MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
I like to support my local gaming stores, but the pricing policies of most publishers is making this hard to do. For some of the larger adventure paths, I like to have the book, but also may want the PDF for the maps, so that I can print battlemaps or use with a VTT or RealmWorks. But if I buy the book at the store, I have to pay full price for the PDF. I understand why publishers do this. If you buy directly from them, they don't have to share profit with the middleman (the FLGS) and can pass the savings on to you. What it has done, however, is made me refuse to buy APs, and just about any non-WoTC RPG print material for that matter, from game stores.
My most recent experience, and final straw, was I was browsing the 5e section at one of my local FLGS and came across Trail of the Aprentice by Legendary Games. It looked like a great adventure path to play with my sons and I bought it on impulse. After looking through it at home, I immediately had buyers remorse. Not because of the content--it looks like it will be a great tier I campaign to play with kids. But the maps printed in it, while nice looking, are pretty much useless for play. You can't easily remove them from the book and use them. They won't photocopy well. You need the PDF to turn them into battlemaps, handouts, DM references, etc. They don't sell a map pack for the AP, so I would need to buy the entire PDF for $30. If I were to by the book and PDF bundle from their website, I'd only pay $10 for the PDF. [UPDATE: I contacted Legendary Games and they were willing to let me buy the PDF for the discounted rate. So it is worth contacting the publisher. Very cool for Legendary Games to do this.]
Paizo does the same thing.
Kobold Press is better if you only want the maps. While buying the hardcover books gives you a discount on the pdf (free in the case of Book of Lairs) that you would not get if you buy it from a FLGS, the map pack is a single price. So you can by the hard cover from a FLGS and buy just the maps from the Kobold Press store and not feel slighted.
About the only APs I would buy at a FLGS are WoTC publications. Because they don't sell PDF versions, so it doesn't matter. You can buy map packs for some of the APs from the cartographers' websites, but these are independent of the book sales, so they will cost you the same no matter where you bought the book.
Have to say, that I just do not trust buying books from a FLGS anymore. You pay more for the book and you get no discount on any digital content. It is rather sad, because I think that the FLGS is still important to the hobby. If I owned a FLGS, I would be far more inclined to support Adventurer's League over PFS, because WoTC doesn't create incentives to not buy from the FLGS and they even create material that you can ONLY get at FLGS (such as the awesome alternative cover to Volo's Guide to Monsters).
The FLGS has become Best Buy. You go there to look at the products, but you end up buying on line. Hope FLGS do a better job reinventing themselves than Best Buy.
My most recent experience, and final straw, was I was browsing the 5e section at one of my local FLGS and came across Trail of the Aprentice by Legendary Games. It looked like a great adventure path to play with my sons and I bought it on impulse. After looking through it at home, I immediately had buyers remorse. Not because of the content--it looks like it will be a great tier I campaign to play with kids. But the maps printed in it, while nice looking, are pretty much useless for play. You can't easily remove them from the book and use them. They won't photocopy well. You need the PDF to turn them into battlemaps, handouts, DM references, etc. They don't sell a map pack for the AP, so I would need to buy the entire PDF for $30. If I were to by the book and PDF bundle from their website, I'd only pay $10 for the PDF. [UPDATE: I contacted Legendary Games and they were willing to let me buy the PDF for the discounted rate. So it is worth contacting the publisher. Very cool for Legendary Games to do this.]
Paizo does the same thing.
Kobold Press is better if you only want the maps. While buying the hardcover books gives you a discount on the pdf (free in the case of Book of Lairs) that you would not get if you buy it from a FLGS, the map pack is a single price. So you can by the hard cover from a FLGS and buy just the maps from the Kobold Press store and not feel slighted.
About the only APs I would buy at a FLGS are WoTC publications. Because they don't sell PDF versions, so it doesn't matter. You can buy map packs for some of the APs from the cartographers' websites, but these are independent of the book sales, so they will cost you the same no matter where you bought the book.
Have to say, that I just do not trust buying books from a FLGS anymore. You pay more for the book and you get no discount on any digital content. It is rather sad, because I think that the FLGS is still important to the hobby. If I owned a FLGS, I would be far more inclined to support Adventurer's League over PFS, because WoTC doesn't create incentives to not buy from the FLGS and they even create material that you can ONLY get at FLGS (such as the awesome alternative cover to Volo's Guide to Monsters).
The FLGS has become Best Buy. You go there to look at the products, but you end up buying on line. Hope FLGS do a better job reinventing themselves than Best Buy.
Last edited:
