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I'd say we had about 4 RMB copies floating amongst about a dozen players and that worked out okay. The GM had his own stack of books and everyone else shared whatever they had.

Whenever we tried a new system, the book would float around for a couple of weeks to give everyone a chance to become familiar with the rules and to make a character before the first session (and sometimes that first session what half spent making characters for those who didn't figure it out on their own).

--flatline

They do now....but we didnt always, Id say for the first year it was one then two, then i bought them as an easy christmas gift for thoose that didnt have.
We only have one main book for most of the other rpg's play honestly, maybe two palladium fantasy though. Seems ok normaly.

I don't require my players to have any books, and a lot of them have never owned any books, it's just easier to find players that way. When I play with seasoned groups I expect them all to have at least the core book to the system we're playing, but even that rule can be bent or broken when needed.

But having been a GM for a long time I've learned it is always a good idea to have at least 2 copies of every core book for the main lines you play to help with character creation, if nothing else. I currently have 3 Rifts core books (4 if you count the GM's guide), and two copies of PFRPG.

When it comes to lending out copies I perfer to only lend books to players who will actually need one outside the gaming session, other than that they have free access to my books whenever they're at my house. Also, with this I've found it's best if new players don't read anything beyond the firse few pages of any core book until they've at least gamed for a few sessions, otherwise the players could have more information than they need, and that can really affect the way they play. Besides, the less your players know the more you can make up to save your story when they players suprise you. =)

Players owning books???

I'm excited when they remember dice!

This has always been a problem with RPGs. It's why M:tG and 40k make so much money. Since the early 80s, most groups I have been with have always had one or more dudes who never bought the books.

And it was never an issue about money.

If by "own" you mean borrow one of my copies, then yes. Sometimes I even get them back.

thegamer wrote:I am usually the only one with the main rule book in any game I play. Being a G.M. it can be difficult to sell the game to my players and it can be a challenge where more than one player wants to borrow the rule book. Just wondering if the other G.M.'s out there have it a requirement to own the main rule book for whatever system you are playing?

*Yawn* which main book?

I have 27 PB main books.
RT1 :macross, SC, NG, S
RT2: SC soft, SC:hard
M2
TMNT
ATB1
ATB2
BTS1
BTS2
HU1r
HU2
PF1
PF2
NS
NB
System Failure
N&Sr
The Mechanoids (trilogy)
recon
Recon2
SPlicers
RMB
RUE
CE

Yes, you might say I could be a bit miffed by Rifters thinking "rifts is ALL".

The ones I don't have: N&S1 (could not find), and DR (stupid zombie game, but at least the players are not the zombies).

Is not sure if Scrapers is a main book. (Main book as defined as being able to make a whole char with just that book.) So I did not include it in the above.
I could of included MC but decided it was not a complete main book. The skill selection in it is not complete.

Manhunter...... *shrugs*

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:

thegamer wrote:I am usually the only one with the main rule book in any game I play. Being a G.M. it can be difficult to sell the game to my players and it can be a challenge where more than one player wants to borrow the rule book. Just wondering if the other G.M.'s out there have it a requirement to own the main rule book for whatever system you are playing?

*Yawn* which main book?

I have the main books for all the PB setting except DR. For HU BTS PF, RT and rifts I have both 1st and 2nd ed main books. so I have 18 main books.

Your so cool... hahahahahaha

Only 1???

The group I play with everyone has at least 1 if not more copies of the main rule book. I know that every one has a copy of Rifts, Rifts: Ultimate Edition, the Book of Magic, the Rifts GMG, Heros Unlimited, Heros Unlimited revised, Heros Unlimited 2nd Edition.

If someone asks a rules question 3 or 4 rule book come out to check.

We usually have two in a group of five.

My brother and I duplicate the core books as we are the two most into RPGs (and therefore alternate GMing) then either of us picks up a sourcebook "on behalf of the group" (Ive lost count as to whom actually bought which book).

I don't require it, though it's often nice to have more than one in a group. Luckily, I have 4 RUE, 4 Nightbane/spawn, and 2 HU2 main books so we're typically covered.

It's uncommon, but that's why I own two. Generally one of the other players I run with will also have one, leaving three for the group if needed.

I am the only one with books, and none of my players have any patience for reading them.

Pros: Every plot and secret in the books is completely unknown to them.

Cons: So is everything else. Plus blood vessels in your brain explode when the most ardent not-reader complains about a lack of character options.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:

thegamer wrote:I am usually the only one with the main rule book in any game I play. Being a G.M. it can be difficult to sell the game to my players and it can be a challenge where more than one player wants to borrow the rule book. Just wondering if the other G.M.'s out there have it a requirement to own the main rule book for whatever system you are playing?

*Yawn* which main book?

