Just jump off the 'latest edition' train and you'll find it's dirt cheap to play whatever you want. 5E is a pretty good game, but it isn't unique or even that special, and is not well supported (at least, compared to a number of other editions). A well thought out shopping spree of old 3E material will get you an equally good game for much less money. Used Castles and Crusades books are cheap and just as good as 5E. If you go for digital game books, you can get an OSR variant of D&D that's as good as 5E for something like 10 bucks. The 1E and 2E books are all available cheap through used book sellers, or can be found for sale cheap as pdfs.

Quote from: Baulderstone;972783When it was time to get my nephews their first game books, I just got them Basic Fantasy and three adventures at a cost I could shrug at. It wasn't any attempt at instilling OSR purity in them. If they get into 5E on their own, I have no problem with it at all. I just wanted to get a bunch of ready-to-use material that also gave them a simple adventure model to emulate.

Price is a big reason I haven't tried 5E. It sounds good. It's just I have all my old D&D stuff, and it doesn't sound $100 better than what I can do already.

Yup, I've also given away several copies of Basic Fantasy because it is cheap (dirt cheap), clearly written, and playable. It contains the essential rules and concepts of D&D without the clutter.  It doesn't exactly inspire me, but its been a great starting point for some broke, enthusiastic kids.

I own 5e, but it seems altogether unnecessary so it doesn't get played.  I've read it. I'm sure its just fine, but I've got shelves of older edition material + another shelf and a half of OSR material- not to mention dozens of other games. 5e just sits there. Its a game I never asked for, wanted or needed.  I only own it out some sense of completeness.

Quote from: Dumarest;972807You could play something else. Do you already own a version of D&D? If so, just use that and keep playing for free as long as you like. I have seen no reason to buy new D&D products for almost 30 years.

I've never owned nor played it. I thought it might be interested to do so.

Quote from: Biscuitician;972817I've never owned nor played it. I thought it might be interested to do so.

I see. Your best bet would be either finding the best discount you can, which is usually Amazon, if you want new books, or maybe trying to find them secondhand in good shape, if you're set on getting the latest edition. Otherwise I'd suggest trying one of the "clones" that are either free or inexpensive,  but that would not be the latest edition. I haven't seen or played 5th (or 3rd or 4th,  for that matter), but from what I read and hear it's not much different from the early versions.

Quote from: Biscuitician;972769Free in what sense I wonder?

Well, in every sense of the word. All Mazes & Minotaurs stuff is, has always been and will always be 100% FREE and non-profit; no hidden catch, no strings attached. Just check it out (and stop wondering ).

OD&D was ten bucks in 1974. I was still a toddler at the time, but older friends tell me that was considered crazy expensive for a boxed "Wargame" of the era.

WotC and the various OSR publishers have actually been very generous about putting no-art free versions of their stuff online. A kid today could enter the hobby with no more investment than buying a set of dice.

Quote from: Dumarest;972807You could play something else. Do you already own a version of D&D? If so, just use that and keep playing for free as long as you like. I have seen no reason to buy new D&D products for almost 30 years.

Well sure, but it was DnD that I was specifically interested in.

That's not a comment on it or other games

Quote from: Naburimannu;972767Quick googling suggests that inflation is 3x(US)-4x(UK) since 1980, and I'm pretty sure I was paying $20 a pop for the 1E hardbacks back in the 1980s. So not out of line with what we should expect, but our price sensitivity is set by the standards of long-long-ago?

You're mistaken. The AD&D 1st edition core books were $12 to $15, or even cheaper. While hidden, in the later books the MSRP is embedded in the item code. Which in my copy of the Monster Manual II (1983) is on the back cover below the ISBN, and says 394-53519-OTSR1200. Those last 4 digits are the price, $12.00. This jumps to $15.00 in later books, for instance the Manual of the Planes (1987). And it doesn't appear on the PH, DMG, or MM, so they may have been even less expensive (inflation was in the 2 digits between 1979 and 1981, thanks to the tail end of stagflation, so prices jumped pretty frequently). Converting to 2014 dollars, the MM2 becomes $28.52 and the MotP is $31.26. Comparatively, $20 in 1989 (2e) becomes $38.18, and $30 in 2000 (3e) becomes $41.24 (yes, the 3e PH was initially released at $20, but that was a promo price for the first printing). The 1e books are clearly the cheapest, though they are in black and white and much thinner. The 2e and 3e books are comparable. The 5e books (2014) at $50/each are more expensive, but not excessively so. You can make a good argument that RPG books have been underpriced, and inflation calculators don't adjust for specific changes like the hike in the price of paper or the size of print runs. And with online retailers, it's a lot easier to get a discount than it was in the 1980s or 1990s. For instance, the 5e PH is currently $30.77 on Amazon, which is 1e-era pricing. Except the 5e book is much thicker, and full color.

