Poll: Is Cost a Barrier to Starting a New Role-Playing Campaign?
My Nightbane pitch was a success! My game group starts the new campaign next month, but during the setup discussion something occurred to me. I have duplicate copies of the Nightbane books due to some 
purchases I made abroad rather than carry books with me. This means my group does not have to run out and buy books to start the new campaign. It got me wondering about costs and campaign choices. How much is money a barrier to running campaigns? Assuming a standard group of 6 players is a game group and each player wants a game base book and at least two of the available game supplements. Let us further assume that the base book is $40.00 and the two supplements are $20.00 each for a total of $80.00. That is a combined total of $480.00 to move in to a new campaign. Not trivial in this awful economy. Spending less (sharing books) is an option, but it does have drawbacks. Especially if the book in question contains frequently used references, eg. “the magic book” in a party of spell-casters.
So I ask my readership: does money calculate into your campaign choices? Will the cost of a new game encourage revisiting an older game with readily available books? I am curious about this issue, so I put up a poll below. Please let me know what you think.
[poll id="3"]
Trask, The Last Tyromancer
Filed Under: poll
About the Author: Trask is a long-time gamer, world traveler and history buff. He hopes that his scribblings will both inform and advance gaming as a hobby.
Not for us. But then again, as a rule of thumb ONLY the GM has the rules for our games. Sure it often happens that one or two of us also have a copy, but in most cases most of the players work from handouts, not from the rulebooks.
Why bother buying 6 copies of Rogue Trader when one will do?