Pathfinder 1E If Paizo bought Greyhawk could they make their money back?

[GQuail]

I don't want your trust. I just want your credit card number.

I don't own a credit card (apart from a company one, and they wouldn't want me buying D&D stuff on it ;-) ) but I still purchase PDFs online. But I'll accept that it's still a fringe activity at best, and the fact that it often invovles giving out card details to companies or dealing with intermediatires like PayPal is always going to be an obstacle for some. But this goes into other, totally un-Greyhawk related issues tha tI won't bore the boards with. :>

An honest to god Greyhawk book in shops is better than a thousand PDFs online/ And this year we'll be getting one, too. :>

Unless someone have the bright enterpreneural idea to offer internet kiosk at FLGS to buy PDF with CHC.

As an aside, this would be a funky idea. Go into your game shop, select the book from the PDF collectiona nd get it printed and bound there and then. They could keep the big sellers in stock in hardcopy, the rest would all be POD. (Alternatively, they could order "proper" copies for you if you want the longer-lasting traditional book binding)

at the very least, a shop could arrange a deal with a local print shop where they would get a discount on printing out and binding simple stuff up, and then you could leave an order with them for X days to get your product printed out. Pick from their list of PDFs on offer and come back to get it all nice and neat.

 

[Ranger REG]

As an aside, this would be a funky idea. Go into your game shop, select the book from the PDF collectiona nd get it printed and bound there and then.

I'm satisfied if they could burn it on a CD-ROM, store on memory card/stick (you must provide), or upload into your portable flash drive (some MP3 players are flash drives).

 

[Thulcondar]

A Campaign Sourcebook might sell quite well, and well-written, location-based adventures might sell well too, but that would be about it. You might also be able to get a "Player's Guide" that could be well accepted (especially if it was written in a form like the Eberron PG), and maybe a "Faiths of" book depending on how it was written, but that would be about it.

I disagree, to an extent.

I am not a fan by any stretch of spoon-feeding the DM every scrap of information he or she might ever want; that's my major complaint about supplements like "Iuz the Evil" and "The Marklands". However, I think there's still room to fill in missing information that could keep a product line going for at least a few years.

The obvious core of such a line would be adventure locations. GH is known for its large dungeon complexes such as Castle Greyhawk, Maure Castle, the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and of course the underground cavern system under the Hellfurnaces wherein lies the Vault of the Drow (just imagine a line of products covering all the potential adventure locales in there!). A line of products detailing the various major cities would be helpful, too (Irongate, Highfolk, Niole Dra, etc.). I would certainly put out money for an "Armies of Greyhawk" line (maybe a hex-and-counters wargame with various supplements for specific battles, maybe something miniatures-based). Novels are perfectly fine if they're well-written and don't particularly shake the foundations of the setting (like the later Gord the Rogue novels obviously did) or make a pigs ear of established canon (like the Rose Estes books did). Too, there's always room for more large-scale information that covers specific areas of knowledge; a new sourcebook could have more information on trade (rationales for those ubiquitous merchant caravans), for example, or guilds. Too, nothing says it need be limited to the Flanaess; there are the Baklunish Kingdoms to be fleshed out, not to mention the lands further to the West.

Plenty of room for new material, without having to advance the timeline or drown the DM in detail, methinks...

 

[Wraith Form]

We've raised the issue before, and it's always been a non-starter.

*sigh*

Those dummies.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Perhaps a better question is:
Could Paizo make money if they created their own setting?
No need to license Greyhawk, there are a fair number of other options to explore.

The Auld Grump

 

[Erik Mona]

I'd love to know the answer to that question, naturally.

--Erik

 

[Ranger REG]

I'd love to know the answer to that question, naturally.

What? Are you already sick and tired of Greyhawk that you want to move on to a new setting project?

 

[sad_genius]

I suspect it's more along the lines of "people who run businesses like them to be successful"

Over-react much?

 

[Jester David]

I doubt they'd make any money.

White Wolf, a *slightly* larger company than Paizo, tried the licensed products route and gave up after a few years. The amount of money WotC was asking to renew the license was enough for the profits they were making.

But, you say, WW only licensed Ravenloft and Gamma World not Greyhawk which is clearly winning on a Paizo poll so it should sell better than both put together!
Of course we're talking about a poll where Dragonlance has yet to score a single %; I think it may be skewered and a tad off.

So, if WotC licenses it to Paizo for the same amount they licensed Ravenloft then all they have to do is outsell that. Easy, right?
Well, firstly there's no chance they'd lend Greyhawk out for the same amount as one of their niche settings. Second, as has been mentioned before on these forums, you'd have to release a book that appeals to all four major fangroups of Greyhawk, a nigh impossible feat. No matter what you did the book would be ignored by the fans of Gygax, the GH Wars, LG or Mona.

Besides, Greyhawk is tied into the PHB. They wouldn't want to licence out something that would affect the core game.

 

[Ranger REG]

Besides, Greyhawk is tied into the PHB. They wouldn't want to licence out something that would affect the core game.

Well, not now, but who's to say 4e will have Greyhawk as its default setting?