I Miss Boxed Sets

[ColonelHardisson]

I generally dislike boxed sets because of how easily they get crushed or banged up. The best boxed sets for any RPG were for Call of Cthulhu. I liked the variety of goodies that boxes like Masks of Nyarlathotep had - pictures, letters, business cards, newspaper clippings; MoN had the famous matchbox, also. D&D boxed sets were too often lacking in goodies - I mean, if it's just going to be 2 or 3 saddle-stitched books and a couple of maps, it might as well be a book.

 

[WizarDru]

Bought one boxed set, even though I didn't play 2e (I had purchased boxed games back in the early 80s, but for D&D, only one in the 90s). It was the giant dungeon city in the Forgotten Realms (name fails me right now). I thought it was terrible, frankly. It was just a bunch of flash-cards, a colored 'map' which provided information I could have invented in ten minutes, and a small booklet with some city information and a few new monsters (like yet another kind of beholder for the realms).


I know that FLGS at that time didn't much care for box sets, due to their difficulty in storage and relatively low sales numbers.

 

[MEG Hal]

I was not a big fan of boxed sets although I owned (own) them. They are bulky etc...but take a look back and see how much info was in them vs. the books of today, I am much happier with a nice thick well done book then a box with a few maps etc....exception was CoC because it did have a lot of cool stuff in it but some of the other boxed sets seemed "small" once I opened it (Waterdeep comes to mind). Now saying that I would buy one if one was created, but I bought a meteorite die, so as far as judging customer trends on what I will buy is like asking Ben Affleck not to be a cheesy actor---can't be done

 

[darkbard]

i too must join in with the minority and say "good riddance" to boxed sets. they take up far more room on the shelf than the content warrants, they're easily bashed in at the corners, and they're a pain in the a$$ to lug around.

three cheers for hardcovers: hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I liked them. I think necromancer is putting some of the Wilderlands stuff in a boxed set with a ton of maps.

 

[Palantir]

A few years back, when I bought Domains of Dread for 2e, I looked at the cover and binding and thought, "THIS is how a campaign setting should be packaged."

I'm very pleased with WOTC's decision to continue along that route.

- Palantir

 

[JeffB]

I miss those old boxes..the surprise of seeing what exactly the contents look like, etc..it's like XMAS

As the good Col. said CoC boxed sets were fantastic, and really that extended to ALL Chaosium products..epecially Runequest, but also SuperWorld, Stormbinger, etc...Chaosium was and always will be KING of the Boxed set AFAIC. BUt TSR certainly put out some good ones : PS, several of the FR boxed sets, etc.

One of the ncie things was that you could actually separate player and DM info with a boxed set..can't do it with an all in one book...unless the player's section is perforated or something...I miss that....it's really a apin in the A$$..before I could say "her ya go guys..here's the player's knowledge book for Waterdeep" or what have you a wwek before the game and then could do what I needed to do..now I have to write something up to keep them from knowing too much stuff...

And yes, Necromancer is planning on putting out a Boxed Set for the Wilderlands..WOOHOO!

 

[Desdichado]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: well

That sounds close to what I was thinking but a $70 set would have to have a good amount of material in it. Probably 3-4 books plus multiple maps to get it that high. But if it did (like the 2e FR set) than I could see it getting close to that figure altho it seems a tad high, but only by about $10. The multiple bindings (on the individual books) alone would jack the price up some.

Yeah, but didn't he just claim that Ryan D. said it was the labor and not the material that made the cost?

 

[Mark]

Maybe some enterprising, and wealth-laden , d20 company will take up the challenge. If not for a fantasy genre, perhaps d20 Modern offers more possibilities in line with the variety of materials that were found in the old CoC boxed-set?

 

[Buttercup]

I'll take a hardback any day over a box filled with flimsy pamphlets.

However, if/when the day comes that someone releases a super deluxe mega-adventure complete with module, maps, handouts, counters, and props, they can box it and charge $100, and I'll buy it. If 20 different ones are released, I won't be able to afford all of them, but I'd buy a few.