up or build a character.
Why are Giant mini's rare???

 

[Scribble]

I am in the "finding myself buying less game books overall these days" group.

That said, my 4e book buying HAS all but stopped due to the DDI. I find I VERY rarely open the physical books.

Definitely not for game prep reasons. The DDI has me covered more then I've ever been previously. I've never been the type that has 100% of every book in a system collection, so I've always been missing SOMETHING... The DDI seems to cover WAY more stuff then I ever did in my previous collections. It also seems to help cover for my terrible ability to remember where something came from... SO even though in a previous system I might have HAD a monster to fit X situation... I probably forgot about it.

These days if I'm buying a book it's for the flavor.


I actually wish a 3pp would put together a campaign system that's crunch free- Just GOOD solid flavor. Instead of designing new classes and fats and powers, just use the existing classes and such and tell me how they fit in the game world.

 

[ggroy]

These days if I'm buying a book it's for the flavor.

I actually wish a 3pp would put together a campaign system that's crunch free- Just GOOD solid flavor. Instead of designing new classes and fats and powers, just use the existing classes and such and tell me how they fit in the game world.

I've been picking up some of the Pathfinder Golarion setting books, which are relatively crunch lite and fluff heavy. Many of the region/city books are almost system-neutral. Some of the upcoming Golarion books I'll probably skip over, such as the more crunch heavy NPC and weapons books.

Awhile ago I picked up some of the 3E/3.5E Scarred Land books found in various bargain bins at local FLGS.

 

[tyrlaan]

Put me in the "I have DDI, so I don't buy books" camp. I picked up physical copies of the "1's" and only the PHB and DMG in the "2's". Other than that, it's just campaign material - the Eberron guides and likely Dark Sun when it comes out.

My perception (note, reality may demonstrate differently) is that they're churning out more product for 4e in less time than they did for 3e. And with the noninsignificant pricetag on hardcover gaming books, DDI is nothing short of awesome.