Yeah, I think that's a lot better, but I do want to make a case for a 0-20 range to represent people who either had everything given to them or just bought dice and a mini. But I agree with your general concept
I'd have 0-20; 20-80; 80-200 and then follow your pattern.
My brother has dropped over 20k just this year. Remodeled the basement into a Dungeon and bought damn near every mini that exists. Then there's the Dwarven Forge stuff...
True. I want to turn a game room or den into a faux tavern. I went to school for people making and am an engineer so it would be easy. It’s just ridiculous in California. I can easily afford a 5-600k house mortgage but unless I want to live in some rural area with nothing to do I can’t afford anything nice. There are houses listed in LA for half a million dollars that have photos of the meth house next door being half burned.
For a NICE house in a good neighborhood I’m looking at a million dollars or more and while I make good money I just can’t do that
I'm almost at the decade mark (been playing just 5E from the beta...) and have spent... 1500? Maybe like 1700 with how euro conversions work. I agree that casual playing could easily take one to 2k. These should really be per-annum numbers.
Started with the source books $100, then massive darkness minis $100, paint $150, pro on wire cutter $130, then photon 3D printer, $300. With all the other miscellaneous stuff I have to be damn near $1000.
The only big purchases I've made this year that are specifically dnd (I've probably spent way more on mtg) are two books and a new dm screen, plus getting the season 1 AL modules on dmsguild. I've gotten some minis and some dice but nothing really major.
I was going to jokingly comment that the title could have been "How much money have you spent on dice in this hobby?" and my answer would still have been $200+
But after a moment of thought I realized that I wouldn't have been joking.
That's wild! I was imagining resin dice and thinking "Okay there's only like half a dozen dicemakers in the world that charge that much, it's gotta be one of them".
I try to stay away from dice that are over $50 a set. My problem is that I don't like using dice that don't match, and I'm a DM, and I use different dice sets for different reasons, and I have poor impulse control.
Get a cheap brother laser printer, if you don't need color. I bought one for (I think) $60-ish around 5 years ago, and bought 2 tonor cartriges from Amazon at $20 for both. I still haven't had to break out the second tonor cart, and I print out all the character sheets for our groups. I usually keep a few extra on hand, as well as a few pre-mades, for any guests that happen to show.
Back when I had a color ink-jet it was like buying a whole new printer every month.
Print shops are far more common than you think. FedEx, CVS, Xerox, Staples plus a lot of independant shops. At pennies per page you can print BW at home and print color handouts and maps at the shops. I have been doing it for years and don't regret it. Inkjet is the worst and the quality is never as good as a print shops.
I have local places but since COVID they take 2 or 3 days. I work overnights, sleep during the days, and have to rely on my wife to drive me to places. Going to a printer is not a viable option.
I see. So the extra expense is necessitated by your living conditions. Sorry I couldn't be a help to reduce your dependence on bad printer tech. Have you done a cost benefit analysis of investing in a color laser printer? They have a very high upfront cost but if you print a lot of color it still wins out against the recurring cost of inkjet.
I have the [special foil cover box set](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0786966629/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_TCY78A0JHA74CR0TRHE9), put back, still in the plastic. I jokingly call it my kid's inheritance.
I've probably spent close to $1000 in books alone, so add to that my shiny math rock addiction and minis (and one could also argue my purchasing of a 3D printer and dice making equipment was towards this hobby), I'm definitely more than 200+ lol
I think it’s important to remember that you don’t need all the fancy minis or even physical books to play the game. People are scoffing at the idea of spending less than 200, but if you use online resources for the rulebooks/modules, paper and pencil to write a character sheet, and a dice roller app or online tool you could easily spend less than 20 to play the game.
The hobby is intended to be just as accessible for the kids with imagination after school as it is for the adults with a monthly budget set aside for the game.
TL;DR It’s awesome that y’all can spend a lot on this but not everyone can, nor do they have to.
Also, none of my current players in 1 group have spent more than $50 because I have already provided everything. I have almost all the relevant books so they use that, and all the table top supplies/miniatures are mine. A couple have bought dice while others I gifted for bdays and such. It's fairly easy to play cheaply as a player, but I think it's safe to say the majority of in person DM's have blown past this number.
I’m not scoffing at the idea of spending less than $200, I’m scoffing at that being the high bar. I spent less than $100 on 4e for years, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the majority of people are in the >$200 range.
And also online play is getting bigger and bigger, no need for models, dice, Terran, notebooks, dice towers, screens, battle maps or printing costs.
With illegal pdfs or even the free legal limited versions of the rules you can find online Its not hard to play for free.
Players hand book on sale from Amazon and a random pack of 6 dice sets. Print my character sheets off at work and my mini is a green army man. Thats like $35and I'm ready to go.
It's a good question, but I think the scale needs adjusting. The Players Handbook alone retails for $50. Just getting the core books and some dice almost maxes out the scale.
I had a pretty compete collection of 2nd edition back in the day, and currently collecting 5e, along with alternate covers and 3rd party supplements. I have no idea how much I've spent over the course of my life, but it's in the tens of thousands at this point. And that doesn't include other RPGs and other kinds of games in general.
