D&D 4E So why does the 4e DMG costs the same as PHB?

[ThirdWizard]

Everybody in my group and my previous 2 groups owned a DMG and Monster Manual. These sorts of answers just don't work.

Yay for anecdotal evidence!

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

In my group we had seven PHBs but only three DMGs.

As for value, nobody is holding a gun to anyone's head and making them buy a DMG. There will be a SRD available for free to get things like magic items and other tools that are essential to running a D&D game.

I will probably buy the DMG because I prefer to have a physical copy of the book, there will be items within not available on the SRD that I would like to read, and because I don't mind paying what I see as a fair price for WotC's work.

 

[Piratecat]

Everybody in my group and my previous 2 groups owned a DMG and Monster Manual. These sorts of answers just don't work.

And in the players from my two groups, there are a total of 10 PHs, 2 DMGs, and 2 MMs. I'd say anecdotal evidence is far less useful than overall sales figures (which I suspect none of us have.)

 

[Warbringer]

It's far from nonsense. And it's not about the price they want, it's about the price that they can charge without taking a hit in the sales.

Yes it's called elasticity and its what stops the apparent gouging that people are complaining about. Not quite sure what you point is... It is complete nonsense to state the pricing structure is because they can without taking 5 minutes to consider the true economice impact of such a meaningless statement

 

[Storminator]

Yes it's called elasticity and its what stops the apparent gouging that people are complaining about. Not quite sure what you point is... It is complete nonsense to state the pricing structure is because they can without taking 5 minutes to consider the true economice impact of such a meaningless statement

I don't know about that. The oft quoted "what the market will bear" doesn't seem qualitatively different from "because they can."

PS

 

[catsclaw227]

Everybody in my group and my previous 2 groups owned a DMG and Monster Manual. These sorts of answers just don't work.

Yea, hmmmm.. My group has 2 DMGs, 5PHBs and 1MM.

 

[jeffh]

There's also the possibility of WotC cutting the cost to the PHB to match the DMG to draw in new players. While that may be the case, my argument against that is that more people DMing means more groups, and ultimately (hopefully) more people playing. You don't want to penalize people taking up the leadership role, and making the books equal in cost (with different page counts) does that.

You're not making much sense. How is lowering the price of the PH "punishing" the DM? Are you saying you'd rather pay the same price for the DMG but more for the PH? Because, by your own stated assumption in the very first sentence of the quoted section, that is the relevant alternative, not the lower-priced DMG you go on to talk about.

 

[JoeGKushner]

My current group:

Angel: More books than he'll ever use including the DMG>

Me: Ditto.

Tom: Ditto.

Brandon: Ditto.

Sergio: Lots of Player's boks, no DMG.

 

[jeffh]

Kind of. It didn't help for 3e back in 2000, because they didn't end up selling more books that way, and they just ended up making less money.

My understanding was that they sold through a million copies of the first printing of the 3.0 PHB, a number no other RPG product had gone anywhere near in well over a decade. Either you're denying this is true, or claiming that they could have done it without the artificially low price - which one? And either way, on what basis?

 

[jeffh]

Yea, hmmmm.. My group has 2 DMGs, 5PHBs and 1MM.

My longest-running group had, among the final half-dozen players and myself, seven PHs, three DMGs and three MMs, if memory serves.

I think my last group had two PHs, three copies of Arcana Evolved (equally if not more important to that game), and one DMG and MM, but made heavy use of the SRD, PDFs and handouts I produced myself.