Who bought the Silver Munches?

[JeffB]

Bought it as the guy pulled it out of the box...

I had been looking forward to getting it since the announcement of it's release last year..

Fantastic book...a textbook example of how to write a regional supplement that is useful in game, as well as entertaining to read.

 

[Johno]

I thought Lords of Darkness was an excellent book. Full of inspirational little things.

But really a book for DMs.

BTW, We game in Greyhawk.

I'll be getting Silver Marches when it gets here. I'm sure there will be a few things worth ripping out of the book.

I doubt if many of my players will be buying it though...

 

[Arravis]

I picked it up. Excellent book .

 

[WizarDru]

There is a difference though between "making a profit" and "making a huge profit". From reading between the lines, it seems that the books are making a decent profit, but not a big enough one for the bean-counters. E.g., let's say the bean-counters say "Here's $10,000. Make a book that will make us $18,000." When the book is done and has sold for a while, the bean-counters say "Hey, that book only made us $15,000! Now, this is a serious failure!" - forgetting that it did give them a profit of $5,000 which is nothing to sneeze at. Numbers pulled from thin air, but the principle is the thing here.

Except that this is poor business thinking. Remember, one of the reasons that TSR went bankrupt was the misguided belief that product lines that sold extremely well should be used to 'prop-up' poor selling ones. Earning a profit alone isn't a justification for publishing a book, and 2E released lots of mediocre supplements to lackluster sales.

An individual book turning a profit is only part of the larger picture. Costs ranging from the office lease, computer software and photocopy toner all have to be paid....and these are directly calculated into the slim profit you discuss. A company can have a successful release and still go broke. Notice that all the d20 publishers except WOTC are, by and large, very small shops (often just one or two people).

Without the 'bean counters' (and how long 'till the evil 'suits' are quoted on the scene) there might not be a business at all. WOTC isn't a charity, and not everyone agrees with SKR's assessment. I'm not sure how I fall on this particular issue...but I'm not purchasing it because I don't run a game in the Realms, and it doesn't appeal to me. I'm voting with my dollars...and if this proves the bean counters correct, then so be it. Because I did buy the ELH.

A game company doesn't do it's customers a service by going out of business.

 

[Lady Isis]

I have yet to buy the book, but already planned to before all of this. I am not playing in the Realms, but I love them. I was soo excited to see the regional books are coming out. But, I had to have the ELH first, but this week...SIlver Marches will be added to the stack.

 

[Tewligan]

Not me. I don't use the Realms (or as it's become clever to call it, the "Rums"...sigh), so a Realms fluff book isn't going to win out over a comparably-priced "crunch" book that I can easily pull things from. Like others, I have bought rules-heavy Realms books like Monsters and Magic. Those I like.

 

[The Lemon Merchant]

Well as much as I'd like to prove the bean counters wrong I will not be buying it, nor will I be buying any future "Rums" release unless, and I hate to say this, it has crunch. I have found the Campaign guide, Monsters and Magic books all great but was extremely disappointed with Faiths (to the point that I'll be Ebay'ing it shortly). I guess I'm one of those that has to have some substance with the fluff and quite honestly don't mind if that means the demise of a campaign world.

 

[Staffan]

Except that this is poor business thinking.

It's poor bean-counter thinking, to be sure. That's why I don't like bean-counters.

An individual book turning a profit is only part of the larger picture. Costs ranging from the office lease, computer software and photocopy toner all have to be paid....and these are directly calculated into the slim profit you discuss.

The overhead should have been included in the budget from the start - otherwise the book isn't really showing a profit.

But this is one reason I think D&D would be better off with a smaller company than Hasbro. Hasbro is just *too* big to bother with niche products like D&D, and don't really understand the corebook/supplement thing going on. This then leads to the high-ups looking at the numbers for the PHB, thinking "This one seems to be selling well," and setting profit targets for other books based on that one's performance.

 

[WizarDru]

But this is one reason I think D&D would be better off with a smaller company than Hasbro. Hasbro is just *too* big to bother with niche products like D&D, and don't really understand the corebook/supplement thing going on. This then leads to the high-ups looking at the numbers for the PHB, thinking "This one seems to be selling well," and setting profit targets for other books based on that one's performance.

Actually, the problem is more likely that they don't understand the publishing business, not the RPG business. Setting realistic expactations about releases should be part of their job. It's not that they're 'bean-counters' that's the problem...it's that they're not terribly GOOD bean-counters. If they were, they'd make attempts to understand the economic model they're operating with.

 

[Terradyne]

Bought it. Love it. I bought the FRCS but never actually played in the Realms. It seemed interesting and all but it was such a general gloss that it never inspired me to play there. The Silver Marches has a wonderful amount of detail and some great adventure seeds scattered throughout the book. It has finally given me the detail that I wanted in order to start a campaign in the Realms.

I hope that the "fluff" continues...since without it I would not have bought this book or decided to play in the Realms at all. Now, I think its time to buy this great book called the Lords of Darkness that I keep hearing people mention.

-Terradyne

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