Edit to save spaceYes, you might say I could be a bit miffed by Rifters thinking "rifts is ALL".

The gamer specifically said "...for whatever system you are playing., thus not just Rifts.
I have found that The GM always has the book. Depending on if a player LOVES the system or we play multiple campaigns in the system, another 1-2 people will get a main book. Unfortunately our group has a tendancy for GMs to get worked up over a game/system and everyone makes characters. After that 50% of the time the game is never played. If it is played, 1-3 nights later it has another 50% chance that the GM starts to get excited over another system/game and jumps ship to making another campaign. So normally, if the Game hasn't lasted a while or a player doesn't love the game/system, there will be 1 main book.

Sadly, I was the one GM who did not do this, until about 2010 when I dropped a Rifts/BTS-2 dream time-travel game for D&D4ed. I also have 2 campaigns on hiatus, but do plan to finish them. I have 5-7 actual finished campaigns. Those are the ones that we have more than 3 main book copies. The reason we have more than 2 PFRPG 2nd ed books is because we loved 1ed so much we assumed 2nd would be as good/better. Sadly we were incorrect and although we tried 2ed 4-5 times, campaigns did not last.

In my campaign of 3 players plus me we started out w/my 2 main books, & one from a player then within a year the other two players got the main book. So I am fortunate in this regard.

ZorValachan wrote:
The gamer specifically said "...for whatever system you are playing., thus not just Rifts.

Well that shows two things: how many rifters are out these, and that I would of picked up on that if that part of the post was in the begining part.
My appologies for letting the emotional reaction to get in the way of critical reading.

ZorValachan wrote:I have found that The GM always has the book. Depending on if a player LOVES the system or we play multiple campaigns in the system, another 1-2 people will get a main book. Unfortunately our group has a tendancy for GMs to get worked up over a game/system and everyone makes characters. After that 50% of the time the game is never played. If it is played, 1-3 nights later it has another 50% chance that the GM starts to get excited over another system/game and jumps ship to making another campaign. So normally, if the Game hasn't lasted a while or a player doesn't love the game/system, there will be 1 main book.

Sadly, I was the one GM who did not do this, until about 2010 when I dropped a Rifts/BTS-2 dream time-travel game for D&D4ed. I also have 2 campaigns on hiatus, but do plan to finish them. I have 5-7 actual finished campaigns. Those are the ones that we have more than 3 main book copies. The reason we have more than 2 PFRPG 2nd ed books is because we loved 1ed so much we assumed 2nd would be as good/better. Sadly we were incorrect and although we tried 2ed 4-5 times, campaigns did not last.

To answer the original question: They had better have the Main book of the setting I'm GMing, cause I ain't typing things out to them. I can't just hand them mine cause I only play/GM online.

It's probably better when they don't. You eliminate rule problems that way. You tell them what the rule is and they just accept it. No rules lawyers to deal with and no problem about house rules. And for me no guilt about house ruling.

None of my players have any Palladium books. I've been considering buying them the core HU2 book and possibly R:UE between now and XMas.

Been considering giving my sister DR in case her and her husband want to run a game for that.

Sadly; I think only 2 others in my crew own the 1st edition of Rifts (the Sploogie slaver cover by K.Parkinson).
Shame really; there were things left OUT of the R:UE'd that really, should have been kept in, but Kevin Siembiada wanted to ego-stroke himself with 'authors notes' and that [censored] add for the N-gage, so imporatnt stuff got tossed to the cutting room floor

DhAkael wrote:Sadly; I think only 2 others in my crew own the 1st edition of Rifts (the Sploogie slaver cover by K.Parkinson).
Shame really; there were things left OUT of the R:UE'd that really, should have been kept in, but Kevin Siembiada wanted to ego-stroke himself with 'authors notes' and that [censored] add for the N-gage, so imporatnt stuff got tossed to the cutting room floor

While I hate that ad too, it's not present in anything but the 1st printing (which unfortunately includes ALL the golds... but we won't go THERE again). The replacement pages don't address anything left out of the original main book (though I much prefer the color art). Also, I'm pretty sure that "ego-stroking" wasn't the goal of the author's notes, but to explain some things that had been asked of Kev over and over again about why he did this or that. Is that more important than anything that was left out? Well now that's subject to debate and a fair amount of personal opinion. I certainly would like to have seen the random monster creation tables left in.

If I had relied on other players to have the RMB, I would not have had anyone to game with for my first five years of gaming. Then, when some of them became interested in buying it...it was out of print! Consequentially, there were a lot of silver editions floating around my area at that time.

flatline wrote:I'd say we had about 4 RMB copies floating amongst about a dozen players and that worked out okay. The GM had his own stack of books and everyone else shared whatever they had.

Whenever we tried a new system, the book would float around for a couple of weeks to give everyone a chance to become familiar with the rules and to make a character before the first session (and sometimes that first session what half spent making characters for those who didn't figure it out on their own).

