DaveMage
Slumbering in Tsar
Do you know how many?
D&D 5E Initial D&D Next Releases Showing Up on Barnes & Noble Website
Do you know how many?
pickin_grinnin
Explorer
Once 5e comes out, I'll go sit in B&N and look through the books. If they aren't a significant improvement over 3e and Pathfinder, I'll go on my merry way and ignore them.
If they really are new and exciting and engrossing (which I doubt), I'll go home and wait for used editions to pop up on Internet, just as I do with every other game and book out there. It's very rare for me to pay full retail for anything.
Since I consider 4e to be a truly monumental f-up, it's going to take a lot to convince me to really give 5e a try. They might surprise me, but I don't expect it.
If they really are new and exciting and engrossing (which I doubt), I'll go home and wait for used editions to pop up on Internet, just as I do with every other game and book out there. It's very rare for me to pay full retail for anything.
Since I consider 4e to be a truly monumental f-up, it's going to take a lot to convince me to really give 5e a try. They might surprise me, but I don't expect it.
New rules are always exciting!
not always better, i agree (4e) but always exciting
Jack7
First Post
I will pay the price if the game is good. Then again I’m older and established and doing well so $150.00 is not a big deal to me. Or $300.00 as I’d buy a set for my daughter to take with her to college.
The trouble I see with this price having mass appeal is this: I bought my first set of D&D materials as a young kid, about 13 or so. Shortly after that I got the AD&D material. All of which I bought with my own money. And it did not take me long to earn and save for those costs. It was a relatively small percentage of my overall savings at that age.
If the game is simple (rule wise) and the emphasis is on story and more in line with AD&D, and I hope it is, then the books should be relatively simple and straightforward. The complexity should be limited and in that case will the books really be worth $50.00 to any young kid who wants to try the game for the first time? (Will the material to cost ratio be considered worthwhile if the books are simple and perhaps not voluminous?)
If the books are complex and weighty and filled with complicated rule-sets then they might be worth $50.00 in material but will that be the kind of game likely to appeal to either established players or new players?
I am skeptical in either case.
The company, if it continues with this pricing scheme may be significantly reducing its established market while simultaneously depressing or placing new markets out of reach (for the young kid who wants to try the game).
You do not want to create a specialized niche market through a conflicted and excessive pricing scheme when the real intent (as far as I’m concerned) should be a Renaissance of renewed interest, which of course means new players. Which of course also means young players. After all how many 25 year olds (or older people) are likely to try the game for the first time as a statistical margin within the overall market? And how many of those people (who might one day become enthusiastic new players) at that age will be driven to purchase the books at this cost to satisfy their initial curiosity? The older you get the more demands you have upon your time (far more important demands that recreational gaming no matter how enjoyable or interesting) and so erratically speaking the game must appeal to new markets. Meaning young people who have far less responsibilities and more time to play. But will young people decide that the price of the books is a necessary or even fair cost to pay to play such a game? (Given all of the sompetitive interests mdoenr kids can explore and spend their money upon?)
I do not consider $50.00 (in line generally speaking with the cost of a new video game) to be an excessive price for a single gaming book, especially considering the game has a far higher shelf-life and replay value than any video game. Then again video games probably restrict and self-suppress their potential markets for the same reason (the pricing scheme) and I’m not at all certain that a young kid (upon whom the RPG market will eventually have to appeal and attend – after all sooner or later we old geezers will die off) will feel compelled to try the game at this price level.
We’ll see of course. For me its fine, though of course if they sold for $25.00 to $30.00 per book then that would be in line with my experiences, but at a potential $150.00 per set will the game appeal to new players or have any real chance of expanding market share?
I am far from certain.
It would be a shame to see (form what I can tell so far) to see a good game reduce itself to a bare and restricted market through a bad or ill-considered pricing scheme.
That’s just my opinion.
