I buy an RPG if I feel that it is a good read. I enjoyed reading (and thus own) various D&D/AD&D/3E books, Call of Cthulhu, GURPS, Cyberpunk 2020, OWD books, Earthdawn, Rifts, MERP, Shadow World and some I'm sure I'm forgetting.

But as of now I feel I have all I need for my gaming needs for the rest of my life: tons of unused/unread D&D/CoC books and adventures, a never-played Rifts collection, and WEG Star Wars d6.

These days I buy RPGs only if I feel there is a real reason for buying the book. I recently bought Pathfinder so to keep the best improvements for my 3.5 book collection; and the PF Beginner Box as a gift for a friend of mine who wanted to try her hand at DMing. I'm considering to buy the physical copy of a PF Adventure Path, but this is a definite maybe, since I'm working on my own fantasy background. I'll buy "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" (hmmm... actually I could do it right after this post...) and that's it.

This has nothing to do with creativity or willingness to play. Actually, I'm in the middle of one of the most creative periods in all my life. I simply feel that I already own all the stuff I need to express my ideas.

I spend on books for GM's, miniatures, campaign settings, and stuff with lots of random generators in it.

Usually one of these reasons interest me:

- interesting setting with integrated ruleset.
- offers a qualitively different play experience to games I already own.
- is an inventive toolkit for world/adventure building.
- a game to which I've have significant input during it's development.
- gives me an initial rush of 'Whoa that sounds mint!' followed by 'Hmmm..now that's interesting'.

How much do I spend ? - as both my gaming groups buy resources between the players (giving added incentive to play the damn thing) I spend very little on rpgs nowadays.

I forgot to tell that thesedays I spend more money on helping software: Hero Labs, the One Sheet, CC3, Hexographer, Fractal Mapper - and I have a big set of E-tools.

I find these aids, when well done, not only helpful, but creatively stimulating. And by investing some learning time at the beginning, the best of them really make a DM job faster.

hmmm, I should've put "pizza" on that list, as RPGs have put more of my money in Pizza Hut's pocket's than WotC.

I am only interested in new games or new editions of current games currently.  I have enough adventure material to last several life times at the moment.

My criteria:

1. Does the setting sound cool, brimming with conflict and opportunity for adventure?

2. Do the rules flow well and don't conflict with genre conventions?

3. For Core Rulebooks: Is it reasonably priced and has enough material in it that I don't need other books to start playing?  (I make an exception when it comes to D&D)

An RPG that I'll buy is one that has something to it that attracts me.  It doesn't have to have a good setting, but if there's something about it that I find interesting or takes an approach to gaming that I've never done before.  Considering that for the longest time all I played was D&D (1e, 2e, 3.0) and MERP, it's not hard to find different stuff out there these days.

Whether I'll actually play any of these other RPGs I've been acquiring is a different story.  I sometimes get ideas from reading the books that I apply to the games I'm in, and I do want to try stuff out, but I realize I just don't have the time I did even five years ago.

Quote from: Marleycat;561961Oh no, you aren't the only one. I use chess pieces, tokens, coins or whatever I can because I have no money for actual minatures.

I used to use glass beads, but lately I've been finding interesting graphics on the net, printing them out, and punching them out with 1" circle punches.  It beats having me write "Kobold #1" on a slip of paper and putting it on the mat.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;562714I used to use glass beads, but lately I've been finding interesting graphics on the net, printing them out, and punching them out with 1" circle punches.  It beats having me write "Kobold #1" on a slip of paper and putting it on the mat.

If I had a computer that would definitely be a good way to go.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;562714I used to use glass beads, but lately I've been finding interesting graphics on the net, printing them out, and punching them out with 1" circle punches.  It beats having me write "Kobold #1" on a slip of paper and putting it on the mat.

I still use glass beads for markers, mainly because I haven't found cheap prepainted minis lately that I can pick up for a dime each.

I don't buy much RPG stuff, these days.  My gaming dollars have been going towards miniatures wargames and board wargames, lately.

I like fanzines (Knockspell, Fight On!).  And I'm a total sucker for historical or fantasy-historical supplements (e.g. BRP Rome, MRQII Vikings, et cetera).  But really, I already own more RPG stuff than I'm ever going to use, and I'm more inclined to create my own stuff (including house-ruling existing systems) than buy another rules set or another adventure.  I can't rule out such purchases, because sometimes something catches my fancy, but it's not a common thing.

The other factor is that there is a huge amount of cool free stuff out there (DungeonDelvers stuff, Melan's stuff, Kellri's stuff, Jimm Johnson's stuff, et cetera).

Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;562725The other factor is that there is a huge amount of cool free stuff out there (DungeonDelvers stuff, Melan's stuff, Kellri's stuff, Jimm Johnson's stuff, et cetera).

This, forever this.  I've gotten more use out of free downloads, blog content, forum-discussion-sparked-ideas, etc than anything else lately.  

I project my 2012 end-of-year total for RPG-related expenditures to be under $200, and only that high because of a couple kickstarters and the reprint DMG.

I'm very unsure why I like the games I like but some just strike a chord with me. Used to be Rolemaster and Exalted, now it's Anima: Beyond Fantasy. And since I'm both a collector and usually the GM I tend to want a reasonably complete collection of books for a given game.

I'll sometimes make one-off purchases if I like the setting/art/idea, or how I had waited so long for Deathwatch that I had to buy the book even if I was mostly no longer interested in 40k roleplaying (it is a very nice book even if I hadn't used it yet). But when I want to buy a book I prefer to round out one of collections of my favorite games instead. Though of course I'm willing to experiment, that's how a heavily discounted rulebook of Anima in the store turned into me purchasing all the books for it and hopefully a new one is coming out in English on Monday

(although Anima is a bit of a special case regarding quality because all the books are released in Spanish a lot earlier so the general content is well known before it comes out in English. But at this point I would buy any new book sight unseen because I just like what they do and want to support the game being released in English to boot)

edit: but as to the poll, it's Character option books that are my favorites for the line. Those always get some use. I don't really play games that require miniatures (except for actual miniature games heh).

Lulu has enticed me thus far twice to purchase products from them with special coupons I received via email.  The first coupon was for a 20% discount which prompted me to purchase a copy of The Secret Fire.  That was several months ago.  Just recently, I received another coupon for a 18% discount which prompted me to purchase a copy of 3D6 In Order, which I received in the mail yesterday.  I am looking forward to checking it out today.