nedjer
Adventurer
This is most of an earlier blog. Maybe others find the price tag and the UK price difference OK?
The recent thread about Wrath of Ashardalon, the new D&D boardgame/ RPG crossover title’s feature set includes:
Wrath is undoubtedly distinct and very D&D, from the d20s and the hexed movement to the classes and the monsters; but elements of its pedigree make the game unusually interesting in two respects:
Free alternatives might involve using poker tokens and a few painted figures instead of unpainted plastics, or laying out coasters and table mats if you want a boardgame feel; but there’s not a whole lot of extra convenience or value in that. Particularly when the production cost of unpainted plastic figures is not exactly high.
In other words, why shouldn’t games like Wrath be delivered at a £25/ $25 price point; and why shouldn’t a premium RPG have a ‘good to go’ Wrath – Compendium ‘combo’ for £40/ $40?
As with digital content, the marketable add-ons, (to the boardgame alone), could potentially offset any element of loss leading; as they’d be open to the ‘boardgames only’ players in the same way as Catan or Dominion add-ons, i.e. there are presumably two potentially dovetailing expansion markets here.
Just to round off; if you’ve notice the rough £ – $ prices you might be asking why they match. That’s because they’re at pretty much the same number on Amazon UK and Amazon US today. It appears that the cost of shipping an item from the US to the UK, (assuming it was even made in the USA), completely cancels out an exchange rate of £1 to $1.62. Are these games being flown to the UK in Business Class or what?
The recent thread about Wrath of Ashardalon, the new D&D boardgame/ RPG crossover title’s feature set includes:
- co-operative gameplay
- cards placing the most used data ‘at your fingertips’
- ‘iconic’ visual representations of monsters, PCs, NPCs and other in-game features
- customisable classes
- streamlined rules and fast turns
- team play
- solo play
- three card encounter combinations
- trigger effects, like ‘switching’ doors, ‘alarms’ and other knock-on effects, such as monsters revealing new areas
- exploration as a central element of gameplay
- ready-to-run layouts
- short, episodic scenario options
Wrath is undoubtedly distinct and very D&D, from the d20s and the hexed movement to the classes and the monsters; but elements of its pedigree make the game unusually interesting in two respects:
- “It was great fun,” and, “players loved it”, are going to be likely outcomes of games built on a collaborative ‘mesh network’ model – it’s a function of the design in terms of communications between players, collaborative interactions, sequence and pacing; plus the interactions between meta-data when the other elements meet.
- It follows from this that Wrath offers ‘compelling’ gameplay and co-design, which is, consequently, highly likely to draw new or casual players into D&D at a much lower/ shorter level of exposure than through apprenticeship gameplay. This suggests that the game is a must have for anyone who wishes to spread the D&D word.
Free alternatives might involve using poker tokens and a few painted figures instead of unpainted plastics, or laying out coasters and table mats if you want a boardgame feel; but there’s not a whole lot of extra convenience or value in that. Particularly when the production cost of unpainted plastic figures is not exactly high.
In other words, why shouldn’t games like Wrath be delivered at a £25/ $25 price point; and why shouldn’t a premium RPG have a ‘good to go’ Wrath – Compendium ‘combo’ for £40/ $40?
As with digital content, the marketable add-ons, (to the boardgame alone), could potentially offset any element of loss leading; as they’d be open to the ‘boardgames only’ players in the same way as Catan or Dominion add-ons, i.e. there are presumably two potentially dovetailing expansion markets here.
Just to round off; if you’ve notice the rough £ – $ prices you might be asking why they match. That’s because they’re at pretty much the same number on Amazon UK and Amazon US today. It appears that the cost of shipping an item from the US to the UK, (assuming it was even made in the USA), completely cancels out an exchange rate of £1 to $1.62. Are these games being flown to the UK in Business Class or what?
