Humble Bundle Pros and Cons for the Publisher

[Reynard]

Honestly, this is a question about how we value the work of our hobby. And, generally speaking, it is "way too little."

 

[Dire Bare]

Honestly, this is a question about how we value the work of our hobby. And, generally speaking, it is "way too little."

Disagree.

Certainly, when releasing new products, RPG books tend to be underpriced for the work and value put into them.

But these bundles usually offer older products that would otherwise struggle to see current sales. Or indie products that struggle to reach a wider audience.

And sales aren't a bad thing necessarily, they can be a great marketing tool that can lead to wider exposure, more fans, and more income!

As a customer, while these charity bundles aren't perfect, I do see them as a beautiful merger of charitible giving, spotlighting older or indie products, and giving publisher a way to boost sales, increase visibility, and feel good about being a part of charitable giving.

I think the NEW Shadowrun books should probably be priced higher . . . and I'm more likely to buy the newer books because I now have a pretty decent sized library of the classic titles from years gone by.

 

[cbwjm]

I've bought bundles that I'm a bit interested in the lore but I'd never buy otherwise, like modiphius books, I don't really like the 2d20 system but they have some good franchises. I think I got a good chunk of star trek adventures. Same with Conan, I think it was end of license or something so included everything they'd produced for a steal.

 

[Voadam]

The juxtaposition of the first paragraph and the second almost bowled me over!

You should do Bundles but you shouldn't do Bundles!

For publishers I recommend focusing on the point that I bought the bundles and put money in the publishers' accounts.

I have spent more on A5e through Bundle of Holding than I believe I would have otherwise, and I got more books from it than I would have otherwise so I consider it a win-win.

The annoyance at seeing something go on sale after I had already gotten it is there, but it is minor and not a grudge I hold against the publishers. I usually still get the bundle of holding and humble bundle bundles as most have enough to make it worthwhile for me anyway even if I have the core book already. At worst for a publisher I pass on the bundle as not offering me stuff I want even at the bundle price.

I just got the current full Fallout one for instance despite already owning the corebook and the current Shadowrun one even though I had probably half of the PDF sourcebooks in it already, the big adventures, the complete set of little ones, the conspiracy book, etc all were worthwhile enough on their own for me to get it.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I just finished doing a Bundle of Holding. Huge success for me. It was a Shadowdark bundle, and when I originally did the kickstarter last year, I did have a Shadowdark version of the book (along with a 5e version and OSE version). I made twice as much in the bundle of holding as I did with the Shadowdark backers in the original KS. For no extra work or costs on my end. That's a win.

 

[djotaku]

The biggest "con" I see with the bundles, as a customer, is that they are coming a little too fast and furious for me. Sometimes I pass on a bundle I would otherwise purchase, simply because I just picked up another 2 or 3 bundles and my budget is out for the month.

This happened to me last year with the Black Friday sales. I went too hard on Humble Bundles and Kickstarters and then was screwed over on not having game budget to take the deals on Black Friday through into the new year. What saved me partially was Kobold Press extending their Advent Calendar sales until 31 Dec. At that point, I felt ok dipping into 2026's entertainment budget to get sales deep enough that one of the supplements was effectively free based on how much I had saved.

 

[djotaku]

For publishers I recommend focusing on the point that I bought the bundles and put money in the publishers' accounts.

I have spent more on A5e through Bundle of Holding than I believe I would have otherwise, and I got more books from it than I would have otherwise so I consider it a win-win.

The annoyance at seeing something go on sale after I had already gotten it is there, but it is minor and not a grudge I hold against the publishers. I usually still get the bundle of holding and humble bundle bundles as most have enough to make it worthwhile for me anyway even if I have the core book already. At worst for a publisher I pass on the bundle as not offering me stuff I want even at the bundle price.

I just got the current full Fallout one for instance despite already owning the corebook and the current Shadowrun one even though I had probably half of the PDF sourcebooks in it already, the big adventures, the complete set of little ones, the conspiracy book, etc all were worthwhile enough on their own for me to get it.

For me, at some point the math stops mathing for some bundles. Once I had already gotten a PF2e bundle - a new bundle where most of the value was in the core books wasn't useful for me. (The cost to get the Adventure Paths was equivalent to just buying the APs directly from Paizo) I think that's the only bad thing about Paizo doing it over and over. Fanatical Has a PF2e intro bundle right now and, again, as someone who already has the core books - it's harder for me to decide to do the bundle. (I'm skipping it)

Getting back to my original intent with the thread - looking at things from Publisher point of view (and hoping for publisher input - thanks again Morrus), this brings up an interesting idea. If the point is to get new players - at what point do you have "all" the new players? Is there value in doing a Humble (or one of the other companies) that assumes players already have the core books and focuses more on Adventure Paths, modules, etc? The DCC humble campaigns kinda seem to skew that way - although it helps that there's only one core book so the value is going to be in the adventures.

 

[kronovan]

In terms of Humble Bundles or Bundles of Holding, there isn't much con for a publisher when I'm the customer. I typically only buy the few print books for a TTRPG that are required for the players. I like to homebrew my adventures, so after those initial purchases I don't typically buy much. On the other hand, I'll buy a HB or BoH on sale to fill out the collection. So through the sale of the bundle, the publisher is getting at least some revenue from me that I wouldn't have otherwise spent.

I haven't bought many, but bought the Star Trek Adventures HB to add to the print STA CRB and Player's Guide I bought. I did the same with the Delta Green and Adventures in Middle Earth HBs, and bought the BoH for The Dying Earth (DCC) and Hostile! (Cepheus Engine.) Sometimes they offer real perks, such as the AiME BoH which came at the end of Cubicle7's holding of the license and included final, not yet published content. I haven't bought any bundle that I haven't at least read, much of which I've used for reference material for brewing adventures and campaigns. I definitely make a point of checking them frequenlty, as all I've bought have featured quality PDFs.

I also occassionally buy the Graphic Novel bundles, but only those that contain multiple volumes for included series. And only those that offer ePub or comic reader format - PDFs are OK for TTRPGs, but IMO less than ideal for GNs.

Something I really like with HB, is that part of revenue goes to a charity. That's important to me, as I've been actively involved in various charities for decades. My only real complaint is that VTT content is rarely offered in these bundles.

 

[djotaku]

My only real complaint is that VTT content is rarely offered in these bundles.

The one Paizo bundle I regretted not getting had a bunch of Foundry VTT modules, but it's definitely not common. I think part of the problem is in deciding which VTT to support. I've seen some here and there for Shard or Fantasy Grounds, but I use Foundry. I don't want to have to buy and/or subscribe to ANOTHER VTT just for some HB content that I would maybe run.

And, having seen what's entailed in a VTT module release (and VTT module maintenance as the VTT releases new versions), I think it would be cost prohibitive to have a bundle that gives access to VTT module on all VTTs. I also think it's tougher to do because most of the VTT modules are subcontracted out. Neither Paizo nor Kobold Press make theirs. Based on what I have inferred from some Foundry blog posts - WotC doesn't make theirs either - they subcontract it out to the Foundry Devs. Maybe that doesn't matter, but it probably has some kind of effect on it.

 

[Cergorach]

The one Paizo bundle I regretted not getting had a bunch of Foundry VTT modules...

I got that bundle, with the FVTT Abomination Vaults module. That was very beneficial for both FVTT and Paizo. Bought quite a bit of FVTT stuff and Paizo stuff specifically due to that bundle. It showed off the paid FVTT module quality made by both FVTT and Paizo. I eventually spent a lot more then the value contained in that bundle.