The Free Rules. It has every class and a subclass, a bucket of magic items, and a whole menagerie of monsters. For free.
Every other element isn't necessary. You can play D&D with a character sheet, a few pencils and a set of dice. I'm not sure people understand how amazing this concept is. Pre-2000s you *had* to buy the PHB (rules), DMG (magic items) and the MM (monsters) in order to have any real ability to play.
If you're time rich, and cash poor, make it up yourself. You don't need a dozen new player options books. You don't need another campaign setting. You don't need to buy everything on the store. You use the free rules, and make up the rest. You like something enough to put cash down, you can do so.
You do NOT NEED every product. You barely need any products.
You're not being priced out of the game. You're being priced into FOMO. And FOMO is a problem created on its own.
While this is technically true, it isn't really in practice. A lot of people, especially new players, won't want to homebrew things, and if they don't have the PHB, they probably won't have many ideas for subclasses to homebrew, plus they won't have examples of how to balance the subclasses. If you only have one subclass per class, how are you expected to get any idea of how powerful features need to be?
But it IS true. Every subclass in that document happens to be the iconic version of the class that has been around since 1st edition. At one time, these were the only options we had and it is no hardship to play those class/subclass combinations. If you want to homebrew there are many sources of information on the web that will provide guidance and examples. I've not tried it, but I may soon run a short campaign just around the Free Rules. I think they may be more balanced and maybe more fun (outside of customization options of course)
One of the first things I did when I finally had a significant change in income was buy the Legendary bundle. You would be amazed at how LITTLE that had impacted any aspect of my play experience since. I have been playing consistently for more than 7 years without any meaningful breaks (almost every day if you count PBPs) and if we exclude the Core Rules and Expanded Rules, I can count on one hand how many books have been used at our tables. In hindsight, most D&D purchases are a colossal waste of money.
The point is that I wish I had seen (and then listened to) GammaRay's frequent reminders to NOT purchase anything before exploring all the free options. If I could go back and do it again, I wouldn't. You really don't need to buy anything at all. Homebrew is here, is free, and is really only intimidating at first. Not knowing how to balance isn't a problem if you know how to read; you can just read these books at bookstores, take some notes, and then homebrew. If you don't want to homebrew, GM Binder and DM's Guild have so much free content too, as others have pointed out. You can't be priced out of a game that you can fully enjoy for almost a decade without purchases making a meaningful difference.
There is enough free material to at least start laying and get comfortable with the rules. But I get that having at least the core books and full access to the site (ie a master tier subscription) would be far better but potentially expensive on a fixed income - or is it ? A master tier subscription is @ $6/month or the cost of 2 20oz black coffees at Starbucks - not really so bad, even on a fixed income it’s probably easily done alone. The 3 core books (PHB, DMG, MM) together are @ $100 - fairly pricey if bought all at once. But it’s a. One time purchase that could be done incrementally to keep monthly costs down. Better yet D&D is not (generally) a solo game. - it’s a group game. Typically you have 4-7 players and 1 DM so let’s look at those prices again if everyone is sharing the cost for everyone’s pleasure. Assuming the low end of 5 players that is $1.20 each a month for the subscription ( 1 master tier and 4 free basic tier subscriptions) and @20$ each one time to purchase the 3 book set. Then all 3 books are shared on the master tier. I would recommend setting up 2 campaigns- one for actual game play and one where everyone can “play” with character creation. Finally most non free stuff costs @ $30-40 so that is $6-8 each when the group agrees to add a book. Assuming 1 new $40 book each month the individual costs for a shared game would run no more than $10/ month after the natal 3 book outlay. I suspect that would be in almost veryone’s budget.
...if we exclude the Core Rules and Expanded Rules, I can count on one hand how many books have been used at our tables. In hindsight, most D&D purchases are a colossal waste of money..
This is one of the issues. Realistically, you generally only use books at the beginning of a campaign (as a player). You might use 2 or 3 books, then you're done for like two years until the campaign is over. They don't get opened again. And even that is being generous - usually I use like one book. This is one of the reasons why I lamented the loss of piecemeal purchases and been a bit sore about it since - you could buy what you needed and would use, rather than having to buy the whole of Fizban's...for the Drakewarden subclass. It was something that I frequently pointed to to show how DDB.was pro consumer and not predatory. Anyways, that wisdom, just buying a couple of books at most, isn't natural. It comes with experience...by which time it's too late.
