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

[Dausuul]

I'll buy the books. I make quite decent money, I've been playing D&D for 25 years, and I'm very excited about 5E. Even so, seeing a $50 price tag would rock me back on my heels a bit. I usually buy a couple extra PHBs, so casual gamers and newbies can belly up to my table without having to lay down a bunch of money for books; $50 makes it less likely that I will do that, at least right away. And I can guarantee it will turn off a few other members of my group, who are neither as well-off nor as dedicated as I am.

However, this looks very placeholder-y to me. No art, no blurb, not even an author credit--it just says "Wizards Rpg Team." They didn't even capitalize RPG properly! When I see a cover image on that placeholder, and the price still says $49.95, then I'll believe it. I think $39.95 is more likely.

 

[DMZ2112]

But once you reach 150, it gets harder for me to justify the expense.

Sorry to pick on you, Bedrock; you're just the last person to say it.

What about $130?

That's what the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, and Bestiary cost, in total -- and what they have cost since their release in 2009-2010. If you assume an equivalent value between the D&D5 PHB and Pathfinder Core Rulebook, thanks to inflation you're actually getting a $5 discount on the PHB.

The Bestiary is as critical to Pathfinder play as the Monster Manual is to D&D. You could argue that the Gamemastery Guide is not as important, but the D&D4 Dungeon Master Guide served a similar purpose -- the PHB contained all the rules needed for play.

It's true that in recent history there has been a single price point for all three core D&D books, and that in the 20th century, the rules for play were more-or-less evenly distributed among all three books. But there's no solid justification for the assumption that D&D5 will follow either of these incomplete trends.

Particularly when you consider that Wizards is apparently releasing the core books separately, which flies in the face of a lesson I thought they learned after the hue and cry over D&D3's launch. To me, the staggered launch is a more solid indicator that we can expect different book organization than anything Wizards or TSR has done historically.

TL;DR: I'm not sure why everyone is freaking out about this. This price point is the definition of reasonable.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Sorry to pick on you, Bedrock; you're just the last person to say it.

What about $130?

That's what the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Gamemastery Guide, and Bestiary cost, in total -- and what they have cost since their release in 2009-2010. If you assume an equivalent value between the D&D5 PHB and Pathfinder Core Rulebook, thanks to inflation you're actually getting a $5 discount on the PHB.

130 is better than 150 but i wouldnt pay that for pathfinder (I just see very little point buying pathfinder when i still have the 3E and 3.5 books and not into the whole adventure path thing).

TL;DR: I'm not sure why everyone is freaking out about this. This price point is the definition of reasonable.

I am not freaking out, i said they probably set it at fifty for a good reason. People are just being careful what they spend on things (keeo in mind many of us have other games we'd like to buy as well this year). Money is important, and the economy has been shaky. It is just a bit steep when you consider there is the need to buy two additional books and in the past wotc managed to keep its cover prices lower than others because they do big print runs and do not do pod. I figured it might go as high as forty. For a single core book, i would pay 50. But to buy three books at that price, when I found the previous edition to be such a dissapointment, is harder for me to justify. And like i said, i have to consider my household, not just myself. If i was single, i wouldn't think about it. But a purchase of over 100 dollars means we both need to evaluate the purchase (if she spent 150 bucks on a game, i'd be concerned). I think the problem here is, i really cant promise it will get the years of use I got from 2E or 3E because I am waiting to see if the new edition is one i like. I might just play it for a few months before deciding if the books are worth the cost.

And like i said, didnt mind spending fifty on numenera because the core book was enough to run the game and i expected a price in that range since it looked like a smaller operation than wotc. This price just caught me off guard.

 

[Dausuul]

TL;DR: I'm not sure why everyone is freaking out about this. This price point is the definition of reasonable.

The reason people are freaking out about it is that we don't evaluate prices in a vacuum. We compare to other, similar things, and to what we have paid in the past. Most Americans have a strong negative reaction to what we perceive as unfair deals. We balk when we feel someone is trying to soak us for extra cash, even if the value proposition we're being offered is acceptable in itself. (It's a pretty interesting psychological phenomenon, actually. We'll turn down free money if we think it will lead to someone else getting more than they deserve. It's irrational for the individual, but it might be a very valuable trait on a societal level.)

