What would you pay for a book?

[Jfdlsjfd]

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?)

I know you asked to pretend to be interested, but honestly... an adventure is a one-use item. I wouldn't buy a dead tree version of it, I'd buy a PDF version of it around 15-20 €, based on the amount of sessions I'd be able to play out of it but no more for a softcover version because I'd find it inferior to the PDF one. Handouts have no value for me since I'd have to translate them for my players anyway, so any work of art would be lost as an immersion tool.

b) a hardcover rulebook the size of the D&D core books (about 300 pages)

40 €.

c) a hardcover rulebook the size of the Pathfinder core book (about 650 pages)

This size of book I'd expect to have a complete contained enjoyment pack... Probably 60-80 € but I'd want the PDF freely included because it's the type of size where searching become necessary on top of a reasonably well-made index. 40 € for just the PDF seems right if it is a PDF-only release.

I feel my reaction to price is depending on multiple factors, not based on the page count.

1. generally, I'll pay based on expected time of enjoyment of the product (so a setting product that can be mined for several sessions will be worth more than an equal size book with a specific focus.
2. sometimes, there is impulse-based purchase that will throw all the number above out of the window.
3. sometimes, I'll also buy products I wouldn't have or more than what I'd have if I have had special enjoyment of the work of some author (the history of providing value helps, I am thinking of say Keith Baker... I would consider buying something I'd probably never run because I had extreme value out of Exploring Eberron, for example).
4. the relationship with PDF is problematic: my need for PDF or paper varies on the type of product, but I'd feel ripped off if the price of the PDF wasn't (price of paper version minus production cost of the paper version, potentially with a premium for the cost of producing the indexed PDF), even if I was in a situation where I'd have more use of PDF than a paper version of the product (the aforementionned adventure, for example).

 

[pogre]

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)

Items I want, not just curious about:
a) $45
b)$75
c)$125
d)$20/$30/$45

If it was a product that I did not know I wanted a lower price often tempts me to buy something. For example, The Game Master's Book of Random Encounters by Jeff Ashworth is a 250-page hardback book with a MSRP of $22.99. Did not know if I would like it or use it, but for that price it was an easy buy for me. It was printed in Korea, but I still have no idea how they did it so cheaply. BTW - it's a solid book.

 

[el-remmen]

an adventure is a one-use item.

Funny, I have been getting use out of my stack of adventures for nearly 40 years,

 

[aco175]

Well, I do want to be clear. I don't really consider the welfare of the producer at the time I'm making my purchase probably for the following reasons:

1. I have no personal connection to the people producing what I'm purchasing.
2. I base my purchases on what I think is best for me and I just assume whoever is selling me the product prices it according to what they think is best for them.

I find myself in the same position mostly. I tend to not buy that much in terms of books and PDFs since I do not use that much but want to support the industry when I can. I have cut back from my 3e bloat of supplements that did not get used or used once. I want to support the A5E kickstarter but not sure how much I will use the books and now, how much the 2024 core update will make things change. Looking at the kickstarter I see that I can get the PDFs of the main 3 books for $60.00 or paper for $160.00ish. I know most will not be used at my table if I do not have the paper books, but the price is too high for me.

Generally I do not care since I am buying from an unknown company. I find that on this site it may be a bit different. I am still not capital F friends with anyone here, but I consider a lot of the regulars some sort of acquaintance at least. I get something from looking at the posts and contributing, so part of me feels that should be worth something as well since I am a bit more invested.

I guess if I was a player more and not the DM almost always, I could justify buying more. I think I will likely buy the PDfs and print off sections like a new class to have at the table. I feel the monster book will get more use and the exploration rules depends on the players and how they want to play it.

 

[TheSword]

I know you asked to pretend to be interested,

I’m pretty sure he was asking because he was about to release a massive Kickstarter with an adventure, supplement and massive Pathfinder sized core book.

 

[Jd Smith1]

The demographic being, "Having been a gamer long enough to have built up clutter"?

Terribly true. Back when Ebay got hot I dumped a massive amount of gaming material dating back to the 70s, and have since conducted regular purges and giveaways. In addition to buying only pdfs. But I still have too many gaming books.

Just last month I threw away any book I had never actually used. Someday soon I will chunk the 'will never use again' category, but that will be a lot harder.

 

[S'mon]

Funny, I have been getting use out of my stack of adventures for nearly 40 years,

I find there are a few I reuse, a bunch I run once, and a fair number I never use.

 

[delericho]

A bit late to the party, I know, but here goes...

The real answer is that I don't have an upper limit as such - it depends on how much I want the book in question. I spent an excessive amount on both "Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide" (to complete my Saga Edition collection) and the "D&D Rules Cyclopedia", but those were both very much outliers.

I should also note that right now RPG material in general is a very hard sell for me - I'm unlikely to be able to play any game other than D&D 5e for the forseeable future, and I have enough adventure material to last the rest of my life even if all I ever do is run games using published adventures.

That said...

a) a softcover adventure (say 100 pages?)

I would expect to pay $35ish - probably not enough to justify the cost of production.

b) a hardcover rulebook the size of the D&D core books (about 300 pages)

I would expect to pay $50 or $55ish.

c) a hardcover rulebook the size of the Pathfinder core book (about 650 pages)

I almost certainly wouldn't buy such a book - I found that Pathfinder book was just unwieldy.

d) PDFs of each of the above

I'd probably expect to pay $25, $45, and $60 respectively. Note that I don't have the same reluctance to buy a PDF of that giant book as the hardcopy.

One last thing: since at least some of this is almost certainly related to Level Up, I should note that I'm much more likely to buy into such a thing all at once, and would therefore pay for a bundle of everything (or everything I wanted). In particular, that bundle of all the PDFs (the Marshall level) is the one for me - and the price point is very attractive, too.

 

[Jmarso]

That depends strictly on the book itself, its content, and how bad I want it. There's 'interested' all the way up to "Gollum must have the Precious" levels of obsession.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I'm sort of with Aramis in this regard, with a couple of notes.

I'm one of those weird ones that actually prefers a soft cover book if it is thin, regardless if it is an adventure, splat, or what have you. What's "thin"? 128 pages or less, I think. Also, I have to think that I'm going to use at least half of the book. I was really interested in the Dragonmarks, but when the Eberron book came out there were about 10 pages that I was interested in.* I think it talked about the houses and politics vastly more than the history and magic of the dragonmarks. If I'm going to buy something unseen, I have to be persuaded of the utility. Otherwise, I have to buy the pdf since it feels like a gamble.

* If you know what book I'm talking about, how many pages was this? It was a hardcover, and if it was a softcover and thus cheaper I might have bought it anyway.

EtA: I think the last five gaming books I bought were SWN, WWN, and the 5e core three. I'm old, and my books are my hoard. Something has to really sparkle in my eye to motivate me to buy it. The only reason I bought the 5e books is so that I could run an after-school game at the charter school I'm involved with.