Do you buy your RPG books?

[TwoGunBob]

I guess I'm still the ten year old at heart because I like to read and digest my RPG's lying on the couch or in bed. My last purchase was Blades in the Dark and I bought the digital copy, started to print it and put it in sheet protectors but that book became way too unwieldy in a binder. Turned around and bought the limited edition book since they had a handful leftover from the kickstarter and have happily immersed myself in Duskvol at bedtime for quite awhile now.
Hmmm, did the same thing with Dungeon World and Owl Hoot Trail as well. I try to get on the digital train but I just don't quite digest digital rulebooks the same if that makes any sense. Sounds dumb but I feel I read them differently.

[Faceless]

I'll use a PDF if necessary or if it's something I'm not really invested in, but I tend toward physical copies. So I tend to buy my books. I have a couple shelves full of Star Wars Sagas, oWoD, nWoD, and D&D books. Really for me it's just that I feel like I memorize the information better with a physical book in my hands. And like @saosmash said, a hard copy is just nice to have available when you've gotta hit the head.

I love books. I love the feel, the smell of them, and just the sheer act of reading a book in your own hands. So I can get by with a PDF. I shifted a few of my PDF format books over to my ipad, would lay all around, in bed, bathroom, wherever and try to read them but it was never really successful for me. Added to all of that, I also don't really do audio books. If I can get my hands on a hard copy, then I will.

A book in my hands causes a reaction for my heart, similar to a cat's butt as it's preparing it's kitty-cat engine for a pounce.

[Ganymede]

@faceless said in Do you buy your RPG books?:

A book in my hands causes a reaction for my heart, similar to a cat's butt as it's preparing it's kitty-cat engine for a pounce.

Or for a mind-wrenching kitty-fart, which is sometimes what these books read like.

[Scissors]

I have a whole shelf of oWoD books that, though well-used in my early Mushing years, are just taking up precious space now. They also look quite expensive and a constant reminder how much money I spent on them. Anyone know if there's a secondary market for these?

At least I am grateful I never bought a single nWoD book, given how I never felt connected to the new game setting. Those would be wasted money for me.

[Bobotron]

@scissors
There's a secondary market for OWoD books, yes, but it's difficult unless you have direct buyers. I'd suggest eBay or WoD facebook groups. Hell, if you have some Revised VtM Clanbooks, there are a few I need...

Re: The Thread
For myself, I do buy the books I'm going to use, or if it's a publisher/genre that I'm going to buy more stuff from. I bought the MET Apocalypse book not expecting to actually have an Apocalypse LARP to play in, and I'm going to back MET Changeling as soon as it drops. Others, I might find a copy to look at and, if it's useful enough, I'll get it. I bought almost the complete run of Requiem 1e (skipped Carthians and Sanctified as I would never play those myself) and Lost when I was actively LARPing those, for example.

[Sunny]

I buy both physical copies and pdfs of the things I am actively playing, usually -- one goes on the tablet for me, the other goes on the table for my gaming group.

I only buy things I plan on running/playing tabletop-wise (online or off, I do both) and do not purchase books in any fashion for general mushing any longer (and probably won't ever again). If I am not interested enough in an RPG to run it or play it in a tabletop form, I'm not gonna be interested in playing it on a mush anyway.

Mind, I end up buying LOTS of books. -.- If something is interesting and recommended to me, particularly new tabletop games with something cool to bring to the table, I'll buy it with the intention of seeing if my tabletop group likes it. In this case, I'll buy the hardcopy generally. If it ends up being A Thing We Play more than a time or three, then I'll grab the pdf too.

I pretty much don't/won't play games that require eleventy billion sourcebooks any more, in any aspect of things. If I did decide to go back and play WoD (of a form that I don't already own the books for), I don't think I'd buy more than the core book, even with all the splats available. I also wouldn't pirate them.

SOMETIMES I will borrow a pdf from someone who does own it, but I cannot think of a time in the last couple of years when a PDF was shared with me that I did not then go out and buy the book within a month or so (if it was something I ended up using).

[Tux]

I buy them from Bundle of Holding, when they're on offer. https://bundleofholding.com

I recently gave away a huge amount of my physical books. So much money I spent on them and most of them were now out of date and not things I'd ever get a chance to play in person.

I prefer having physical books to pdfs when I'm tabletopping, I've just not tabletopped in years. And having a tablet that can contain all my pdfs and then some, is so much more preferable to the space than two large boxes of books takes up.

[Kireek]

I buy books when I am able to.. but the hobby is too rich for my blood. So.. not often. I pirate basically everything becuase of it. Even books I legally own.

I do try and throw some money as well when things come out, especially for new stuff when I want to see whats in it right away (and you know. copies or the info isn't available by other means). So you know, I have like 3 books on things like shadowrun legally purchased without the core book for example. Fun stuff.

[ixokai]

I've been buying all my rpg books off DriveThruRPG for awhile now. Then again, I buy all my regular books off Amazon or iBooks too.

I have fully embraced the tablet as what it is I read from.

[TheOnceler]

I exclusively shoplift the books I need.

If the rule of law means so little to me I might as well pirate, it there's something special about paper you steal that you just don't get from beeps and boops that you steal.

[Arkandel]

@theonceler said in Do you buy your RPG books?:

If the rule of law means so little to me I might as well pirate, it there's something special about paper you steal that you just don't get from beeps and boops that you steal.

Well, there is something special about paper. If you steal a physical item then someone else can't buy it; it's no longer available.

Digital files, when downloaded, don't take away anything from someone's inventory.

I'm not justifying the act, but I wanted to address the rhetorical (?) question there.

[Lithium]

@arkandel It does take away something though, it takes away the value of the product from the creator. Even if it is just a digital copy, a file, that takes up very little tangible space (just that little bit on a hard drive or other media) it's still a product that should be paid for, else, the creator gains no compensation for the creation of the thing. It's why I /always/ buy stuff I am going to use.

[Aria]

I will pay for PDFs of things I cannot get a physical copy of, or where the physical copy is so exorbitantly priced that it's not reasonably affordable.

With that said, I generally prefer the physical copy. And if I already own one, then no, I generally don't pay for the PDF version of it, too, if I want something I can easily reference on the go. I'm of much the same opinion when it comes to buying vinyl. (Though a lot of newer records now come with codes to download a digital copy of the album for free.)

[Thenomain]

@arkandel said in Do you buy your RPG books?:

Digital files, when downloaded, don't take away anything from someone's inventory.

But it reduces the potential market pool by one: You. Each 'one' reduces the market pool, which reduces the selling power of that item. If they were following elementary market rules, they would respond to a decrease in demand (people paying for it) with a decrease in price. This has worked for the music industry and briefly for the TV industry, though I think as the streaming platforms fracture the number of people willing to pirate will rise again.

Atoms are easy to count, but those things that can be converted to bits are being converted to bits and the atomic-based economics can't be applied wholesale anymore. The movie industry is trying to hold on with both hands and their teeth to their control, and that content providers are also access providers (or strong-arming them, vis a vis Youtube) will certainly help the businesses charge what they believe is right rather than let market forces dictate.

Apple and Spotify are making money hand over fist (tho one is only now crawling into the black) because that's what the market wants. If video wasn't so expensive to make then maybe the same could happen there, though I should reiterate just how much I'm enjoying The Good Place and that can't be expensive at all.

Anyway, most writers don't get paid much. Most of us don't get paid much, but still, buy things from writers you especially like.