The argument that "If you're willing to pay $130, you should be willing to pay $150" doesn't hold water at all. How far are we supposed to be fine with being bid up? $130 to buy into a game is steepish. $150 is steeper still. At some point, adding one more dollar must cause the decision to shift from "Yes" to "No." And it will always be possible to say at that point, "It's just one dollar!" But it's not just one dollar, it's one more dollar on top of a bunch of other dollars.

For some people, the break-point is going to fall between $130 and $150. If you were completely comfortable and felt no hesitation laying out $130 for Pathfinder, I agree it would be silly to treat $150 for 5E as a horrible money grab. But if you felt a little socked in the wallet laying out $130 for Pathfinder, you could reasonably find $150 to be over the limit for 5E.

For me, I'd be willing to pay $150, but I wouldn't go a whole lot higher.

Particularly when you consider that Wizards is apparently releasing the core books separately, which flies in the face of a lesson I thought they learned after the hue and cry over D&D3's launch. To me, the staggered launch is a more solid indicator that we can expect different book organization than anything Wizards or TSR has done historically.

Which who the what now? Who says they're doing a staggered launch? You're reading a whole heck of a lot into a single placeholder on Barnes and Noble--and it's obviously a placeholder, they don't even have an author credit. Do you have a source for this?

 

[darjr]

I think an ogl and srd website could go a long way towards making the investment palatable.

 

[wazza]

I picked up the 13th Age RPG for £30 recently and it's an amazing game: GM advice, Monsters and Players information all for £30, much better value for money IMO.

 

[DEFCON 1]

This is exactly why I'd be quite happy to get most of the info from all three books plus additional player and DM material (from online Dragon and Dungeon Magazines), and character and monster builder tools by continuing to subscribe to D&D Insider for $7 bucks a month.

 

[N'raac]

Particularly when you consider that Wizards is apparently releasing the core books separately, which flies in the face of a lesson I thought they learned after the hue and cry over D&D3's launch. To me, the staggered launch is a more solid indicator that we can expect different book organization than anything Wizards or TSR has done historically.

Ummm...

OD&D came in one tiny box, followed by supplements. I guess that's one edition released all at once although I think you may have needed Chainmail to play it)

BECMI was released one letter at a time, I believe. EDIT: A different, layered, approach (release by levels rather than topic) which meant everyone wanting the rules also had to buy the adventure module.

AD&D was released from 1977 to 1979, as three hardcovers.

AD&D 2e was released one book per month.

3e was, IIRC, released all at once, as was 4e (if we call the three volumes "all" - 3e also began the Splatbook trend, while 4e removed several elements from the core rules with the expectation of future PHB's and DMG's bringing many back and otherwise growing the game).

EDIT: IDNRC - 3e was also released one book a month. As well, 2e had lots of splatbooks ( however, I believe 3e was the first to have splatbooks planned from initial release).

A staggered launch wasn't the most recent approach, but it's hardly historically unprecedented. In fact, it seems like 4e's "all at once" approach was largely unprecedented (although I think AD&D's multiple books sold separately approach was also unprecedented at that time, and very few games took the same approach afterwards).

 

[Obryn]

3.0 had a staggered launch, too. Remember Creature... Catalog?

e: Creature Collection. That's it.

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

I think $50 sounds about right - Pathfinder core book came out in 2009 for $50. Supporting books list at $40. Against the Slavelords hardcover last year from WOTC was $50 (limited print run but black and white interior as well). Marvel Heroic Civil War hardcover was $50 in 2012. Lots of RPG books are in that same ballpark. The FFG Warhammer and Star Wars books run 50-60 and seem to be doing well for them.

Similarly, Warhammer 40,000 codexes are full-color hardcover now, have a much smaller page count, and run 40-45$.

Videogames run $50 typically, many are even more.

Quite a few boardgames run $40 - $75 anymore.

That's the 2014 "gaming ballpark" we live in. Sure there are free RPG's out there, and $10 PDFs, but new, full-color hardback RPG's are selling in a certain range and this price is in that range. I'm sure there are some internal comparisons to MTG as well and dollars per player and all of those kinds of measurements.

I thought they might be priced a little lower to encourage purchase but I suspect there may be a new approach at WOTC that limits the use of "loss leader" products. If anything is a loss leader it's going to be that basic/intro set. The PHB, which is always their best seller over the life of an edition, looks like it's not going to be handled that way this time. It's probably a smart move for them.