Boxed Sets: What Do You Want In Them

[GrimCo]

Oh no, not CNC'd lol. Woodcut laser. Like these

Those look cool. Better quality and more durable than cardboard, that's for sure.

I can find USB drives for $1.40 each. So not a huge cost impact to the end boxed set (the most expensive item is the box itself). Dry erase can get spendy though. The best I could find are 9x12 sheets for $2.13 each. A couple of those can increase the costs more than being comfortable with.

USB drive is just spitball idea. One other idea we used back in the day instead of dry erase mats. Laminated paper with printed grid pattern. It's pretty inexpensive, in most copy stores, A4 is around 1-1.5 euros with discounts on volume. 9x12 inches? That about A4 format. 2 laminated A4 are probably price wise same as one A4 pvc mat, but give double the surface. Sure, mat looks nicer, but this also works.

Your box set looks very nice, but yea, that nice wood box is probably half the cost of whole set.

Point, at least in my opinion, of box set is to give you all the basic tools you need to play in one convenient package. Once people start playing then they can invest in better minis, better grid mat, more shiny dices, hardcover rule books with nice art etc.

 

[aramis erak]

USB is practical. You can have nice custom design or logo on it, everything is in one place, you can take it to print shop (or office) to have things printed out (since almost no one has printer at home these days). And they are dirt cheap. Having online download available for free is nice, but this is just more convenient. I can't take credit for that idea though. Companies hand out usb thumb drives preloaded with promo materials all the time even though all those brochures can be downloaded from company sites.

Note that many companies in the medical space are putting product information of FAT32 formatted ROMs, on a very thin USB, roughly 12×2×25mm (the tongue of the type A plug). My last CPAP and my glucometer both shipped with such. The stick itself lacks the ground shield, but fits snugly in a USB A port, and the chips are potted in to hide that it's a circuit board, 2 chips, and the traces to connect.

Why FAT32? because Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and IOS devices can read it. Mac, Android, and IOS need an adapter for type A... but those adapters are also inexepensive.

 

[GrimCo]

Yea, my company has promo planners with built in usb drives (16 gb, piece of plastic that is nice, thin, small one) that can slide in or out of front cover, plus aluminium ones for key chain with company name and logo engraved that are about 7cm long.

 

[Jahydin]

I know the reasons I keep buying Free League's box sets are:

• They include unique components that I can use in the Core game every time I play (special dice, useful maps, tokens, cards, etc...).
• Beautiful art and packaging. Even if I don't play it, it feels good to just own it.
• Not just a useful introduction for beginners, but a useful introduction for everyone. Even if I don't get around to purchasing the full game, the box in of it self stands strong as a great game to play.

Conversely, box sets I skip are ones that just offer the "Cliff Notes" version of the actually game (I'll just buy the full thing if I'm interested) with components that I don't need, such as another set of standard dice or a small collection of stand-in miniatures.

 

[The Soloist]

A solo adventure so I can learn the system before I GM it for the players.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Based on a lot of the feedback, I've included a rigid dry erase board so you're not stuck using the pre-made maps (they will be different than what's in the picture, those are just prototypes). And you'll note the USB that will have digital copies of everything.

Seriously, the feedback was greatly appreciated

 

[Muso]

I would like to see again boxed set with settings.

 

[Staffan]

I would like to see again boxed set with settings.

I think if you're going to do boxed settings, the first thing to include would of course be maps. The second would be any setting-specific doodads (for example, PEG sells a set of power cards for arcane powers in the generic Savage Worlds rules, and the Deadlands boxed set includes some more for the powers that are specific to the setting). But after that, I think the next thing I'd include would be loresheets: loose pages that have non-secret information on a particular thing in the setting that you can give to players whose characters are associated with that thing. For example, a hypothetical Eberron box might have loresheets for each of the major religions (the Sovereign Host, the Dark Six, the Blood of Vol, the Silver Flame, and maybe the Undying Court and the Path of Light), one for the Dragonmarked houses (either one per, or in aggregate), and one for each nation. The goal here would be to provide an intermediate amount of information, somewhere between a "whet your appetite" paragraph and a section of a sourcebook. They shouldn't have secret information, but perhaps more "uncommon" lore. A more in-depth accessory could have more in-depth lore sheets – if the core Eberron box has a loresheet on Breland, a Breland accessory could have loresheets on individual regions, on how their parliament works, on noble families, and so on.

 

[Muso]

I see, but I didn't find the word "setting manual" in the survey, then I selected "other". Then I would like to include a map, etc. But the main content should be two or three settings related short manuals (for the players, for the DM and a geography/hystoryrelated manual, for example).

 

[LordEntrails]

Not really a starter set. A boxed set version of the game. For example, what would you want in a boxed for the D&D game in general, or the WHFRP game, etc.

Well then, it would need the full core rules (maybe special editions), a detailed setting with a poster map, an adventure or lots of mini adventure hooks, and some plastic minis.

I don't think it's practical to do that for most games, and a bit redundant since it's not a starter set so the target market would already have the core books...

I'd rather see a boxed set for either a mega campaign or a settings. Perhaps depending on the game, maybe something special like a mass combat / tactical war game supplement or an in-setting thing like TrollBall from early Runequest.