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<blockquote data-quote="Wofano Wotanto" data-source="post: 9276068" data-attributes="member: 7044704">Well, Pinnacle was founded in 1994 and Deadlands was its first solo release in 1996, with a couple of earlier joint projects with Chameleon Eclectic before they closed down.&nbsp; By comparison, R. Talsorian had been around since 1985 (and Mekton even longer, the 1st edition was a small-press release by Pondsmith before the company even existed), and had just released Castle Falkenstein in 1994 so it was still fairly new.&nbsp; Distributors were familiar with R. Tal, much more so than Pinnacle at the time, so they probably ordered and re-ordered more often and in larger quantities on average. Deadlands was a big success, but it would have taken a few years to really establish Pinnacle as a &quot;safe&quot; publisher to stock heavily at the distribution level - ironically, about the same time that R. Tal went on an eight year break from publishing in 1998 following some kerfuffle at GenCon I can barely remember hearing about through the grapevine.&nbsp; Still kind of convinced the timing on that really hurt Castle Falkenstein and Cyberpunk badly.That said, I don't remember having any issue getting the core books for either in stock, and IIRC they also got sold through the book trade so you saw them in some big box and mall shops.&nbsp; That was still in the early stretch of my full-time game retail run though, so maybe my memory's betraying me.&nbsp; I'd done casual part-time work for a couple of other stores in the 80s but that was just counter monkey stuff, not ordering.Ideally that's how things should work in a good FLGS.&nbsp; Sometimes it's just not viable (rents can quash play space - which usually meant you should be looking to move someplace cheaper) and sometimes the owner and/or employees just don't care and only stick what they think is cool.&nbsp; And since COVID the idea of in-store play has become less of a universal expectation.&nbsp; Changing world...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wofano Wotanto, post: 9276068, member: 7044704"] Well, Pinnacle was founded in 1994 and Deadlands was its first solo release in 1996, with a couple of earlier joint projects with Chameleon Eclectic before they closed down. By comparison, R. Talsorian had been around since 1985 (and Mekton even longer, the 1st edition was a small-press release by Pondsmith before the company even existed), and had just released Castle Falkenstein in 1994 so it was still fairly new. Distributors were familiar with R. Tal, much more so than Pinnacle at the time, so they probably ordered and re-ordered more often and in larger quantities on average. Deadlands was a big success, but it would have taken a few years to really establish Pinnacle as a "safe" publisher to stock heavily at the distribution level - ironically, about the same time that R. Tal went on an eight year break from publishing in 1998 following some kerfuffle at GenCon I can barely remember hearing about through the grapevine. Still kind of convinced the timing on that really hurt Castle Falkenstein and Cyberpunk badly. That said, I don't remember having any issue getting the core books for either in stock, and IIRC they also got sold through the book trade so you saw them in some big box and mall shops. That was still in the early stretch of my full-time game retail run though, so maybe my memory's betraying me. I'd done casual part-time work for a couple of other stores in the 80s but that was just counter monkey stuff, not ordering. Ideally that's how things should work in a good FLGS. Sometimes it's just not viable (rents can quash play space - which usually meant you should be looking to move someplace cheaper) and sometimes the owner and/or employees just don't care and only stick what they think is cool. And since COVID the idea of in-store play has become less of a universal expectation. Changing world... [/QUOTE]

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