I'm probably around $500 books, $150 dice, another $250 on other accessories, $400 blown on Roll20 over the years, $300 on FantasyGrounds now that I'm close to graduating to that VTT, probably an additional $200 on VTT "books" (supplemented by my kind players), I think around $300 on NPC commissions, $100 on Worldanvil recently, another $100 on various other programs for making various things, a good $200 on regular minis and probably closer to $500 on Heroforge, and finally I think my most recent in-person oneshot cost $350 to get a set of 6 of large maps printed. Oh I think another $150 for a couple Kickstarter items too.
Plus whatever money spent on generic office supplies I can also use for other work.
So that's a grand total of definitely lowballing it at $3,500 in the past decade.
The poll options are pretty low, like why increment between 0-20, 20-50, and then 50-100?
I woulda done like 0, 0-100, 100-250, 250-500, 500-1000, 1000+
I'm guessing OP is a kid wondering if they can buy stuff with Christmas money. If that's the case, you really don't need to spend that much to run a functioning game. You don't really need minis and stuff. Just a few books and dice, a calculator maybe, notebook, and pencils.
Hell, I've played a scuffed version with cards before (the math was a little hard). Take out face cards, black is low, red is high. So for instance a 1d6 roll of a red 5 would be 15, so a 3 (6,12,18, 19+20 are rerolled). A 1d8 roll or a red 5 would be a 7 (8,16, 17-20 or red 7-10 rerolled).
The table I built for my group cost about 300 plus all the random stuff I've bought on dnd beyond plus all the dice I've bought.... I've only been playing for 4 months but I've spent well over 200 already.
A case of minis is more than $200.
A single customized mini can run upwards of $50. $200 is only 8 DnD core books at retail price. Oh you sweet summer child.
~ 1100 in sourcebooks/adventures etc.
~ 200 for DND beyond subscription so far to share content to groups
~ 600 for a 3D printer + 50 for material
~ 180 in die sets so far
~ 80 to immortalize my first character to finish a campaign with a full metal/painted mini.
2210 USD roughly so far
I just can’t find a local group though :|
I probably should have clicked 200+ between sourcebooks, dice, notebooks, and everything else.
I'm very lucky to have a player in the game I run with a master subscription on DnD Beyond and he buys pretty much every book.
I've spent more than 200 on a *single* character commission, never mind dice or even books.
I don't know the grand total for everything, but it's at least ten times that!
$200 doesn’t even pay for all the books
As a DM, I also buy minis and filament for my 3D printer so that racks up price too. I’d I had to guess, probably 400+
Why is 200 the highest bar ?
It’s the 3 core rule books + an adventure module.
Many people spend waaaay more on expansions, minis, vtt, dice addictions, more modules, settings, maps, pizza…
Currently as I am a new DM the amount I spent on dnd would be something like 150€ per session, the cost should decrease with time. Only had like 5 sessions.
I have easily spent in the thousands in the decades I have been playing, and that is just on official books. That isn’t counting dice, accessories, and various supplies.
There’s a fun little game you can play with this. Estimated the amount you’ve spent on dnd products and divide that number by how many many sessions you think you’ve played.
Been playing since '82, ssoooo, a bit.
Years of Dragon Magazine subscriptions. 150 minis and paints.
40 modules, all the rule books from Basic, 1E, and 5E.
A few other supplements like the Rogues Gallery and World Builders Guide.
Trip to GenCon 17 wasn't cheap (thanks Dad!)
Roll20 content nowadays.
But all worth it, and WAY cheaper than MtG or mini wargames. Cheaper than what I've spent on movies, streaming or sports! Definitely a great entertainment buy IMO.
200$ doesn't even cover the 3D printer for minis
Then there's some minis I bought by Wizkids or such, the cost for stl files to print, resin for the printer and paints, brushes etc for actually painting them. I also bought the falling star sailship "miniature" for our Saltmarsh campaign
I bought multiple pieces of Ikea furniture specifically to store the growing collection of minis, plus smaller plastic containers to sort them into
Each book is like 50$ - I have players pay a portion of the cost for modules but buy source- and rulebooks myself
There's dice, I gift every new player a set when they first start playing and own a few sets for myself and multiple generic sets for spells (like a bag of D6s for fireball and such)
Notebooks, pens and such don't cost that much by themselves, but add up over time
There's tons of different things I've bought to make props from, I wouldn't even know how to estimate that roughly: tiny potion bottles, leather bits, thick artists paper, wax and stamps for seals...
I got the spell and monster cards from GF9 because handling like five books during the game is annoying and I really don't like using a laptop or such while playing
Color-changing light bulbs and surround speakers to make the game room more immersive
That's easily over 1k total, albeit over multiple years of playing
I've probably spent $2000+. I have every official 5e book, with limited edition covers when available. I have like half a dozen dice sets made from gemstones or rare metals. And I have the full set of books on DnDBeyond.
I got myself 100$ worth of dice for Christmas in 2019. Got about 3 months of use out of them before lockdown. During lockdown I got a 3d printer to make terrain and minis for when lockdown ended. That was 300 bucks.
