"Dear JB" Mailbag #30

This one is just so ridiculous I couldn't resist...

Dear JB:

If you had $100 to spend on a single game/system and 4hrs of prep time for a session this coming weekend, what would you buy? (Assume you own no ttrpgs at this point, but have all of your existing knowledge about them)

$100 And 4Hrs

Dear DM:

If my house burned down tomorrow and I needed to restart my game collection from scratch with only $100, here's what I would purchase:

AD&D Players Handbook (standard hardcover): $19.99

AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (standard hardcover): $27.99

AD&D Monster Manual (standard hardcover): $21.99

There is no way these would reach me by the weekend, unfortunately, but sent via "media mail," I could get all three for $87.45, leaving enough left over for a set of dice ($5.99 from Amazon, free delivery thanks to Prime), an 80-page pad of graph paper ($3.59, again from Amazon) and a box of a dozen, pre-sharpened #2 pencils ($2.79 from Amazon...what a store!).

Grand total: $99.82.

With only this...plus a free library card to access books and the internet (probably necessary to complete my on-line ordering), I could restart my AD&D campaign with zero problem; that graph paper can be used for character sheets and note writing as well as for making maps.

Now, if I absolutely NEEDED to be ready for the next weekend (because my life or job depended on it), and I had literally only four hours to prep, I could probably get it done...IF I was able to beg, borrow, or steal a laptop computer. With a laptop, I could download PDFs remarkably fast and cheap, and here's what I'd get:

All the books listed above (though now as PDFs) as well as the Amazon order (pencils, dice, paper) for a total of $42.34, plus the following:

Fiend Folio (watermarked PDF): $5.99

I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City (watermarked PDF): $4.99

For a grand total of $53.32.  The leftover money would be used for printing hardcopies of I1 at the local FedEx Office and (probably) select pages from the books to use as reference sheets at the table (for example: equipment lists, combat matrices, and spell lists). Heck, I'd probably print up anything that I felt I'd need to run the game, because I vastly prefer to NOT be using computer devices in play...for me, it would be totally preferable to print the spells (that the PCs would be able to access) and the monster entries (for the adventure scenario) and have them in stapled packets for use during the session.

Dwellers is a great adventure module that I've used multiple times in multiple ways. It has the great benefit of an extensive list of pre-gens in the back...most of my "four hour prep time" (other than placing on-line orders and printing reference materials) would be spent writing up character sheets using these pre-gens for play. If the laptop has a word processor on it (heck, I suppose I could just use Google Docs...that's free, right?) I'd do the character sheets on the laptop and just make one trip to the printer. 

Self-serve printing at FedEx is $0.21 per page for single-sheet, B&W.  My remaining budget would allow me to print some 200+ pages...way more than I need.  I'm thinking more like 60 (including pre-gens); call it 70 which would cost me $16.17 (including Seattle's 10% sales tax). 

With the $30 leftover, I could buy a couple six-packs for the game. What else do you need?

Sincerely,

JB