D&D 5E D&D Next Starter Set - how should it look like?

[GX.Sigma]

The question was: Are dice expensive for WOTC to add to the set. Not, what can they get if they were to go into the business of selling dice.

Actually, they did sell a dice set. For $12.95. Right alongside the Red Box. Which was $20. And included dice.

 

[Mistwell]

Actually, they did sell a dice set. For $12.95. Right alongside the Red Box. Which was $20. And included dice.

Again, if we want to ask "What could WOTC charge for dice" that's a different question. I am sure they COULD charge more than $1, and they COULD get all kinds of fancy with the type of dice they get made.

But as to what it costs them and what it would cost the consumer if WOTC just wanted to make a standard 20% profit on including the dice in the boxed set? It's about a buck for the cheap dice I linked to. And that was the question posed.

They can include dice in the boxed set, and all it will do is bump the price $1. So, if they're going to make a boxed set anyway, I think they should include those dice, for the people who are new players and don't have them, or those of us who just want dice with our boxed set of rules.

 

[Jester David]

The range of prices is for smaller to larger runs. It's FOB China, but we already factors shipping and customs into the x5 price. But if you want to be precise, add 30% to the base cost for shipping from China port to Seattle port, customs, duty, port fee, port warehouse, and trucking from port warehouse to WOTC warehouse. So about $0.04 more per set of 7 dice. We're really not talking about a lot of money here.

Well, no. The "5x" rule is multiplying the cost by five, and shipping is part of the cost.
1/5 - Cost to make
1/5 - Profit
1/5 - Distributor's cut
2/5 - Retailer mark-up

So going by your numbers again (which, by you admission require a large purchase, and likely far more than the 50,000 units WotC is going to print) we get: ($0.02 x 7)+$0.04 = $0.18. $0.18 x 5 = $0.90 (but likely closer to $1.50-$2.00 for the numbers WotC has to order).
Not exactly free.
And, again, there's still the cost of assembling the dice with the box as neither the dice manufacturer or the book printer is going to do that.

And this still ignores the fact that, according to Mike Mearls, it takes eight months to produce a boxed set. So getting it in time would have meant finishing it back in November, before they ended the playtest. Unless they can find a way to package dice in a starter set that lacks a box.

 

[TexSIN]

Id just like to see a decent setup for new players that also includes enough information to keep the veterans interested. My fear is that they will ostracize the people who are real fans of D&D trying to cater to video gamers and lose focus of their core audience.

 

[Mistwell]

So going by your numbers again (which, by you admission require a large purchase, and likely far more than the 50,000 units WotC is going to print)

No, it doesn't. "A lot" is 10,000 sets.

It's under $1.00

Not exactly free.

You let me know when someone says it's free.

We're working with actual numbers, they are real, they are backed to direct links and actual deep knowledge on this topic. You've strawmanned it enough - nobody said it was free, I said the same thing I am saying now for the third time - it's under $1.00 total factoring in all costs and profits. Here it is again: $0.19 per set of 7 dice (all the sides including percentile, all shipping, all customs), in a small bag, to their door. Multiple that by 5, you get $0.95.

All I said is "that's not expensive". You started this part of the thread saying it was, I've corrected it, my correction remains the real answer here.

And, again, there's still the cost of assembling the dice with the box as neither the dice manufacturer or the book printer is going to do that.

The cost of tossing a bag of dice in the box? Come on now. You've dragged this out long enough. You want to use some of that extra $0.05 you have between the $0.95 and $1.00 for tossing dice in a box, be my guest. There is simply no calculation here that adds up to more than $1.00. And a buck is not "expensive". We're all OK with a buck for dice in the set I think.

And this still ignores the fact that, according to Mike Mearls, it takes eight months to produce a boxed set.

That's not what he said (we've had that discussion already too), but it doesn't matter. This has nothing to do with the dice discussion. They are producing a boxed set, and we're talking about the cost of putting dice in it. It will raise your price by about $1.00. You can deal with that, right?

 

[JEB]

I'd say it's reasonable to assume the Starter Set will be a loss leader, and not expected to be profitable. (Which might help explain the $50 Player's Handbook, BTW.) So odds are any estimates of what will be in it will only partly be based on manufacturing and printing costs.

Personally, I don't care about the details, so long as you can play the game with the Starter Set alone, and I can also buy a copy for my friends and have them do the same. If it's just a demo for the "real" game, it's no good.

 

[delericho]

Actually, they did sell a dice set. For $12.95.

That's actually a key point - because they're almost certainly going to be producing a dice set anyway, that means they'll be placing a very large order with a manufacturer anyway, and that brings down the unit cost. It was almost certainly the same with the map, tokens, and other bits and pieces from the 4e Red Box - by reusing materials that they were producing for other sets, they were able to keep the production costs much lower than they would otherwise have been.

As for the price point of their own dice set, I would expect that's because they believed they could charge an obscene mark-up for an 'official' dice set, rather than a marker for the cost of actually producing such a set. Mostly because I simply don't believe it costs WotC so much more to produce their dice set than it costs others to produce the exact same thing - Mistwell has already provided the links giving my reasons why.

 

[frogimus]

I want a crayon with the dice.