Official posts on DDM changes

[CharlesRyan]

Conventional wisdom around here has been that mini sales have been as strong if not stronger than the sales of the rpg books. If this is true, it doesn't bode well for D&D as a whole.

Why did this wisdom become conventional? Do you spend more on minis than on RPG product? Do most of your gaming friends? What about all those people who refuse to buy D&D minis?

 

[Osamar]

Anything about "Dungeon Delve" cards???
Dungeon & dargons 4ed Basic o something like Advanced heroe Quest???

 

[Nebulous]

What killed the golden goose, IMHO, is oversaturation. Too many minis too quickly.

I love the DDM line and have been collecting heavily for the past 2 years, but i agree, it was too much too fast. I didn't WANT or NEED that many minis, but then i'm faced with trying to find a mini i do want down the road, but it's either very hard to find or far, far too expensive.

I'll definitely keep an eye on the new mini sets. As a DM, i don't really need many PC models, i much rather have interesting monsters.

 

[MerricB]

Anything about "Dungeon Delve" cards???
Dungeon & dargons 4ed Basic o something like Advanced heroe Quest???

No; it's a form of D&D RPG scenario the RPGA are running, as far as I know.

Cheers!

 

[justanobody]

Why did this wisdom become conventional? Do you spend more on minis than on RPG product? Do most of your gaming friends? What about all those people who refuse to buy D&D minis?

I can only speak for what I have seen locally.

D&D book purchases are sparatic. After the initial books, anything else may or may not be bought depending on the nature of the book. Not everyone buys all the settings related books etc.

So you have the $100 purchase of books as a one time thing for DMs/groups and the PHB purchase.

Most of those people would buy the same number of minis if not more dollars wise for RPG if they use minis.

Some buy much more for RPG use, than they spend on the books.

Also you have the hardcore minis players/collectors. While not keeping all the minis, they buy packs to get the chase rares, or figures that they most like such as named NPCs. The minis players on average would play sealed games without prize support, and constantly be buying minis after the RPG players have stopped. Usually playing several games can exhaust a case of boosters quickly with 4 people as that is only 3 games.

Then you have kids who may want minis as toys that play neither game and the odds of buying mixed genre's such as Superheros from Clix games,, monsters form DDM and tanks/etc from A&A are likely.

So it is not unheard of for people to spend more on the accessories for a game, than the game itself, because most times you only need on DMG, unless you are buying them for gifts or to loan out.

And what person ever really gets rid of the want for little plastic army men that they played with as a child?

 

[NeghVar]

This response from Wizards is completely business driven.

They cannot sell random packs of miniatures if they are going to match your purchase to online miniatures for use in D&Di.

They need to sell packages of fixed quantity and fixed figure types that you can enter a secret code or what not - in order for them to be tied into D&Di.

You bought a pack of Adventurers - now enter your code and you can access all of them through D&Di for use in your online games.

Just my humble opinion...

 

[Fifth Element]

This response from Wizards is completely business driven.

They cannot sell random packs of miniatures if they are going to match your purchase to online miniatures for use in D&Di.

So why are the monster packs still mostly random?

 

[NeghVar]

I think we need to wait to see how that works - though I have some ideas as to how I would do it.

So why are the monster packs still mostly random?

 

[TerraDave]

Ah, sweeping conclusions and generalisations....

Lets do one: D&D offshoots--lets throw in all TSR RPGs, post D&D purchase WotC RPGs, that awful card game, other stuff with D&D on it, "D20" (remember, sweeping)--don't last, but D&D does.

Lets do another: D&D+Minis=problematic. I think they have tried it all over the years. Well, plus the new thing they are doing now.

 

[justanobody]

So why are the monster packs still mostly random?

Maybe they will do the WoW thing and have scratch off bars with codes on the cards to get special perks/minis in DDI tools?