Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
It feels to me like Hasbro has lit a fire under Wizards of the Coast, and given them
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Dragon Snack" data-source="post: 5138081" data-attributes="member: 9810"><p>Boxes? Or cases? One case (6 boxes) will meet WotC minimum shipping requirement (actually, the minimum can be met with 4 boxes IIRC). In any case, I've never had WotC inflate my orders. In fact, for the last couple of releases many stores were left with a shortage due to the surge in popularity of Magic.</p><p></p><p>As for running events, while they do push them, you set them up. If you set them up and then don't report them, they do penalize you - but it's only if you let 10% or more of your events lapse. While it hasn't happened to me, I imagine if you set up lots of events and then don't run them (since they do send some nice prize support) they may raise an eyebrow or two. I had this concern when I signed up for D&D Encounters, since D&D sells poorly around here and a <em>customer service rep</em> made a comment about not running it after signing up for it. My sales rep told me that was way off and the customer service guy was out of line.</p><p></p><p>Either he doesn't deal with WotC direct (and is really talking about a distributor), he's telling you horror stories from years ago, or, well, it's a flat out lie (I suppose he could have also torqued off his sales rep so bad that he's been singled out for "special treatment").</p><p></p><p>I don't love a lot things WotC does (like allocating new Magic sets after your initial orders, which forces you to up your pre-orders just in case), but that kind of thing sounds like a call to your states Attorney General would be in order - if it was really happening.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Hmm, interesting that my last couple of orders from a certain distributor have included extra items. Didn't realize this was a recurring problem...</p><p></p><p></p><p>And what stores are not adapting? If you note, Smeelbo IS running D&D Encounters. If you paid attention to what Marcus King (whose blog is what started this conversation) is actually doing, he IS being proactive (I have no idea if he is running D&D Encounters, but he is a very proactive voice within the industry).</p><p></p><p>I'm <em>trying</em> to run D&D Encounters (and will run Free RPG Day again despite a dismal turnout last year), but quite honestly - I don't need D&D (gasp!). Magic keeps my doors open and Savage Worlds outsells D&D in my store (double gasp!). If nobody buys an RPG book from me again (not going to happen, but if), I could stay open on the sales of Magic and used video games (and used DVDs, but that's not gaming).</p><p></p><p></p><p>Really!? What do you do? I have a couple players whose better half's hold a shorter leash on them... <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>But you keep telling me you're not my customer. It's a spiral, if RPG's don't sell, why do I carry them? If I don't carry them, you buy them online. If everyone buys online, how do you find out about them? If DDI can only get 30,000 subscribers, how do smaller games actually get a toehold?</p><p></p><p>As much as I think WotC wants to move people to the online subscription model (and the one thing I will definitely agree with Smeelbo is that D&D Encounters is an attempt to push the DDI), they would rather have millions of people playing than just the 30,000 subscribers they have now (I'm surprised it's that low personally). Obviously online doesn't meet their minimum sales goals, but book sales do (or are close enough to attempt to push over the top). It's not time to dump the storefront yet, we have value to the majority of players - who don't shop (or post) online</p><p></p><p></p><p>Pretty good actually. I'll add that many stores are upset that we weren't even <em>asked</em> what day would be best for us (Thursdays would work MUCH better for me).</p><p></p><p>Another reason D&D Encounters are supposed to be run on Wednesday is because WotC was going to incorporate "social media" into the gaming sessions. Twitter was used to add a bonus to rolls at different points during the first one, not sure if they added anything or kept it up last week. Doesn't seem that big a deal to me, I wonder how many DMs even kept up with that part of the event.</p><p></p><p>As a technicality, stores are allowed to run it different nights - but not as an official "D&D Encounters" event (meaning no reporting to the DCI). In fact, since I've missed the first 2 (and will miss at least 3 until my DM can show), I was told to run them on different nights to "catch up" to the current action. I did have to cancel the events with the DCI though, so I won't get credit for the events (nor will the players, but I'm a little confused as to what they get - unless they can use this to qualify for Magic cards or if they're going to set up something like that for D&D).