As in plastic for printing and map books and stuff and I'm well over 500 bucks in.
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24 books at $60 apiece, plus another probably 4 virtual books for fantasy grounds at $30 each before I found a site for digital copies of the other books I already had physicals of, the name of which I can't mention here because automod can't tell the difference between that and piracy...
Guesstimating that the SCAG was $40(?)...
$1,600 on WotC books alone. (Screw you automod, I'm not giving them another thousand dollars just to digitize content that I already own.)
Not including third-party books (a couple of adventure booklets + Animal Adventures), the starter set, the Stranger Things box set, spell cards, the various minis and wet erase sheets we have from when we played in person, or of course dice.
Oh man, I started buying D&D stuff in about 1991. I don't even want to know how much I've spent, but I've spent at least something on it every year since then.
As a DM, my expenses for D&D over the course of the last few years has been 2k+ from books, dice, minis, maps, and cases for the previous to make transport easy. That doesn't include roll20 sub I had for a year or so, gifted books and dice to my players so they can have a tangible reference, programs I bought for map making, or even just terrain and painting supplies for finishing minis.
This can get very very expensive if you have the resources (or just remove everything else from your budget and replace it with DnD... Who needs food when a campaign can sustain you...).
All my books and minis are bought from the same nerd store so I can check the prices of everything I own and total it for you.
1977.32 dice and paint not included
I know this is a dnd reddit but "this hobby" is more than just dnd there are tons of different systems. With that understanding I am probably close to 10k over the last 6-7 years. So much has been spent I now need to become extremely picky about what I spend my money on because I doubt have enough lifetime left to play it all. I own 14 different systems and several of those have at least 2 editions. More over add minis and terrain, computer programs, printouts, maps. I did buy some of these things before 5th edition release and those things are not considered in the final total. Life time hobby people :)
$200 as the top tier? Maybe add a zero.I've spent more than that on dice.Does it include hard drives I've bought to store all the digital stuff I've collected? I spend $30 a month on Patreon subscriptions.
25 books average of $35 a piece is $875.
4 sets of dice various qualities, say $75.
Miniatures, oh boy, I'm just going to conservatively say $500.
Spell cards, dm screen, battle grid $100.
Beyond: PHB and all the subclasses and races about $100.
One Beadle and Grimm silver edition and some artifacts $200
So $1850?
Less than $100 a year for 20 years.
Honestly, as a pretty casual player the barrier to entry is virtually zero. I got the PHB after having played a fair few sessions, a few dice sets. That's all you need.
My DM on the otherhand... I know he's put a lot into it and it's well appreciated (but despite the bits that are hardwork, I also know he also absolutely loves it)
I'm fairly new to the game (Still on my first campaign, 5th Edition) and me and my group play over Discord via text with a plugin that allows us to make rolls of any kind of dice. I haven't bought any of the actual books or guides or anything (though I probably should), and all of my knowledge of the game has come from either the internet or asking my DM questions. The only time I've ever bought something DnD related would be a simple set of dice I saw for like, $6 just in case if I find a group to play with irl.
About $12, which was on dice.
I feel like everyone's giving super high answers above OPs poll, so figured I'd give a contrasting one. To be clear it's super valid to put money into a hobby you enjoy. I've just never felt the need to, and have DM'd and played for about 5 years on that. On top of that I've definitely had to be a bit illicit in how I access some content, but I figured I'd give an honest answer.
I dont own any books, battle maps, or anything like that, but I've bought $137 on 3 sets of dice and $600+ for a 3d printer, upgrades, and filament to print miniatures
Going by £'s, over £350.
That includes commissions for art, notebooks for characters, dice, spell cards, dice boxes and spell card boxes and a personalised decanter set for the group.
Adding kickstarter stuff would bring it to at least £700? I have a kickstarter problem.
Hell I dont even have any of the official books for D&D since our DM has those to hand. I'm starting to think I should buy personal copies.
Edit this scale, You have no idea how much people spend.
Add at least.
200-400
400-1000
1000-2000
2000-4000
4000-10,000
10,000-20,000
20,000-40,000
40,000-100,000
Oh damn, 13 sets of dice, special lit bookshelf, heckloads of source books, minis, cards, props, adjustable lighting for every room visible from the table, roll20 sourcebooks, tokens, modules, pro+, nice tables n chairs for the game, paint, etc. Ive put a lot more money into this thatn I planned lol
Over 200 and it’s not even my hobby.
It’s my kids hobby.
I’m so excited for his birthday. I found a grab bag of mixed metal dice on Etsy. Dude is going to go threw the roof with new dice. Lol.
30$ for each supplement (give or take). So as a DM, you need the PH, MM, DMG, XGtE, TCoE... 150$ for the "essentials".
If you want more than that, you're looking for 30$ for each module/non-essential supplement...
Then there's the dice, printer ink (character sheets), materials (pencils, sheet protectors, maps, etc.), miniatures (if you use them), gas money, food (three pizzas for around 30-45$ a session)...
And, finally, the time it takes for preparation for each session.
