Spelljammer Spelljammer Price Increase - a Poll (MISSING OPTION ADDED)

[Marandahir]

Yeah, I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on that one. If it's not in the book, and your access to the material is completely separate from owning the book, it's not part of the value of the book. Just supporting material.

But think of it this way: if they didn't make the book, they wouldn't have made this material to support it. This material ONLY exists because it was commissioned alongside the book. SURE, you can go without the book and get the material for free. But WotC paid for the two hand-in-hand. The cost of producing the material is the same - it's just they released some of the material free because it's cheaper to give us all free pdfs of small portions cut out of the book and hope that we buy the book to go with them, than to print and bind thousands of copies of the book with extra pages. The cost of paper is so high right now that it's literally cheaper to entice us to buy the book by giving away parts of it for free. That doesn't make it not a part of the book - this content wouldn't exist if the book was not also exeunt. And it's from the same creator.

Notably, WotC has done something similar in the past with the Feywild: Domains of Delight was essentially cut content from Wild Beyond the Witchlight; it's just there the content wasn't exactly free; it was an extra donation as it was supporting Extra Life.

That said, you're welcome to disagree!

 

[Quickleaf]

There's definitely a noticeable price increase happening, but it's not exclusive to Spelljammer. If you look at the recent Thay release on DM's Guild, the 108-page hardcover only version sells for $36. If we compare that 33 cents per page printing to the Spelljammer product ($70 and 192 pages across three hardcover booklets), then $64 for Spelljammer would be a rough ballpark.

Yet if we look at older edition material on DM's Guild, there's a stark contrast. For example, right now the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space 278-page hardcover only version sells for $30 undiscounted, which is about a third of the price per page of the newer Thay book. This could be a strategic response to inflation many of us haven't seen so high before, prioritizing marking up the newer faster-selling books.

Despite the price, I'm very interested in the Spelljammer book!

However, what's keeping me more on the fence is how – to the best of my knowledge – WotC did not involve or reach out to the original creators, Jeff Grubb in particular. I understand the company has zero legal obligation - of course they do not (Ed Greenwood hammers home this point in many of the Mages & Sages podcasts) - but from the perspective of a little hobbyist writer (me), that just doesn't seem the most respectful way to go. If I were working on a project, and I had the resources and connections to easily get the original creator involved whether through a lore edit or foreword or some such, that just seems the best way I could honor their creation.