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The Glen

Legend
"Boxed set" is a bit generous; Al-Qadim, Dark Sun and Birthright all had sourcebooks/modules that were put into a slim box set format. You probably know of them, but they aren't "thick" enough to really register as boxed set. For Birthright it was:

  • Cities of the Sun
  • Havens of the Great Bay
  • Tribes of the Heartless Waste
  • Rjurik Highlands

and the campaign set.

For Al-Qadim, you had the likes of:

Adventures
  • Golden Voyages
  • Assassin Mountain
  • A Dozen and One Adventures
  • Secrets of the Lamp

Region sets
  • Ruined Kingdoms
  • Corsairs of the Great Sea
  • Caravans
  • Cities of Bone

The real "boxed sets" for that setting were "Land of Fate" and "Cities of Delight".

Dark Sun had the folio adventure sets, which were sort of like boxed set adventures. It too had several boxed sets - "City by the Silt Sea" and "Ivory Triangle" was a full-sized one, and seem to recall there were other slim sets (all my stuff is in storage, so going by memory) such as "Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs", and "Mindlords of the Last Sea".

2E got super-happy with the boxed sets, because they appeared to sell better than softbound books. However, I seem to recall articles/discussions that they generally ended up costing most than they made back*. I also imagine they had a lot of returns as back in the day when I would go to the bookstore I'd find those sets had been opened and rifled through - and there's few people I know who'd buy an open box for fear something would be missing.

* Even worse were the "faux leather" cover books like Complete Shi'ar, the other Complete books and the Historical References, whose gold lettering and cover were exceedingly expensive for the time.
There was also the feeling that TSR quality was slipping quickly around 1995. They were producing quite a bit, but things weren't fully edited, rushed out, and the things you got weren't all that helpful. Lot of gimmick products hit the shelves like the Survival kits with minimal art and just blank books for character records. Put out crap don't be surprised when it sells like crap.
 

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