Why is the price so high, all it will do is promote Piracy! Unfortunately I don't like to steal, but also I won't be able to afford it.
The Basic rules are free for download here and some are available for web-browsing here.
As far as the additional content in the PHB, MM, and DMG, those will be the core rulebooks for the forseeable future (several years at least). You can start playing immediately with the free Basic rules and purchase the other books once you have the money for it.
All the player needs is the free basic rules. If you want more options, then all the player needs is the PHB. $50 isn't pocket change, but for the hours and hours of play that comes from it, seems pretty reasonable.
All the DM needs is the free basic and DM rules. If you want to allow more options, all the DM needs is the PHB. Only if you want help DMing or ideas for more variants and magic items will you need the DMG. Same with the MM, you get plenty of options for free, you only need to buy if you want even more options.
Most people that pirate would pirate a $30 book as fast as a $50 book.
Professional game designer Sean K. Reynolds basically covered this back in 2001.
The basic rules contain literally everything you'll need to play or run the game, which is actually more generous than the lauded Open Gaming License (and much more generous than the 4e Game System License). This includes character creation rules from "roll your scores" to "let's start playing", along with a decent selection of monsters and rudimentary magic items. It doesn't have any art or all of the mechanical options, but that's what the books provide. They're also being provided for free.
EDIT: I said it contains a limited set of character-building options. I should note that it has the four common races (human, elf, dwarf, halfling) and four basic classes (Fighter(Champion), Cleric(Life), Rogue(Thief), and Wizard(Evocation)). This actually results in more possible character types than D&D started out with, and it's all in the free download. So "limited" is a matter of perspective.)
Use the Basic Rules until you can pick up a Player's Handbook, which runs about $50. The majority of the actual rules that's in the other two core books would be things like treasure tables and magic items (which aren't actually necessary - pretty much the entire game works perfectly fine without magic items, so provide enough gold for the PCs to resupply, upgrade their new (mundane) gear, pay for lifestyle expenses, and a profit and you'll be good, even using just the PHB), and an even wider selection of monsters, so those buys are a lower priority.
That's actually a lower cost of entry overall than we've seen in years - even when the 3e OGL came out (since it was missing everything related to XP and ability score generation by design).
EDIT:
Coredump00 wrote:
It is an expensive book, but then RPGs tend to be.
Alot of work and development go into them beyond merely the writing and printing process.
And as already said: the basic rules provide a huge amount for free already. (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules)
£80.97 for 3 books that's pretty much all I really need to pay for a hobby is actually increadibly cheap.
Yep, it's a fair bit more expensive than the 3 for £48ish that I got the 4E 3 corerulebooks from Borders back in 2008, but still happy to pay WoTC the money.
The D&D book prices are comparable to other products of similar quality and size in the current market - they are not "high" by any reasonable definition of the word.
And if the standard retail price is too much for you, online stores (like Amazon) typically offer the books at a discounted price.
Yep, roughly $30 per book through Amazon, though you need to spend at least $35 to get free shipping. I bought all three books at one time from Amazon as soon as the DMG released. Under $100 for all three, including tax, is pretty good. I just wish local game shops could offer this kind of discount and not lose money.
Also, on the free basic rules front, those will slowly get more added to them as time passes and new material comes out, per the folks at Wizards. No, they will never include everything from the core books, but there is more than enough in them to learn the game and play. They are not a simplified version, but just a version that does not contain every single option from the books.
Tempest_Stormwind wrote:
... Or you could just go ahead and play Pathfinder. All you need is an online connection, and the link for the Pathfinder OGC, and you have in your hands a wealth of options and rules at your disposal. 11 core classes, 8 base classes, 3 alternate classes, 10 hybrid classes, races, feats, skills, rules for combat, bestiaries, etc.
0% piracy required, 100% enjoyment of the game.
In fact, why not go ahead and download the 5E Basic rules and mix it up with Pathfinder's? Things like replacing BAB from the Pathfinder's classes with Profficiency, 5E Saves, adding Backgrounds, advantage/disadvantage, etc, if you wanna play 5E with many options, without having to buy the phb?
Vahnyu wrote:
Online for 35 bucks....years and years of fun. So unless it's free its asking to be stolen?
I don't get it. Have you not once bought dinner out? If u are literally impoverished, I humbly suggest the basic free rules.
I was just having a conversation about how cheap per hour this hobby is. In fact, I can think of no comparable value per entertainment dollar.
Look online...30 bucks and change....
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
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Azzy1974 wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
pukunui wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
I never think art is a waste of space. Those illustrators need paychecks too. If I just want text blocks of rules, I don't need to spend any money, really. The official free PDFs, plus what players/fans have posted here, and all over the web, give me lots of things to read and play around with. Heck, the playtest docs might even still be out there.
I am also of the opinion that the 5e books aren't overpriced for what they are. As people have said, Amazon will ship you (in the US, anyway) all 3 for less than 100 USD, no tax, and no shipping fee. Not a bad deal for ~1000 pages (and ~3 pounds) of full color art, and text.
