Would you consider all the money you've spent on tabletop stuff to be a waste, or an investment?

Would you consider all the money you've spent on tabletop stuff to be a waste, or an investment?

Do you have any idea how much money it has been?

Investment. Buy a few RPGs and some board games, then you have entertainment for years.

The space it all takes up bothers me more than money spent. Not to mention the constant fear of fire/burglary.

I've enjoyed what I've bought, so yes

neither, more of a diversion

Less than I spent on tobacco. RPGs are a much better investment than burning money.

Its the equivalent of buying a sizable selection of shoes. So, an investment comparable to a woman owning a closet of shoes

Wargame models keep a surprising amount of their retail value on resale. Not an investment since it's a negative return, but I'm not just throwing money down a hole.

I enjoy painting, modelling, and playing with the stuff I've bought, from the wargames to RPGs to boardgames, so I suppose it's much like any hobby from collecting to fishing to golf, all of which actually require a much higher expenditure of money in some cases.

Though I agree with to a degree. Not really a waste, not really an investment, just kind of a diversion/hobby.

Nothing's a waste if you get enjoyment and value out of it, so I don't think of the $1k+ I've spent on it in a negative light. I've gotten hundreds of hours of fun out of it, not to mention all the priceless moments with my friends. I've also spent in fairly small increments, so it's not like I had to go without electricity for a month because I bought all this stuff

How much does it cost to get the basics for 5e, assuming you're don't even have dice to reuse?

The three core books are about 120 put together.
A pack of 7 dice is 3-5 bucks at most.

I'll be frank - more than half of what I've accumulated for the tabletop has been by way of gifts. So if nothing else, it was worth being able to tell relatives they had something to buy me for Christmas and on birthdays.

But otherwise? Fuck no. The Bretonnian army I got second-hand is now part of a dead game, and in my part of Burgerland there's almost no 40k community. If anything, other wargames have a stronger representation, especially Malifaux. So I'm wasting my time and money on games that I'll likely never get to play. And as much as I enjoy painting, I don't enjoy all the building that comes before it, so my progress has been glacial.

Constant fear of fire is a little paranoid, depending on where you live fearing burglary is even less sensible, and hearing constant fear of burglary in the context of oh no my RPG stuff might burn or get stolen made me chuckle

It really depends, some of the stuff I regret (spending thousands trying to play competitive MtG, my brief entanglements with 40k and Warmachine, countless other tcgs when I was a kid) but making friends and hanging out makes it all worth it I guess.

I would consider this a false dichotomy.

>waste or investment

Expense.
Like my beer or pizza funds. Except that my hobbies don't literally turn money into shit.

>how much

US$40,000. Any more stupid questions?

that's a big number

>US$40,000
Jesus christ, and I thought I was bad

Somewhere in the vicinity of six to eight thousand dollars over the course of my life.

A lot of people spend more than that on coffee. I am probably one of those people.

Gaming is cheap as fuck, as hobbies go.

I own about a dozen different rpg books, most of them bought second hand, so a negligible amount. Tabletop doesn't equal plastic/cardboard crack.

... I wonder how that dollar bill would flavor his cigar.

I don't consider entertainment spending to be an investment. It's not going to return or save me money. But thinking about it, every investment I make is to the ultimate end of entertainment. I save money to have money to handle emergencies, so my flow of joy will be less interrupted, see?

So it wasn't an investment, it was an expense, but a worthwhile one.

And over the past 10 years... at least a thousand dollars, but not more than 1500. Pretty good entertainment value really.

$40.

$30 for a ton of dice and a dice bag. $10 for a few hundred Magic cards.

i consider it investment in entertainment, and i think it's money well spent. I mean every time i go to see a movie in theatres that sets me back like twenty, if i pick up a video game that can set me back like 20-60 dollars. consoles can be a few hundred, and they go out of style. My buddy just likes getting wasted, so he spends tons of money on booze just for the privilege of a headache the next day. its all relative. pretty much everyone has something they enjoy that they "blow" money on. mine's really not all that much more or less than anyone else's , and i can re-use it and it builds up over time, so its all good in my opinion. i mean if i didnt do anything for fun at all life would suck, and everything costs money. if this is what makes me happy, then why not?

>Would you consider all the money you've spent on tabletop stuff to be a waste, or an investment?
Money, to me at least, is just an means to an end, not an end in itself. So from my perspective these tabletop stuff that I bought made me happy and some continue to bring me joy. And since I'm not destitute for having purchased them, I have no regrets for having bought them.

I may never see any financial return on those purchases and I don't really care, they make me happy and that's all I care about.

Well, I started in pathfinder and have nearly 500 dollars worth of books, but I don't play that any more. I don't regret it, but at the same time I kind of do. I also have like 500 dollars of minis but I don't regret that at all

Its money well spent, as it's provided entertainment for my friends and I for years. It is certainly not an investment. You aren't turning profit from your books and minis.

> Any more stupid questions?

Yeah. I have a few. What is the game(s) breakdown of that $40,000, and what was the largest single purchase?

I consider the 6 or 7 hundred bucks I spent on 3.5 stuff in high school to be a waste.
The dice, game mat, 10 dollar rulesets and 5 dollar modules I've impulse bought since then to be investments.

Any rule book that i have bought and not used is a waste. So far that is probably a couple hundred.

Everyone needs a hobby, and tabletop RPGs are probably one of the cheaper ones (I don't do wargames or TCGs). I wouldn't call it an investment because I'll never make money on it, but it's definitely not a waste.

Yep, agree with pretty much everything you've said. I used to drink, now I spend my money on minis - wife is happier, I'm much happier.

About E10 000 over the last five years, less than I spent p.a. on pic related.

Anything you spend on enjoyment isn't a waste of money. You only have a very small amount of time on this world. Enjoying yourself while you're here is top priority, and if buying Veeky Forums related things and playing with them is how you do it, more power to you.

The $ per person-hour of fun of a game book is hard to beat, provided you actually get a group going.

My friends and I bought a set of 5e books over a year ago, and we've played nearly every week since. Five people, 3 or 4 hour sessions, pretty damn good. We've bought minis and stuff too, but Bones minis are cheap as hell and fun to paint... honestly, I'd say we're doing great value-wise.

> Do you have any idea how much money it has been?
Zero dollars.

I abuse my friendships for PDFs.

I've barely spent any, so I don't regret it.

>a waste, or an investment?
Neither. It's not thrown away so it's not waste. It doesn't generate a ROI so it's not an investment.

It's an entertainment expense, and a very efficient one.

For me, probably $2000 over the last 10 years, which is peanuts compared to most other hobbies or entertainment types.

You fool, the price may be on the parts, but the value is in the experience. No price can be put on the fun I've had with friends.

Money, I don't know. But over the last 2 years the TIME I've put into Veeky Forums could've probably netted me a fancy damn car or a small house. If, you know, I'd worked during it instead of playing video games as an alternative.

Seriously, I've let this shit consume far more of my life than I should have.

It is neither a waste, nor an investment. It has mostly been money well spent. lots of fun over a long period of time.

I sadly have enough money in mtg, where I could sell the majority of my stuff to scg through their buy list and buy a new motorcycle.

"Investment" implies that there's some kind of financial return.
There's this weird fucking thing in modern society where a want is treated like a need, and frivolity is treated as a sort of unorthodox productivity. No offense, but it's fucking rubbish to call entertainment an "investment," and that's coming from someone who spends quite a bit on frivolities.
Call it what it is, a perfectly avoidable expense.

I wouldn't call it a waste or an investment. It's a hobby. People spend money on things because they like them.

investments are money spent as part of a plan to grow it. unless you are playing the TTG commodity market, it is not an investment.

this

Time is money, and I have wasted a lot of time on this bullshit.
So many flakes, the one and only game I ever managed to complete was a seasonal mini-campaign. Never again.

The core books on Amazon are $85.60 for a complete set. You can get dice for about $5. Remember the basic rules are free, and of course there is the trove. I like having physical books but money doesn't have to deter you from entering the hobby.

