A look at my tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) acquisitions in 2023 (technically Dec 25, 2022 to Dec 24, 2023) as found in my 2023 RockyMountainNavy’s GeekList of RPG Acquisitions. Of note, these numbers do not include my boardgame/wargame acquisitions found at my 2023 RockyMountainNavy’s Wargame/Boardgame GeekList of Acquisitions.
Total RPG Acquisitions (less Boardgame/Wargame) in 2023 – 92
ACCESSORIES – 5 / ADVENTURES – 17 / CORE RULE BOOK – 26 / STARTER SET – 4 / SUPPLEMENTS – 35 / PERIODICALS – 2 / QUICKSTART – 3
I call 2023 my “Year of the Back Catalog.” A large number of the core rule books taken in are thanks to Regimental Commander Brant at Armchair Dragoons adding me to a Free League Publishing press list. Looking forward to 2024, that means I have plenty of “old” RPGs to study and play starting with the birth of the Year Zero Engine in Mutant Year Zero (2014). In 2023 I also took in a Bundle of Holding offer for Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition. Given the normally outrageous price model used by Mongoose this was the perhaps the best way to acquire MgT2e titles at a reasonable price.
Top Settings by Items Acquired
- Charted Space (Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition, Mongoose Publishing) -13 items
- HOSTILE (Cepheus Engine, Zozer Games) – 9 items
Publishers – 23
Dire Wolf 2 / Fantasy Flight Games 1 / Far Future Enterprises 1 / Farsight Games 1 / Firelock Games 2 / Free League Publishing 34 / Free League Workshop 1 / GDW 2 / Independence Games 3 / Mana Project Studio 1 / Massif Press 1 / Michael A. Brown 2 / Monachus Press 1 / Mongoose Publishing 13 / Moon Toad Publishing 1 / Nerdburger Games 1 / Old School Roleplaying 1 / Osprey Games 1 / Parts Per Million 1 / RPG Ramblings Publishing 6 / Space Pubs 5 / Stellagama Publishing 1 / Zozer Games 10
The large number of Free League Publishing titles is a combination of old and new.
Average cost of each RPG Item – $5.24
- Average cost of an accessory – $14.31 (dice are expensive!)
- Average cost of an adventure – $0.63
- Average cost of a core rule book – $6.96 (thanks to Free League Publishing for free press copies!)
- Average cost of a supplement/sourcebook – $6.27 (again, many free)
Most Expensive RPG Item – ALIEN: Build Better Worlds (Free League Publishing) – $50
Least Expensive RPG Item (less free items) – Civilian Career Paths for T2K4E (Free League Workshop) – $0.74
Of note, 44 items (48% of RPG items acquired in 2023) were “free” ($0.00).
My tabletop RPG hobby average item cost is the least as compared to wargames (average $28.01 per game) and boardgames (average $28.78 per game). This is almost certainly because my tabletop RPG hobby is majority digital which is a lower cost to purchase as compared to printed materials. That said, if there was a lesson I learned this year from my tabletop roleplaying game acquisitions—which you will see in my upcoming RPG of the Year posting—it is that dead tree editions really are that much more enjoyable.
Feature image courtesy RMN
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