D&D 5E how many 5e supporters are upset about the possible $50 price tag

[Mistwell]

Are all of you so well off you can't imagine this 'ten's of dollars' mattering? DOes no one else here have to only buy things on sale with coupons? Am I the only one who got down sized between 4e realse and now and is still trying to recover?

As I said earlier, I absolutely feel for those who cannot afford this. I've definitely been there, several times in my life. But I think given their typical consumer, they're figuring the starter set or PDF versions are there for those who cannot afford the initial PHB release.

 

[mhensley]

This is from a paid consultant for WOTC

otherwise known as Nisarg, aka RPGPundit, aka some dude in Uruguay

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=28543&page=13

 

[Mistwell]

otherwise known as Nisarg, aka RPGPundit, aka some dude in Uruguay

He's a published game author (I've heard Arrows of Indra is quite good), but that aside, are you saying he's not a paid consultant for WOTC right now? Or that he is lying?

 

[Jester David]

So the list of people who say they were going to buy but now have doubt because of the price include, in my opinion, a lot of people who made it clear they were unsure about the game before the price issue existed. I think all of Ashkelon, Dausuul, ForeverSlayer, GMforPowergamers, Jester Canuck, and mhensley had all expressed, to one degree or another, doubt and a level of unsureness before the price issue existed.

Am I wrong? Were all you guys really "totally on board" with buying 5e sight unseen before this price issue came about?

Obviously posters can speak for themselves, but as someone who reads a lot of D&Dnext and other threads I would regard both @Dausuul and @GMforPowergamers as strong supporters, and probably also @Jester Canuck - Dausuul in particular made it clear a year or more ago that he(?) wanted a game closer to B/X than 4e, though learning some lessons about tightness of design/structure from 4e. D&Dnext looks like a candidate to be that game.

I was/am pretty gung-ho about D&D5. It has great potential. And I was planning on buying it "sometime".

Probably.
WotC has lost their place on my "buy sight unseen" list, so my purchase was going to be dependant on reviews, cursory looks in the store, and evaluating a borrowed copy (or, let's be honest, a pirated copy).
So, despite the promise of the playtest, they could still lose their way, forget some lessons learned, and release a terrible game.

A few mechanical things make me nervous. While they probably won't stop my purchase they could delay it until I see even more of the game (i.e. future releases). And they might limit my purchases to just the core books rather than Core + accessories. And they might mean the difference between D&D5 being my go-to game and D&D5 being the game I play between campaigns of my go-to game.

The price is similar to the above. It makes me hesitant and nervous, because it is a jump. We don't know if that's just the price for the PHB, or all the Core books, or all the hardcovers. Or size, as the 4e books were pretty small.
Gaming is my principal hobby and financial sink, and if I'm supporting a game I'm going to get a lot of the accessories. But not if they're priced too high for the content.
I'll throw away money for things I love and have bought many an RPG book that will never be used, but I'm trying to cut down on doing that. And if D&D5 is an unfortunate combination of mechanics I'm not thrilled about and high prices it's going to be hard to justify the purchase unless everything else that that much more fantastic.

 

[pogre]

I think they would have to go above $60 for the price to be a factor for me.

 

[Umbran]

yes this leak is unconfirmed, but it isn't from some guys' brother's best friend's sister in law who used to date the guy in accounting... its from BARNS AND NOBLE... it has some weight to it.

Yeah. And Amazon, which does even more online business, has gotten release dates, page counts, prices, and authors wrong on various and sundry products.

Mistakes happen.

that is insulting, and if you weren't a mod I would ask one to look at this. I drink coffee from my home, not Duncan donuts not star bucks, I buy tea bags at the dollar store. I go for months longer then I am supposed to between oil changes, I do not have 'places to cut' let alone for a game.

What part of, "There are folks for whom this difference really is telling, I am sure," fails to address your issue?

I have myself been a student and grad student, for years running on a shoestring. So I understand the difficulty. But I also recognize that was a problem of my situation, not a problem with the folks who make things I couldn't afford. If you're on a tight budget, you cut, scrimp, save, prioritize, and no matter what you do, you just can't get everything you want.

 

[JEB]

Is there any good reason why they should sell it for $40?

Assuming this question wasn't rhetorical or unserious... because a $40 price tag would make it more attractive to buyers who aren't RPG hobbyists already. (Though I suspect the upper limit for most casual/new gamers would really be around $30.)

You don't always want to price your flagship products for maximum profitability per item - sometimes you sacrifice short-term profits in exchange for building up your long-term customer base. Unless the PHB is completely optional, which is highly unlikely, this seems like one of those cases.

 

[n00bdragon]

D&D books have always been remarkably cheap for RPG materials. A $50 book is normal. Then again for your average $50 gaming book you get the equivalent of a PHB and a DMG and very lame excuse for a MM all in one book.

I'm not a poor college kid who thinks $50 for hundreds of hours of entertainment is an outrage but my RPG shelf space is more valuable than I think the game is currently worth.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

Assuming this question wasn't rhetorical or unserious... because a $40 price tag would make it more attractive to buyers who aren't RPG hobbyists already. (Though I suspect the upper limit for most casual/new gamers would really be around $30.)

You don't always want to price your flagship products for maximum profitability per item - sometimes you sacrifice short-term profits in exchange for building up your long-term customer base. Unless the PHB is completely optional, which is highly unlikely, this seems like one of those cases.

I really hope the starter set for $20 is designed exactly with this kind of purchase in mind, the evangelizing product. If the box is any good, the $50 PHB will be a product for the converts.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Poll options don't do much for me unfortunately. How can people like or dislike 5E when we don't know what it is like yet? Yes, we've had playtesting, but playtesting and the final product can be very different.

Personally I'm likely to buy 5E, but I don't know if I like it or dislike it yet as I haven't got the books! A $50 PHB price tag is not a dealbreaker for me.