The discussion over in the "One too Many" thread has brought up an interesting question for me.

How do you as a player / gm / group even buy roleplaying books and supplements?

My group consists of two parts. One part me and 2 close friends whom I introduced to roleplaying and a second part of "strangers" whom I have invited or have joined my game via some sort of search for players. I can't speak for the second part but for me and my close friends we usually only buy the core rulebook of something that we want to play with maybe the advanced players guide (IH, IT etc...) at a later point in time.

As the other two members of the first part more or less got "dragged" into roleplaying by me I'm usually the one that buys the books (also the one with the most disposable income but that's a different story). The exception to this was the Book of Justice which my brother gifted to me and the Creatures Anathema which one of the other players lent me about a year ago (when he joined my group) and hasn't requested back since.

Among the three of us in the first group there only exists one copy of the DH core rulebook and the RT core rules (also only one copy of Inquisitors Handbook and Into the Storm) this keeps costs relatively low (especially compared to what I believe what some people on the forums are doing who buy everything that is out there). As I said I can't speak for the second half of the group, all I know about them is that both of them own their own copy of the Core Rulebook and I think that's about it.

Well anyway enough about me. I actually want to know how other people and groups are handling buying roleplay books and supplements.

In my experience it seems rare that I'm, when GMing not the only the one with the book.

Yeah, sometimes a member of the group will buy their own, but in 20 years of gaming it's been my experience that more than one or two people (GM included) with the book is by far the exception, not the rule. Especially if the game isn't called Dungeons and Dragons.

If it's not D&D, I'm usually the guy who foots the bill for 100% of the books. If it is D&D there is usually one other player in our group who has the books as well as me. I don't mind. I'm usually the GM and I like having all the books at hand.

Good question.

I’ve got all the books published to date (except the Haarlock ones). I do this not so the ‘group’ has access to them but honestly because I just like reading them. I find all of it interesting, even when I have no real plans to use it (like the Calixis Sector stuff) or even when I haven’t used any of it (I’ve never played RT, yet I have all the books). It’s a bit like GW Codices. I used to buy every Codex, even for armies I didn’t play. I’ve long since given up on GW’s ability to create a decent rule-set, and the addition of Ward to their fluff writers has turned me off their books even further, but ignoring those two I’d still be buying every Codex they put out because I like reading them even when I have no desire to play that specific army.

As for the rest of the group, they buy things here and there. A few have the DH rulebook and a few supplements, a few more have the Deathwatch rulebook. Another has the RT rulebook. One buys everything, but only in PDF format. All of them have the odd PDF here and there of specific books.

I don’t really mind being the guy that has all the books and I’ve never felt like I’m being mooched off of. Honestly I’d be more annoyed if I didn’t own all the books, as I’d feel there were gaps or things that were missing. And anyway, I own all the maps and tiles and terrain that we use, and we hold every game in my apartment, so really it makes logical sense to me to have everything on hand.

BYE

I too have most of the books. All Rogue Trader, all Deathwatch, most Dark Heresy. In my games almost every player has at least the Core Rulebook. Beyond that it is a mix. Books like the Inquisitors Handbook, Into The Storm, and Rites of Battle are about 50/50. Beyond that the books are generally only owned if the player is a GM.

My friends/players support FFG by purchasing the books, as well as purchasing them from our FLGS. Basically, we believe if you don't support the companies or the stores, then they will eventually go away. The Core Rulebook costs the same as most Xbox games these days, give or take. The only difference is you have to buy the Xbox game to play, whereas you can leech from friends for RPG.

kenshin138 said:

Very true!

When it comes to 40k, I buy all the books simply because I'm a 40k fanboy and willing to admit it. I support the company, in the hopes of getting more things I like. As far as my purchasing decisions impacting the rest of the group, I can't speak regarding 40k since we haven't played any of the games (maybe some day) but in terms of RPGs in general....

Some, not all but some, players in every game I ran or played in would go out and buy the books if we played the game long enough. That's the trick it seems; if people have fun playing the game somebody would end up wanting their own copies. If we have fun, but only play the game for a session or two, the odds of people buying their own copies diminished. Also, the more "game jumping" we did, the less likely people were to invest in the game, either financially or emotionally.

Take it as anecdotal evidence at best, but it seems to be true in my eyes and makes some sense.

In my household, there are one or two copies of all the books and supplements for 40k roleplay. In the group of players, most people have a smattering of core rulebooks and supplements for the games they most enjoy, and then depend on us to fill in the rest.

It's always handy to have more than one copy of the rulebook and frequently fought-over supplements (like the Inquisitor's Handbook)!

None of my players own any of the books, though one of them may begin to buy them as he gets in to the 40K setting. Like H.B.M.C., I enjoy all of the books & own some from each line. I would own them all, if I could budget it. As it is, I must pick & choose which ones to get. I own most of the non-adventure Dark Heresy books, as it has been out longest & is the game I currently run. The more books the better!

I have all the books for all the 40k RPG systems and I like to read them whe I have time (I like the fluff) but we only play RT once a couple of months (no time - family, job etc.). As for my players, two of them own the core rulebook to RT but that's all. I have the other books.

I have every 40krpg book published except the new BC and DH adventure modules. I want them, but the recent birth of my son means I've had to cut back on certain lines of expenditure, and adventure modules will always be the first to go. I'd always proritise limited financial resources on "pure" sourcebooks like Achillus Assault, then core rulebooks, then mixed source/gear books like Daemon Hunter/Inquisitor's handbook, and adventures last.

If you buy every book produced by FFG for 40k RPG, you're spending about $500 a year on books alone, especially if you live outside the US and buy special editions.

Bear in mind also that there is competition for my money from other 40k book lines: the forgeworld Imperial armour books are excellent (and expensive) and there are Black Library books and codexes to buy, too.

I have a relatively well paid job (I'm a professional safecracker) but the recession and Lightbringer Junior mean that for the first time I'm having to forgo certain FFG products, much to my irritation. I will be buying Only war, though!

@Lightbringer

a) congratulations on your newborn son!! b) professional safecracker? you are now the coolest person on this board to me

I've moved on from running 40k rpg, but when I ran RT, the Captain of the group was buying the books for the group.

I currently play a Captain in another group, and our resident grognard collects the entire thing but lets another run the game. As I am on vacation, I don't know his feelings on OW, yet I suspect he will collect them as well. We love the freedom of RT too much to change to another setting, I think, but I'm incredibly curious to see how this game goes.

jordiver2 said:

as a frugal man who couldn't afford FFG rpg books, I felt a certain amount of pressure to deliver the game to the players, which at least let me overcome the problem of dropping games as often as I used to. but I allowed myself to felt an undue amount of tension and stress over the game for much too long.

in the game I currently play in, our GM with a brain like a databank of 40k rules/fluff uses everything from the books and a lot from the forums or elsewhere. our said grognard and collector seems to like being able to play short lived larger than life characters from many walks of life (first a missionary, then a freebooter, now an astropath), so I get the idea that there have to be various reactions to your question from at least the GM's side. our patron players have been really enjoying their games, and lead me to assume that if they did not like having someone else run the game, it wouldn't be happening in the first place.