--flatline

No and i prefer when they don't know the rules and or setting the best as they see it with fresh eyes and do not power game.

Generally, between legal copies & pirate version by my more unscrupulous game-mates, we end up with about a 1book/2-3 players.

Once we're into a game, folks buy their own to look over alternate/backup characters, so it often breaks down to 1 book per "household", so almost 1:1.

As I have been the primary game-location, and GM for much of my gaming life, and even now I am the "library", I often buy more than 1 copy of a book. I had 2 copies of the RMB Silver, and the GMG & BoM - 1 of each set is ME only, the other is general consumption.
I didn't do this w/ the RUE, as I despise the RUE aside from OCC/psi-RCC updates, and my fellows aren't of a much better opinion. We play more along RMB w/ GMG clarifications.

SW & DD are about the 1per 2player rate.

Rappanui wrote:Depends on the play group, Online games I make sure every player has every necessary book on them. IRL, Depends on the experience level of the group, Most groups IRL are incapable of learning the game like Old Adherents can, and therefor only rely upon what''s on their sheet.

if your group are all adherents, then yes, people should know the setting just as much as the GM does.

BUAHAHAHAHHA

This made me giggle, obviously.

But sadly, so true. That's why I'm getting my son into PnP gaming - it's a very different experience & (IMO) skill set than MMOs or SIM'ing. From talking to others, looks like if they're not snagged into PnP by early teens, they're not likely to bother.

Of course, part of that is they'll play what looks like fun. My son has known since age 5 that 6-sided dice = fun, between PnP & Warhammer miniature gaming.

I've never been part of a game group where more than three people (myself included) had copies of the MB (& that was only once, in a group of twelve players!). Usually only one or none of my players own their own books, no matter how much I try to convince them.

at the shop it seems like anyone with a tablet or touch phone has every rulebook and world book for Rifts loaded right onto it. I just carry the RUE, a binder full of Errata, and whatever else I need for the game in question. Then there is Pathfinder... oh sweet mercy the books are beautiful, but several hard cover books is just too much.

oh yeah. and the RUE too.
And many of the sourcebooks. I have difficulty making surprises. Usually gotta invent new stuff.

We rarely bring in complete noobs with no books. D&D is so popular thats where everyone starts.

Depends on the game really. For Rifts, I own 2 RMB, 1 R:UE, and one of the silvers while there are two other RMB's and two R:UE floating around my group. Dead Reign, me and two others own the book. When you get into D&D 3.5, we all have a copy of the core book. Pathfinder, there are three copies. For most other games, I am the only one who owns books for them. Some games, the others own the books but I always try to get the core book if I am playing. In the group I used to have back in Maryland, almost everyone had a core book for every game we played.

I own one of every main book of the Palladium games including 2 copies of the original RMB, 1 silver hardcover RMB, and 2 first printing copies of RUE. Nobody at my table owns any books.

I have the only core book most of the time. I mostly run demos though.

Well, before I moved and changed gaming groups... All or half of the players had the main book for whatever game we were playing and more. We got into our games pretty heavily. Now...my new group is just playing Rifts. I'd like to play other games, and I've taken the initiative to make 3-ring binders with select pages printed out of main book of other games. All so I don't have to lend out my main book and players can still have access to essential information. Such as class info, equipment, combat basics...things new players to a system would need.

SkyeFyre wrote:I own one of every main book of the Palladium games including 2 copies of the original RMB, 1 silver hardcover RMB, and 2 first printing copies of RUE. Nobody at my table owns any books.

So you got 3 copies of the book with all the printing errors?

Out of 7, 6 own the HU2 book. Me and one other have a copy of Rifts Main. I am the library for everything else. Doesn't bother me, though a few Rifts main books would be cool to throw around to the players. Such a high mortality rate in Rifts. lol

Shorty Lickens wrote:

SkyeFyre wrote:I own one of every main book of the Palladium games including 2 copies of the original RMB, 1 silver hardcover RMB, and 2 first printing copies of RUE. Nobody at my table owns any books.

So you got 3 copies of the book with all the printing errors?

2, and yes, that's why I had to specify I had the first print copies. Then people would take pity on me

If we're just talking core books then I have the Silver Hardcover of RMB and a soft cover, plus RUE, another guy has the same as me and two others have soft covers of RMB but not RUE. I don't require players to own any books, but extras do help at character creation time, it really holds up the process if you have to share the RMB for skill selection.
I learned that the hard way with my HU game, I have a copy and one guy had a PDF and that's it.
On a side note, personally as I GM I allow nobody to have books at the table except me, I find it slows the game down to much. Some players would try and cheat and look up stats on PA or Dbees they were fighting or would try and nitpick and argue every call by looking through the book.