If you want to do the Deck of Many Things properly then you do it as either a downloadable pdf or as a insert that you can pull out and use.
Anything else is a waste of space and especially bad form using recycled art. 
Personally, I like the balance between artwork and text in the printed books.
However, to return to the original question - if you don't like free downloads and want printed materials, the entry level is about 2$. If five or six friends club together and buy the Starter Set for about $12 on Amazon, that's about 2-3 bucks each for months of fun. Even if you graduate to the Advanced game and decide to buy the PHB, you don't need one each. If you have the playing rules book from the starter set, you only need the PHB when you make a new character or when you level up and you don't all have to do that at the same time. You can take turns with the book.
As for piracy, well, if you photocopied one of the printed books, I think it would cost you about the same in paper, ink and binding as buying a genuine one.
Shasarak wrote:
When you compare the price of a tabletop RPG against say something like a video game hobby D&D is dirt cheap. You buy a game for $60 and can excpet (on average) about 20 hours of play out of it. You buy a core set of D&D and you can reasonably except to get dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of enjoyment. So its $150, that's only $30 more than two new AAA games, and I guarante you it'll last longer. This is by no stretch an expensive hobby, in fact it's probably one of the cheapest out there if you only get core books.
tehsquirrely wrote:
Vahnyu wrote:
Vahnyu wrote:
tehsquirrely wrote:
tehsquirrely wrote:
ankiyavon wrote:
tehsquirrely wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
Azzy1974 wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
Illithidbix wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
tehsquirrely wrote:
Azzy1974 wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
Best entertainment value is a rock, and maybe some dirt. A stick is nice, but optional.
Also, sex. If you're doing it right, it's free, and enjoyable for over a decade, easily. Even with the same person over and over again!
Dragon Age Inquisition cost me $59 with preorder. I'll probably replay it about 5-6x. D&D PHB cost me $49 at my FLGS, and it'll probably get about 10 years of replayability :-)
We've played about 30 hours of Lost Mine of Phandelver (the starter set). It cost us about $30 and no other purchase was necessary. It's either cost me $1 per hour of entertainment (technically they've got 2 other encounters to go and they don't forgotten that they've also missed an entire dungeon, but it's not pertinent to the story). If I were to spread that cost across the group it would be $0.20 per player per hour (or about $1 per player for 30 hours of entertainment).
This campaign will take us about 2.5 years to get through at 72 hours of playing time per year (excluding prep time). $1.75 per hour of entertainment for this one campaign. Throw in prep-time and we're probably looking at $1.50 per hour of entertainment. I pay $25 to go to the movies for 2.5 hours of entertainment. And I do this whenever there's a movie that's good enough to watch on the big screen. Assuming each year gets us 1 monster book and 1 player book (no reason to assume this based on current data) I expect my next campaign will cost $220 in total (excluding the core 3 books as I've already paid that cost). This will have a much higher prep time cost as I hope to write all the adventures myself (probably 1 hour of preptime for 2 hours of entertainment. I'm reading several setting books to immerse myself in the setting). I'm looking at $0.81 per hour of entertainment.
All prices are in AUD, assume I'm buying a physical book from my FLGS (rather than amazon) and that I'm taking on all of the cost myself.
JohnLynch wrote:
When comparing the cost of playing D&D with the cost of playing video games, you need to include, not just the cost of the game itself, but also the cost of the hardware to play it on. In one case a table, which might last for centuries if well-maintained, and in the other case a sufficently powerful computer or console of some kind that will need to be replaced every three years or so at non-negligible cost.
But adding to the cost of preparing for sessions beforehand, it's not as cost-efficient as it is painted to be. We're talking workhours here, which don't technically count as actually playing, all so in order to achieve a result that might not necessarily be better than a video game. Whereas videogames are more plug-n-play. Hence the whole efficiency part.
In fact, I doubt you could tackle a premade adventure without at leasting making some preperations as well.
Vahnyu wrote:
JohnLynch wrote:
BoldItalic wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
I think there are a few factors.
The long break between releases likely meant this had more profit to make up, so more money was needed. There is a LOT of art, which is expensive. I imagine that given this book is going to be on sale for 3-6 years, they're also planning on future rates of inflation, so they don't end up losing money on each sale.
TurTooL wrote:
The_Jester wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
The_Jester wrote:
Shasarak wrote:
The_Jester wrote:
CCS wrote:
First of all, as many have said, you can get everything you need (and more) with a free Basic download, I mean, it is so cool, I almost feel guilty using the PHB and converions (of races and classes).
As for actual money investment, I think the money is worth it, compared to pretty much anything (video games, Magic, cars, women, etc, etc).
This made me think of the MasterCard commercials
Illithidbix wrote:
Brock_Landers wrote:
Just wait until you go to college...Talk about expensive books...
Shasarak wrote:
Tempest_Stormwind wrote: