D&D Advertising & D&D Lite

[Umbran]

I think it is a great idea, and I think your beleifs about how the system works, and its costs, are a bit off (no offense).

Look at the numbers for a minute. Let's say your commercial costs $250,000.

If the $30 price tag of the PHB were 100% profit, this is equivalent to 8,333 books. But that $30 isn't all profit - there's printing, distributing, and retail costs in that. When you factor in the profit margin, the sales numbers must go up dramatically to just pay for the commercial.

From what some of the publishers have said on these boards, I gather that most gaming books sell 10,000 copies or less. You want your one commercial to do more than that by itself? I don't know if that's reasonable, considering that there are only a couple million RPGers out there, and considering the social stigmata on playing the games.

Now also consider - that one commercial is costing the equivalent of a year's salary for 5 to 10 employees. How many employees does your game company have? Can you afford to throw around the equivalent of a notable percentage of your payroll budget on one commercial?

 

[kenjib]

I think the game should be a hybrid between action figures, the Dungeon! boardgame, Pokemon, and Mage Knight Dungeon -- mostly Mage Knight Dungeon. I think that the Mage Knight concept in particular has not fully tapped it's mainstream potential yet.

Get Vin Deisel in a commercial and release a new XTREME D&D! edition of the rulebooks. *start industrial-techno-rock soundtrack here* In the commercial he leaps off the back of a pegasus mid-flight and snowboards down the roof of a castle turret while unloading fully-automatic burst rounds from his +2 crossbow as alien-looking monsters rip through the roof tiles trying to grab at him. He grabs a potion from his belt, pulls out the stopper with his teeth, and drops it into one of the holes in the roof that forms under him from a monstrous attacker. Then he jumps off the edge of the roof, casts featherfall right before he lands, and snowboards down a steep cliff while the castle explodes behind him, propelling him soaring off a precipice and into a massive snowbank. Next he climbs out of the snow under which he had been buried, grits his jaw, pulls out his flaming greatsword, and lets out a roar as a massive carpet-horde of the evil beasts comes gibbering across the landscape from the castle at a thunderous, camera-shaking, speed, overwhelming him. Alien guts start flying everywhere as he displays his amazing prowess with the sword. In the background the collapsing castle blazes in the night, and then from the flames emerges a massive and fearsome form...The camera refocuses on the background and a massive dragon spreads it's wings and breathes a tremendous gout of flames. The camera screen is engulfed in fire and then coalesces into the words "Dungeons & Dragons". Then the image goes all shaky and jittery and it looks like the camera malfuctions. End of commercial.

Okay, I'm just joking around about the commercial, but hehe -- I actually think it would be fun if the game really played like that. Hmmm...I need to think about this now.

 

[ced1106]

Get Vin Deisel in a commercial and release a new XTREME D&D! edition of the rulebooks. *start industrial-techno-rock soundtrack here* In the commercial he leaps off the back of a pegasus mid-flight and snowboards down the roof of a castle turret while unloading fully-automatic burst rounds from his +2 crossbow as alien-looking monsters rip through the roof tiles trying to grab at him. He grabs a potion from his belt, pulls out the stopper with his teeth, and drops it into one of the holes in the roof that forms under him from a monstrous attacker. Then he jumps off the edge of the roof, casts featherfall right before he lands, and snowboards down a steep cliff while the castle explodes behind him, propelling him soaring off a precipice and into a massive snowbank. Next he climbs out of the snow under which he had been buried, grits his jaw, pulls out his flaming greatsword, and lets out a roar as a massive carpet-horde of the evil beasts comes gibbering across the landscape from the castle at a thunderous, camera-shaking, speed, overwhelming him. Alien guts start flying everywhere as he displays his amazing prowess with the sword. In the background the collapsing castle blazes in the night, and then from the flames emerges a massive and fearsome form...The camera refocuses on the background and a massive dragon spreads it's wings and breathes a tremendous gout of flames. The camera screen is engulfed in fire and then coalesces into the words "Dungeons & Dragons". Then the image goes all shaky and jittery and it looks like the camera malfuctions. End of commercial.

Say, anyone remember that AOL commercial, the one where Anna Nicole Smith croons, "The internet is SOOOO sexy!"

Good job, kenjib!


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Zaruthustran]

[RANT]
You're sexist!
[/RANT]

So what about tasteful and well done costume? What's so wrong with that? "Regdar" and "Mialee" in something like 16th century court attire?

The problem with costumes is that they must be *very* well done, or they have little more impact than the unfortunate soul in a chicken outfit standing outside a restaurant trying to wave customers in.

First contact, as it were, should be a little more credible than the chainmail bikini approach. Remember, if this is a persons first exposure to D&D they may not have run into the chainmail bikini's or the LARPers before, and may not be horribly impressed. Especially if their viewpoint is somewhat conservative.
[And as a matter of fact they do not impress me. Just so that you are aware of my biases.]
[/B]

Hey, it was just a somewhat silly example. The "D&D art is sexist!" issue is a whole other discussion.

The iconics were conceived by WotC to represent the D&D brand. Regdar is the iconic fighter and Mialee is the wizard. Regdar wears scale mail, Mialee wears next to nothing. Neither wear anything close to 16th century court attire. They're adventurers, after all.

The costume of the iconics was WotC choice, not mine.

-z

 

[Zaruthustran]

Re: [AV] my ideal intro kit

The Adventure Game was cheap and underproduced. Give me something that doesn't embarass me. I want an intro kit with lots of toy value that grabs kids' attention. Give me pre-painted minis of the iconic characters and simplified rules. Give me a pre-set board, but also give me dungeon tiles. Give me treasure chests and other dungeon furniture. Give me spell cards and eraseable character sheets and wax pencils. Give me something that can compete with MK Dungeons for toy value.

This is a great idea. I bought Axis & Allies simply because the back of the box showcased that you get a couple hundred little plastic war planes, ships, tanks, and soldiers. Of course, once I opened up the box and played the game I became an A&A enthusiast.

Hasbro should do the same thing with D&D. Lots of pre-painted mins, full-color board (like Warhammer Quest's modular dungeon board), full set of nice dice, dice bag, sheet of blank character sheets, book of a few set adventures and a bunch of tables for random adventures, full color basic character cards, the works.

Stick it in toy stores and sell like crazy.

-z

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Re: Re: [AV] my ideal intro kit

Hasbro should do the same thing with D&D. Lots of pre-painted mins, full-color board (like Warhammer Quest's modular dungeon board), full set of nice dice, dice bag, sheet of blank character sheets, book of a few set adventures and a bunch of tables for random adventures, full color basic character cards, the works.
-z

Sounds great to me. It could be designed to be played with iconics, with a set of simple rules to "make up your own characters." Followed by a plug for the PHB. Modular board and random monster/treasure placement would make it replayable, especially with some simple "levelling" rules to allow trasure gains in one game to be ported to the next.

The modular board with simple pieces reminds me of an old game. Anyone remember WizWar? It had a modular maze in which you moved your wizard (a pawn) to locate treasure. Everything else about the game was card-based, but the spells -- and effects -- could be so wacky that I don't remember laughing so hard in any other game. Wonder if anyone still makes WizWar?

 

[Corinth]

D&D's audience isn't children. It's college undergraduates ages 18-22. That's where any advertising must go or its a waste of time and money.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

D&D's audience isn't children. It's college undergraduates ages 18-22. That's where any advertising must go or its a waste of time and money.

That's one audience, certainly. Maybe the Zulkir can confirm if that is what WOTC considers as its target audience. I seem to recall the target being a slightly younger age group than that.

Certainly there is a lot of D&D being played on middle & high school campuses. And I'd bet that there are more D&D players over the age of 22 than under.

If there isn't -- then perhaps that's a market that remains to be exploited.

 

[Telgian]

Hey, it was just a somewhat silly example. The "D&D art is sexist!" issue is a whole other discussion.
--z

*shrug* The idea of handing out information in theatres is fine by me, as I stated previously.
Your example of how to implement the idea has flaws, which I have pointed out.

"D&D art is sexist!" is involved in the discussion, although peripherally in this case. I notice that you didn't use "Hennet" with "Mialee" in your example. They are a better match IMNSHO given that both those iconics seem to have been hit by a 'fashion disaster elemental' at some point. [Or are escaped workers from Club Super-Sexe located on Ste. Catherine.]

My primary point was: Don't piss off the women.
My secondary point was: Aim to impress. Two people approaching others in very well done costume will go much further than a strictly "iconic" approach. Remember, these people do not yet even *know* that these are iconic characters. No need to scare them off just yet.
Failing that, don't have the people presenting information dress up in costume at all.

The costume of the iconics was WotC choice, not mine.
--z

That's fair.

As misquoted by Zaruthustran
[RANT]
You're sexist!
[/RANT]

Oh and by the way. Do not MISQUOTE me. This is truly bad form and manners, which does nothing for the credibility of your arguements. Get it right, or don't quote.

Telgian.

Edit for clarity

 

[ced1106]

Re: Re: Re: [AV] my ideal intro kit

The modular board with simple pieces reminds me of an old game. Anyone remember WizWar? It had a modular maze in which you moved your wizard (a pawn) to locate treasure. Everything else about the game was card-based, but the spells -- and effects -- could be so wacky that I don't remember laughing so hard in any other game. Wonder if anyone still makes WizWar?

Chessex does. Here's Tom Jolly's site: http://www.silcom.com/~tomjolly/

My own page:
http://members.aol.com/palo0303/wizwar/intro.htm


Enjoy!


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^