I’m taking a break from buying RPG products for awhile. I’m sick and tired of having consumerism take over every hobby I enjoy. I feel like I can’t even ride my bike without Google telling me what underwear I need to buy. Sponsored advertising is everywhere.
Dice towers are cool, but I’m fortunate enough to be able to roll dice just fine with my own hands. I don’t need a dice tower. If I’m being honest, as much as I love my small hoard of pretty math rocks, it’s already more than I’ll ever need. Almost all of my gaming situations can be covered with five d6, five d10, and one, maybe two, of the rest of the standard set. Some games don’t need anything more than a single d6, while some don’t even need that much.
I don’t need new rulebooks, either. I already have plenty. I have at least one rules system for every major genre (some better than others), and a couple different genre-neutral systems to handle any other niche that I don’t already have a game for (again, some better than others). In fact, the real secret is that we don’t need rules in the first place. Gary Gygax himself admitted as much, even as he was writing more and more rules to sell. I guess maybe consumerism has always been part of the hobby, but it hasn’t always felt so inescapable.
The truth that’s important to remember is that RPGs are ultimately games of the imagination. 80-90% of what you bring to a typical game is already in your head. That’s not something that can be bought off the shelf of a bookstore. In the end, what’s left that I need to buy? If there was ever a hobby made for escaping the pressures of consumerism, roleplaying is that hobby.
Either that, or growing food from waste. Here’s my humble tomato plant.
