D&D (2024) Do you plan to adopt D&D5.5One2024Redux?

[UngeheuerLich]

For a player who just owns the PHB, then sure.

For a DM...

I did not have to buy every book in print and DDB although my players sure love campaign access via DDB.

If you are really into the hobby, then it can cost several thousand per year via kickstarters and traditional publishers.

It can. But this has nothing to do with wotc pricing or anything near what you need to play.
I can say my whole collection over 10 years is probably not several thousand dollars... and I own a lot more than I need.

80% of the public pays for 1 book. A lot of DMs I know will own the 3 core books in print and VTT. They will pay for a DDB subscription. They will probably have 1-3 extra PHBs to loan out during gameday.

I am usually not a big fan of the cost per hour argument because some folks will see that 50 dollar book as rent or food or utility.

 

[Maxperson]

Thing is, unlike those other things, D&D is - or certainly can be - largely a one-time buy.

You get the PH, some dice, a few character minis, and you're set for life as a player. One-time buy.

The DM also needs to get the other books, maybe a few adventure modules, something (chalkboard, whiteboard, whatever) to draw maps and put the minis on, and some props or chess pieces or whatever to stand in for monsters. One-time buy except for adventures, which can be a minor ongoing expense until-unless a DM becomes proficient in adventure creation; and printer ink (always a ripoff!) and paper with which to print out said homebrew adventures unless written with pen and paper..

Sure, but when you already have the books from 2014 that still work perfectly fine and your $80-$100 a month has to be split between eating, dating, clothing, video games, concerts, etc., re-spending $50 $150 on new core books might not look appealing.

 

[Parmandur]

Sure, but when you already have the books from 2014 that still work perfectly fine and your $80-$100 a month has to be split between eating, dating, clothing, video games, concerts, etc., re-spending $60 on new core books might not look appealing.

$50, the new Core books are only $50 if you pay full price. And teens are going to pay Amazon or Target prices.

 

[Maxperson]

$50, the new Core books are only $50 if you pay full price. And teens are going to pay Amazon or Target prices.

I fixed it. Thanks for the correction.

 

[Parmandur]

I fixed it. Thanks for the correction.

Understandable since lower volume books have that $60 MSRP (which is still behind inflation)

 

[Oofta]

For a player who just owns the PHB, then sure.

For a DM...

I did not have to buy every book in print and DDB although my players sure love campaign access via DDB.

If you are really into the hobby, then it can cost several thousand per year via kickstarters and traditional publishers.

80% of the public pays for 1 book. A lot of DMs I know will own the 3 core books in print and VTT. They will pay for a DDB subscription. They will probably have 1-3 extra PHBs to loan out during gameday.

I am usually not a big fan of the cost per hour argument because some folks will see that 50 dollar book as rent or food or utility.

If money is an issue, you can always have the group chip in. Beyond that only whales spend thousands of dollars on D&D. I haven't spent "thousands" of dollars on D&D even spread over the past decade, even including a 3D printer my wife bought me. A DM having PHBs to loan out? I've never seen that and it's entirely unnecessary if you have DDB which is around $50 per year.

You don't need sapphire dice and every piece of dwarven forge kit available to play the game. I got a really nice dry erase mat for $18, buy a pound of dice for $20 and have enough dice for a lifetime and give everyone at the table their own set. If cost is an issue, it's easy to find cheap minis, use other indicators, print monsters or just play TotM. For that matter, you don't even have to buy a single book, you could easily run the game using the free PDFs.

Even though I could afford it, outside of peripheral things I don't need for the game and things like terrain, I simply don't see how you could spend thousands of dollars year after year playing D&D.

 

[Cadence]

The entirety of the midwest is 67 million. California has 40 million. 12 states have a bit more than 50% more than 1 state. Add in New York and it's 59 million to 67 million.

You're doing it again. You are including all of California which is the same mistake as including the midwest. It's a bunch of sparsely populated emptiness that is cheap to live in. Including it distorts the reality of living in California.

I can get a house in the middle of bumpuck nowhere for $175,000 in California. In Los Angeles that house costs $700k for the crapyy ones and $800 to $1m for the decent ones.

I put in LA County and Cook County in separately in addition to including all of Illinois and all of California for housing, didn't I?

That California is more expensive than somewhere doesn't mean something has become less affordable there, does it? Wouldn't that be if income didn't also go up enough to keep up. I give the percent changes in housing price in Cook county and LA. I didn't find the change in income for the counties (happy to be given sources numbers), but did for the states. For Cali as a whole it got more expensive. For Ill as a whole it didn't. Not sure about LA and Cook.

For 20% vs. 80% of anything, it feels kind of odd to me to take the 20% as the baseline and blaming the other 80% for making everything not look that bad. Or even taking 20% vs. 25% and acting like the other 55% isn't there and that the 20% is the baseline. I mean, unless we're only supposed to be focusing on someone living in the 20% ;-)

 

[Umbran]

Sure, but when you already have the books from 2014 that still work perfectly fine and your $80-$100 a month has to be split between eating, dating, clothing, video games, concerts, etc., re-spending $50 $150 on new core books might not look appealing.

Which is why there's that link to Basic Rules on D&D Beyond...

 

[Lanefan]

If money is an issue, you can always have the group chip in. Beyond that only whales spend thousands of dollars on D&D. I haven't spent "thousands" of dollars on D&D even spread over the past decade, even including a 3D printer my wife bought me. A DM having PHBs to loan out? I've never seen that and it's entirely unnecessary if you have DDB which is around $50 per year.

I've seen DMs with PHs to loan out, usually accreted when players left the game and said "Here, keep this, I don't need it".

You don't need sapphire dice and every piece of dwarven forge kit available to play the game. I got a really nice dry erase mat for $18, buy a pound of dice for $20 and have enough dice for a lifetime and give everyone at the table their own set. If cost is an issue, it's easy to find cheap minis, use other indicators, print monsters or just play TotM.

Agreed.

Even though I could afford it, outside of peripheral things I don't need for the game and things like terrain, I simply don't see how you could spend thousands of dollars year after year playing D&D.

If you get into trying to collect old modules it can get costly real quick. Believe me.

 

[Oofta]

I've seen DMs with PHs to loan out, usually accreted when players left the game and said "Here, keep this, I don't need it".

Agreed.

If you get into trying to collect old modules it can get costly real quick. Believe me.

Hey people spend untold amounts of money on stamp collections as well. I just don't get it. You can't even use the old stamps to send mail so why bother?