Here's What's In That $500 Beadle & Grimm Platinum Edition of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

If you've been wondering what you'll get for your $500, wonder no more! Footage and images straight from Gen Con reveal the expensive box's contents!

Click the image to watch a video!

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What you get in the box:

• Waterdeep: Dragon Heist broken down into 8 smaller books
• A selection of important maps and all the major artwork
• A custom DM Screen -- "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is a city-based adventure, and that means tons of NPCs for a DM to keep track of. The exclusive Platinum Edition DM screen will be packed with quick reference guides to help you keep track of who’s who, who’s aligned with whom, and where they’re likely to be found. On the player side, we feature some of our favorite artwork from the module."
• 22 miniatures (2 large, 20 regular sized) including the beholder shown below.
• A range of battle maps.
• A stack of encounter cards including stats for creatures and more.
• Custom handouts including letters, journals, newspapers, and more.
• Two large canvas maps, one of Waterdeep and the other secret for some reason.
• A dragon coin.
• Other stuff they can't tell us about.

DM Screen

Beholder Miniature

Faction Objects

Volo's Guide to Waterdeep

Encounter Cards

Canvas Maps

Dragon Coins

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[R_J_K75]

For something very much like that, check out Jeff Stevens "Encounters in the..." series: Encounters in the Savage Jungles, ...Savage Cities, etc. He specializes in getting writers to collaborate and offer encounters and maps for those releases (I'm in Encounters in the Savage Jungles), so they have a great range of adventure types, encounter types, inspirations, and locales. Helps make them exceptionally easy to drop in anywhere. Some are a single encounter or even single NPC/monster, some are a small dungeon, a single shop, or (like mine) some are a short adventure unto themselves.

That sounds exactly what Im looking for, thanks, Ill definitley check those out. Seems like a good time saver in a pinch.

 

[Nerditorium]

That is one beautiful set. If I bought it, it'd only be a shelf item. Too afraid to damage it.

 

[EthanSental]

I'm glad I got a refund now as is I don't see it being worth it to me currently. I'm curious to see if people their box and how soon they go up on eBay to recoup some money after the fact.

 

[TheSwartz]

Looks like a box of completely boring junk to me.

 

[Dyson Logos]

"I can't help but think it is going to be a colossal failure, sales-wise."

Limited print run, and they sold out the initial pre-order in the first week it was offered? I doubt there will be any left to grab within a few months of actual release except on the secondary market.

 

[lkj]

Yeah. I think success has a different bar to cross here. They are only making 1000 of them. Only a fraction of a fraction of the market needs to be interested. I mean, that's good, because at $500 only a fraction of a fraction of the market will be interested (I'm not for example). But it does mean that a large majority of us can think it's not worth it, and they still be successful. As a business? I don't know. But in terms of selling all their product? Sure.

But a 'Platinum Edition' implies the possibility of other, less valuable editions that might be interesting. Like, how about a 'Crappy Mass Produced Plastic' edition. That's probably more my financial speed.

AD

 

[Vanveen]

Maybe if they ever create 'gold', 'silver' or 'copper' versions...
I know they are starting, intentionally, at the high end, but I think they are going to sink themselves by their high-end not being high enough, and too expensive for general gamers.

The model is clearly stuff like Kingdom Death: Monster, which does fantastic with an IP that's much flimsier (and probably the worst name in all of gaming). As a boardgamer, I've seen the Enormous Box o' Plastic Crap overrun the scene in the past few years. (And "Beadle and Grimm" is a typically annoying "steampunky" name for a company like this. Or some stupid startup that wants to send you hand-curated socks every month.)

Since the market whines so incessantly about how little money it has (well, not enough money to buy all the things it wants) it's taken years for the concept of a "high end" to emerge. But like old-school Trekkies, a lot of gamers are loaded: young, single (ahem), in high-paying smartypants jobs. Turns out nobody asked them to buy a $500 box of plasticrap before, and turns out a chunk of them will. It makes especial sense for D and D because there's a significant group factor, stronger even than there is in boardgaming. You can show off to your friends under the guise of entertaining them.

We'll probably see a lot more of this kind of thing, not less, given that the margins on a product like this are eye-popping. As far as not high-end enough? Consider this almost a test run. The speculator market alone is ready to absorb quite a bit.

 

[EthanSental]

"I can't help but think it is going to be a colossal failure, sales-wise."

Limited print run, and they sold out the initial pre-order in the first week it was offered? I doubt there will be any left to grab within a few months of actual release except on the secondary market.

They hadn't sold out in the first week...1000 platinum editions supposedly total as they were still selling them at gen con 2 months later than the launch stream.

 

[Bishop Odo]

I thought, I read that it will have limited edition figures? Maybe they ran afoul of GF9 licensing agreement?

 

[mrswing]

Nice idea but this is just a head-scratcher and I can't help but think it is going to be a colossal failure, sales-wise. I could see a deluxe set for $150, maybe $200, but half a thousand dollars?!

And much, much more for international customers. Maybe they're aiming this at the celebrity D&D set from Hollywood?