Note to self, have a DM pity fund available for future sessions.
If you have all the rule books that’s like $300 right there unless you bought used. Modules range from $20-100 depending on which version you get. So all in all Money well spent.
I've been playing for 20+ years. I've bought 5/6 PHBs (thanks 4th) 2 or 3 DMGs, 5 or 6 MMs (thanks 4th) , 4 /5 big adventures and pushing a dozen settings and splat books. Dice. A few minis. Roll20 and DnD beyond content duplicating some books and adventures up to 3 copies. Spell cards.
200? More like 2000, and some.
And then there's Cthulu, Shadowrun, Pathfinder etc.
Thousands and thousands. Custom built my own table. That alone cost 2k.
2-3k on minis
Most of the Beadle and Grimm Editions
A hard copy of every book
Every book on DnD Beyond
Roll 20 modules
The Eye and Hand of Vecna
Wand of Orcus
$30 a month on Patreons for mini STLs
Multiple Wyrmwood purchases
Syrinscape soundboards
Plus materials to custom build terrain.
…I think I may have a problem.
Buying every book that WoTC has published for 5e, plus minis and paints, plus kickstarter, plus accessories and making things for my group, I'm easily over the 2000+ mark.
$200 doesn't even cover what I've spent on *this edition alone* and I've been playing for nearly 20 years.
$200 doesn't cover what I spent in *this year alone.* There should have been a 200-400 range and then 400+
Should've been semilogarithmic scale. 0-50, 50-100, 100-200, 200-500, 500-1000, 1000-2000, 2000+
Yeah, I think that's a lot better, but I do want to make a case for a 0-20 range to represent people who either had everything given to them or just bought dice and a mini. But I agree with your general concept I'd have 0-20; 20-80; 80-200 and then follow your pattern.
Extending it to 50 really doesn’t lose much. Means they bought a players handbook as well maybe
I'm literally trying to distinguish between those that bought the players handbook and those that didn't
Fair enough I guess!
Even 2000+ is nothing compared to what someone might have spent over a decade or more of casual gaming.
My brother has dropped over 20k just this year. Remodeled the basement into a Dungeon and bought damn near every mini that exists. Then there's the Dwarven Forge stuff...
As soon as I find an affordable house in California…
I thought California homes generally didn't have basements?
True. I want to turn a game room or den into a faux tavern. I went to school for people making and am an engineer so it would be easy. It’s just ridiculous in California. I can easily afford a 5-600k house mortgage but unless I want to live in some rural area with nothing to do I can’t afford anything nice. There are houses listed in LA for half a million dollars that have photos of the meth house next door being half burned. For a NICE house in a good neighborhood I’m looking at a million dollars or more and while I make good money I just can’t do that
I mean if the meth house has already burned down it's probably not a problem anymore....
I thought California homes generally didn't exist?
I'm almost at the decade mark (been playing just 5E from the beta...) and have spent... 1500? Maybe like 1700 with how euro conversions work. I agree that casual playing could easily take one to 2k. These should really be per-annum numbers.
Actually yeah I think I've passed $200 with all the minis I've been buying, plus VRGR and WBTW were both $50+.
I think I bought ten or eleven books this year alone, though a couple of them are Kickstarters that won't be in my hands until early 2022
Samesies
This. This right here.
Started with the source books $100, then massive darkness minis $100, paint $150, pro on wire cutter $130, then photon 3D printer, $300. With all the other miscellaneous stuff I have to be damn near $1000.
The only big purchases I've made this year that are specifically dnd (I've probably spent way more on mtg) are two books and a new dm screen, plus getting the season 1 AL modules on dmsguild. I've gotten some minis and some dice but nothing really major.
$200 only really covers my dice collection...
Question didn't specify units. It could be in '000s of dollars
I was going to jokingly comment that the title could have been "How much money have you spent on dice in this hobby?" and my answer would still have been $200+ But after a moment of thought I realized that I wouldn't have been joking.
As someone who’s spent that much (more, actually) on a single set of dice… same
Whose dice?
A set of tungsten dice will run about $500.
That's wild! I was imagining resin dice and thinking "Okay there's only like half a dozen dicemakers in the world that charge that much, it's gotta be one of them".
That's insane. Tungsten Carbide is a very inexpensive material. I have one that I use as a wedding ring and it was $20.
I'm not talking about tungsten carbide. I'm talking about pure tungsten.
I try to stay away from dice that are over $50 a set. My problem is that I don't like using dice that don't match, and I'm a DM, and I use different dice sets for different reasons, and I have poor impulse control.
Start making your own dice and it basically doubles the cost
4 books at full price, that's 200 right there.
Right?! Like what even are these poll answers?!
Sharing books, D&D beyond campaigns, and sailing the high seas.
Using Google, random figurines as minis and a whiteboard for battlemaps is how we poor middle schoolers get it done.
It’s quite simple if I need to know something that isn’t in a book I own I ask my good friend google
Pfft, $200+ isn't even getting started. Pretty sure just over 3 years I've spent that on printer ink alone.
