D&D General D&D Book Prices Are Going Up

WotC announced today that D&D books will be increasing in price this year.

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants will be $59.99 as a preorder and $69.99 thereafter. These will apparently come as physical and digital bundles, so you won’t need to buy the D&D Beyond version separately.

This space is dedicated to communicating clearly and transparently with our players- even when the topic isn’t particularly fun. Since the release of the 2014 D&D core rulebooks, we’ve kept book prices stable. Unfortunately, with the cost of goods and shipping continually increasing, we’ve finally had to make the decision to increase the price of our new release print books. We're committed to creating high-quality products that deliver great value to our players and must increase our prices to accomplish that.

This will go into effect starting with Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants and new releases after Glory of the Giants. Digital pricing is unaffected by this MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) increase, as digital products don’t need to be printed or shipped. The increase also doesn’t impact backlist titles. While we can’t promise that there will never be a change to the prices of digital products and backlist titles, we have no plans to increase either.

Players who purchase the Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants digital-physical bundle through Dungeons & Dragons store can get the bundle for $59.95 for the entire preorder window, which is consistent with our current digital-physical bundle pricing. After the preorder window closes, digital-physical bundle prices will go to $69.95.

 

[Velderan]

The first nice thing Paizo has said about WotC all year, and it's praising them raising prices. I expect the Pathfinder remastered quadilogy will see a price hike next year as well.

They were already $59.99 on the preorders listed on Paizo's site. Comparing the upcoming Player Core book to the existing Core Rulebook, it will be the same price point for a reduced page count so I'm guessing this meets their intent to address what Erik Mona said about it not being feasible to keep charging what they were for the CRB. Aside from that, I'm pretty sure they've already had $59.99 as a price point for a book at least once. I know the recent Treasure Vault book was $54.99 for a 224 page book.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah I was confused, working third shift and mama goblin works days. It was our overlap day so... my bad man. Apologies.

No worries, I get it, I was also in a grouchy place, and the Internet as a medium only amplifies that sort of thing. Sorry for grouchijg it up on my end.

 

[Parmandur]

That was produced by GF9 wasn't it?

Originally, yup, but later WotC came out with their own deck in a box set with the Adventure, which sounds an awefup lot like thebstructure of this new product.

 

[Parmandur]

It'll be interesting to see which 3pps take the opportunity (or tacit permission from WotC) to raise prices, and which will keep their prices as is and hope to look more affordable by comparison.

Based on thebindustry insider commentary on Twitter, I expect the latter group may not exist: Buhlman said he felt the books should cost $100, based on his experience of how theybare put together.

 

[delericho]

Incidentally, about a decade ago I put together a post that collated the MSRP values of the core rulebooks of the various editions, including then-current values adjusted for inflation.

I haven't run all the numbers through the linked inflation calculator, but the latest increase doesn't look too far out of line - I did note that the 1st Ed DMG would be in line with the new prices for instance. (That, of course, was all black and white, with a smaller page count than modern core rulebooks. On the other hand, it was really dense with information.)

Thought that might be relevant...

 

[Hex08]

I work for Amazon... if you pay more than they pay me, I would like a job because I make good money and my insurance is insanely good. A starting Amazon associate makes slightly less than a starting teacher in most places and has better benefits. A tenured associate makes just as much. But that should tell you more about what teachers make than what Amazon pays. I will note that I am not a base Amazon employee but Amazon does pay a living wage and the insurance I have is the same that someone who starts tomorrow has and the same as the CEO has.

Actually, it should tell us as much about what a teacher makes as it does an Amazon employee. Crap wages are crap wages regardless of the job. I have friend who is currently working in an Amazon warehouse and, based on prior conversations with him, I think he would disagree with the premise that he gets paid a living wage.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I work for Amazon... if you pay more than they pay me, I would like a job because I make good money and my insurance is insanely good. A starting Amazon associate makes slightly less than a starting teacher in most places and has better benefits. A tenured associate makes just as much. But that should tell you more about what teachers make than what Amazon pays. I will note that I am not a base Amazon employee but Amazon does pay a living wage and the insurance I have is the same that someone who starts tomorrow has and the same as the CEO has.

Yes, I wasn't talking about ALL their employees. Just in general.

Also, I'm in Canada, so we don't need to offer insurance benefits, and aside from California (off the top of my head, I don't know all the minimum wages by State) we generally have a higher minimum wage, even when adjusting for our terrible dollar.

And I don't have anyone who is still at minimum wage. They've all been around long enough for a raise. I only start people at MW (think of it like 5e Level 1) because most people are terrible hires and don't work out.

But to be fair, you're probably right: I don't really know how it really compares, AND I don't employ a tiny teeny sliver of a fraction of the number of people, so it's a bit apples-to-oranges. I'll leave it at that.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Yes, I wasn't talking about ALL their employees. Just in general.

Also, I'm in Canada, so we don't need to offer insurance benefits, and aside from California (off the top of my head, I don't know all the minimum wages by State) we generally have a higher minimum wage, even when adjusting for our terrible dollar.

And I don't have anyone who is still at minimum wage. They've all been around long enough for a raise. I only start people at MW (think of it like 5e Level 1) because most people are terrible hires and don't work out.

But to be fair, you're probably right: I don't really know how it really compares, AND I don't employ a tiny teeny sliver of a fraction of the number of people, so it's a bit apples-to-oranges. I'll leave it at that.

I live in Virginia and the average warehouse pay at their facility here is $18/hour or just over $36k/year. That is the same, or more than, the typical pay for a 1st year teacher or police officer. It is also a good wage for anywhere in the state, other than maybe the DC suburbs. Starting pay is lower than the average, of course. Virginia also has a higher state minimum than the federal minimum, at $12/hour, and increasing each year until it reaches $15/hour in 2026.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That was produced by GF9 wasn't it?

Under license from WotC. It was not GF9 going rogue. If WotC wanted to bundle the items together, they would have -- they certainly know how to get cards made.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I live in Virginia and the average warehouse pay at their facility here is $18/hour or just over $36k/year. That is the same, or more than, the typical pay for a 1st year teacher or police officer. It is also a good wage for anywhere in the state, other than maybe the DC suburbs.

It is not a good wage for Northern Virginia, no. It'd be extremely hard to make ends meet on that.