D&D 5E Initial D&D Next Releases Showing Up on Barnes & Noble Website

[Mark CMG]

I have no problem with them releasing more board games, I'm both a big RPGer and board gamer. But they need to keep the two lines separate. RPGs are not board games, nor vice versa.

Lords of Waterdeep is a great game, but it's as much D&D as a D&D coloring book.

I don't think we're talking about a RPG presented as a boardgame so much as a boardgame that teaches the fundamentals of RPGing while still being a good boardgame. I thought the D&D Adventure Game from 2000 was as close as they have come to making an RPG gateway boardgame but even if they started there they would have some way to go.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18212/dungeons-dragons-adventure-game

 

[Mistwell]

"Summer 2014" is as informative as saying "it will cost money" or "the edition is not vaporwaree."
They've spent two years saying "we can't comment on products". We didn't even really know it was going to be a physical product until recently.



Marketing is meant to keep us informed and build excitement for the game. They're not doing the former, and by failing that also not doing the latter. WotC doing less than the minimum to raise awareness of the edition.

Why exactly does it matter if this information comes from B&N, or WOTC? Who cares? You got the information, anyone else "spoiled" by this news got the information, others will get the information from WOTC later, why does any of this matter provided that we all got the information and it's generating the interest level that it should be generating?

This really seems like histrionic positions to me.

 

[I'm A Banana]

...Or you can compare to the number of excellent complete RPGs you can get for $20, $10, or even $free. At which point the value proposition becomes less clear. Or to the cost of playing the games you already have.

Well, what's the goal? The cheapest possible decent RPG experience, or a "good value"?

If you're looking for the cheapest RPG experience, I wouldn't go to D&D. D&D is kind of a bigger-budget, bigger-production-value, mass-market thing. It's the 3-D glasses and the marketing tie-ins. Free don't pay for James Wyatt's kids' college. I still think it seems like a damn god value, but that doesn't mean there aren't cheaper things out there.

Other RPGs hit a smaller audience. Which means that finding players for those in a given local area tends to be tougher. And extended campaigns are less common. If you've got a flexible local group ready and willing to try a lot of different RPGs that they play for a year, then, yeah $0-20 is a HUGE value. If you've got a group that can handle a bunch of indie games, D&D does becomes a pricy alternative to most indie games.

That group is a pretty rare thing, though. Like a group of cinephiles patronizing old theaters in LA going to free showings of experimental films from local artists.

For me, 5eD&D seems like a pretty good value (even if it's not the cheapest possible value). Other games can also be good values, of course.

 

[Mistwell]

Out of curiosity, how accurate are the first postings of a product on Barnes and Noble in terms of release date and price? I honestly don't know. But I figure that some of you might pay more attention than me.

AD

They are frequently wrong, and just ISBN placeholders. They adjust the price later if it turns out to be incorrect. It's why I suggested as much earlier, but "no news here" isn't really an attention grabber for internet threads.

 

[lkj]

They are frequently wrong, and just ISBN placeholders. They adjust the price later if it turns out to be incorrect. It's why I suggested as much earlier, but "no news here" isn't really an attention grabber for internet threads.

Thanks. I figured as much. Not enough information then for me to make a judgement. The price is uncertain. The content is uncertain. We'll see.

That said, no real harm in discussing it. It's interesting to see people's reactions to different price points.

AD

 

[Obryn]

Well, what's the goal? The cheapest possible decent RPG experience, or a "good value"?

It pretty much depends. Better books, higher production values, better design, etc. can all command a premium price, and fairly so.

There's also an argument for making your core books loss leaders, but that gets risky since crazy% of an entire edition's lifetime of book profits accrue in the initial rollout.

I'm just not buying it sight-unseen anymore. $100 discounted on Amazon or $150 while supporting my FLGS isn't warranted by the game I've seen so far.

 

[I'm A Banana]

It pretty much depends. Better books, higher production values, better design, etc. can all command a premium price, and fairly so.

There's also an argument for making your core books loss leaders, but that gets risky since crazy% of an entire edition's lifetime of book profits accrue in the initial rollout.

I'm just not buying it sight-unseen anymore. $100 discounted on Amazon or $150 while supporting my FLGS isn't warranted by the game I've seen so far.

Totally. I'm not sure buying most things sight-unseen is smart anyway. And I'd expect WotC to have the highest production values in the RPG biz, though I bet Paizo can give them a run for the money at this point (and probably for cheaper!)

 

[Warunsun]

They are frequently wrong, and just ISBN placeholders. They adjust the price later if it turns out to be incorrect. It's why I suggested as much earlier, but "no news here" isn't really an attention grabber for internet threads.

The listings for the Third Edition Premium Reprints at Barnes & Noble books turned out to be 100% correct despite several clamoring otherwise. It must be a "hacked website" is what a lot of folks were saying. It wasn't.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

Back when I was a kid, gosh darn it, Cokes were a nickel and D&D books were only $20! I had to walk to the gaming store uphill through the snow BOTH WAYS! How dare these young flippertygidgets at WotC charge $50 for a full-color, hardbound gaming book when everyone else in the industry is doing the same because, supposedly, there's this new-fangled thing called "inflation"! I hear somebody saying that these WotC folks are a business and out to make some money from my hard-working self! That's just not right! Back in the day, D&D was run by a charitable organization that had gamers in mind, not profits! Why, they practically gave away the first run of 3E player's handbooks, because they cared! Today, they're just out to get our money, and the game probably sucks too, because there are minor rules changes that don't mesh with my personal play style and I'm too old and set in my ways to try things differently!

I was enjoying this until you described the release of 3e as "back in the day." The year 2000 isn't back in the day, sonny. To go back in the day you need to return to 1974.

 

[Obryn]

Totally. I'm not sure buying most things sight-unseen is smart anyway.

Hahah, looking at the number of games I've kickstarted at this point, I can't say that with a straight face anymore.

(though detailed rules previews are, with very rare exceptions, a must for me.)