D&D 5E Will you pay $50.00 for the "standard" PHB?

[Mistwell]

Why are people comparing video games to TTRPGs anyway?

You aren't comparing like for like?

Comparing spending on entertainment vs. spending on entertainment.

I think it's fair to compare to movies, sports tickets, music concerts, theater, video games, novels, dinner out, whatever people normally spend on entertainment. After all, games compete against those things for your entertainment dollars, so isn't it fair to compare to those things? My entertainment budget doesn't discriminate between entertainment - if I pay for one thing, I don't have those dollars to pay for another entertainment thing I like. So, it's fair to compare these things competing for my entertainment dollars.

For me, I love the Los Angeles Clippers (professional basketball). It costs me about $60 to go to ONE live game. There are 41 home games each year, and then another 4-20 games in the playoffs (which cost even more money to go see).

For my wife and I to go to dinner and a movie, it's: $48 for babysitter (4 hours), $35 for dinner, $27 for movie tickets, $10 for snacks + $5 for parking = $125. That's ONE four hour period of entertainment. It's worth it to me, to have a night alone with my wife away from the little one doing things we love to do. But I have to compare that to $50 for a book I will use for countless hours over a 6 year period of time.

To me, it's laughable that the price for the book would make me pause even a little bit. I understand though that my life is not everyone's life. Then again, an awful lot of gamers are like me, in my 40s, with an established career and family. Perhaps $50 would have made me pause if I were still in my 20s. Probably not, as I blew tons of cash on comic books back then.

 

[Umbran]

Some games are bought new, returned, then end up in the used section.

Every single game in the used section was bought new. Every one. Very savvy buyers won't buy and return, they buy used,, paying full price only for those games that really, really justify paying the price. Thus, bought-and-returned still supports his point that gamers aren't all that strategic in their purchases. Gamers *WANT*, and want *NOW*.

Why are people comparing video games to TTRPGs anyway?

You aren't comparing like for like?

They aren't the same in detail, but they are the same in an "amusement that gives some/many hours of amusement at a roughly $50 price point" sense.

 

[frogimus]

Yes. I will likely even drive 3 hours to GenCon just for it if that's the quickest way to get it

 

[ForeverSlayer]

Comparing spending on entertainment vs. spending on entertainment.

I think it's fair to compare to movies, sports tickets, music concerts, theater, video games, novels, dinner out, whatever people normally spend on entertainment. After all, games compete against those things for your entertainment dollars, so isn't it fair to compare to those things? My entertainment budget doesn't discriminate between entertainment - if I pay for one thing, I don't have those dollars to pay for another entertainment thing I like. So, it's fair to compare these things competing for my entertainment dollars.

For me, I love the Los Angeles Clippers (professional basketball). It costs me about $60 to go to ONE live game. There are 41 home games each year, and then another 4-20 games in the playoffs (which cost even more money to go see).

For my wife and I to go to dinner and a movie, it's: $48 for babysitter (4 hours), $35 for dinner, $27 for movie tickets, $10 for snacks + $5 for parking = $125. That's ONE four hour period of entertainment. It's worth it to me, to have a night alone with my wife away from the little one doing things we love to do. But I have to compare that to $50 for a book I will use for countless hours over a 6 year period of time.

To me, it's laughable that the price for the book would make me pause even a little bit. I understand though that my life is not everyone's life. Then again, an awful lot of gamers are like me, in my 40s, with an established career and family. Perhaps $50 would have made me pause if I were still in my 20s.

The actual money isn't the issue here. Money is something I thankfully have no shortage of, but just because I have loads of money doesn't mean I am just going to shell it out. I want a quality product. The D&D brand, in my opinion, isn't worth the price tag. Now if it contains loads of meat then I would think about buying it. The Pathfinder book is a book I had no problem throwing fifty bucks at because it is a very well made book.

 

[frogimus]

The actual money isn't the issue here. Money is something I thankfully have no shortage of, but just because I have loads of money doesn't mean I am just going to shell it out. I want a quality product. The D&D brand, in my opinion, isn't worth the price tag. Now if it contains loads of meat then I would think about buying it. The Pathfinder book is a book I had no problem throwing fifty bucks at because it is a very well made book.

So it isn't the book, but the brand.

 

[Wulfgar76]

The actual money isn't the issue here.

Exactly.

This never was about the price of the PHB, but rather "Do you like D&D Next?"
Perhaps that should have been the question for your poll.

 

[Mistwell]

The actual money isn't the issue here. Money is something I thankfully have no shortage of, but just because I have loads of money doesn't mean I am just going to shell it out. I want a quality product. The D&D brand, in my opinion, isn't worth the price tag. Now if it contains loads of meat then I would think about buying it. The Pathfinder book is a book I had no problem throwing fifty bucks at because it is a very well made book.

So why are you one of the most frequent commentators on 5e, if it doesn't interest you even though you can easily afford it? I'm serious. If the money is not the issue, then why are you all outraged about the money? Why should anyone care what someone not interest in the brand, thinks of the price for that thing they're not interested in? Of course you'd think it is overpriced!

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

The actual money isn't the issue here. Money is something I thankfully have no shortage of, but just because I have loads of money doesn't mean I am just going to shell it out. I want a quality product. The D&D brand, in my opinion, isn't worth the price tag. Now if it contains loads of meat then I would think about buying it. The Pathfinder book is a book I had no problem throwing fifty bucks at because it is a very well made book.

Then we should all agree that this is not about the money and stop creating threads with "$50" in the title.

Years ago, I spent about $100 in a Pathfinder Core Rulebook together with a Bestiary and a Gamemastery Guide. You know what? I didn't care enough about the money to try to sell them, I simply gave away the books to someone who was still interested in playing the game. If you ask me, though, if $50 is a lot of money to spend in a Pathfinder Core Rulebook I'll tell it that even $10 is too much to spend in one of those nowadays.

Much like every other product sold around the world, the price of an RPG book is based in how much the people who want it are willing to pay. Given the chance, Paizo would certainly charge more for those 575 full color pages, but there are some important facts:

- Their product is not new. Pathfinder is D&D 3.75, not an independent game with its own spirit and ruleset, but the ultimate proof of the solidness and staying power of the 3E rules. Cool, but no Numenéra, no D&D Next, no FATE Core. I mean: not mandatory for the real deal (see below).
- The real deal is the adventure path. Paizo people have said in these boards that Adventure Paths are their real business, not rulebooks. If you can afford to reduce your margins in the core game to sell more adventures, from their point of view, that's good business.

Now, let's imagine Paizo charging more for the Pathfinder core, charging what one would expect to pay for a full color hardcover of 575 pages in 2014. They would be risking their main offering, the adventure paths, and also taking the risk that people would simply keep playing their adventures while using other d20 rules, which is not exactly a bad deal for Paizo, but don't advance their business either. WotC has none of this concerns with 5E.

This makes the Pathfinder comparison an unfair one, in my opinion.

Cheers!

 

[the Jester]

Did you roll on the appropriate table to determine subtype?

57 - I am a saucy tart.

 

[Mistwell]

57 - I am a saucy tart.

Tell us something we didn't already know!