Can someone fill me in on the history of the late TSR/early WotC/3e period?
- Thread starter johnsemlak
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Son_of_Thunder
Explorer
What happened to all those books!!!
What I want to know is what happened to that warehouse full of books stretching back to 1st Edition!!!!
My!!! It would be awesome to get stuff from that.
Son of Thunder
What I want to know is what happened to that warehouse full of books stretching back to 1st Edition!!!!
My!!! It would be awesome to get stuff from that.
Son of Thunder
Re: What happened to all those books!!!
Knowing about that warehouse explains something to me though: shortly after 2E was released, they were selling 1E books for dirt cheap through their Mail Order Hobby Shop. At the time, I thought it was a pricing error. Nope, that's what happens when you have a warehouse full of product that you've just made obsolete.
Son_of_Thunder said:
Knowing about that warehouse explains something to me though: shortly after 2E was released, they were selling 1E books for dirt cheap through their Mail Order Hobby Shop. At the time, I thought it was a pricing error. Nope, that's what happens when you have a warehouse full of product that you've just made obsolete.
Dark Jezter
First Post
http://www.cgonline.com/features/011218-f1-f1.html
This is the link to a very nice article about the history of Dungons and Dragons, it also talks about the rise and fall of TSR, the run-ins with religous and parental groups, the negative attention it recieved from the media, etc.
I found it quite informative, and learned a couple of things I didn't before.
EDIT: Typoes
This is the link to a very nice article about the history of Dungons and Dragons, it also talks about the rise and fall of TSR, the run-ins with religous and parental groups, the negative attention it recieved from the media, etc.
I found it quite informative, and learned a couple of things I didn't before.
EDIT: Typoes
Last edited:
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
The Apocalypse Stone was the adventure in which the campaign world had the big "reset" button pushed at the end. Die, Vecna, Die was actually not that bad, in my opinion. However, it didn't have the same purpose as the Apocalypse Stone. Another module they released was the Reverse Dungeon, in which the PCs were monsters. It didn't really have an apocalyptic ending.
seankreynolds
Adventurer
Could be. Could also be Lankhmar.
DD sold something like 300,000 - 500,000 starter sets in its first 6 months. It was that popular. But the remaining inventory, as well as other bad decisions involving the game (like including dice from the first 4 core races in the first new race's kicker pack, or having a print run for the next kicker be about as high as that of the starts, and other things) did a lot to hurt the success of the game.
Fortunately, fans now own it (http://www.sfr-inc.com/) and they're working hard to keep the game going.
seankreynolds
Adventurer
Re: What happened to all those books!!!
It was sold at a discount through the Mail Order Hobby Shop. When WotC took over, they looked at all of it, realized most of it wasn't selling at all, and had it mulched.
Don't be mad at them for that, though ... most of it was crap, like the GH adventure "Puppets" and other books that NOBODY bought, even when they were new. We're not talking about copies of G123, the original DDG with Elric, or other "classic" stuff. It was all stuff that sat on store shelves and collected dust (and sat in the warehouse and collected dust). By destroying that product, WotC saved money on warehousing charges, which was good for the profitability of the D&D division, which encouraged them to let the D&D folks keep working (i.e., not fire them).
Son_of_Thunder said:
It was sold at a discount through the Mail Order Hobby Shop. When WotC took over, they looked at all of it, realized most of it wasn't selling at all, and had it mulched.
Don't be mad at them for that, though ... most of it was crap, like the GH adventure "Puppets" and other books that NOBODY bought, even when they were new. We're not talking about copies of G123, the original DDG with Elric, or other "classic" stuff. It was all stuff that sat on store shelves and collected dust (and sat in the warehouse and collected dust). By destroying that product, WotC saved money on warehousing charges, which was good for the profitability of the D&D division, which encouraged them to let the D&D folks keep working (i.e., not fire them).
Henry
Autoexreginated
I also recall Ryan mentioning some sort of tax writeoff by destroying them instead of fire-selling them - but I could very well be misremembering. I do remember that when it was brought out that there was a lot of old unsold product, and WotC had their "last chance sale", most of it was not discounted from MSRP. After the final date, they said they were destroying it.
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