D&D General How much of your annual gaming money does D&D get?

[Marc_C]

Thinking back over 40 years of playing RPGs my buying habits changed.

In the 1980s 95% off all my gaming money was going to TSR. Micro-games by Steve Jackson Games and GDW go the rest. I only bought rpgs published by TSR.

In the 1990s I would say TSR got 70% with AD&D2e. I spent 30% on CCGs and euro boardgames. Again, I only bought rpgs by TSR. I did not buy Alternity because of CCGs. Again, I only bought rpgs by TSR. One exception was Star Wars WEG, which I played.

In the 2000s 50% went to WoTC. The other portion went to Warhammer 40k and Warmachines. The d20 OGL sucked me in and I didn't buy RPGs by other companies. Except GURPS 4e, which I never played.

2010-2019 saw another decrease. Only 40% to WoTC. I spent 60% on war games by indy companies and other RPG companies. I only played D&D4e two years. I played Savage Worlds, Eclipse Phase, Ashen Stars and BRP to name a few.

In 2020 70% of my gaming purchases went to Green Ronin and their AGE system. 20% to D&D 5e and 10% on various war-games and boardgames. Half of the money to WoTC was in D&D miniatures and boardgames. The other half in D&D5e RPGs books.


Note: I don't play computer games.

How have your buying gaming habits evolved over the years?

 

[Helldritch]

The % rose in favor of D&D. In the 80s, I would buy from Fasa, Chaosium, Palladium and many others. In the 90s, it went down to D&D, White Wolf and Palladium. Now, it is exclusively D&D.

 

[Campbell]

Depends on what you mean by D&D. If you mean the current iteration roughly $0. I play it, but do not spend money on it. If it includes stuff that is basically D&D like Pathfinder 2, Worlds Without Number, Electric Bastionland, Old School Essentials and stuff roughly half my RPG money. I probably split my money pretty equally between board games, RPGs, and video games.

 

[Ringtail]

I started playing 4e in 2013 and switched to 5e as soon as it came out.
Hmm, 2014-2018 it was exclusively D&D 5e. Then I went on a crazy indie RPG kick and now it's sort of settled down into a core set.

20% WotC D&D 5e. 25% Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu & Pulp Cthulhu) 25% Paizo (Beg fan of 2nd Edition) and 25% Cubicle 7 (WFRP 4e and ToR/AiME). 5% Anything that doesn't fit the above. (Necrotic Gnome, Kobold Press & DM's Guild mostly. Some Patreon maps, etc. MCDM Productions.)

D&D 5e, while still my most played game and currently played game is falling out of my spending for a few reasons. They don't release as many books as other editions or games. The number of rules and setting books is smaller than say, Paizo and I really don't care for WoTC adventures anymore, the last one I bought was Saltmarsh and that almost doesn't count since it's older material. (Almsot)

Free League is about to become more popular for me though, I'm interested in Symbaroum and Vaesen and they just acquired The One Ring which I already like.

 

[GlassJaw]

Most of my gaming budget these days is spent on terrain, miniatures, and board games. Terrain and minis are definitely used for D&D but other games as well. I buy an occasional RPG book/pdf but my book-purchasing has slowed over the years.

 

[jgsugden]

Well, what do we consider "D&D"? I think it depends upon whether we mean WotC, or what goes to supporting my D&D habit ... err ... hobby.

WOTC products? In 2020 I purchased 2 bricks of minis, and a few singles in the secondary market. I purchased 3 books as well.

D&D Beyond and Roll 20 memberships and a few products for each - that kicks back to WotC some for licensing.

A lot of 3rd party miniatures, paints, terrain, battlemaps, modules, etc...

WotC - 20% directly, 40% direct + indirect. D&D - 90% overall including 3rd party.

 

[Oofta]

Well, I don't get to play TTRPGs as much as I would like so most of that specific money is spent on D&D in various forms.

Not all of it goes to WOTC. I have Roll20, Obsidian Portal for my wiki and group forum, we use zoom for our games and video (we did that in part for family/friends as well). Oh, and throw in minis as well I guess. I make most of my terrain stuff.

I do have a DndBeyond account for everyone to share. I buy books once in a blue moon, but if it's an actual book it's more likely to be kobold press or similar since WOTC stuff is done through DndBeyond.

Actual percentages? I dunno, that would take a bit to figure out. If I counted other entertainment expenditures it's less than half, or at least it was pre-pandemic.

 

[tetrasodium]

Currently not a whole lot. Somewhere along the line I decided that the HC adventures were too heavily laden with fr & planescape specific plot armor to really be all that useful as "maybe I'll pull from it" books to keep on a shelf. I pickup books like XgE & tasha's for the rules /monsters/,etc... but covid broke me if long time ym'ing streak and I expect that I'll switch to a5e, corefinder or pf2 after vaccines but before wotc is willing to start improving the things in 5e that bother me most about 5e.

 

[Burnside]

In trying to figure this out, I determined that the amount I spend on D&D is almost directly equal to the amount I MAKE on D&D through pro DMing and DMsGuild sales. Feed the hole.

It's almost like if WotC paid me in company scrip.

 

[Richards]

Since I only play D&D, by definition all of my gaming money goes towards D&D. But I still play 3.5, so the money I spend nowadays goes towards minis and maps, primarily, and every so often a set of dice or construction materials to make interesting terrain or homemade minis.

Johnathan