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dragon Snack, post: 5138081, member: 9810"] Boxes? Or cases? One case (6 boxes) will meet WotC minimum shipping requirement (actually, the minimum can be met with 4 boxes IIRC). In any case, I've never had WotC inflate my orders. In fact, for the last couple of releases many stores were left with a shortage due to the surge in popularity of Magic. As for running events, while they do push them, you set them up. If you set them up and then don't report them, they do penalize you - but it's only if you let 10% or more of your events lapse. While it hasn't happened to me, I imagine if you set up lots of events and then don't run them (since they do send some nice prize support) they may raise an eyebrow or two. I had this concern when I signed up for D&D Encounters, since D&D sells poorly around here and a [i]customer service rep[/i] made a comment about not running it after signing up for it. My sales rep told me that was way off and the customer service guy was out of line. Either he doesn't deal with WotC direct (and is really talking about a distributor), he's telling you horror stories from years ago, or, well, it's a flat out lie (I suppose he could have also torqued off his sales rep so bad that he's been singled out for "special treatment"). I don't love a lot things WotC does (like allocating new Magic sets after your initial orders, which forces you to up your pre-orders just in case), but that kind of thing sounds like a call to your states Attorney General would be in order - if it was really happening. Hmm, interesting that my last couple of orders from a certain distributor have included extra items. Didn't realize this was a recurring problem... And what stores are not adapting? If you note, Smeelbo IS running D&D Encounters. If you paid attention to what Marcus King (whose blog is what started this conversation) is actually doing, he IS being proactive (I have no idea if he is running D&D Encounters, but he is a very proactive voice within the industry). I'm [i]trying[/i] to run D&D Encounters (and will run Free RPG Day again despite a dismal turnout last year), but quite honestly - I don't need D&D (gasp!). Magic keeps my doors open and Savage Worlds outsells D&D in my store (double gasp!). If nobody buys an RPG book from me again (not going to happen, but if), I could stay open on the sales of Magic and used video games (and used DVDs, but that's not gaming). Really!? What do you do? I have a couple players whose better half's hold a shorter leash on them... :) But you keep telling me you're not my customer. It's a spiral, if RPG's don't sell, why do I carry them? If I don't carry them, you buy them online. If everyone buys online, how do you find out about them? If DDI can only get 30,000 subscribers, how do smaller games actually get a toehold? As much as I think WotC wants to move people to the online subscription model (and the one thing I will definitely agree with Smeelbo is that D&D Encounters is an attempt to push the DDI), they would rather have millions of people playing than just the 30,000 subscribers they have now (I'm surprised it's that low personally). Obviously online doesn't meet their minimum sales goals, but book sales do (or are close enough to attempt to push over the top). It's not time to dump the storefront yet, we have value to the majority of players - who don't shop (or post) online Pretty good actually. I'll add that many stores are upset that we weren't even [i]asked[/i] what day would be best for us (Thursdays would work MUCH better for me). Another reason D&D Encounters are supposed to be run on Wednesday is because WotC was going to incorporate "social media" into the gaming sessions. Twitter was used to add a bonus to rolls at different points during the first one, not sure if they added anything or kept it up last week. Doesn't seem that big a deal to me, I wonder how many DMs even kept up with that part of the event. As a technicality, stores are allowed to run it different nights - but not as an official "D&D Encounters" event (meaning no reporting to the DCI). In fact, since I've missed the first 2 (and will miss at least 3 until my DM can show), I was told to run them on different nights to "catch up" to the current action. I did have to cancel the events with the DCI though, so I won't get credit for the events (nor will the players, but I'm a little confused as to what they get - unless they can use this to qualify for Magic cards or if they're going to set up something like that for D&D). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
It feels to me like Hasbro has lit a fire under Wizards of the Coast, and given them
Top