A repeating theme I see with RPGs and social media is people complaining about high prices for RPG material.

I'm somewhat guilty of it myself at times (moreso in the past than recently), although I try not to be like that.

When I buy RPG material, I often get many hours (in many some cases 100s of hours) of fun and use out of it.
I don't really ever have to put one very large one time investments in this hobby, unlike many other hobbies.

Actually these days, you can get into RPGs at a VERY cheap price. You can get lots of them for free in a digital form and dice are very cheap. you can even save the money for dice by getting dice roller apps on your phones or tablets.

Are Roleplayers a stingy lot?

Is it just the ones who complain about price the vocal minority?

Do Roleplayers tend to be on the lower end of wage/income brackets, so perhaps are more sensitive to prices?

Have I just drunk too much coffee today and raving now...?

I know that RPGs are one of the highest theft items in retail books, so make of that what you will.


I play Warhammer, so "cheap" is relative to me.

I've only purchased RPGs that I've read prior to buying them, even if it's just a few minutes in the book store. The only time I haven't was when my wife bought me the Core 4e bundle for my birthday and a Lord of the Rings rpg.  The 4e books were great, the LotR book....eh not soo much.

Quote from: TristramEvans;827306I know that RPGs are one of the highest theft items in retail books, so make of that what you will.

Yeah that explains why so many of my dice are missing...  

Quote from: TristramEvans;827306I play Warhammer, so "cheap" is relative to me.

Agreed, Warhammer is an expensive hobby..  But then unless you're talking Warhammer RPG, it's not an RPG, but a wargame.

Quote from: danskmacabre;827314Y
Agreed, Warhammer is an expensive hobby..  But then unless you're talking Warhammer RPG, it's not an RPG, but a wargame.

I play Warhammer 3rd edition, which is a blend between the two.

When I was poor, I was pretty stingy with buying books.  There was always someone else who would have the books on hand so there was no need to pick them up.  Now I live abroad and have some disposable income.  Even though I cannot pick up rpgs and related goods easily, I have a a few shelves stuffed with TSR/OSR games and books plus a few bins of plastic minis and DF terrain.  The power of sea shipping and international luggage allowance is rather impressive.  

But back to the original question, it is probably a mix of matters.  Stingy folks complaining and poor folks with better uses of their limited income.  But then again, there are many alternatives now, including free Basic D&D, so maybe Wotc is discounting the nonpaying public and focusing on adding value to attract the folks who will pony up.

All three, actually.

As to poverty, while it's clearly not always the case, gamers tend to be misfits. On the one hand, you have some that end up engineers or computer programmers, you also have those (perhaps the majority) that end up working any odd job that can find, or living in their parents house.

On the other hand, there are clearly gamers with deep pockets. Look at pretty much every Frog God Games Kickstarter (or product). Their PDFs are priced like other companies hardbacks, and their hardbacks often cost more than my first car cost me 20 years ago. Yet every one of their KSes is a huge, overwhelming success.

As to stinginess, RPG books are kind of weird. Some of them use get a hell of a lot of use out of, while others are perhaps only read once or twice. Books are underpriced in some cases, but overpriced in others.

RPGs are cheap as chips. However, I am under no obligation to buy anything. I will only buy what I think I will actually use, I don't waste money on purely speculative purchases or to "collect" things.

Which is why I buy on average one product a year, sometimes less.

I hear the 'cheap' accusation tossed out at wargamers a lot more than roleplayers. Unless a person is a rabid collector of RPGs I don't see how it amounts to much of an expense... the annual pizza and Mountain Dew budget is probably a lot higher.
Then again, I am a bit put off by PDFs that seem near cost of physical copies... and that might be a bit unreasonable/stingy of me.

They certainly seem a lot cheaper than boardgamers. I hang out on Boardgamegeek a lot than I do on RPG forums, and the difference in tone when discussing products and publishers is like night and day. A lot of resentment in the RPG hobby about publishers and prices. Boardgamers either have deeper pockets, or they're just more positive people, because the most active people on forums buy lots of games don't seem bothered by the prices.

I agree with JeremyR that's it's partly a case of RPGers being more likely to be misfits with lousy jobs, and about the dramatically varying utility of a gamebook that you actually use, and one that gets half-read and stuck on a shelf.

I think it may be more a matter of prices are usually hard cold facts we can then argue about on the Internetz.

I have a ton of games I have never played, as well as, ones I have worn out. In balance it, to me, is one of the cheapest hobbies even looking at what I never actually used. I most often enjoyed reading them and fiddling with them at least,

Once again I think it is just something we can discuss, by comparing the perceived value of the item in question.

Complaining about prices is nothing unique to RPGs.

I see it all the time with video games.

Announce DLC, everybody complains "why wasn't this on the game disc in the first place?" Put it on an updated version of the game (released on disc, like a GOTY edition), everybody complains "why should we have to buy a whole new game when it could've been DLC or a free patch?"

There is no escape.

Both A and D.

Most of you guys seem loaded to me with all the cash for Kickstarters and buying new versions of games you already own.

But RPG products are largely overpriced probably due to the tiny market and tiny print runs.

Personally I buy very few new products due to no $ (2 small kids and a mortgage) but also because most of them look like retreads of stuff already done or just crap in general.

Quote from: Matt;827384Personally I buy very few new products due to no $ (2 small kids and a mortgage) but also because most of them look like retreads of stuff already done or just crap in general.

I hear you.  I've two small kids myself, and going through a divorce:)  My wallet is this sad tired little thing....  I tend to do a lot more research now prior to purchasing a product to make sure that it's something that I really want.  The internet is wonderful for that kind of research these days.