I wish the wisdom was more widespread though. I've had a few players join for a session, decide they like it, refuse to join our Master Sub campaign (even for free) and insisting on buying their own books instead..****y to quit two or three sessions down the road. So much money wasted.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Honestly, as a DM, I buy a lot of the books for the additional monster variants and the magic items, and my players buy the player options. I haven't caved to buying the Campaigns I won't run, just for monsters and magic though. I wish I wasn't reliant on paying $30-$50, just to get access to creatures I could use in my own games.
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But it IS true. Every subclass in that document happens to be the iconic version of the class that has been around since 1st edition. At one time, these were the only options we had and it is no hardship to play those class/subclass combinations. If you want to homebrew there are many sources of information on the web that will provide guidance and examples. I've not tried it, but I may soon run a short campaign just around the Free Rules. I think they may be more balanced and maybe more fun (outside of customization options of course)
One of the first things I did when I finally had a significant change in income was buy the Legendary bundle. You would be amazed at how LITTLE that had impacted any aspect of my play experience since. I have been playing consistently for more than 7 years without any meaningful breaks (almost every day if you count PBPs) and if we exclude the Core Rules and Expanded Rules, I can count on one hand how many books have been used at our tables. In hindsight, most D&D purchases are a colossal waste of money.
The point is that I wish I had seen (and then listened to) GammaRay's frequent reminders to NOT purchase anything before exploring all the free options. If I could go back and do it again, I wouldn't. You really don't need to buy anything at all. Homebrew is here, is free, and is really only intimidating at first. Not knowing how to balance isn't a problem if you know how to read; you can just read these books at bookstores, take some notes, and then homebrew. If you don't want to homebrew, GM Binder and DM's Guild have so much free content too, as others have pointed out. You can't be priced out of a game that you can fully enjoy for almost a decade without purchases making a meaningful difference.
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There is enough free material to at least start laying and get comfortable with the rules. But I get that having at least the core books and full access to the site (ie a master tier subscription) would be far better but potentially expensive on a fixed income - or is it ? A master tier subscription is @ $6/month or the cost of 2 20oz black coffees at Starbucks - not really so bad, even on a fixed income it’s probably easily done alone. The 3 core books (PHB, DMG, MM) together are @ $100 - fairly pricey if bought all at once. But it’s a. One time purchase that could be done incrementally to keep monthly costs down. Better yet D&D is not (generally) a solo game. - it’s a group game. Typically you have 4-7 players and 1 DM so let’s look at those prices again if everyone is sharing the cost for everyone’s pleasure. Assuming the low end of 5 players that is $1.20 each a month for the subscription ( 1 master tier and 4 free basic tier subscriptions) and @20$ each one time to purchase the 3 book set. Then all 3 books are shared on the master tier. I would recommend setting up 2 campaigns- one for actual game play and one where everyone can “play” with character creation. Finally most non free stuff costs @ $30-40 so that is $6-8 each when the group agrees to add a book. Assuming 1 new $40 book each month the individual costs for a shared game would run no more than $10/ month after the natal 3 book outlay. I suspect that would be in almost veryone’s budget.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
This is one of the issues. Realistically, you generally only use books at the beginning of a campaign (as a player). You might use 2 or 3 books, then you're done for like two years until the campaign is over. They don't get opened again. And even that is being generous - usually I use like one book. This is one of the reasons why I lamented the loss of piecemeal purchases and been a bit sore about it since - you could buy what you needed and would use, rather than having to buy the whole of Fizban's...for the Drakewarden subclass. It was something that I frequently pointed to to show how DDB.was pro consumer and not predatory. Anyways, that wisdom, just buying a couple of books at most, isn't natural. It comes with experience...by which time it's too late.
I wish the wisdom was more widespread though. I've had a few players join for a session, decide they like it, refuse to join our Master Sub campaign (even for free) and insisting on buying their own books instead..****y to quit two or three sessions down the road. So much money wasted.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Honestly, as a DM, I buy a lot of the books for the additional monster variants and the magic items, and my players buy the player options. I haven't caved to buying the Campaigns I won't run, just for monsters and magic though. I wish I wasn't reliant on paying $30-$50, just to get access to creatures I could use in my own games.