Gaming on a Budget - Things You Shouldn't Buy

Hey everyone and welcome to another episode of gaming on a budget!  Dethtron's tied up with a little something he likes to call "ensuring I can pay my mortage" - whatever THAT means - so I'm filling in.

As usual, my contribution will be a little off beat, but I won't be asking you to spend a bunch of money or trying to stretch a paragraph's worth of information on plastic bags out to a full post.

Today, I will be listing off a number of things that you shouldn't buy.  Thusly, I will head off the spending mistake banditos at the pass and allow the train that is your finances to make it to El Paso intact and un-robbed.

Space banditos, if you prefer.

So, here is a short list of items you may be tempted to buy as a gamer - but shouldn't bother with.  This is all first hand experience.


1) Imperial Armour Vol. 2: £45 is a bit much to pay in the first place for a Jane's Guide to Made Up Space Marine Tanks of the 41st Millennium.  I mean, good for you if you want to read through 256 pages of fake technical data (no story here, fellas), but are you really having a hard time imagining what a Land Raider might look like if it was painted Ultramarines blue?  Is that worth actual money?   If it's rules you're after, then for a mere 1 pound more, you can get both volumes of the Imperial Armour Apocalypse books and get a ton of other stuff as well.  Or just grab the FAQ.  For free. The only conceivable reason to buy this book these days is because you're a collector.  Note:  I was going to include Imperial Armour vol 1 here, but it's no longer for sale.

2) Casino Dice:  Look man, I get it.  Casino dice look boss and cool.   Plus, they're manufactured to a tolerance of 0.0005 of an inch so they'll roll closer to the perfect average.  The drawbacks, however, aren't worth the $2+ per unit.  First, casino dice are huge in comparison to all the dice their supposed to be replacing.  So they're pretty much going to ruin your day when it comes time for that blob-squad of IG to rapid fire. What's worse, they're extremely heavy AND sharp.  That's pretty much the best combination for putting dents in EVERYTHING they roll on.  So I hope you're buddy's gaming table is made out of steal or he's gonna be real mad at you.  Lastly, for you tournament goers, using casino dice is a great way to make as many people as possible think you're cheating since they're the weapon of choice for the dishonest and because they're impossible to roll on a gaming table.

3) Malifaux Core Rulebook:  Don't get me wrong, I'm a happy Malifaux player.  The game is a ton of fun and I'll sing it's praises in the future.  But the first book is almost completely useless at this point.  When it was initially published, the only flaw was the fact that it had an internal organization that makes it functionally useless as a game aid. It's seriously like Wyrd hired a RETARDED BABY CHIMP to arrange the thing. Now, with the subsequent release of the Rules Manual and the fact that all the stat cards are in a free PDF hosted on the publishers site, the core book is a monument to redundancy.  There's the fluff, sure.  But I'm not sure if it's worth $35.  But by all means get it if you really need to read some steam punk/wild west/victorian gothic fiction. Knock yourself out. But if you want to play a game at some point...  get the less expensive and more complete Rules Manual.

Well, that's all I can think of at the moment.  If anyone else has any of their own follies to warn us off of, hit us up in the comments!