What makes a TTRPG purchase "worth it" to you?

[Micah Sweet]

I am not going to speak for others but I have bought a lot of Paizo’s 2e humble bundles and I would not have otherwise bought any of their 2e books at their individual listed prices.

I have never played in a Pathfinder 2e game and I don't expect to run one, these are all just extra non essential lore books for me as I use some aspects of older Golarion in my 5e homebrew setting and I have plenty of setting material from the 3.5 and PF 1e Paizo eras.

I just am not going to spend $30 on the Tian Xia setting PDF. I have a mild interest in the setting and some Asian fantasy stuff in general but I already have the earlier Pathfinder 1e short sourcebook on the area which I have not really gone through and have not incorporated into my homebrew setting. I also already have a bunch of other fantasy Asian stuff from Kara Tur to Rokugon to Mists of Akuma and others.

But I did spend $30 on the bundle with that big PF2e Tian Xia setting sourcebook, their giant character options book fleshing out the new races for the setting and such, the associated Adventure Path, the new Monster Core with things like their new core dragons and outsiders, a bunch of short pathfinder society adventures, a bunch of flip mat PDFs, and so on even though the first bunch of PF2e core big book items in the bundle are duplicates from previous ones I bought. The 20 or so new things were worth it at the $30 bundle price for me.

Yup. I've bought several Humble Bundles for games I would not have otherwise purchased, and would do so again.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You probably would have done more good spending $30 on a book from a publisher you like (barring, of course, that you went with the HB specifically to support the charity attached).

My guess is Paizo (and others, obviously) views these bundles mostly as marketing, with an added benefit of a write off and helping out a charity.

...yeah. why are you presenting that as a problem?

 

[Voadam]

You probably would have done more good spending $30 on a book from a publisher you like

I am happy with my purchase decision.

I do like Paizo, I have a ton of Paizo 3.5, Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Pathfinder 2e books and PDFs. I have played and run a lot of Paizo adventures and I incorporate a lot of Paizo's Golarion into my homebrew mashup setting (it and Ptolus are the top two elements but I incorporate a lot of disparate stuff) and I use a lot of flavor from different games in my 5e games (my 5e conversion campaign of the sci-fi in D&D Iron Gods AP from Paizo incorporated stuff from WH40K, Werewolf the apocalypse, Mage the Ascension, Star Wars, Star Trek, Shadowrun, Paranoia, Doctor Who, and others).

I am in a pretty good position of having more than enough great stuff for my games. I have more than enough adventures I feel I would enjoy running to last the rest of my life, even if I stuck to just 5e specific stuff (my current system of choice). Almost all my purchases are of the "Seems interesting" category and none of the things I don't have that I am interested in seems particularly must get to really prioritize over a bunch of other things I am interested in so I don't really have an interest on spending more to get one specific thing of my big list of things I am interested in.

So when I spend my RPG budget I usually get things that seem good bang for the buck for things that are of interest for me without pressure to get anything in particular.

Tian Xia alone, eh some interest but not enough to spend $30 of my budget on it. Tian Xia along with 20 or 30 other PDFs I have various levels of interest in (and even with a number I already have) pushed it into a more attractive buying offer at $30.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I am not going to speak for others but I have bought a lot of Paizo’s 2e humble bundles and I would not have otherwise bought any of their 2e books at their individual listed prices.

This is something not to forget.

I've bought products in bundles at reduced prices I had some vague interest in, but not enough to take a flier on them at full price.

That doesn't mean I don't agree with the premise that, generally, people in the industry are underpayed. They are. But discounting here is like it is in the computer game industry; its a two edged sword because it gets some money on products people simply wouldn't buy at all.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Sure, although clearly there isn't enough of that to make pirating not a thing. People also fear retribution and/or social stigma for pirating, and might not want to go through the hassle of finding and downloading the product in question, so there are factors other than financial cost.

I'm just noting that the fact someone can get something for free doesn't always mean they're unwilling to pay. There are musicians I listen to on YouTube all the time that I joined their Patreons for that reason.

Is it enough? I not only don't know, I'm not sure even some of the people involved can tell with any certainty.

 

[Celebrim]

It actually sees play at the table is my general standard. For a typical hardback book, I will consider it "worth it" if I use more than 5 pages worth of material at some point.

Few purchases withstand this critique.

 

[CleverNickName]

"Prices can be a discussion, but purchases are always a yes-or-no question."
-my economics professor