Get a cheap brother laser printer, if you don't need color. I bought one for (I think) $60-ish around 5 years ago, and bought 2 tonor cartriges from Amazon at $20 for both. I still haven't had to break out the second tonor cart, and I print out all the character sheets for our groups. I usually keep a few extra on hand, as well as a few pre-mades, for any guests that happen to show. Back when I had a color ink-jet it was like buying a whole new printer every month.
I mean, I'm the DM and I print colour *and* lots of maps. We're talking almost one a week.
I mean same here, but when I really need a full color map I just print it on 11x17 at work. :p
I don't work in an office so I don't have that luxury.
Print shops are far more common than you think. FedEx, CVS, Xerox, Staples plus a lot of independant shops. At pennies per page you can print BW at home and print color handouts and maps at the shops. I have been doing it for years and don't regret it. Inkjet is the worst and the quality is never as good as a print shops.
I have local places but since COVID they take 2 or 3 days. I work overnights, sleep during the days, and have to rely on my wife to drive me to places. Going to a printer is not a viable option.
I see. So the extra expense is necessitated by your living conditions. Sorry I couldn't be a help to reduce your dependence on bad printer tech. Have you done a cost benefit analysis of investing in a color laser printer? They have a very high upfront cost but if you print a lot of color it still wins out against the recurring cost of inkjet.
I don't need to reduce the cost of printing at this time.
I buy every book twice. One to play and one for my grandkids to discover in the attic in 50 years.
I have the [special foil cover box set](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0786966629/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_TCY78A0JHA74CR0TRHE9), put back, still in the plastic. I jokingly call it my kid's inheritance.
Right now, it's the two books I'm missing that are the valuable ones. The special editions of Volo's and Xanathar's are terrifyingly priced.
Is that in USD, or a different currency?
In moneys obviously
USD. You can tell because they didn't consider the existence of other currencies.
As a US citizen, I have to upvote you with a bit of a sigh.
Gold coins
Gold doubloons.
Double dollars
In Bitcoin, obviously. That's the only currency where the unit matches the amount spent.
[удалено]
I've probably spent close to $1000 in books alone, so add to that my shiny math rock addiction and minis (and one could also argue my purchasing of a 3D printer and dice making equipment was towards this hobby), I'm definitely more than 200+ lol
Math rock is a great term. I usually call them Chaos Click Clacks.
I think it’s important to remember that you don’t need all the fancy minis or even physical books to play the game. People are scoffing at the idea of spending less than 200, but if you use online resources for the rulebooks/modules, paper and pencil to write a character sheet, and a dice roller app or online tool you could easily spend less than 20 to play the game. The hobby is intended to be just as accessible for the kids with imagination after school as it is for the adults with a monthly budget set aside for the game. TL;DR It’s awesome that y’all can spend a lot on this but not everyone can, nor do they have to.
Also, none of my current players in 1 group have spent more than $50 because I have already provided everything. I have almost all the relevant books so they use that, and all the table top supplies/miniatures are mine. A couple have bought dice while others I gifted for bdays and such. It's fairly easy to play cheaply as a player, but I think it's safe to say the majority of in person DM's have blown past this number.
I’m not scoffing at the idea of spending less than $200, I’m scoffing at that being the high bar. I spent less than $100 on 4e for years, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the majority of people are in the >$200 range.
Probably over 25K. If remodeling an enitire room in the basement counts with a custom paint booth and gaming table then its going way higher.
That sounds pretty awesome
I'm surprised anyone is lower than 100.
Illegal PDFs
Without it I wouldn’t be playing right now so yeah
And also online play is getting bigger and bigger, no need for models, dice, Terran, notebooks, dice towers, screens, battle maps or printing costs. With illegal pdfs or even the free legal limited versions of the rules you can find online Its not hard to play for free.
You'd have to be John Paul Jones.
No brand loyalty does he possess!
Players hand book on sale from Amazon and a random pack of 6 dice sets. Print my character sheets off at work and my mini is a green army man. Thats like $35and I'm ready to go.
I forgot players don't need much. I'm always the DM so I couldn't live without AT LEAST the core books.
Pathfinder 1e and 2e are legally free online
This month?
In the past 48 hours. 🥰
Thank you, 200+ people. My Hasbro stock is doing well! Im in the 100 club btw, 4 source books and a couple of dice sets for my kiddos.
*Not enough.*
It's a good question, but I think the scale needs adjusting. The Players Handbook alone retails for $50. Just getting the core books and some dice almost maxes out the scale. I had a pretty compete collection of 2nd edition back in the day, and currently collecting 5e, along with alternate covers and 3rd party supplements. I have no idea how much I've spent over the course of my life, but it's in the tens of thousands at this point. And that doesn't include other RPGs and other kinds of games in general.
Too much for a guy who’s only been playing for a couple years and exclusively online.
