- Joined
- 20-Jun-2003
- Messages
- 2,011
- Reaction score
- 160
- Age
- 51
- Lumina
- 431,082
- Gender
- Female
HP
85/85
EP
79/80
Role playing can be a fairly inexpensive hobby. After all, once you have the initial investment of a Core rule book in a System that you prefer, grab some dice, a pencil and your local library card (for photocopies of the Character Sheet), you just need some friends, a few hours to dedicate to chaos and maybe a bag of Doritos. But, I want to look at how much we're actually spending doing this hobby.
I know for me, I've always been interested in the variety of different mechanics and options that many obscure titles offer. As a result, I've spent hundreds of dollars over the decades just in books. The first game I purchased on my own was Role Master, and I believe that core book was like $30 back in 1999. The issue with Role Master, while it's a great, crunchy game that has a good tactical feel to it, is the number of expansion books for it. I must have spent $500 just on expansion books for this one system, and also keep in mind that because I played this system for years, there were revised editions to purchase as well (I'm looking at you Spell Law!)
I have probably well over 60 games in my collection, most of which are digital copies, but I do own a couple of hard back books (in addition to the PDF versions). Just collecting these different game systems, I know I've spent several hundred dollars, you know $20 here, $25 there, $12 over there. I've made DriveThruRPG fairly wealthy! LOL And this doesn't even count the books that I've had to replace! Which is one of the many reasons I prefer digital copies of my books. I can always just fire up my laser printer and burn through a ream of paper, hole punch it, and throw it in a nice three-ring binder.
Yes, I should add the various other office supply types of things too. Because if it weren't for my gaming hobby, I wouldn't have purchased three-ring binders, a hole punch, a BOX of printer paper and two additional toner cartridges-- let alone the laser printer in the first place! I say this because I don't work an office type job, right now, maybe someday I will, maybe my preparedness will grant me the opportunity to work from home too. But needless to say, I didn't really need all this office supply crap for my daily life. Oh, and we can't forget the XenceLabs drawing tablet. I don't really draw anything, besides role playing characters. (I'll have to see if I can find some buried on my computer later.)
Dice. We love them. And hate them-- especially when they land on Nat 1. Back in 1999, when I bought Role Master, I also bought a couple of folding card tables, chairs, and six different colored sets of dice. I was thinking that I could talk my real life friends into joining my addiction into this hobby. I was wrong for the most part. Or maybe I wasn't really a good Game Master yet-- a point which could be debated that I'm still not a very good Game Master. You know, that practice thing, really does help! (hint, hint!) Anyway, most of those dice I've lost through various relocation events in my life. However, I am happy to report that I do have a cornucopia of Pride dice in a specially dedicated pink pencil box next to my desk here. In fact, I also recently picked up a set of silicon rainbow dice-- which I still haven't fondled yet. (YAY, I got to use a naughty word in a sanitized manner!
) But dice aren't cheap either. A set can cost between $10 an d $50. I've had my eyes on a set of natural Amethyst dice (you know, made with genuine amethyst quartz?) for a while, and that set is nearly $100!
And no gaming adventure is complete without the accessories. I'm talking about the food and beverages, of course! Being that this is a community type event, I've purchased the typical chips and soda, but also entire meals for those day-long questing events. I'll add here that these friendly events are truly awesome, and bring a group of gamers together in a more friendly fashion. I don't even wanna figure out how much money I've spent in this area!
Finally, the last expenses I've had relate to software. Not only are there typical spreadsheets and word processing applications, the PDF editing software to use, but there's also specialized Character Generators (Hero, I'm looking at you!), and even entire Virtual Table Tops, like The Foundary (my latest purchase of $50) Someday, I'll figure out the software enough to maybe get a game started. But of course, I'll still need friends who are into the chaotic anime craziness that I'm into. Any takers?
So, a rough estimate of my three decades of gaming, I've probably spent somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000. I guess there are way more expensive hobbies. Like Anime?
I know for me, I've always been interested in the variety of different mechanics and options that many obscure titles offer. As a result, I've spent hundreds of dollars over the decades just in books. The first game I purchased on my own was Role Master, and I believe that core book was like $30 back in 1999. The issue with Role Master, while it's a great, crunchy game that has a good tactical feel to it, is the number of expansion books for it. I must have spent $500 just on expansion books for this one system, and also keep in mind that because I played this system for years, there were revised editions to purchase as well (I'm looking at you Spell Law!)
I have probably well over 60 games in my collection, most of which are digital copies, but I do own a couple of hard back books (in addition to the PDF versions). Just collecting these different game systems, I know I've spent several hundred dollars, you know $20 here, $25 there, $12 over there. I've made DriveThruRPG fairly wealthy! LOL And this doesn't even count the books that I've had to replace! Which is one of the many reasons I prefer digital copies of my books. I can always just fire up my laser printer and burn through a ream of paper, hole punch it, and throw it in a nice three-ring binder.
Yes, I should add the various other office supply types of things too. Because if it weren't for my gaming hobby, I wouldn't have purchased three-ring binders, a hole punch, a BOX of printer paper and two additional toner cartridges-- let alone the laser printer in the first place! I say this because I don't work an office type job, right now, maybe someday I will, maybe my preparedness will grant me the opportunity to work from home too. But needless to say, I didn't really need all this office supply crap for my daily life. Oh, and we can't forget the XenceLabs drawing tablet. I don't really draw anything, besides role playing characters. (I'll have to see if I can find some buried on my computer later.)
Dice. We love them. And hate them-- especially when they land on Nat 1. Back in 1999, when I bought Role Master, I also bought a couple of folding card tables, chairs, and six different colored sets of dice. I was thinking that I could talk my real life friends into joining my addiction into this hobby. I was wrong for the most part. Or maybe I wasn't really a good Game Master yet-- a point which could be debated that I'm still not a very good Game Master. You know, that practice thing, really does help! (hint, hint!) Anyway, most of those dice I've lost through various relocation events in my life. However, I am happy to report that I do have a cornucopia of Pride dice in a specially dedicated pink pencil box next to my desk here. In fact, I also recently picked up a set of silicon rainbow dice-- which I still haven't fondled yet. (YAY, I got to use a naughty word in a sanitized manner!
) But dice aren't cheap either. A set can cost between $10 an d $50. I've had my eyes on a set of natural Amethyst dice (you know, made with genuine amethyst quartz?) for a while, and that set is nearly $100!And no gaming adventure is complete without the accessories. I'm talking about the food and beverages, of course! Being that this is a community type event, I've purchased the typical chips and soda, but also entire meals for those day-long questing events. I'll add here that these friendly events are truly awesome, and bring a group of gamers together in a more friendly fashion. I don't even wanna figure out how much money I've spent in this area!
Finally, the last expenses I've had relate to software. Not only are there typical spreadsheets and word processing applications, the PDF editing software to use, but there's also specialized Character Generators (Hero, I'm looking at you!), and even entire Virtual Table Tops, like The Foundary (my latest purchase of $50) Someday, I'll figure out the software enough to maybe get a game started. But of course, I'll still need friends who are into the chaotic anime craziness that I'm into. Any takers?
So, a rough estimate of my three decades of gaming, I've probably spent somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000. I guess there are way more expensive hobbies. Like Anime?
