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

[Connorsrpg]

RE Pricing

Why the hype?

Books from previous editions have cost near this in Australia for years. The 3E books were $40 then. Even now, with our dollar strong vs the U.S, we STILL pay a lot more for things like books. But, heck, this is something I can use over.

$50 dollars now seems like very little to pay for a book and game you can use again and again.

Heck, most people spend a LOT more than that on 1 night's entertainment...and have nothing to show for it at the end.

So a RPG book, that I can use over and over roughly equates to:
* Taking the family to the movies to see 1 movie.
* Taking the wife out for a meal at the local (and maybe a drink each).
* Buying 1 slab of beer to drink with the guys.
* Filling the car with petrol to drive to my monthly group 2 hours away.
* Half a night out on the turps. Yeah, that can easily reach $100.
* 1/4 of the cost of a music festival ticket (like Soundwave that I just went to) which lasts 1 day.

Seriously. Start saving now if it is a problem. That is less than $10 per month!

I honestly cannot believe the hate directed at WOTC for pricing. I hope it is a sign of a book with very good production values. Think of the time put into this. I am more than willing to pay $50 for something people have worked on and invested in for 2+ years. I want to see stores stay open and people be able to make a living writing RPG products. Let's keep things in perspective.

 

[N'raac]

At least with Shadowrun you only need one book to get the complete core rules (It is called Big Black/Blue Book, BBB, for a reason). Although there will be the usual splatbook rotation like in every Edition.

Which begs the question "how much is the COMPLETE Core rules?" If you need the PHB, DMG and MM II and III, it's a lot more expensive, even if each books sells for, say, $25. IIRC, one criticism levied against WoTC when 4e was released was the "missing" races and classes in the initial release. If 5e is complete in the tin, and later releases viewed as truly optional additions, $50/book is comparatively cheap.

 

[Mistwell]

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.

Sometimes they are correct, and sometimes they are not. He asked and I gave the honest answer in my experience. I've had a LOT of books in pre-order turn out to have a price or date or both adjusted later.

If you're saying that your one example of them being correct is somehow evidence they are correct on this one...I think my standards for evidence are higher than yours. I think it's fair to say "we're not sure if it is correct or not" and leave it at that.

 

[M.L. Martin]

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

I've been using this method to track upcoming WotC releases for the better part of a decade (sometimes B&N, more often Amazon), and the answer is "accurate far more often than not." Sometimes a product gets delayed or repriced, but the first listing's usually pretty accurate.

 

[Matt James]

I don't think Wizards could do right by anyone it seems. People want to hate Wizards, regardless of validity. This will be the last edition that WotC produces with the brand, if I had to guess.

 

[Mistwell]

I've been using this method to track upcoming WotC releases for the better part of a decade (sometimes B&N, more often Amazon), and the answer is "accurate far more often than not." Sometimes a product gets delayed or repriced, but the first listing's usually pretty accurate.

The bolded part is pretty relevant. In my experience, B&N gets it wrong far more often than Amazon.

 

[bhandelman]

Printing costs have gone way up over the years, much higher than inflation. I realize none of us like to pay $50 for a rulebook, but cost in all areas of printed media have gone up substantially. A good comaprison of a niche product would be comic books; in 2000 a Spider-man comic would have cost you $2.25 and now an issue will cost you $3.99 for the same title. What I'm more concerned with is will we get a pdf version and how much will that be?

 

[Primal]

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.

KM, I think Obryn meant that at that price it's probably too much for us who're sitting on the fence. As for myself, my group has invested heavily in PF, and we're content with that. If were to buy another edition of D&D, it has to be pretty awesome. However, based on what I've seen, I'm not convinced that Next will be my edition of choice, and there's the dilemma; we Europeans have to pay a lot more for the books. Assuming it's going to be 50 bucks per book, the whole set will cost 150 euros at my FLGS (which is around 206 USD). If I order them from Amazon, there will be shipping costs and import taxes and whatever; last time it was something like 415 USD for a box of 300 minis. Either way, it's too much for brand loyalty. Also, if I want to try another fantasy RPG that is cheaper than Next, it need not be an obscure indie game or an OSR clone. IMO Dragon Age is pretty decent for its price, for example, and also comes with a lot less baggage than D&D.

 

[Connorsrpg]

I actually do not mind paying $50 for a good RPG at all. And will probably pay more, living in Australia and all. But, like music, I am happy to pay for what I like, and I have liked DnD for 30 odd years now, so it is something I am more than happy to fork out $50 for.

 

[Cadence]

I was going to complain about the price, pointing out all the fun stuff I could do with that $150 while still using another system I already own, and pointing out what a barrier the price might be for teens and pre-teens trying to get into it.

But then I just had a flash back to how much I blew on Star Fleet Battles in high school for relatively little play compared to D&D... and how much I saw the high school kids drop on MtG when I was in college (how many multi-lands or mox is $150 anymore)...