Ratio of Spending to Gaming

[eris404]

$180 : 20 sessions, or about $9 a session. Not bad at all!

 

[The Shaman]

However, even leaving aside spending on alcohol and food for games (approximately $250 in the past 6 months), there is all my spending on library fines, printing and photocopying reference materials I use for my campaign ($40 in the past 3 months) and printing and photocopying materials I create for my campaing ($40 in the past 3 months).

I'm in the same boat - Amazon and used book stores account for a lot of my "gaming" purchases.

Since the beginning of the year I've purchased exactly one gaming book (Sandstorm) - I have plans to buy two (d20 Critical Locations and Stormwrack) or three (...plus Lords of Madness, if it's kewl) more this year. In the past three months I've also purchased about $50.00 in .pdfs. That works out to about US$85.00 so far this year. Our tabletop group has met five times since the start of the year, and I'm in two PbP games, so call that an additional session each per month, or eleven gaming sessions in since January. That works out to not quite $8.00 per gaming session - less expensive than a night at the movies. So far, so good.

However, there are a couple of wrinkles to add to this. First, the game book I bought has limited usefulness for the games I'm running right now - only two or three pages are applicable to one of my Modern games at present. That would suggest that I paid about US$12.00 per useful page for Sandstorm - that's a bit steep! :\ The situation is similar for the .pdfs, but the price per page is much lower - about US$2.00 or 3.00 per page of useful content.

Second, I've spent close to US$300.00 on history books and maps for my current Modern campaign and a future Modern/Past campaign that I'm working on. Now things are starting to look a little expensive - since these books are applicable only to one PbP game I'm running now, that's $100.00 per gaming get-together! That's a pair of good seats at a baseball game, or an evening out with my wife.

Still, for a hobby that's a lot of fun and (compared to a number of other options out there) pretty wholesome, it's really not too bad, all things considered.

 

[Sammael]

Ever since I got into D&D minis, my spending has become utterly disproportionate to actual gaming. I've probably spent $600 in the past 6 months, and I think I've played three or four skirmishes, and had about 18-20 sessions.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

Frukathka, I admire and envy your geekiness.

If I had only seen your list of recent purchases, I would either feel either envy or admiration, but not both.

Eighty-One $*%(*&^ game sessions in six months!!! That's more than 3 every week! That's incredible. My dream schedule would be twice a week. I would never hope for three times a week anymore than I would hope to win the Lotto jackpot. You're the coolest geek I can claim to know.

I buy through Amazon at 30% off and rationalize that when I've got a job, I'll be able to afford to buy from my FLGS. Even with that, I think I probably average $20 a game session - and this has been a pretty good semester, gaming-wise.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Unreal!!!!! How in the world can some of you game so much? Even at my peak, I managed one session a week.

Online (AIM) gaming.

 

[diaglo]

Unreal!!!!! How in the world can some of you game so much? Even at my peak, I managed one session a week.

at the peak the OD&D(1974) campaign i refereed: 3-4hrs/ session; 5 sessions/ week; 50 weeks/year; for 10+ years (just a little shy of 11 years really).

 

[kenobi65]

Hmmm..

Probably $400 in spending in the past six months on gaming materials. It's been a fairly dry period for books, but I've spent a fair amount on D&D minis, SW minis, and some painted minis on eBay.

Probably about 31 game sessions in that time period, which works out to a little more than 1 per week (though it's been clumped up, with a game convention and a long weekend with one of my home groups accounting for nearly half of those sessions).

 

[Angel Tarragon]

It also helps that I have no job. I make $70 a month helping out around the house: vacuuming the saltea tile, taking out the trash/recycleables, help with the food shopping, keeping my room clean, feeding the cat (see avatar) and cleaning her pan once a week.

 

[Brain]

Wow, I'm not sure what that means. I'm tempted to interpret that as either you're 1) very broke or 2) very cheap, or 3) both. But I'm still intrigued on exactly what you mean by being a self-professed anti-consumer.

What I mean by anti-consumer is that I try not to buy in (literally) to the consumer culture of the country I live in (USA). I don't mind buying things when they are needed, but I don't often buy things on a whim, or replace something just because it is slightly used. I don't own a cel phone or a dvd player. I'm not an extremist on this issue, but I try not to buy frivolous things that I don't need.

 

[fusangite]

Second, I've spent close to US$300.00 on history books and maps for my current Modern campaign and a future Modern/Past campaign that I'm working on.

I used to be in that boat. But now, I have nice graduate student extended loan privileges at a great library and copious notes and photocopies from books I've borrowed in the past. Still, I have hundreds of dollars worth of mythology and history books I've bought for the game over the years.