OK, here are my thoughts on “free” TTRPG materials. For about half of my life I had no money for things like TTRPGs. So When I started to play I borrowed the books and modules, or shared them with others. Four of us shared a Monster Manual and DMG between us.

tagging @MMaarab

When I moved to college, I was on a super-tight budget, I had scholarships for tuition and rent, and that was pretty much it. I lived with 8 people in a run down apartment, and pretty much never went out or spent money on anything but food. I home brewed everything.

I also discovered free TTRPG materials, it ends up that since the game I played was no longer popular, and there were a number of people who had been home brewing materials for ages, there were a lot of options for you if you were not able to afford games

When I got my first full time job I started to buy “luxury” goods again, comics, TTRPGs, that sort of thing, and about 10 years ago I worked as an editor for a TTRPG magazine for about 5 years, contributing materials and editing time for free

I did this for the community (before D&D became insanely popular it was nice to know you weren’t the only one playing it) but mostly as I had taken advantage of free materials for years, as well as being the recipient of shared materials from others, I wanted to give back

There are people who simply can’t afford TTRPG materials, and that’s a real barrier to entry. So I think there should always be free materials available. Not everything mind you, but at least some items for free so you can play if you can’t afford it otherwise.

Now, one thing that has blossomed over the last few years is indy game creators. Many of these creators are economically marginalized and games are their way of trying to make a living. So for them, the idea of making games for free is in your face privilege.

You see this in the language, “If you are rich and you can afford to give your games away…” kind of thing. I am not “rich”, but I do give away SOME of my work, because I think it’s important to give back to the community that gave to me, and for free materials to be available

The argument that I see right now is that if you give away your games for free that you are doing one of two things: you are devaluing games that have a price, because consumers are going to see the priced games and say, “I could get that for free, so it’s overpriced”

Or, they are going to say, “why would I pay for a game when I could get it for free”. The analogy is made to places like Target or Wal-mart, where the big box store comes in and underprices goods and pushes out smaller stores

It sounds convincing, but it’s a false equivalency. Big box stores work because they offer MANY products at lower prices, economically marginalized people shop for MANY things at a Wal-mart because they can’t afford otherwise. And many of the things they buy are essential items

Offering your TTRPG product for free is not the same thing, you are in a niche market offering one kind of product and it is not an essential item. For stretches of my life I didn’t play or buy any games, as I had more important concerns, food, shelter, that sort of thing

It also ends up that this argument doesn’t model how people actually think about pricing in at least some cases:

https://www.businessinsider.com/sc/why-we-like-expensive-things-2018-12 https://neilpatel.com/blog/5-psychological-studies/

In short, we associate cost with quality, so people will often pay for something even when there is a free version available, as they assume that the paid version is better, that’s why they are charging for it.

Of course, this is nonsense, I have seen plenty of gaming materials that are freely distributed that are FAR better than paid materials, but the psychological inferences are there whether we like it or not.

The assumption is that someone who is economically disadvantaged and interested in TTRPG material will CHOOSE the free material over the paid material as if they had the choice to make. Instead, many people either get it free or DON’T GET IT AT ALL, there is no choice involved

But what I dislike most about this take is how it does the work of Capitalism for Capitalism, it pits one disadvantaged group against another. On one side you have economically marginalized creators, on the other you have economically marginalized purchasers.

When you say that you shouldn’t make your games available for free as this is harmful to indy game creators you are pitting indy game creators against people who can’t afford to buy TTRPG materials, one marginalized group against the other

I think a better argument is this: if you choose to sell your game, price it such that you can pay your collaborators fairly, and that you can be fairly compensated for your work. And if you can (e.g. if you can afford it and have the time) make SOME of your work free

So for example, I run a business, one aspect of that business is running D&D games. I am currently running three paid online games, and one free online game. Also, within my paid games, I have two participants who play for free due to economic concerns

I don’t give away EVERYTHING that I do, because I want to make money off my work. I have a part time job and a small business at the moment, and both don’t pay very well. I CAN'T pay the bills with what I make, it’s only because my wife and I both work that we can survive

But I want to continue to make materials available for free because I remember what it’s like to be on the outside. If you are concerned about economic marginalization, don’t pit the workers against each other, that’s a classic failure to understand how capitalism works.

Go after the big companies, the investors, the government supported systems that undermine the workers, don’t attack other laborers and treat this like a zero sum game. Don’t shame someone who shares the product of their labor for free

Instead prop up and promote those creators who are making things you like, and help them to get the attention of buyers who will purchase their product. And don't be afraid to set higher prices for your work, if you put in the time you should be willing to charge for it