Pathfinder on the bookstore shelves? Forked Thread: The 3.5 renaissance!

[S'mon]

So, if there is NO D&D RPG, and RPGs do continue as a hobby in some form, what will be the best selling RPG? A new one, or something currently on the market?

In the '90s I'd have said Vampire. A few years ago, Exalted. So would it be a White Wolf game?

 

[cangrejoide]

So, if there is NO D&D RPG, and RPGs do continue as a hobby in some form, what will be the best selling RPG? A new one, or something currently on the market?

In the '90s I'd have said Vampire. A few years ago, Exalted. So would it be a White Wolf game?

If D&D tanked enough that Hasbro would sell the rights ( which seems unlike since D&D has more value as a brand name than and actual P&P RPG) or even licensed, I would be very curious about what a White Wolf version of D&D would be. ( If scarred lands are any evidence of this then I say it would be awesome.)

 

[Farganger]

I'm a strong supporter of the OGL and all Paizo is doing with it, but I'm personally unhappy with the design work I've seen for it. What I've seen makes it MORE complex than what it would be replacing, not less, making it a preferable choice for gamers who want that extra layer of "fiddly bits" ("fiddly bits" is a little derogatory, but I can't think of a better term for all the extra minutiae of multiclassing, the extra feats, the extra class powers, the extra rules, the enhanced combat rules, etc. that Pathfinder has) but it doesn't strike me as a good choice for either me, or for new players who want something for just breaking out the books and playing for a few hours.

Unfortunately, this is my view as well. My long-running group, and the other I play in, are sticking with 3.5.

I love a lot of the fluff in the APs, modules and campaign setting, but the rule changes seem like anything but an improvement.

 

[ProfessorPain]

So, if there is NO D&D RPG, and RPGs do continue as a hobby in some form, what will be the best selling RPG? A new one, or something currently on the market?

In the '90s I'd have said Vampire. A few years ago, Exalted. So would it be a White Wolf game?

Something like Savage Worlds has a lot of mainstream potential.

 

[Erik Mona]

We've been working pretty hard to get our books into bookstores, but there are a couple of inherent challenges. The first is our frequency. We release one Adventure Path volume, one Chronicles setting product, and either a 32-page Pathfinder Module or Pathfinder Companion player's supplement every single month. Bookstores generally do not carry products with no spines, so the 32-pagers are immediately below the threshold of what most major book retailers will want to carry. Sometimes a local manager or employee is a gamer and special orders these items for their store, but mass market distribution on these items is frankly really spotty, and is not factored into our profit models in a significant way.

The APs are likewise a challenge, because it is difficult to keep an entire story line in stock and, frankly speaking, the people who order books for bookstores do not know what an "Adventure Path" is, or why there are six volumes in each one, or what have you. We've been explaining this for three years, but with some buyers is is an uphill battle.

What major book chain buyers want is a reasonably priced hardcover book that can be shelved "spine out". That's why the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting hardcover is the most likely book you'll see in a Barnes & Noble and Borders. When the Core Rulebook and Bestiary come out this summer, my expectation is that they will be fairly widely available in major book chains.

This is something we're working on nearly constantly. I've got two staff members half-way across the country visiting Books-a-Million (who has been great) to show off covers and sell sheets for the new game, and I imagine they have been very well received.

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

 

[Aus_Snow]

I would be very curious about what a White Wolf version of D&D would be.

White Wolf D&D, eh?

WoW, just. . .

Oh noes, I can hear it now.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

P.S. "What knockers!"

"Thank you, Herr Doctor!"

 

[kitsune9]

Forked from: The 3.5 renaissance!



I was just thinking about this last night. I was at a large Borders bookstore, and then went to a decent sized Barnes and Noble. The B&N didn't have any Pathfinder books, but had all the books for 4e. The Borders had a surprisingly large selection of various RPG's, and exactly one Pathfinder book, the campaign setting one for Golarion.

I agree with the point someone made in the forked-from thread that CURRENTLY the best way to get new players into a particular system is to game with them in that system. However there is still an aspect to getting new players to your game which involves basic marketing---getting the books on the chain stores' bookshelves in such quantity and with such a display presence that people stop to look at them, and hopefully pick them up.

Call me crazy, but I'm one of the nutjobs that thinks that Pathfinder in 5 years can have a bigger active gamer base than D&D 4.x or 5.x, if they play their cards right. A lot of that assumption depends on how I think Hasbro/WOTC will play its cards, granted, but if they fold on the tabletop RPG market, as I think they will, Pathfinder could potentially take up the lionsshare of the market if they set themselves up with enough of a presence now.

I think that beyond producing the great products they currently make, PF needs to more aggressively get themselves into the big chain stores and hobby shops. If it has enough shelf space, people are more lilely to stop and look just to see what it is that has its own standalone spinning rack/3 blinged-out devoted shelves.

If any Paizo folks are reading this thread, are you guys doing anything to get more of a presence at these places? Is it part of the gameplan?

I go to Borders and B&N a lot. Over at Borders, it's 4e, Anima RPG, and a couple of White Wolf books. Over at B&N, it's 4e, 3.5, Anima RPG, L5R, Burning Sands, Traveller (Mongoose), Serenity, BSG, quite a few White Wolf books, and Dark Heresy stuff. Their RPG section looks like an actual RPG section. At least that's what the stores here in the Bay Area are stocked with, maybe it's different in other parts of the country.

 

[Erik Mona]

Borders is experiencing major financial difficulties at the moment. They're looking for a buyer, and in the mean time they've vastly trimmed down their offerings. I wouldn't expect much from them until everything gets sorted out (the latest rumor is that the Canadian chain Chapters/Indigo is looking at acquiring them).

Barnes & Noble has a much wider assortment of RPG stuff at the moment. Their 4e displays around here seem to have just about everything, and there's a smattering of White Wolf and assorted other stuff as well (most provided by White Wolf's distribution arm, PSI). I've been seeing the Pathfinder Campaign Setting hardcover again and again recently, though stores seem to have only about two copies at a time and these can sell out quickly. They also seem to stock our books Classic Monsters Revisited and Gods & Magic with some frequency.

--Erik

 

[Scribble]

"There wolf!"


Jeff

P.S. "What knockers!"

Damn you inability to spell all good!!!! [/fistpump]