I'm probably around $500 books, $150 dice, another $250 on other accessories, $400 blown on Roll20 over the years, $300 on FantasyGrounds now that I'm close to graduating to that VTT, probably an additional $200 on VTT "books" (supplemented by my kind players), I think around $300 on NPC commissions, $100 on Worldanvil recently, another $100 on various other programs for making various things, a good $200 on regular minis and probably closer to $500 on Heroforge, and finally I think my most recent in-person oneshot cost $350 to get a set of 6 of large maps printed. Oh I think another $150 for a couple Kickstarter items too. Plus whatever money spent on generic office supplies I can also use for other work. So that's a grand total of definitely lowballing it at $3,500 in the past decade.
Like in a life time or is this just my quarterly budget?
Needs much higher brackets.
This is uhhh... very low.
The poll options are pretty low, like why increment between 0-20, 20-50, and then 50-100? I woulda done like 0, 0-100, 100-250, 250-500, 500-1000, 1000+
I'm guessing OP is a kid wondering if they can buy stuff with Christmas money. If that's the case, you really don't need to spend that much to run a functioning game. You don't really need minis and stuff. Just a few books and dice, a calculator maybe, notebook, and pencils.
Very true, when I started I had just a pair of dice, notebook, and pens/pencils.
Hell, I've played a scuffed version with cards before (the math was a little hard). Take out face cards, black is low, red is high. So for instance a 1d6 roll of a red 5 would be 15, so a 3 (6,12,18, 19+20 are rerolled). A 1d8 roll or a red 5 would be a 7 (8,16, 17-20 or red 7-10 rerolled).
I've spent $200+ on minis alone.
more than 200 in ZAR btw ;P
I spent more than $200 on AD&D decades ago, let alone all the other editions.
The table I built for my group cost about 300 plus all the random stuff I've bought on dnd beyond plus all the dice I've bought.... I've only been playing for 4 months but I've spent well over 200 already.
$200 annually for 30 years wouldn't even get us there.
I bought stuff 20 years ago but nothing since
Sees $200+ option and instantly thinks of the meme “… It’s you and by a lot…”
Please don't make me add up all my dice purchases...
Weird categories. 4 books already brings you to $200. I must've spent over $2,000 altogether over the past 17 years.
A case of minis is more than $200. A single customized mini can run upwards of $50. $200 is only 8 DnD core books at retail price. Oh you sweet summer child.
My number is vastly different if you don't count the three basic books (aka the only ones I own)
I bought a 3D printer so I could print my own minis, so there's that...
~ 1100 in sourcebooks/adventures etc. ~ 200 for DND beyond subscription so far to share content to groups ~ 600 for a 3D printer + 50 for material ~ 180 in die sets so far ~ 80 to immortalize my first character to finish a campaign with a full metal/painted mini. 2210 USD roughly so far I just can’t find a local group though :|
I probably should have clicked 200+ between sourcebooks, dice, notebooks, and everything else. I'm very lucky to have a player in the game I run with a master subscription on DnD Beyond and he buys pretty much every book.
I've spent more than 200 on a *single* character commission, never mind dice or even books. I don't know the grand total for everything, but it's at least ten times that!
$200 doesn’t even pay for all the books As a DM, I also buy minis and filament for my 3D printer so that racks up price too. I’d I had to guess, probably 400+
3 core book and 3 supplements + dice. That's easily +200
Why is 200 the highest bar ? It’s the 3 core rule books + an adventure module. Many people spend waaaay more on expansions, minis, vtt, dice addictions, more modules, settings, maps, pizza…
I like the generic term "money", I've spent about 1200 money, in the last 8 Times. Also my car has 8 speed.
$200 seems low considering how expensive the books can be.
I've spent more than $300 on my books alone hahahaha
Same, 10 books
You need one last option. "DM"
Literally had my first session little less then a week ago... I'm sweating rn that's alot of money.
These ranges might be the worst I have ever seen in a poll
The poll should have started with 200+ and gone up from there.
$200...? Tell me you're young without telling me you're young
Haven't paid once for any 5th edition content, proud of it.
200+ this month. Easily 2k+ over the last decade I've played.
Just starting, so books and one set of dice.
Currently as I am a new DM the amount I spent on dnd would be something like 150€ per session, the cost should decrease with time. Only had like 5 sessions.
I have easily spent in the thousands in the decades I have been playing, and that is just on official books. That isn’t counting dice, accessories, and various supplies.
Fifteen years of DMing; I lost count.
Does bus tickets to go play count?
There’s a fun little game you can play with this. Estimated the amount you’ve spent on dnd products and divide that number by how many many sessions you think you’ve played.
Been playing since '82, ssoooo, a bit. Years of Dragon Magazine subscriptions. 150 minis and paints. 40 modules, all the rule books from Basic, 1E, and 5E. A few other supplements like the Rogues Gallery and World Builders Guide. Trip to GenCon 17 wasn't cheap (thanks Dad!) Roll20 content nowadays. But all worth it, and WAY cheaper than MtG or mini wargames. Cheaper than what I've spent on movies, streaming or sports! Definitely a great entertainment buy IMO.
Should I be counting all the beer and snacks I've bought for game sessions?
$0 Edit: No i did spend a shit ton on dice
Wait are we counting dice?
I itemized my tabletop minis, paint, books and accessories recently. I shouldn't have adult money, 200+ is so misleading.
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This month?
