D&D outside the U.S.

[dvvega]

Australia here and I usually buy from Amazon. For some reason the importers in this country think that they can gouge the small people by not even looking at the exchange rate and using a base formula that includes doubling the US price to start with before applying a compensating factor.

I do not feel great about it since I don't support my local store enough, however when I am buying a book that is almost double the US price and our dollar is not 0.5 US it irks me to no end.

The wait I get through Amazon is acceptable and since I order a large number of books at a time, shipping is spread out and thus lower per item.

The moment importers here stop this practice I will buy in Australia.

D

 

[mach1.9pants]

Same as NZ, books are ridiculously priced over here. I buy almost 100% off Amazon etc. We only have a handful of RPG stores in the entire country anyway, none near me.

 

[Lancelot]

Another Kiwi (New Zealander) posting in the thread.

I'm based in our largest city, Auckland - which has about 30% of the country's population living in it. Having said that, even in Auckland (our "New York"), there are only four "gaming shops" that stock RPG supplies... and only one of them approaches the stock of a typical US store. The best of these has one wall of RPG stuff (mostly 4e D&D, with a smattering of supplements for Dark Heresy, Star Wars saga and Pathfinder), and three walls of wargaming supplies (Warhammmer, Flames of War, etc).

Prices are high. I usually buy game manuals locally to support the gaming stores, but I always order minis (boosters or singles) online. Purchase price, even with priority international shipping, is approximately 33% cheaper than buying locally. I could probably get the same sort of discount for buying manuals as well, but spending an extra $10 every now and then to support the local store doesn't bite as hard as spending an extra $50 to buy a case of 12 mini boosters.

Due to the lack of venues, most gaming is done in the home, amongst a circle of friends. I've only rarely gamed at a store. Most people in the stores will be playing Magic the Gathering.

Attracting new players is generally a matter of recruiting friends and workmates. I've been fortunate in that one of my players is an extroverted kind of guy who has many friends/workmates who used to play D&D back in the 80's. We've had great success in bringing new players back into the fold with both 3e and 4e. Our group generally fluctuates between 5 and 7 members.

We've only ever lost members due to people moving out-of-town, but this does happen quite often. Kiwis are notorious travelers. However, we've always managed to find new players by looking around our circle of friends and workmates, or having an ex-player move back into town again after several years.

 

[Kaiyanwang]

There was a successful 3rd edition translation and the same guys now translate 4th edition. I'm not sure how 4th edition is doing because I now live in the US. Books are translated within a month or two. Books are available mostly through hobby store (every good size city has some - my city of 150000 people had up to 5 stores), but I know that some public libraries used to carry D&D books. Amazon does not have a italian store nor any other big e-sellers, so you have to pay for international shipping

Italian translation has some funny mistake (just in Player Handbook, see perform: comedy translated with Commedia) but overall is decent.

I found far more annoying that the italian company that was translating 3rd edition stopped the translations when 4th edition came out. VERY annoying.

 

[pemerton]

I am in Melbourne, Australia. I buy my books at a local game shop. I'm paying $5 to $10 more per book than I would if I ordered online, but I quite like having a shop that stocks RPGs that I can drop into for browsing pleasure, and to pick up second-hand stuff that I otherwise wouldn't come across.

 

[surfarcher]

Another Australian here, from Adelaide.

I buy most of my books from eBay I think my average buy price is now below AU$25 including postage. If I ever bought from a shop it would be the one my mate runs.

 

[Jack99]

Denmark here. Only a couple of stores carry dnd stuff, but luckily I live within 10 miles of the best one.

I just paid $54 for the Dark Sun campaign guide, so yeah, its expensive over here. On a positive note, my store often gets things very early, so early that I have had several threads, revealing what is inthe books - not bad considering how far away I am

 

[Lord Ernie]

Here in Belgium, the situation mostly depends on where in the country you live. FLGS's that carry RPG products are actually quite rare, although I am lucky to have one in the neighbourhood (I live near Hasselt, for those that know what's where in Belgium). It carries more or less everything for your gaming needs, including D&D (4th, and a stock of older product), Pathfinder, WW RPG's, Warhammer, and MTG, along with a bunch of smaller-scale products, including alot of LARP stuff.

I buy most of my stuff there, with the occasional online purchase if I can get a really good deal; of course, the lack of a distributor in Belgium itself means shipping costs can be rather prohibitive - having to ship it in from the UK or Germany is often enough to cancel out the price difference between the online store and the FLGS. And if it comes down to it, might as well support the local place.

Oh, and as in movies, I hate translations for this kind of product. I'd rather throw fireballs than 'vuurballen' any day of the week.

 

[birdinforest]

A Chinese living in Sydney.
I usually purchase DND books from Amazon or eBay.
There are DnD4e core books are printed in chinese but more than 1 year delay. It is said not too hard to buy them via online bookstore, though I did not try.
As I know, most of chinese DnD/TRPG players usually play games online via IRC software, a few of us are using MapTool. There are some DND store in big citys holding events, however I'v no chance to join one.

 

[Arivendel]

First Philippines poster yay!.

You can find some books in Manila, and I understand Cebu and perhaps even Davao have good D&D communities, however where i live the support is non-existent so it becomes rather expensive to acquire the books, add to that the fact there's almost no groups here (i know of maybe 2 but their playing schedules dont allow me to join)