DFRPG Monsters 2 and reprint of the Box set on Kickstarter now!

[tbone]

I always maintain that RPGs are cheap. A book or box may carry a hefty-looking price tag, but especially if it's the core stuff, you can get just a ridiculous amount of use from it – literally until the goods fall apart.

Novels or movie DVDs are great the first time around; a work might hold up to many more readings/viewings, but the fun likely diminishes every time. (I stopped buying DVDs long ago upon realizing that I watch very few more than once.) Games? Board/card/other conventional games can be classics that never get old, but many will get played out and tired over time. But RPGs? As long as you can keep supplying the real cost (time and getting people together, not $$), they just go on forever, always ready to become something new.

Niche supplements that get little use end up costing more per unit of play. And the hobby of buying RPGs just to read and explore, or flat-out collecting RPGs, can be as expensive as you let it; there's an awful lot of product out there. But if you take a good core system and play it, the cost is ridiculously low. A $75 RPG played only 10 times is well under $10 per hours-long session – dirt cheap entertainment for a group of people. Make it a campaign with 100 sessions over a few years, and the distinction between that and "free" is just one of pickiness.

All of which leaves $75 for DFRPG a lot of money for someone who only wants to check it out and might not like it. I suppose that's unavoidable, and is just as true for any other substantial game with a substantial price tag (or any new hobby/entertainment requiring a bit of buy-in).

Originally Posted by Ulairi

Buying all the D&D books is well over $100 at MSRP.

I was checking those prices yesterday. I don't want to derail things into a discussion of D&D value, but to make a quick comparison with DFRPG:

The D&D Gift Set with three core books and DM screen runs a little over $100 on Amazon. (There's a $130+ version with alternate covers; it really is beautiful.) You'd have to add the GM screen to DFRPG to compare, so the prices are now roughly even, at around $100. Beyond that, exact comparison isn't possible. Even the cheaper D&D Gift Set has hard covers (with "foil treatment"), plus a nice slipcase – advantage D&D. But DFRPG has a nice box of its own, and an adventure, maps, figures, bases, and dice. It's truly all-in-one and ready-to-play – definite "advantage DFRPG" on that front.

All moot anyway; the only difference that really matters is which game you'll enjoy more, session after session, not which offers more toys for the dollar. All I can say (and will do so at the KS comments page) is that, as physical product goes, DFRPG is arguably a good deal even at $75.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by tbone

I always maintain that RPGs are cheap.

I think many players would be shocked to find out how little a lot of RPG creators actually earn each year.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by philreed

I think many players would be shocked to find out how little a lot of RPG creators actually earn each year.

I think so, too! I once had a gamer ask me about my house, car, vacation destinations, etc., as if I'd naturally have those things. They were floored when I said, "Small apartment. Walking or public transportation. Stay-cation – or, once every few years, traveling two provinces over to visit my family." After 24 years, I'm actually taking my first bona fide, non-working trip to a sunny place next week (if my current illness doesn't ruin that).

And it's important to realize that as a full-time staff editor and writer, I'm doing better than average.

So yeah . . . the price we're charging is what it costs, basically. It isn't buying Ferraris and week-long stays at five-star resorts. It's keeping a small company afloat and letting its staff pay their bills.

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by tbone

But RPGs? As long as you can keep supplying the real cost (time and getting people together, not $$), they just go on forever, always ready to become something new.

QFT.

Thanks for writing this up so eloquently.

And thank you Kromm, Phil, and all the other folks at SJG and in orbit around it who focus their efforts on making such fine products. You make a difference.

[Pomphis]

Originally Posted by Dalin

And thank you Kromm, Phil, and all the other folks at SJG and in orbit around it who focus their efforts on making such fine products. You make a difference.

I wholeheartedly agree

[zuljita]

There's no doubt in my mind that creating this stuff is a labor of love. With the skills many RPG authors have, they could make far more for their time elsewhere. I'm happy to pay what it costs to feed the author!

[Ulairi]

Originally Posted by philreed

I think many players would be shocked to find out how little a lot of RPG creators actually earn each year.

I’m an accountant and I think most people would be shocked to find out how little a lot of people actually earn in a year. There is this funny thing that folks (in general) assume that people make a lot more money than they actually do. I think social media has really “upped” what most people think others earn because people seem to only put the sexy stuff online, the dinners, dancing, vacations, etc. and everybody else is in their modest apartment, home, whatever saying “how can they always afford to do these fun things!”

Anyway, back on topic: I think $75 is a fair price for everything that we get. I got my brother the box set back in 2017 for Christmas and he hasn’t played any RPGs really since like 2001 - 2003. I don’t remember what I paid from my FLGS for it, but he got the box set, the GM shield, adventures, cardboard pawns, etc. and had everything he needed to play with his friends all in the one box. If a player goes in for the $150 as long as they have people to play with, they’ll get easily 20 to 30 hours just out of the adventures and everything in that set.

[Black Leviathan]

Originally Posted by philreed

You saw the $30 add-on for the Player's Bundle, yes?

I did not, that's an excellent product option.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Ulairi

If a player goes in for the $150 as long as they have people to play with, they’ll get easily 20 to 30 hours just out of the adventures and everything in that set.

Absolutely. That reward level is an instant gateway to hours and hours of adventure; infinite hours of adventure if the GM is creative and writes their own adventures.

[Buzzardo]

It always amazes me that people will drop $10 for a movie and then complain about $75 (in this case) for a game, when the game will provide far more hours than the movie. So it goes.