What would you pay for a book?

[CubicsRube]

There is another category @Morrus that I think you left off - Virtual Tabletop ready book.

I've bought several 5e books. More than I bought for 4e and getting pretty close to more than I bought for 3e. I'm not a huge buyer, by any stretch, but, I am buying semi-steadily. Only trick is, I haven't actually bought an RPG book since the Core 3 were released. Everything I've bought has been integrated with Fantasy Grounds.

Now, for that sort of thing, I have zero issue paying at least cover price. Presuming that the material has been properly inputted into Fantasy Grounds (and, by and large, it is), I'm very willing to pay for that. So, new release hardcover is what, about 50 bucks (give or take?)? Yeah, I have zero problem with that. For the time saving and the huge amount of time I'm going to use something like, say, Candlekeep Mysteries? Cheap by the dozen really.

Frankly, I can't find a cheaper hobby. Five people, playing 3 hours per week, probably about 45 weeks/year and it costs me maybe 50 bucks? It's a freaking steal and I wouldn't be terribly bothered if they upped the price.

Yeah i just paid USD25 for the roll20 tales from the loop module. I already own the hardcover and pdf, but it has preloaded all the handouts, art, maps and the like for the approx 5 sessions in the core book mini campaign.

That's 5USD a session for what's saved me hours of snipping, uploading, organising etc.

You could count the original cost of the book, but I've already many hours of enjoyment reading it on it's own merit so I consider it paid for.

Even buying hardcover novels to read is a more expensive hobby, as after you finish those you don't have a game you can play.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

What are you paying for the books in Canada?

It depends.

The Ravenloft 5E book is currently 29 USD which with the conversion rate should equal about 35-36 CAD. I payed around 45 for it at launch.

For a bigger book, like the Zweihander book, it's currently 30 USD (seems to be in special) and which converts to 37 CAD. It's currently 55 CAD on Amazon Canada. I bought it for 80$ CAD over a year ago.

Another example, the Camarilla sourcebook for the 5th edition of Vampire the Masquerade is 41$ USD on the american Amazon, and is 67$ on the canadian amazon. The conversion should lead to a price around 50-51$ CAD.

In my experience, all prices in game stores (as opposed to Amazon) are few canadian dollars pricier. The Vampire 5th edition core rulebook was close to 80$ CAD when I bought it a few weeks ago.

 

[GrahamWills]

Following up on some of the later posts about RPG prices in the SKR salary thread.

What is the most you would you honestly pay for:

a) a softcover adventure (say 100 pages?)
b) a hardcover rulebook the size of the D&D core books (about 300 pages)
c) a hardcover rulebook the size of the Pathfinder core book (about 650 pages)
d) PDFs of each of the above

I'm going to assume this is a purchase for something for which I want the content, not something for which I want it as a collectible -- so not for leather-bound, signed otherwise "special" items. Also only for content I am not certain I want.

A) $30
B) $120
C) $120
D) $60

I'll only buy a softcover book if no other option is available. I like pdfs to read on my iPad -- convenient, smaller size factor and copyable; I like hardbacks for casual raiding and bookshelf.

IfI know I want it, such as for example the upcoming Chaosium Pendragon book, it would be significantly higher and if they only released a softbound version for $150 ... I'd probably buy it. But I wouldn't be happy.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Following up on some of the later posts about RPG prices in the SKR salary thread.

What is the most you would you honestly pay for:

a) a softcover adventure (say 100 pages?)
b) a hardcover rulebook the size of the D&D core books (about 300 pages)
c) a hardcover rulebook the size of the Pathfinder core book (about 650 pages)
d) PDFs of each of the above

Note this isn’t what would you prefer the price was (free obvs!) but what would you honestly pay, assuming you wanted the product?

(If you’re not interested in that type of product assume you are for the purposes of the question)

Current Exchange-rate is 1 USD is about 9.1 SEK, but count it as 10 SEK/USD for simplicity.

