The $40 mark is broken

[trentonjoe]

I am your average Joe middle class american citizen with a wife and a mortgage and a fair anmountof disposable income. It would take an awful lot for me to spend $40 on a book.

 

[Dragongirl]

I think going over $40 is just going to encourage the pirating of the material. Personally I won't spend over 40 for a book, unless it is a complete campaign world that rocks.

 

[RPGRealms]

I'm not saying that the books are over priced, I have more then a few of the expensive RPG books. I just don't think it's a good thing to compaire book prices to. A movie you sit down and it entertains you (in theory anyway) for 2 hours or so. An RPG book doesn't do that. You can read it and get ideas, but you have to put effort into it to get more out of it. And when the fun is had, it's usually more to do with the characters and players then ideas from a book.

There are quite a few Traveller fans (and fans of other games) who would disagree. Many Traveller fans don't necessarily play the game but instead enjoy tinkering with the design mechanics.

 

[Crothian]

There are quite a few Traveller fans (and fans of other games) who would disagree. Many Traveller fans don't necessarily play the game but instead enjoy tinkering with the design mechanics.

Which is still very different then what one expects and gets from a movie.

 

[RPGRealms]

I think going over $40 is just going to encourage the pirating of the material. Personally I won't spend over 40 for a book, unless it is a complete campaign world that rocks.

Pricing the Traveller's Handbook below $40 would have meant we lost money. I would be willing to say that most publishers price their products based on cost rather than a wish to inflate profits.

If we had broken the THB into say a players book and a seperate referee's book our fans would have ended up paying even more to get the same amount of material.

 

[Dragongirl]

If we had broken the THB into say a players book and a seperate referee's book our fans would have ended up paying even more to get the same amount of material.

Ah but then people are odd and would think, cool 2 books, even if they paid more in the long run. Just look at all those x.95 or x.99 prices out there. Subconsciencly we ignore the cents and only see the dollars.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

I think going over $40 is just going to encourage the pirating of the material. Personally I won't spend over 40 for a book, unless it is a complete campaign world that rocks.

Greed and limp morals encourage the pirating of $5 books.
People that pirate books will pirate them regardless of price.

Patrick Y.

 

[Psion]

I am your average Joe middle class american citizen with a wife and a mortgage and a fair anmountof disposable income. It would take an awful lot for me to spend $40 on a book.

Lots of folks bandy about overpriced, and the above just shows how subjective it is. Really, the only fair measure of overpriced is your competitors. If your competitors delivering better value for less price, then your book is overpriced. Do I think T20 is worth two of almost any $20 book out there (say a 96 page WotC or L5R book) in terms of the gaming value it brings to the table? You bet your sweet bippy!

 

[RPGRealms]

Ah but then people are odd and would think, cool 2 books, even if they paid more in the long run. Just look at all those x.95 or x.99 prices out there. Subconsciencly we ignore the cents and only see the dollars.

As I said previously, so far pricing it as a single book at $44.95 hasn't hurt sales any.

Also consider that splitting the book up also increases the publisher's costs and reduces the profits needed to produce follow-up material.

It is a matter of economics and survival.

[edited for typos]

 

[shouit]

The few books that I think are overpriced are the special edition books that come out. Mongoose's Judge Dread with steel cover. Deadlands leatherbound book and the special edition Buffy(whats up with that)...

As for 40 to 45 dollars, I personally am not worried about it.