Jester David
Hero
If I find an AP I really like, I might be willing to play it again and again with different groups. I have no delusions that the group I'm playing with right now will primarily be the group I'm playing with in six or ten years.This actually came up in another thread and so I figured it would be a great topic to discuss.
Do you think big hardback AP's are a waste of money?
I do because of the following reasons. I feel like Wizards could save a lot of money in printing costs by going either paperback or digital format. Let's be honest here. How many of you run the same AP repeatedly? I play with the same group of people so it wouldn't be plausible to run the same AP again because the group already knows what to do. The mystery has gone out of the AP. It basically just becomes this shiny book sitting on my shelf.
If you have to have something physical, then why not just go with a paperback? You could print it for a lot cheaper price and sell it for less. I think what would be best are for these things to go digital. It would be a hell of a lot cheaper and you could charge people 2 or 3 quid per adventure and maybe a fiver for an AP. After you are finished with it, you would then feel like you got your money's worth out of it and just leave it sitting there on your hardrive without it taking up really any space.
I just think hardback adventures are a bit much and could be dealt with a lot better.
Plus, using a softcover book on a regular basis for six months or a year is super hard on the book. I'm careful with my books, and a couple of my Paizo APs look pretty rough after a couple months of use.
The primary cost is the paper and the colour ink. Going from hardcover to softcover isn't that much of a price drop. A couple bucks less. Dropping Hoard of the Dragon Queen from $30 to $25 wouldn't have dramatically increased sales.