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How much money have you spent on 3.x?

How much have you spent on 3.x?

  • $1-$30 (about the cost of the PHB alone)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • $31-$50 (PHB + a supplement or two)

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • $51-$90 (about the cost of the 3 core rulebooks)

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • $91-$100

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • $101-$150

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • $151-$200

    Votes: 5 2.8%
  • $201-$300

    Votes: 5 2.8%
  • $301-$400

    Votes: 15 8.3%
  • $401-$500

    Votes: 10 5.5%
  • $501-$750

    Votes: 21 11.6%
  • $750-$1,000

    Votes: 8 4.4%
  • $1,000+

    Votes: 111 61.3%

Dinars for D&D

Looking at my collection, I can count several Ikea "Billy" standard 6-foot-high by 3-foot-wide bookcases of gaming books. The shelves are full as follows:

-D&Dx and D20 books about Player Character options: 1.5 shelves
-D&D3x/D20 references about monsters and environments: 1.5 shelves
-D&Dx/D20 worldbooks and campaign settings: 2 shelves
-D20 tomes about nonfantasy settings: 2 shelves
-GURPS books: 1 shelf
-Other games: 2 shelves

If each shelf measures 32 inches wide, and each book is about 1 inch wide (most are thinner, but a few are thicker), that's 320 books. At about $25 each, that equals $8,000, not including miniatures, modules, mats, dice, music, or food! Plus, that's after I lost about a third of my collection to a basement flood three years ago (all hail PDFs)...
 

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I'm certainly over the £500 (er, sorry, $1000) mark. My investment in 3e is one factor in my decision not to move to 4e - plenty of 3e stuff I have yet to get full use out of. I don't have regular spending habits, so it's not like I would be automatically spending more money anyway. I am actually pretty picky about what I buy. Many 3e books haven't made the grade imho and 4e certainly doesn't, given that it seems to be trying to address a need that I don't have. Where choice 3e releases continue to appear, I'll pick them up (lookin' at you, Paizo baby ;)) but otherwise I have spent my dinero and am happy to leave it at that.
 

johnnype said:
Ballpark figure.

Do you think the amount is at all related to your acceptance of 4.0?

Yeah, but not so much the dollar figure, but the way that the body of accumulated lore has become a substrate for my gaming experience.

This doesn't stop at 3e, though. I have Planescape books sitting in my planning box next to me, along with some old D&D Gazetteers, and a Dragon CD Rom with classics I tap into frequently like the Nine Hells by Greenwood.

To me, re-inventing the fluff is the big "break with the past" that I find intolerable.
 


From 1999 - mid 2003: Uncountable (too much)

Approximately $700 a year (Maybe a little more) from 2001-2007.

Since 2004 I've been buying from Amazon regularly. Plus counting the Green Ronin sale and the GenCon D20 liquidation sale last year, plus the Green Ronin sale, I've gotten far more bang for my buck.

EDIT: Remembered I had a real job from 1999 to mid 2003.
 
Last edited:

3 3.0 Corebooks= 60
3 3.0 Class Splat Books= 60
Epic Level Handbook= 40
Planar Handbook= 30 (I think)
Oriental Adventures= 40
1/2 PHBII, 1/2 Mongoose Pocket 3.5 Players handbook: 35
So $265, similar investments from a few other members of our group, significantly less from some also.
 

I came to the game a little late - in 2004, and I think I've spend about $400 - $500 on 3.5 books. That's not counting the other gaming supplies, such as minis, maps, and other things that I could use with other games.

Since I DM, I made a conscious decision to purchase as few Complete or Race books as possible. I also picked up many books at Half-Price Books or used a gift certificate. I've paid full price on only a few things. Where I did spend the money has been on Dungeon Crawl Classics and Dungeon magazine!
 

I have no idea how much I spent, and I won't calculate it, but it's definitely a few times as much as $1000. The stuff I bought does influence my interest in 4e, but not because of the money - that's spent ;) - but because of all the ideas I haven't realized yet. My mind is still occupied with the contents of those books, and I'm not ready for something completely different yet. I come to this conclusion even though I liked the changes for SWSE and although I may even like the new system. I just don't need 4e at the moment.
 

v.3.5 is the system I really sunk my dough into, which not so coincidentally is the system in which I came into my own as a DM, player, and writer. Yes, it completely has everything to do with me not converting over to 4E. And like the OP, I have easily invested over $1,000 into this version of the game. That's not counting the metal minis and game aids, which can be used for any system. Yikes! (I should take out an insurance policy on this stuff!!!)

Edit: And like the poster directly above me, there's way too much material there I've never even had a chance to get to and enjoy yet.
 

johnnype said:
Ballpark figure.
$1000+
Do you think the amount is at all related to your acceptance of 4.0?
Nope. Past spending is not relevant to future decisions. My decisions are based on my time available (I have waaaaay more money than time) and what the rest of my players are interested in.
 

Into the Woods

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