A: Maybe 300 SEK
B: 500 SEK
C: 800 SEK (I am thinking about buying the Malleus Monstrorum for CoC 7e and that is 899 SEK in my localfriendly gaming store. Only reason I haven't bought it already is that I do not know if it would ever be used.)
D: 100 SEK / 300 SEK / 400 SEK. (I would prefer if the PDF were included in the price for the physical books, but I at least expect them to be heavily discounted if I buy them separately, and they should be bookmarked and searchable.)

 

[Eltab]

I have paid $50 for the 5e PHB and about $30 for a (slightly-used) copy of Tiamat when I took over as group DM.
I expected the adventure to last for a year of live play.
The PHB is a "forever" purchase.

Softcover adventures $20 - $30 based on how long it is supposed to take to play through to completion and/or reputation of publisher / game.

I've never bought a PDF version of anything, but for my DM'ing style also consider printing costs of some of the physical pages. (Office Max: 12¢ per copy page of text, maps in color 30¢ per page)

The XL hardcover rulebook - talk my Public Library into buying that, borrow it later, and copy out the really good parts. (Yeah, this is why "starving artists" are a real thing.)

 

[Jd Smith1]

Following up on some of the later posts about RPG prices in the SKR salary thread.

What is the most you would you honestly pay for:

a) a softcover adventure (say 100 pages?)
b) a hardcover rulebook the size of the D&D core books (about 300 pages)
c) a hardcover rulebook the size of the Pathfinder core book (about 650 pages)
d) PDFs of each of the above

Note this isn’t what would you prefer the price was (free obvs!) but what would you honestly pay, assuming you wanted the product?

(If you’re not interested in that type of product assume you are for the purposes of the question)

a) Won't buy paper.
b) Won't buy paper
c) Won't buy paper
d) I don't buy adventures, as there are too many free ones available on the Net. But I just bought the 5e Monster Manual for Roll20 for $29, so in theory that is the most I would pay for a RPG book. But I seriously doubt I will spend more than $100 on RPG products this year (not counting my Roll20 Pro subscription. Odds are very good I'll spend less.

 

[S'mon]

I'd probably go up to about £55 at the top* end, then scale down proportionally.

*c, but something I actually wanted. And really wanted. Something of the quality of Odyssey of the Dragonlords (which IMO is a bargain at £40 RRP), or maybe the umpteenth Kobold Press monster book.
Keeping the (c) price to £40-£45 is much more likely to make a sale though. And I don't think I'd pay any more for 650 pages than for ca 380 pages. That's about where page count ceases to matter.

I once paid £20 for a Paizo AP issue (#6 of Return of the Runelords) but I can't imagine doing that again. But I might pay £10 for a 32pp adventure or £20 for a 64 page compendium of adventures if it looks good. But £8 for the former and £15 for the latter is far more likely to make a sale.

I don't generally go over £5 for a pdf no matter the size. I have far more Humble Bumble pdfs than I'll ever read - I generally don't even know what I have. :/ I'll drop £2-£3 on a pdf adventure easily though. I'll buy when it's more like buying a music single download than buying an album.

TL;DR: Sweet spot is either a 380 page luxury hardback at £45, or a cheap & cheerful £3 pdf.

 

[Morrus]

a) Won't buy paper.
b) Won't buy paper
c) Won't buy paper
d) I don't buy adventures, as there are too many free ones available on the Net. But I just bought the 5e Monster Manual for Roll20 for $29, so in theory that is the most I would pay for a RPG book. But I seriously doubt I will spend more than $100 on RPG products this year (not counting my Roll20 Pro subscription. Odds are very good I'll spend less.

Good chat.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Good chat.

Not what a seller of game materials might want to hear, I know. But I have a number of other hobbies, and I'm a cheapskate.

 

[overgeeked]

a) a softcover adventure (say 100 pages?)
b) a hardcover rulebook the size of the D&D core books (about 300 pages)
c) a hardcover rulebook the size of the Pathfinder core book (about 650 pages)
d) PDFs of each of the above

a) $10-15, tops.
b) $30-35, tops.
c) $35-40, tops.
d) $10, tops.