4
U

over three grand, and I'd spend it all over again in a second. Table-top gaming has helped me out with my depression over the years, and I'd be doing it a disservice by not caring for it.

>Call it what it is, a perfectly avoidable expense
In other words, waste

b-but what about all my exclusive WoW mounts?

I've probably spent $1500 in the past 3 years on 40k stuff and related supplies. Worth it. I've got hundreds of hours of time spent painting that i've really enjoyed. Only played like 1 game of 40k so far, but I still think it's been worth it.

>Would you consider all the money you've spent on tabletop stuff to be a waste, or an investment?
Neither. It's false dichotomy. Some money can be waste, some can be investment. Also money can be spent in a way that can be converted back to equal sum of money (give or take accounting for inflation or related expenses such as shipping) that makes it neither waster nor investment.
Yes, I realize certain school of thought in finance would consider that a waste still, because everything that doesn't yield profit is a waste.

I find it's best to not ask questions you don't want to know the answer to.

Who cares? You're just gonna die

waste

I'd say it's probably 50% waste, 50% investment.

Certainly, there are a lot of books which I'm unlikely to put to much use beyond playing once. I've been focusing a lot more on specific concepts and systems, and so don't have much use for Random RPG #942, especially when it's another d20 system.

On the other hand, a large number of books have some really great ideas that I could steal from, even if I never use the system. So, that large number of NWoD I have could still be a good investment, even if I never play a NWoD game.

>Do you have any idea how much money it has been?
No clue, beyond "a large amount". I have boxes and boxes of RPG books.

I consider everything I've spent an investment, except the money I spent on those fucking Pathfinder books. What an awful game, what an awful developer.

The only money I consider wasted is games that just sat on my shelf and don't get play. Less so the ones I at least enjoy just reading.

I mean I've wasted more money on shitty beer and greasy food by a long shot though.

I consider it an investment. If I didn't have RPG's, none of my hobbies would require me to leave the house and interact with other people. It's an investment that forces me to socialise and meet people, plus getting to share my writing and story-telling with people, rather than just having a bunch of half-finished fanfiction on my laptop.

I've spent close to 100 on CoC books

poor puddi

Ten years ago I owned about 250 pounds sterling on spice mareigns.

Since then I've bought some dice.


Overall fuck all because I'm a filthy techno pirate who never actually buys books.

Play TTRPG, mostly PDFs, so very little at all.

>Do you have any idea how much money it has been?
I live in Denmark, and can't really properly say how much Ive spend in another currency because of the changes over the years, (RIP the british pound) but I have spend 142000 DKK which would probably be around 13500 GBP.

I am perplexed at how the fuck anyone can spend thousands on something, without having any idea how much they have actually used. I know a lot of people do this, but seriously guys, do yourself a favour and track this shit. An excel spreadsheet is sufficient, just get an idea of how much you actually use on it.

I don't view it as anything other than "pleasure spending" though. I might be able to sell it, but to me, this is no different than going to the movies, buying chips and candy, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. I buy warhammer instead of those things, because I get more enjoyment from it, and the time to money ratio is actually a lot better than, say, watching a movie.

Three or four hundred UK pounds. Got most of the WFRP 2e line, both Dark Heresy core books, Rogue Trader, nWoD core, VtR, DtD and Force and Destiny along with two dice packs for it. Got a couple of purchased pdfs as well. I only regret buying Rogue Trader, everything else has given me good value for money (at a pound per hour of entertainment).

I spent literally hundreds of dollars on splats for D&D 3.5 when I got my first job as a teenager. Didn't end up using a single one of them. Eventually gave them all away to friends after I moved house. I make bad decisions.

Over 5 grand for MtG, I don't even play competitive

$43 on magic after selling the zendikar expedition lands I found a half-dozen of and sold.

neither, they're not a waste since I've gotten enjoyment out of them and they're not an investment since they don't appreciate in value.

From what I've been told, any spending that doesn't have a good chance of generating a profit is a waste. So yeah, it totally is.