Quote from: Biscuitician;972836Well sure, but it was DnD that I was specifically interested in.

That's not a comment on it or other games

There are free versions of D&D. 5th edition has a basic set version as PDF that is 100% free and you could play fully without ever needing anything else (the full priced version has the advantage of being dead-tree, and offers more options. However, none of them are at all necessary. I know I played the first 6 years of my gaming life with just humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings, and just fighters, clerics, thieves (rogues) and magic users (wizards); there's absolutely no reasons you need bards, warlocks, half-orcs, or tieflings.

Previous versions of D&D have things out there called retroclones. They are effectively the same game (or so close that you would likely not notice the difference), but with the serial numbers filed off. Many of them are free or pay-what-you-want.

Either of those help?

Quote from: Pat;972840*snip*

Thanks for doing all that work and summing up why any time I see an "OMG so expensive!" comment, my immediate response is just to roll my eyes. So that I didn't have to. Seriously, I have an inflation adjustment calculator saved to my bookmarks for occasions such as these.

Something is only expensive if you find it isn't worth what it cost you. Has nothing to do with a dollar price at all.

Quote from: Ulairi;972800I don't think the core rulebooks are that expensive. I especially don't think they are expensive when compared to comparable entertainment such as video games which are about $60 a pop. A player really only needs the Player's Handbook.

If you're willing to play table top role-playing games and not just play D&D, a lot of OSR products are very cheap or free on PDF. Have you looked at Palladium Fantasy? It's rulebook is like $25 on Amazon.com.

I went to pick up shadows of Brimstone, a board game, last year. The price was 100$ Another 100 for the second, and 30-50 each for the expansions. That was just too much.

That is kinda at the extreme though. Arkham Horror is around 50$. (I got mine in trade for 5e Dungeon. 20$)

Quote from: Omega;972863I went to pick up shadows of Brimstone, a board game, last year. The price was 100$ Another 100 for the second, and 30-50 each for the expansions. That was just too much.

That is kinda at the extreme though. Arkham Horror is around 50$. (I got mine in trade for 5e Dungeon. 20$)

Board games are like TTRPGs in that MSRP is a sucker's bargain.  Shadows is easily available (when in print) for ~$68 a core set, and 30% or more off of the expansions too.  The trick is finding it in stock.  (right now it seems most vendors don't have any copies of the core sets, but I expect new ones to come in shortly)  (EDIT: also, SoB is possibly one of the better games out there in that it plays well solo, so you don't need a group for it.  It's possibly one of the worse games out there in that it's a "hobby" game and you have to assemble the minis yourself, which may be fun for you so YMMV)

As for TTRPGs....  All the talk of rising word counts and increasing production values misses the point: for games you may never play, they -are- expensive.  But the more you actually use the material, the more cost effective they become.  $10 for a book you never use is far more expensive than $100 for a game you play for years.

The core books seem very reasonable to me at $30-$40 each through Amazon. Considering that Amazon gets a %, and they have to cover their own shipping and stocking (not sure their methodology at Amazon, but there are costs there), they don't seem very greedy to me. The quality is good without throwing in a bunch of glitz to help jack up the cover price.

Quote from: Willie the Duck;972841There are free versions of D&D. 5th edition has a basic set version as PDF that is 100% free and you could play fully without ever needing anything else (the full priced version has the advantage of being dead-tree, and offers more options. However, none of them are at all necessary. I know I played the first 6 years of my gaming life with just humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings, and just fighters, clerics, thieves (rogues) and magic users (wizards); there's absolutely no reasons you need bards, warlocks, half-orcs, or tieflings.

Previous versions of D&D have things out there called retroclones. They are effectively the same game (or so close that you would likely not notice the difference), but with the serial numbers filed off. Many of them are free or pay-what-you-want.

Either of those help?

Not really.

I'm talking specifically. ABout DnD. In print.