Boxed sets - love em or hate em

[nopantsyet]

No real feeling. What I want are high-quality content in well-illustrated hardcover books. Big maps to go along with them are great. What I don't want are a bunch of low-quality softcovers that are going to fall apart whether I keep them in the box or on a shelf.

 

[JDowling]

I love boxed sets... probably just sentimental hold over from earlier days of playing though

on another note: I think doing it at books would have made a lot of stuff impossible... Spelljammer had so many extras, ship plans and what not, just not the same bound in a book really... night below so many player hand outs and maps...

every time I've seen a product that's a book with shrink-wrapped extras the shrinkwrap is poor and at least a few of them are the book... sans extras. same thing happens with magazines that include CDs with them, etc.

 

[Ranger REG]

I love boxed sets... probably just sentimental hold over from earlier days of playing though

It has a place in my heart too, but doubt it is cheap to produce in this day and age.

on another note: I think doing it at books would have made a lot of stuff impossible... Spelljammer had so many extras, ship plans and what not, just not the same bound in a book really... night below so many player hand outs and maps...

They can cut cost by offering electronic versions of counters and player's handouts, via CD-ROM.

every time I've seen a product that's a book with shrink-wrapped extras the shrinkwrap is poor and at least a few of them are the book... sans extras. same thing happens with magazines that include CDs with them, etc.

In the first case, most likely the shrinkwrapping process is done right in your FLGS, if not the store's local distributors.

In the second case, since 2000, I don't think Dragon and Dungeon use shrinkwrapped. It's polybagged, but sometimes the sides, especially the bottom, can be torn open. Sometimes it is a good thing, as I don't need a scissor to open it, but you can lose the extras. Which is why I buy magazines at the store so I can check which package is not open.

 

[Whisper72]

Boxed sets CAN be way cool. No point in doing a boxed set, and putting two simple booklets and maybe a map or two in them, then you might as well simply put out one or two hardcovers with a map inserted.

However, if done properly, you can add all manner of good stuff, such as specific miniatures, special props (the Tarokka Deck in one of the Ravenloft boxed sets), hand-out and DM maps on nice glossies, punch-out good quality counters, maybe some other physical props as well (hand outs of notes found, seperate hand-outs with pictures to explain what the PC's see), maybe some battlemats, you name it.

Sure, they might be expensive, but if well done, people will buy it. Hey, at outrageous prices, the hardcovers sell like hot bread, why not cool boxed sets? As for expensive to produce... why?? With all the advances in technology, looking at automated packaging companies, I do not see the problem. Only thing is, maybe WOTC (or whomever) needs to team up with a company that already excells at making boxed products inother (i.e. non(rpg)gaming) sectors to ensure quality and low production costs. If 'regular' games such as those from MB etc. can be sold in boxes, complete with all manner of goodies inside, and sell for 30-40 USD, why couldn't RPG-box sets??

It is simply a matter of giving value for money. 'use the box, grasshopper'...

 

[JDowling]

If 'regular' games such as those from MB etc. can be sold in boxes, complete with all manner of goodies inside, and sell for 30-40 USD, why couldn't RPG-box sets??

one thought on this, and it's just a thought because I have no knowledge of the boxing industry

Perhaps because "regular" games generally have little-to-no development cost. How long do you think it takes MB to make *yet another* version of monopoly? so such a company could recover the cost of developing said games more easily than an RPG company... who can't just print say, Darksun, then change all the names and print, "New York City Darksun"... I suppose they could... but who would buy NYC Darksun?

EDIT:

In the first case, most likely the shrinkwrapping process is done right in your FLGS, if not the store's local distributors.

excellent point, acctually when I'm in rochester the gaming store I frequent, Millenium (spelling), packages most of their books in plastic ziplock-type bags. not that most of them have any sort of inserts, but it helps protect them.

at least they used to a year ago the last time I was in Rochester, NY

 

[Jeranon]

That doesn't address the fundamental question, though. Are they not profitable because it's a poor business model, or because the boxed sets TSR were producing near the end of their tenure were crappy? The data is being used to support causality here that isn't obvious.

Extrapolating from Ryan Dancey's explananations and other tidbits from other people in the past, it was a poor business model. The quality of boxed sets wasn't the problem, but the quantity that TSR management wanted churned out across all the live campaign settings at the time. This combined with the fragmented AD&D audience and the cost of producing them made it a money loser. The big example of a money loser I remember mentioned was the Hellbound: The Blood War box set for Planescape, which had high production values, but was retail priced at something around half what it cost to make mainly because no one would have bought it otherwise. This was probably due to Planescape having a niche audience, which in turn goes back to one of the main reasons TSR died - too many settings.

 

[kuje31]

excellent point, acctually when I'm in rochester the gaming store I frequent, Millenium (spelling), packages most of their books in plastic ziplock-type bags. not that most of them have any sort of inserts, but it helps protect them.

at least they used to a year ago the last time I was in Rochester, NY

FYI, yes they still do so a year later.

 

[BigAlzBub]

I voted not keen, but boxed sets do have some advanatges, like not having to mutilate your hardbound book to get the map out, the ability to let different players read different sections (because they are in different books), having a GMs book so that players don't acidentally read things they shouldn't. So why did I vote not keen? Because of the UKs insane sales tax laws, boxed sets count as a game and are thus subject to sales tax, while books are not, go figure, put a pile of books in a box and you have to pay 17.5% extra, grrrrrrr.......

 

[Ranger REG]

I voted not keen, but boxed sets do have some advanatges, like not having to mutilate your hardbound book to get the map out,

The FRCS hardback had the right idea by allowing the map to fold out. It could have been better if they had use the same gummy adhesive for affixing poster maps in Dragon magazines.

the ability to let different players read different sections (because they are in different books), having a GMs book so that players don't acidentally read things they shouldn't.

Of course, you have to keep track of the books and hopefully you have all of them returned by the end of the session when repacking the box.

So why did I vote not keen? Because of the UKs insane sales tax laws, boxed sets count as a game and are thus subject to sales tax, while books are not, go figure, put a pile of books in a box and you have to pay 17.5% extra, grrrrrrr.......

Wow. I can't believe the British government is missing out on a lot of potential tax relief.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

There were good things about many of the boxed sets, most particularly maps.

But then came the 'Box Must Be Heavy' syndrome, where things were printed on cardstock for no good reason. I loved the Birthright setting, but did they need to put the monsters on cardstock? Especially when the Monstrous Comendium was a three ring binder. Cardstock color illos of the major NPCs? In one case cardstock character sheets?

Over all, nah, I prefer hardcovers.

Yhe Auld Grump