Best 3.5 pre-order prices: $17.62 each at Walmart ($52.86 + $5.88 S&H = $58.74)

[Rel]

Once you start looking at what d20 publishers pay for their smaller print runs, and realize that not being a large company incurs more costs than it avoids, you really have to feel a bit for the small d20 publisher who is trying to put out such great material (in a lot of cases) on what amounts to a shoestring of profit.

No lie, there, Mark. I'm not a 3rd party d20 publisher but I have done some writing for the RPG industry. Let me just say this about that:

Anybody who writes RPG materials because he wants to get rich is probably a fool. Anybody who can make a living writing RPG materials is probably a genius.

I made use of the word "probably" because maybe that statement isn't as axiomatic as I think it is. But so far, it has held up in at least 99% of the cases that I'm familiar with.

Anyway, as far as the Wal-Mart discussion goes, I like the free market and the way it works. I'm not totally driven by price, but it does shape my decisions a bit. That said (and please don't tell any of the publishers I said this ), I think a good RPG book would be cheap at twice the price. The "hours of fun/dollar spent" ratio that I have from most of the gaming materials I own clearly represent the best investment I've ever made in entertainment.

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

The whole of gaming is a small niche market, but that has never stopped people from writing and publishing their own completely new games.

The internet hasn't done it, d20 hasn't done it. There will always be someone out there who thinks "I can do better".

Saying "Walmart will be the end of gaming" is the same kind of Chicken-Littleing (or should that be Cry Wolf-ing?) that seems to go on every couple of months in the online gamer community. It used to be "The Book of Vile Darkness will be the end of gaming." Some time before that it was "d20 will be the end of gaming". Before that it was BADD and the fundies.

We're still here.

Don't look at me, I was just answering a hypothetical. I think you can agree that no matter how small a niche market D&D is now, it would be even smaller if it was only sold in hobby shops and gaming stores. No Wal Mart, no Amazon, no Borders, not even a Walden's? Yeah, that's small in my opinion. But like I said, it wasn't my hypothetical situation...

 

[Caliban]

All of these examples and analogies are giving me a headache, especially artists arguing over their CD's cover. The music I can understand, but the cover?

Here's what my Wal Mart had today:

2 liter bottles of Coca Cola for .66

Now, are you going to support your local friendly convience store and spend .99 for a 20oz bottle or buy up several 2 liters for the same money?

Since I don't like drinking warm soda while I game, I will be buying the 12oz can from the fridge at the gaming store.

 

[Mark]

Since I don't like drinking warm soda while I game, I will be buying the 12oz can from the fridge at the gaming store.

You don't post in the General Forum often, of Guru, but when you do you make a splash...

 

[Cedric]

I thought I'd posted in this forum...but since I couldn't find my post...

You know what I think one of the best things about 3.5 is? The boost to income and sales this will be for the FLGS's which rely on items like this to keep them afloat.

Now yes, on a different level, I think WOTC could have done this as a single book of optional rules/suggested revisions. Heck, they even could have done it as a one year 10 page a month feature in Dragon probably. But they didn't...they went straight for our pocket books and decided to release all three books.

If you buy from someone like Wal-Mart...who could care less about you and your hobby, the only people you are helping in the end is WoTC. By the time you figure in the discount, Wal-Mart is barely making anything from the books.

My suggestion? Either buy from your local gaming store. Buy from a friendly gaming store with an online presence (like Talon Comics). Or just don't buy them.

In the end though, if you are going to pick up these books, spend the extra few dollars to keep the people who care about you in business.

Cedric