I don't care though. Money is a tool to be used and the people who waste their lives trying to make it more than that are a parasitic cancer we aren't purging aggressively enough.

As long as you use it and enjoy it it's money well spent.

People who play boardgames and rpgs generally get hours of enjoyment per dollar spent.

The ones who should feel like they're setting fire to money are the wargamers. No other group of fa/tg/uys spend so much money on things they end up never painting, that fills the cupboards and in the end often gets sold for cheap when they quit or need funds or space for something.

Investment in finance means spending money on something, expecting a return/profit on that money.

But in the more general term it means spending something to get something in return, that might mean spending time with someone in order to gain a friend or spending time reading in order to get a better vocabulary.

Not everything needs to be evaluated in dollars.
"Investing in yourself" is a thing.

I consider all purchases I've made of war/skirmishgame miniatures and cardboard neither wastes or investments, every hobby has a cost.

Probably spent around $2500aud over 5-6 years gaming, bit closer to $3300 if CCG tournaments didn't make the expansions pay for themselves.

Easily over 2000 hrs of genuine fun time returns at this point, so I guess in that respect it's a good investment.

Well those books have more value to me than things that have greater monetary value, if that makes sense.

If I got mugged while carrying some of my books and notes around, I'd try to reason with the muggers that they can have my watch and wallet but please let me keep my RPG stuff, it's not valuable. I know reasoning with muggers is a bad idea, but some of them might be nice.

>tfw house was burgled
>they stole all my RPG stuff
>check pawn shops
>find the guy because he tried to sell my handmade aluminium reproductions of game currencies
>he went to prison because the pawn shop owner thought my reproductions were flawless enough to maybe be a real coin collection
>get everything back except my AD&D folder
>find one with almost everything for $10 at a garage sale a couple of weeks later

I don't usually buy things I jack PDFs and print them

RPGs are the most cost-effective form of entertainment.

From a guy who spent his childhood being mugged by addicts, they're actually not that unreasonable. They really just want the most amount of money in the least amount of time, with the lowest possible risk. I've talked my way into keeping a gold ring my dad left me when he died and just handed over my cash, not even the whole wallet.

If they're new to it, they'll take everything, but the guys who've been doing it a long time are pretty casual about the whole thing and usually won't even take your phone because of how little they can sell them for now. Most won't even pull a weapon and just rely on intimidation to get the message across.

A massive, massive waste.

Makes sense. Something I often read/hear from mugging victims is how scared the muggers were (sometimes more than the victim).

I guess some amateur yobs might grab my (heavy) bag assuming it has a laptop or a tablet in it, when really it's just full of books.

Always go to the nearest park, alley, nature strip ect. and search there, as they'll usually just dump everything that isn't cash and valuables.

My FLGS still has most of those 4E books at half price or less. Nobody wants them.

Nice to see they saw some use from you, at least. That's one dog-eared PHB considering how sturdy it is.

Yeah, I mean, my exalted 2nd edition is the campaign / system I've played the least of the ones I've owned. And I paid about 30 euros for it.
Easily netted me about 10 6 hour sessions. 5 euro per hour, for 5 people. For the least relevant.

Over the past 4 years, I think i've spent less than 800 bucks on magic, currently playing legacy, not bad.

I don't think its bad at all, considering I built a new computer recently for that amount.

Depends on the game.
Example? Exalted.
Given all the books from 1st Edition I bought, I probably spent about $200. And I got seven different long-lasting campaigns (and a few shorter ones) over the years out of them, so I don't regret it - it was a worthwhile investment.
I spent a like amount of money - 200 - on the 3rd Edition kickstarter. And given how late the game was, and how incredibly unlikely it is I'll ever play the unplayable mess that the game turned out to be, I consider that 200 to be a complete fucking waste.

Couple hundred bucks on MtG cards and event fees. Played with a group of people at the time and had lots of fun weekends.

Oh, that and a $10 dice set

Great gif, just sayin

It was okay

Nope. Made some of my best friends through gaming, and if not for it I never would have ended up meeting my wife.

>Not everything needs to be evaluated in dollars.
Tell that to the Libertarians.