Is there too much cost disparity between DM's and players?

[TerraDave]

I think, from the point of view of the economics of the game, its a feature, not a bug.

Though game designers sometimes get confused about it.

Some people are more into the game. These people are more likely to buy stuff and DM. Some people are less into it, and spend less. And there are people in between, and correlation is not perfect.

This makes it easier for more hard-core people to find people to play with (who can spend a lot less), lowers entry barriers to the game, but also means there are big spenders who do more to sustain the brand and hobby. I think this has been key pretty much from the start.

BUT, game designers, or their managers, are obsessed with the idea that there are more players then DMs, and they strive and strive to sell to them. This probably works, up to a point, with gamers in the midpoint of the spectrum, who may buy the occasional splat or subscribe periodically to DDI (or Dragon back in the day).

But I think it only works so well. I don't think Olaf is unusual in being a DM with a bunch of player splats. If DM only bought DM stuff, you wouldn't see many splats, because a large part of the market would go away. And more committed players will sometimes buy DM stuff, and not just to cheat.

But therein lies the problem. If things get too "player oriented" it may annoy or turn off the DMs who are also the biggest buyers. At some point, many DMs sort of get wise to what I am typing here, and cut back on things they don't need. They also get annoyed if they feel that some of their DM authority (which they now need to rationalize all that spending...its a vicious circle) is sapped by an excess of player options or doing things like putting magic items in player books. Annoying them means loosing both the biggest customers, and those that help get more casual players to buy anything at all.

 

[Elf Witch]

We've never shared ownership of books, it's not feasible IMHO... people move around and change hobbies, so it's best that each book has its owner.

But as for loaning out books to others, I have no problems. And I have myself borrowed tens of D&D books from friends who had tons, just to take a look before I decided to buy them or not... my friends know that I am super-respectful of their books and trust me I'm taking good care of them, and the same I expect from them if they borrow mine (but goes without saying, if you spoil someone's book, you buy him/her a new copy).

Also, we've never chipped in, mostly because none of us was ever broken but also no one ever really needed to buy a book... we've had several who played even without the PHB for a long time (when they were beginners and didn't know yet if they liked D&D), just the SRD and a bunch of photocopies from the DM.

I used to loan out things but when I lost them because the person moved or messed them up I just started saying no.

I have copied things for other people. In my roommate's game one of the players is playing a warlock so we copied the pages he needed since he does not own the book.

The reason we started the rule of having a PHB was because we had a player who didn't and he always wanted to play a mage of some kind so he ended up hogging other players books when they needed it. He also never was able to level his character up out of game so we had to sit and wait for him to do so.

Unless you are so broke you can't afford one or you can't find one if you are playing a game that is out of print after a certain amount of time you need to buy your own book and stop mooching off others. That is just how I feel about it.

 

[OnlineDM]

In 4e, with the free offline character builder, players can have any book up to 2010 or so plus Dragon Magazine.

Just to be clear, the Character Builder pre-2011 was downloadable but not free - you had to subscribe to DDI to get it (although you could subscribe for one month, get all the updates, then cancel and use the program offline forever). No incremental cost necessary, true, but it wasn't free.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Just to be clear, the Character Builder pre-2011 was downloadable but not free - you had to subscribe to DDI to get it (although you could subscribe for one month, get all the updates, then cancel and use the program offline forever). No incremental cost necessary, true, but it wasn't free.

It may not have been free, but it's far cheaper than buying splatbooks. :/

 

[Celebrim]

1) Yes, it is more expensive to be a DM, but in terms of hours of enjoyment per dollar spent, it's still a fairly inexpensive hobby.
2) The amount of money you spend on books is nothing in comparison to the time disparity you'll put in running a game. If you were a professional DM, you'd need to charge each player like $15 an hour for a session. Being a DM is an enormous burden if you want to do it well. However, if you are going to DM, you have to actually enjoy preparation and consider it part of the fun or you are never really going to be a DM.
3) I personally don't spend all that much on RPG books. You don't need all that stuff. You just need a pencil, some paper, and a bag of dice. DM screens, a battlemat, and a good word processor also help a lot. In terms of derived value per page, most supplements are a bad investment. Monsters, classes, feats, advice, and such that you never use is wasted money. Often I'll pick up a Monster compendium and realize that I'll use no more than 5-10 pages of the entire book. After stealing the core idea of the 5-10 monsters that are reasonably well thought out, I put the book down and perhaps create some variant monster with that core idea shaped to my tastes (but often not). If someone let me buy monsters by the page, that I might be worth it, but in general you're better off just making things up yourself. The same is certainly true of magical treasures as well, and as far as player options go, there are several reasons to be skeptical about adding them to your game. For example, I've banned all PrC's and most non core classes, most non core spells, and review every feat allowed into the game. It doesn't hurt the game; on the contrary, it enhances it.
4) In one of the better groups I was in, the DM was not allowed to help pay for the pizza and snacks. Rather, the group always paid for him. This in my opinion is a very good custom which, in honor of the effort and money outlayed by the DM, should be adopted by all groups. You'll occasionally hear me using the phrase, "any DM worth his pizza", in regards to this tradition. In my opinion, if you are enjoying your game, but you haven't started paying for your DM's "pizza" you really aren't showing your appreciation how you should. In the context of this post, this show of appreciation would help offset some of the cost disparity between DM's and players.

 

[Alan Shutko]

1) Yes, it is more expensive to be a DM, but in terms of hours of enjoyment per dollar spent, it's still a fairly inexpensive hobby.

An important thing is that as the DM you can choose how expensive you want it to be. You can run an excellent campaign with nothing more than a few books for years and years. You can get the books used or nearly free depending on the edition you want to play. Or, you can go wild and get minis, bookshelves worth of hardcovers, terrain, software, etc. After all, I do need Adobe CS6 for maps and handouts, right?