D&D 5E WizKids Yawning Portal new set

[darjr]

Ope, I think that was the old one.

 

[teitan]

I wasn't trying to be condescending and I'm sorry if it came off that way. I literally did mean "buy it if it makes you happy, but personally I wouldn't get much use out of it."

I've certainly spent money on dumber D&D things than this.

You didn't come off condescending. You voiced legit concerns. Wizkids is getting too big for their britches with their prices lately.

I am glad they moved away from the awful cardboard set that they originally advertised for this thing but for half the price I can build it with the same warlock tiles, essentially, and make an infinity mirror of my own. I would only be missing a few specialized pieces. It's not as nice as similarly priced sets from Dwarven Forge either, which are more universal in application and modularity.

 

[teitan]

I spend money on dumb things all the time

Don't tell my SO how much I spend on 'free to play' games on my phone, but this seems like the price is set so high BECUSE they know not that many people will buy it... Priced at $40 most people who use minis (already a subset even if it is the majority) wouldn't see much use to it, and it would sell low (and I am sure it cost $40 or more to make) so they increase the price... but as the price goes up, so too does the number of people who can buy it go down. (Maybe 90 people would buy it for $150, but 73 people will buy it for $200) It is a dance and an art setting prices for things like this, agree or disagree they think the balance point is $367.49

ironically I think they missed the bus here... if they had made a tile set that came together to MAKE this, but could also make a handful of other bar lay outs they could get much more replayability... but I am not in marketing maybe they figure FR collectors are the ones that it is for.

That's exactly what they did, it is Warlock tiles whereas originally it was going to be a cheap cardboard and plastic thing for the same price. It has a few specialized pieces with it beyond the well itself but it looks like maybe a small handful more tiles than the starter Tavern tiles they already put out with a greater variety of types.

 

[Imaculata]

But if some of the pieces can be bought stand alone, that could still be interesting.

 

[Jahydin]

You could put the tavern set out on the table just to create atmosphere. This would be particularly good in an Undermountain campaign, since the Yawning Portal is also the entrance to the dungeon; each adventure would begin with the players looking at that crumbling circular hole into the bowels of the earth.

And every now and then, something might come up out of the well and you would use the set for an actual fight.

As someone who uses a lot of miniatures at the table, this is exactly what I would use it for. Just a place to rest at the end of the adventure that the players could push their minis around and get to know the patrons. After a few adventurers, the place would really start to feel like a second home.

I totally understand the price being ludicrous to some, but as someone who loves miniatures, but really doesn't have the time to sculpt and paint (and frankly finds it tedious), being ready to go out of the box saves me countless hours and helps justifies the price.

Oh, and I run a lot of "tavern centric, dungeon crawl" types of campaigns, so that helps too...

 

[teitan]

As someone who uses a lot of miniatures at the table, this is exactly what I would use it for. Just a place to rest at the end of the adventure that the players could push their minis around and get to know the patrons. After a few adventurers, the place would really start to feel like a second home.

I totally understand the price being ludicrous to some, but as someone who loves miniatures, but really doesn't have the time to sculpt and paint (and frankly finds it tedious), being ready to go out of the box saves me countless hours and helps justifies the price.

Oh, and I run a lot of "tavern centric, dungeon crawl" types of campaigns, so that helps too...

Then you might want to check out, as an alternative, warlock tiles Tavern set.

 

[Jahydin]

Then you might want to check out, as an alternative, warlock tiles Tavern set.

The Warlock Tavern set seems to be just furniture. Do you mean the Town and Village I set?
Value wise, I think this is a better deal.

I know you mentioned it having "a small handful more tiles" than the starter set, but looking at them side to side, that doesn't seem to be the case. The Village set is 24 2"x2" tiles, or 96" squared. This has 16 4"x4" tiles, and 2 2"x8" giving it a total area of 288" squared. And that's not including the giant Second Floor tile. So you'd need to buy around 3 sets ($99 retail) to come close to the floor space, but even then it wouldn't look nearly as cool since this is a giant two-story set piece.

With that in mind, the extra cost for the unique miniatures (some LED lit) that only come in this set, along with the other tavern minis (which look to be at least 4 of the Tavern sets ($49 retail) make this more than worth it to me.

One last thing to consider is the resell value. Plain Warlock tiles probably wont be nearly as valuable as a Forgotten Realms specific set piece, especially if the run is more limited. In the future if I wanted to sell this off, who knows, I might be able to make money...?

 

[jgsugden]

If I were going to run an Undermountain campaign, I might buy this. It's the kind of thing that's super targeted, but if you happen to be right dead center of that target (and have sufficient disposable income), it's awesome...

I've played in a Waterdeep/DotMM campaign. There was one encounter in the Yawning Portal that would have made use of this setup. Beyond that, there is nothing there that would justify setting it up unless a DM works it in for some reason.

Unless you have unlimited disposable income, this is not worth the cost.

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You can also build using Warlock Tiles for ~$100 to $175.

Or, you can buy a 3D printer and then find a lot of free objects to print to make a tavern, manor, dungeon, etc...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

No need to be condescending about it. This doesn't hold value for you, we get it.

This is definitely a high-end item for gamers who, 1) appreciate this kind of accessory, and 2) can afford it. It's not meant for everybody, not even everybody with the cash to spend. And that's okay.

This holds a lot of play value . . . it's a freakin' tavern for Ao's sake! If you use a tavern as your campaign's home base or a frequent location, the actual Yawning Portal or your own tavern, this can see a lot of table use. And it also would look good as a display model on the shelf, and if that's all somebody wants it for, that's cool too.

Sorry, but I just get so tired of gamers conflating "This isn't to my tastes" with "This holds no real value".

This is a terrible take.

It's an extremely non-generic tavern model, so no, it doesn't have value because it's a tavern. That's just codswallop.

And it's ludicrously expensive for what it is. Your whole "Well someone might pay for it so it has value, don't you dare say it doesn't!" is just laughable. Yeah, some people will pay for literally any ugly piece of tat. I mean, for god's sake man, Funko Pops sell millions, but the idea that I'm not allowed to say they're utter trash that demonstrates a taste level of absolute zero is ludicrous. This isn't Funko Pop bad, but it's bad.

How could it be improved? Well it could come with figures beyond Durnan. If it had all the figures from that picture of the Yawning Portal I could definitely see it as a collector thing for big Realms fans. But this? Pfffft. It's a hyper-specific model of a tavern which manages to make it look extremely cold and uninviting, rather than cosy and fun.

 

[darjr]

I think some folks wanted to do some cool like the trophies and after several attempts couldn’t get the price down enough.