First of all, I can’t afford a system that makes more than quarterly releases. Second, the in print games I want to collect I am already way behind on: WFRP, Star Wars Saga, Mutants & Masterminds… I’m sure there are others, but I’m drawing a blank at the moment. Savage Worlds goes with out saying, but the whole design and marketing philosophy behind it differs so radically from the other three or any thing else I could mention that it doesn’t even fit in this conversation. At any rate, I don’t think so.
Make no mistake; there are lots of games I would love to collect whether or not I ever play them again. Werewolf: the Apocalypse (out of print). BD&D (op again). Star Frontiers (op and I didn’t really like Zebulon’s, so I probably would have stopped after that). WEG Star Wars d6 (op). Castle Falkenstein (op). Many of these are available as pdfs, but that just isn’t the same. WFRP and Saga are games that are readily available, in print, and I might actually play or run. I swore when the new World of Darkness was announced that I would stick to the core books, and for the most part, I’ve stuck. I am not buying into 4e. I am far more likely to buy into Pathfinder, and that’s a pretty slim chance. I don’t see the need to collect a game I have little or no desire to run. All I need to play is a core book and I can borrow that most of the time.
Let’s summarize. Not enough spare cash to make it worth the effort. My priorities are not so ordered as to justify the $30 to $50 these things are costing these days. I have more material now than I will ever use again. Seriously. And I’ve cut my collection in half over the past four years. New editions come out so often that trying to collect anything on my current budget is an exercise in frustration. And, I’m not playing anything more than once a week. Fridays I play boardgames. Sundays I play Pathfinder. That’s all the tabletop anything I need really. Beyond that it’s all about the people I play with, not the games we actually play.
And did I happen to mention there is material being given away for free that is better than the material I’m expected to play cash moneys for? I don’t want to fall back into the habit of buying everything that comes out for “game-brand-echs.” That isn’t what the hobby is about to me anymore; I’m not sure it ever was. Buying product after product has always been the methadone to treat the addiction to play. Now I find myself playing on a regular basis, and I don’t even need that as badly as I thought I did.
Yes. That. I’m gearing up for another purge, becuase I own too much stuff. If my wife would let me, I’d get rid of nearly everything. One of the reasons I’m writing systemless material is to break the “game line” trend and to not tie myself to any particular game system.
I’m long over buying game stuff just to read. I’ve got tons of books that I own and haven’t read, tons of books I’ll happily re-read, I don’t need a $40 game book for reading material.
[...] Checkmate makes an astute point: “Buying product after product has always been the methadone to treat the addiction to play.” I need to take this to heart, considering the state of my [...]