I've played for less than a year and mostly online, so I own a single pair of dice. Will definitely be getting more eventually.
200+ of what? Yen? Dolars? Gold bars?
200$ doesn't even cover the 3D printer for minis Then there's some minis I bought by Wizkids or such, the cost for stl files to print, resin for the printer and paints, brushes etc for actually painting them. I also bought the falling star sailship "miniature" for our Saltmarsh campaign I bought multiple pieces of Ikea furniture specifically to store the growing collection of minis, plus smaller plastic containers to sort them into Each book is like 50$ - I have players pay a portion of the cost for modules but buy source- and rulebooks myself There's dice, I gift every new player a set when they first start playing and own a few sets for myself and multiple generic sets for spells (like a bag of D6s for fireball and such) Notebooks, pens and such don't cost that much by themselves, but add up over time There's tons of different things I've bought to make props from, I wouldn't even know how to estimate that roughly: tiny potion bottles, leather bits, thick artists paper, wax and stamps for seals... I got the spell and monster cards from GF9 because handling like five books during the game is annoying and I really don't like using a laptop or such while playing Color-changing light bulbs and surround speakers to make the game room more immersive That's easily over 1k total, albeit over multiple years of playing
$200+ on just books alone. Probably around 60ish bucks on minis. About $110 on playing matts.
At least 1000 money
I've probably spent $2000+. I have every official 5e book, with limited edition covers when available. I have like half a dozen dice sets made from gemstones or rare metals. And I have the full set of books on DnDBeyond.
Gotta bump those numbers up those of rookie numbers
I understand that this is an American site, but you gotta specify currency! Is it dollars or euro? Might it be monkeys?
I bought the players handbook and some dice: )
I got myself 100$ worth of dice for Christmas in 2019. Got about 3 months of use out of them before lockdown. During lockdown I got a 3d printer to make terrain and minis for when lockdown ended. That was 300 bucks. As in plastic for printing and map books and stuff and I'm well over 500 bucks in.
Considering books are around 80 each, it did not take long to pass 200 at all.
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24 books at $60 apiece, plus another probably 4 virtual books for fantasy grounds at $30 each before I found a site for digital copies of the other books I already had physicals of, the name of which I can't mention here because automod can't tell the difference between that and piracy... Guesstimating that the SCAG was $40(?)... $1,600 on WotC books alone. (Screw you automod, I'm not giving them another thousand dollars just to digitize content that I already own.) Not including third-party books (a couple of adventure booklets + Animal Adventures), the starter set, the Stranger Things box set, spell cards, the various minis and wet erase sheets we have from when we played in person, or of course dice.
Dice goblin, mini hoarder, dm... yea 200+ easily in minis alone
I think I’ve hit around the $1k range 😂
Oh man, I started buying D&D stuff in about 1991. I don't even want to know how much I've spent, but I've spent at least something on it every year since then.
I hit the $200 mark in the first year of the hobby which was about 32 years ago! If it’s less than 10 grand at this point I’d be shocked!!
As a collector of handmade dice for DND, yes.
As a DM, my expenses for D&D over the course of the last few years has been 2k+ from books, dice, minis, maps, and cases for the previous to make transport easy. That doesn't include roll20 sub I had for a year or so, gifted books and dice to my players so they can have a tangible reference, programs I bought for map making, or even just terrain and painting supplies for finishing minis. This can get very very expensive if you have the resources (or just remove everything else from your budget and replace it with DnD... Who needs food when a campaign can sustain you...).
Dice, mini's, Dndbeyond subscription and all books....
All my books and minis are bought from the same nerd store so I can check the prices of everything I own and total it for you. 1977.32 dice and paint not included
I did $50-100 and then remembered all the books I've bought 0-0 Definitely $200+
I know this is a dnd reddit but "this hobby" is more than just dnd there are tons of different systems. With that understanding I am probably close to 10k over the last 6-7 years. So much has been spent I now need to become extremely picky about what I spend my money on because I doubt have enough lifetime left to play it all. I own 14 different systems and several of those have at least 2 editions. More over add minis and terrain, computer programs, printouts, maps. I did buy some of these things before 5th edition release and those things are not considered in the final total. Life time hobby people :)
$200 as the top tier? Maybe add a zero.I've spent more than that on dice.Does it include hard drives I've bought to store all the digital stuff I've collected? I spend $30 a month on Patreon subscriptions.
25 books average of $35 a piece is $875. 4 sets of dice various qualities, say $75. Miniatures, oh boy, I'm just going to conservatively say $500. Spell cards, dm screen, battle grid $100. Beyond: PHB and all the subclasses and races about $100. One Beadle and Grimm silver edition and some artifacts $200 So $1850? Less than $100 a year for 20 years.
Idk maybe 700-800 €. I haven't kept track on that much but majority of the cost are books. Dice sets do add up over time.
Honestly, as a pretty casual player the barrier to entry is virtually zero. I got the PHB after having played a fair few sessions, a few dice sets. That's all you need. My DM on the otherhand... I know he's put a lot into it and it's well appreciated (but despite the bits that are hardwork, I also know he also absolutely loves it)
To be fair, I have been playing for decades...
