5 Reasons RPG Elites Don’t Play Every RPG Out There.

RPG Elite contains links to affiliate websites and receives an affiliate commission for any purchases made on or through those websites. This helps to maintain and support the RPG Elite Network and mission. Thanks for your support.

RPG Elite philosophy is something that is unique to this website. This is something I have spent decades honing, learning, and observing. It’s also one I implement and put into practice and one that I know from experience works.

This is part two of our series of RPG Elite philosophy. If you missed Part 1, not to worry. You can read Part 1 over here:

RPG Elite Quality #1

RPG Elites don’t play every tabletop RPG out there. Below are five reasons that’s the case. Let’s dive in.

We Don’t Have the Time.

Roleplaying games is a hobby for most of us. Some of us get paid to do it (like GMs or people who have YouTube channels and enough subscribers), but that’s another video. We have families we need to look after or other responsibilities. We have ambitions we’re pursuing in our short time on this earth.

This is very similar to the first sub-point of RPG Elite Quality #1. However, if we are being fair about this, it’s not that we don’t have the time. Time is the great equalizer. Every person on the planet who has been blessed with one more day of existence on this earth has the same amount of time as everyone else — 24 hours. RPG Elites are not willing to make the time because of other things in our lives we know are more important.

Duty calls and tabletop RPGs are low on the totem pole in relation to life priorities. Even if we have the luxury of being retired from a certain career, we don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on tabletop RPGs.

Focusing on just a few games makes us better at that game. We are specialists, not generalists. When we do this, our skill and experience in the few games we focus on increases, which increases our enjoyment.

Being a specialist takes time — years — so we place our attention on that. Not that we will not do a one-shot here or there. But we like to invest in the deepest experience a tabletop RPG offers, and the only way that happens is through a prolonged experience with that game. Campaigns. Many RPG Elites won’t play more than four or five games with any regularity in their lifetimes.

We’re Particular About the RPGs We Play

We have preferences and biases just like everyone else. We’re picky. I, for one, have a few games I like to play regularly — Marvel Superheroes Advanced, The One Ring, Numenera (or the Cypher System. Take your pick), and Gamma World 3rd Edition. I have scores of other games (too many) — mostly because I plan on doing content for them on this website and on the RPG Elite YouTube channel. But the aforementioned games are the ones I invest most of my focus and time into.

RPG Elites don’t go along with the crowd. We know what we like. Just because an RPG is popular doesn’t mean we have to play it (insert the-game-I-refuse-to-mention-by-name-on-this-website). We understand that even if other people don’t, and look at us sideways because we dare to have likes and dislikes and think for ourselves.

Many times, people grab the latest tabletop RPG because it’s the latest. They want to be the ones who have the newest thing they think everyone will play. Whether or not that’s the case, RPG Elites don’t need that kind of validation. We’ll determine whether that will be something we would like to invest our time in after doing our necessary due diligence. We’re not in a rush.

Let’s face it — some tabletop RPGs are just no good. Yes. Part of this is subjective. I get it. However, because of mechanics, how a game is laid out, or a system is unnecessarily convoluted and unintuitive, RPG Elites will avoid the game.

Crunchiness abounds in some tabletop RPGs (for those of you who do not know, crunchiness means mechanics heavy, especially when it comes to math), and though some RPG Elites don’t mind small doses of it, when it takes away from other things they consider important, they won’t bother with it. Some games are disjointed or in a setting that is uninteresting and unappealing to an RPG Elite. We will not force ourselves to like something we know we won’t like because the system is wack.

Tabletop RPGs are not cheap. With the way the world is going now, you have to drop $40 to $70 on a core book in print. Not including supplements and reference material, that adds up. Let’s take one of my favorite games of all time — Numenera.

At the Monte Cook Games store at the time of the writing of this post, the core book, which is Discovery, can be bought for $59.99. Arguably, you need the companion book Destiny if you want to get the most out of the game (and since I play the game, I highly suggest you get both). That’s the same price. So right there out of the gate it’s $120.00.

If I want to save a little money (and I do), I’d probably grab them over at Amazon, where Discovery costs about $44.00 and Destiny costs $42.00. So right there, I just saved myself $34 dollars. But still, I just shelled out $86.00 for a couple of tabletops RPG core books. I haven’t even bought any supplements and we’re coming up on a Benjamin for a game. Ouch.

It’s not always so expensive. Let’s take Free League’s Alien.

The core book alone is $50.00. Specialized dice? $20.00. And for good measure, let’s say you want a campaign setting like Heart of Darkness. That will run you around $33.00. Total that and you have yourself a Benjamin.

That’s a chunk of change. Even if you buy the PDF version, it will run you $20.00 a pop (sometimes more) on average. Much more reasonable but still a tad pricey for a PDF. Not everyone has that kind of disposable income for multiple games like that which can easily run into the hundreds of dollars for one game.

Do not get me wrong. This is not a complaint. Not even close. Heart, soul, and a lot of hard work are put into creating these games. A worker is worthy of his wages. I appreciate what these guys do. They have families to take care of and they can’t do this for free. But with the craziness of what’s happened with the global economy in the past years, money is tight for most. Not just RPG Elites but everyone has to be picky about what they spend money on and how much.

I haven’t even mentioned things like miniatures and maps. The hobby can get pricey, and considering most in the tabletop RPG community like multiple games, you can drop some serious bank on tabletop RPGs and accessories over time. RPG Elites are cognizant of that and reigns that in.