The trouble I see with this price having mass appeal is this: I bought my first set of D&D materials as a young kid, about 13 or so. Shortly after that I got the AD&D material. All of which I bought with my own money. And it did not take me long to earn and save for those costs. It was a relatively small percentage of my overall savings at that age.
If the game is simple (rule wise) and the emphasis is on story and more in line with AD&D, and I hope it is, then the books should be relatively simple and straightforward. The complexity should be limited and in that case will the books really be worth $50.00 to any young kid who wants to try the game for the first time? (Will the material to cost ratio be considered worthwhile if the books are simple and perhaps not voluminous?)
If the books are complex and weighty and filled with complicated rule-sets then they might be worth $50.00 in material but will that be the kind of game likely to appeal to either established players or new players?
I am skeptical in either case.
The company, if it continues with this pricing scheme may be significantly reducing its established market while simultaneously depressing or placing new markets out of reach (for the young kid who wants to try the game).
You do not want to create a specialized niche market through a conflicted and excessive pricing scheme when the real intent (as far as I’m concerned) should be a Renaissance of renewed interest, which of course means new players. Which of course also means young players. After all how many 25 year olds (or older people) are likely to try the game for the first time as a statistical margin within the overall market? And how many of those people (who might one day become enthusiastic new players) at that age will be driven to purchase the books at this cost to satisfy their initial curiosity? The older you get the more demands you have upon your time (far more important demands that recreational gaming no matter how enjoyable or interesting) and so erratically speaking the game must appeal to new markets. Meaning young people who have far less responsibilities and more time to play. But will young people decide that the price of the books is a necessary or even fair cost to pay to play such a game? (Given all of the sompetitive interests mdoenr kids can explore and spend their money upon?)
I do not consider $50.00 (in line generally speaking with the cost of a new video game) to be an excessive price for a single gaming book, especially considering the game has a far higher shelf-life and replay value than any video game. Then again video games probably restrict and self-suppress their potential markets for the same reason (the pricing scheme) and I’m not at all certain that a young kid (upon whom the RPG market will eventually have to appeal and attend – after all sooner or later we old geezers will die off) will feel compelled to try the game at this price level.
We’ll see of course. For me its fine, though of course if they sold for $25.00 to $30.00 per book then that would be in line with my experiences, but at a potential $150.00 per set will the game appeal to new players or have any real chance of expanding market share?
I am far from certain.
It would be a shame to see (form what I can tell so far) to see a good game reduce itself to a bare and restricted market through a bad or ill-considered pricing scheme.
That’s just my opinion.
Blackwarder
Adventurer
Take heart than! The basic game is going to be free on WotC site.
Warder
Warder
Li Shenron
Legend
You are a bit late...
check the D&D official website or look around ENWorld, and see for yourself how many different spending options there are with 5e.
Jack7
First Post
You are a bit late...
I may be. Only last night did I return to EN World and only yesterday did I hear about the new release dates and price schemes.
I heard this mornign that Amazon may release the set at around $30.00 per book. I mail ordered my original D&D and AD&D materials, and so did most of my friends, and Amazon is just modern mail order. If that's their price then that would not be significantly more than I paid back then (a very long time ago) and considerign inflation it may be less than I paid for my AD&D materials.
That would be very satisfactory to me and maybe more importantly it might be a pricing range that would interest new, young players.
I hope so. I like video games and other forms of modern entertainment but I'd like to see a Renaissance of Role Playing among young kids. Excellent for their imaginations and very good for them in many other ways as well.
So hopefully this will be a success.
The options for delving in vary from $0, $12, $29, or the full $150 (or whatever that last gets reduced to in retail). You can choose a PDF, a boxed set, an adventure, or big hardback books, and all of them will be enough to play D&D with. I think at this point that anyone who can't find a way in at a price point or format which doesn't work for them is willfully trying not to. It's one thing to not be interested in the game, or object to some decision WotC made or might make, but I don't think anybody can claim at this point that access to D&D is in any way difficult.