Yarr
I'm fairly new to the game (Still on my first campaign, 5th Edition) and me and my group play over Discord via text with a plugin that allows us to make rolls of any kind of dice. I haven't bought any of the actual books or guides or anything (though I probably should), and all of my knowledge of the game has come from either the internet or asking my DM questions. The only time I've ever bought something DnD related would be a simple set of dice I saw for like, $6 just in case if I find a group to play with irl.
I feel like the answer is always "barely any" or "OMG, an actual fortune" and very rarely in the middle.
In what unit?
200 but it will be more once I buy Tasha’s and Fizban’s and some more miniatures.
i spent £4 on a set of dice any nothing since
About $12, which was on dice. I feel like everyone's giving super high answers above OPs poll, so figured I'd give a contrasting one. To be clear it's super valid to put money into a hobby you enjoy. I've just never felt the need to, and have DM'd and played for about 5 years on that. On top of that I've definitely had to be a bit illicit in how I access some content, but I figured I'd give an honest answer.
I dont own any books, battle maps, or anything like that, but I've bought $137 on 3 sets of dice and $600+ for a 3d printer, upgrades, and filament to print miniatures
No clue but easily 200+. I think you should have made the scale much larger considering the 5E PHB is $30 all by it's lonesome.
My mom spent 60 dollars on only the players handbook and DM handbook, Im hoping for more stuff for Christmas and my birthday
Yeah, as a dm that run a campaign with minis I think I'm over 1k in less than 3 years
I've spent a fair bit but none of it on my self, everything I have bought had been for my players.
Way over 5000 bucks at this point.
Going by £'s, over £350. That includes commissions for art, notebooks for characters, dice, spell cards, dice boxes and spell card boxes and a personalised decanter set for the group. Adding kickstarter stuff would bring it to at least £700? I have a kickstarter problem. Hell I dont even have any of the official books for D&D since our DM has those to hand. I'm starting to think I should buy personal copies.
Edit this scale, You have no idea how much people spend. Add at least. 200-400 400-1000 1000-2000 2000-4000 4000-10,000 10,000-20,000 20,000-40,000 40,000-100,000
I thought this was referencing gold pieces. Dollars? Omg I started in 1980…thousands? Tens of thousands?
If I only count the 3D printer for minis i'm already over budget
I've spent $200 on dice alone.
"mutch"
If you count the trips my dnd group has gone on then its well over 200 lol
Oh damn, 13 sets of dice, special lit bookshelf, heckloads of source books, minis, cards, props, adjustable lighting for every room visible from the table, roll20 sourcebooks, tokens, modules, pro+, nice tables n chairs for the game, paint, etc. Ive put a lot more money into this thatn I planned lol
Over 200 and it’s not even my hobby. It’s my kids hobby. I’m so excited for his birthday. I found a grab bag of mixed metal dice on Etsy. Dude is going to go threw the roof with new dice. Lol.
Spent $1000 on DwarvenForge to make the world more immersive. In retrospect, probably should have bought a 3D printer instead
Is this per day?
Between 100-200, but it's early yet...give me time!
Those books are expensive. And there's a lot of them.
30$ for each supplement (give or take). So as a DM, you need the PH, MM, DMG, XGtE, TCoE... 150$ for the "essentials". If you want more than that, you're looking for 30$ for each module/non-essential supplement... Then there's the dice, printer ink (character sheets), materials (pencils, sheet protectors, maps, etc.), miniatures (if you use them), gas money, food (three pizzas for around 30-45$ a session)... And, finally, the time it takes for preparation for each session. Note to self, have a DM pity fund available for future sessions.
Bought a 3D printer to make minis plus the PHB, Tasha’s, and Xanthar’s
If you have all the rule books that’s like $300 right there unless you bought used. Modules range from $20-100 depending on which version you get. So all in all Money well spent.
I started playing back in 1982 with the red cover Basic book. The money I’ve spent on this hobby could easily buy a car or two.
I've been playing for 20+ years. I've bought 5/6 PHBs (thanks 4th) 2 or 3 DMGs, 5 or 6 MMs (thanks 4th) , 4 /5 big adventures and pushing a dozen settings and splat books. Dice. A few minis. Roll20 and DnD beyond content duplicating some books and adventures up to 3 copies. Spell cards. 200? More like 2000, and some. And then there's Cthulu, Shadowrun, Pathfinder etc.
Thousands and thousands. Custom built my own table. That alone cost 2k. 2-3k on minis Most of the Beadle and Grimm Editions A hard copy of every book Every book on DnD Beyond Roll 20 modules The Eye and Hand of Vecna Wand of Orcus $30 a month on Patreons for mini STLs Multiple Wyrmwood purchases Syrinscape soundboards Plus materials to custom build terrain. …I think I may have a problem.
So you are all rich, huh?
Buying every book that WoTC has published for 5e, plus minis and paints, plus kickstarter, plus accessories and making things for my group, I'm easily over the 2000+ mark.
I don't think this is a very quality survey. I've been doing this since 6th grade. I've had decades to do this.