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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 2731430" data-attributes="member: 697">But that's sort of my point - the maps are intended for both D&D and DDM, but gamers either don't see that (we haven't marketed them well) or they don't care (the maps just don't fill a need for D&D players). It's interesting trying to figure out where the truth lies, particularly since the maps seem popular for D&D here at WotC.As for random miniatures, it's an issue that comes up. The economic reality is that random packaging allows us to do a lot more miniatures at a higher quality level and with a much easier burden on retailers and distributors. Non-random packs have come up in conversations about minis at the office.(At this point, I'm taking off my official WotC employee hat. I don't work on the production side of things. This is purely my take on it as a gamer who happens to have worked in the RPG business for 6 years.)The key is that the random packs sell well, and they're only selling better with each release. If we wanted to do a non-random set, there are a few issues that we'd have to deal with.If we did non-random sets, we'd have to do them in such a way that appeals to the people who already buy the random packs. If we offer a set of minis that they already have from previous sets, they probably just won't buy them. There's a big risk there that if we lose the people who are already happy with the line, there aren't enough buyers left over who are interested.If we put exclusive figures in the set, there would likely be problems with keeping costs down and making the set's retail price reasonable to people. This ties into Merric's Law: a miniatures game can be two of the following things: cheap, pre-painted plastic, or non-random. Given that we're commited to pre-painted plastic here, cheap has to fall off that menu.That causes a number of issues: will people who are happy to buy boosters spring for a more expensive set? If that set has an exclusive figure or three, will they be happy that they're paying more per figure than if we just included those figures in a standard set? Given that boosters sell really well, is the demand out there sufficient to meet the increased costs?I think it's an issue that seems pretty straightforward, but it quickly becomes complex when you try to fit it into the big picture. For now, it looks like eBay, popularcollections.com, and similar sources are filling the needs of people who want singles.So, that doesn't really help you, but I hope it helps explain why things are the way they are.</blockquote>

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