Boxed sets - love em or hate em

[iwatt]

I gave those to one of the "little people" in my game and had a new dice set made out of 40 carat diamonds. They work really nice. They're hard, too.

But you don't get Dice creep with diamond dice. That's the advantage of the gold set.

 

[Desdichado]

The Tang dynasty does indeed have nice bottles, but the real connoiseur keeps Qin dynasty antiques, of course. And I found that gold was simply unsuited for dice. It's too soft, so the dice kept denting if I threw them too hard. No, it's diamonds for me from here on out.

 

[Treebore]

There are several things I like about boxed sets:

!. The maps, of course.

2. The info broken into several booklets so I could be looking at DM material while the players could reference player material at the same time.

3. The extra's.

Question: What is the proof that TSR was "ruined" by boxed sets? Sounds like an Urban Myth to me. Plus everything I read about TSR's demise said it was people running a business who didn't know how to run a business anywhere but into the ground. Never heard/read of boxed sets being one of those causes.

 

[DaveMage]

Of course, guys like you and I light cigars with hundred dollar bills before we take our private jets to tropical islands where lithe, exotic beauties rub designer lotions into our skin from bottles made of jade and platinum.

Will you be my friend?

(Or just send over some of those lithe, exotic beauties to rub desinger lotions on me? My shoulder's been acting up...)

 

[HellHound]

I loved boxed sets. They are awesome and beautiful.

Until I use them.

THEN the box breaks apart from abuse, the books and maps get seperated, and either I have the contents in one place (When I'm lucky and organized), or scattered all over my house (most of the time).

Now, I prefer the hardcovers to the boxed sets. A lot more functional for my gaming shelf.

Now, what they SHOULD do is hardcovers with a map-pack attached so we can have all the cool maps of the boxed set, without the box.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

(Or just send over some of those lithe, exotic beauties to rub desinger lotions on me? My shoulder's been acting up...)

Can't. I broke one of the bottles. According to Joshua, I'm going to have to replace the set with Qin dynasty originals. Sorry, man.

you are confusing it with 2edD&D Holmes' Basic.

Original D&D(1974) went all the way up. as far as you wanted to go.

Really? I never saw a copy of the rules pre-1978. That sounds pretty cool. I always assumed that the people taking about 50th level fighters and whatnot were just joking. We do live and learn, don't we?

 

[Laman Stahros]

Question: What is the proof that TSR was "ruined" by boxed sets? Sounds like an Urban Myth to me. Plus everything I read about TSR's demise said it was people running a business who didn't know how to run a business anywhere but into the ground. Never heard/read of boxed sets being one of those causes.

It might be an urban myth to some degree, but, TSR was putting out a lot of box sets in their final years before WOTC bought them. Maybe that is what is meant by "not knowing how to run a business but into the ground".

 

[Desdichado]

THEN the box breaks apart from abuse, the books and maps get seperated, and either I have the contents in one place (When I'm lucky and organized), or scattered all over my house (most of the time).

Now, I prefer the hardcovers to the boxed sets. A lot more functional for my gaming shelf.

That's a good point too -- I still have the Alternity boxed set, mostly because I hardly ever used it, and I still have the MegaTraveller boxed set, albeit with duct tape in the corners. All my other ones have fallen apart.

Now, what they SHOULD do is hardcovers with a map-pack attached so we can have all the cool maps of the boxed set, without the box.

Exactly my point. Although maybe, as BiggusGeekus says, this is too expensive for publishers to be a viable option?

 

[Melan]

It might be an urban myth to some degree, but, TSR was putting out a lot of box sets in their final years before WOTC bought them. Maybe that is what is meant by "not knowing how to run a business but into the ground".

But here is the thing: most of those boxed sets were plain awful. I know I bought some, but after realizing that about 80% of them were uninspired and badly written, I became more careful and avoided buying new ones. I am sure I wasn't alone - many of my friends quit for the same reasons. What if they had been good products?

 

[DaveMage]

I love box sets. The only two that I ever had come apart was the basic red box set (I was 10-12 years old when I used it - it had no hope) and the Undermountain box set. All the rest I've managed to keep in good shape despite a fair amount of use.

I'm looking forward to the Midnight box set and the Wilderlands box set.