requiring players to buy books

[Breakdaddy]

I have a difficult time requiring someone to set their expenditures based on mine and the game I want to run.

I don't.

 

[Salad Shooter]

Our group doesn't require anyone to buy books. We system hop so much that it would drive away a lot of our players. It IS encouraged, and a yearly tradition of buying each other RP books has seen to it that we all have PHBs, but they aren't required. Most of us being college students, or thereabouts in age and resources, cash is tight.

 

[Shemeska]

For the most part, as DM I buy what books I need. Whether I pay for them myself, or get them for my birthday or a holiday from my players, is about a 80/20 thing or thereabouts.

As far as my players go, they all have the PHB, and anything from there is completely up to them. However since with exception of me, they all live within walking distance of each other for the most part, they can share any of the books (which tend to all get left up in the loft that we game in). Still, it's easier to work with when you own the book yourself, and since around half of us have steady jobs, some of us very very good jobs, we get what books we need and share as needed with those who don't have steady jobs (ie are going to school full time, etc).

 

[Li Shenron]

I never required any player to buy anything. It has been quite automatic for players to buy the PHB after a couple of evenings, because they wanted to know more about the game.

For extra material from other books, usually it's the player himself who has the book and wants to use it, but otherwise I simply give them some photocopies, for example with something about the setting or adventure background, or the occasional non-core magic item.

 

[reanjr]

I would rather my players not have books. There are exceptions of course. In the Kalamar campaign I just got done with, two of the players had the Player's Primer, which is absolutely excellent for familiarizing oneself with the campaign. And it's only like 12 bucks. Campaign settings should all have books like that.

As for rule books? SRD. What do you need a PHB for?

And they certainly don't need the Complete X books or Races Y or anything of that sort.

 

[reanjr]

I don't require anyone to buy any book. I do encourage people to if the game is going to be ongoing. I, like others, have been burned on a 'GREAT CAMPAIGN' that only lasted a few sessions and now I have a book that I don't use.
I can afford it, but it still rankles.

For that reason, I urge my players not to buy campaign specific books, unless they are really focused on information about the campaign and are not expensive.

And then there's those campaigns that I wouldn't allow my players to purchase the book for, like Ravenloft or Dark Matter.

 

[reanjr]

I think having the PHB is not too much to ask. If nothing else it shows some real interest in the game (i.e. people I want in my group).

I find that it only shows an interest in rule-mongering and power-gaming. I've played with many, many people over the years who are very into the game, but don't own a single RPG book.

 

[reanjr]

Personally, I would like every player IMC to have the 3.5 PH. If they don't want to buy it due to money issues, I'll let them use just the SRD. However, if they are going to be a spellcaster then I expect them to either buy the 3.5 PH or print all their spells off the SRD (which can be a big job). One thing I can't stand is someone constantly asking to borrow someone else's PH to look up spells when that someone else went to the expense of buying their own book and now have a mooch constantly mooching off them.

I'm the DM and I'm the book-mooch in my group. I don't own the 3.5 books, so I just use my players' on the rare occassion I need to. I spend enough money on supplements, I don't need to spend any more on rules that are freely available on the internet.

 

[arscott]

In every face to face game I've played, with only one exception, there's never been more than one copy of the same book at the table. The single exception was a campus-con game where there were two phbs.

I've exclusively played with students though. We can barely afford to eat, let alone buy gamebooks.

 

[Hand of Evil]

A DM should not expect their players to have everything or supply anything but dice, pencil and character sheet. Information on a campiagn is the work of the DM.

BUT

I call it pay the DM. At one time I thought this was a horrid idea but over the years it has been a boon to me and my players. The DM can use the money to purchase table copies of books, everyone chips in for pizza, they can chip in for books, dice, battle mats, everything they will use at the table, just set the rules up first and let everyone know up front AND mark the books!