WotC changes how D&D mini's are going to be sold.

[Orius]

The one thing that kind of made me choke though... $10.99 for THREE PC figures? Am I reading it wrong? And they're going to put new powers in there just to anger us RPG completionists? Well, I want to make a wizard, but let me flip through my two books and sixteen powercards before I figure out the optimal build...

Yup, it's official!

Giant In the Playground Games

I jest though, the hero packs sound non-random, so probably each individual pack will have thte same figures and cards.

This is probably a sign that the ddm game is dying out. This is just the sort of thing wizkids did with the mechwarrior game. If ddm was still selling really well, they certainly wouldn't be making changes to the format.

I suspect the same thing too.

I also just noticed the 2 male, 1 female per pack. I don't like that. I never play females, so why not make all male packs and all female packs, because I know plenty of people that play only males and don't want the extra appendages....

Same here. How does this help build up a female player base?

I so move the following; do I have a seconder?
Any DM in any situation including tournaments that bans a power* for the sole reason that the player doesn't have the original card shall forthwith burn their DMG in front of their players and resign from DMing.

Sounds cool to me, but the RPGA might not agree. They might very well agree that a player needs all the cards to legally play or some such. But then I don't play D&D tournaments so I don't care.

I don't really care one way or other about the hero minis since PC figures can be acquired just about anywhere. The monsters don't sound too bad, the price might be higher, but then the randomness helps them push stuff that they won't be able to sell individually but are still useful for DMs anyway. And I think the visible monsters will probably be stuff that players are going to want to buy in the first place.

 

[justanobody]

Same here. How does this help build up a female player base?

No idea. I got so sick and tired of defending the miniatures to female gamers decades ago when they were barely dressed, now it just seems they don't get minis dressed or no. I guess I no longer have to argue about the lack of clothing since there is a lack of females? Maybe it means the female minis now will have enough clothes to go around.

I hate insomnia.

 

[Korgoth]

This hobby has come a long way from just a couple of paperbacks, some dice, and a few sheets of graph paper, hasn't it?

Well, I'd say it has gone a long way from that.

In the sense that Ashley Simpson is a long way from Allegri's Miserere. And yes, I am biased... look at my avatar, for Pete's sake!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

In a completely different form, sure. That seems to be a bad example.

Now if you had mentioned warlocks and reserve feats testing at-will magic powers, you might have a point.

It's an interesting example still, I think. They tested one type of "Aggro" mechanic and found it didn't work out in play-tests and feedback. So they created a different mechanic.

So maybe they are testing this Mini/Card combo, and see if it works and if they have to change it.

But let's be clear about one thing: Whether they can sell these is not a "proof" that they can sell an entire new edition using this model. That is actually very doubtful. The barrier to entry seems far too high if you base everything about mini + cards.
I can't see a 5E existing without the "core rulebook" paradigm. Considering that DDM itself doesn't seem a resounding success, it seems likely that stripping down D&D to a boards/mini game just won't work.

No, I think they are really just testing how they can sell their minis more effectively. The Randomized minis worked, but maybe they believed to have identified the portion that made it work - or they learned that it no longer works as well, since the market is satiated and its demands are changing.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

No idea. I got so sick and tired of defending the miniatures to female gamers decades ago when they were barely dressed, now it just seems they don't get minis dressed or no. I guess I no longer have to argue about the lack of clothing since there is a lack of females? Maybe it means the female minis now will have enough clothes to go around.

I hate insomnia.

Well, 1 female on 2 male figures isn't lack of female minis. If you split them in "all-male" and "all-female" packs, the likelihood that a newly starting female gamer doesn't get any fitting mini when she starts the game in an existing group is high. This looks better to me.

I wouldn't be surprised if this ratio would actually be better then the original ratio in the old boxes...

 

[CharlesRyan]

Girl gamers will have to buy twice as many packs to play with if they want female PCs represented . . .

I don't understand your logic here. Female gamers will have one-half the options that male gamers have. But they "have to buy" exactly as many packs of minis as male gamers: The one pack that contains their preferred mini for their character.

 

[Khaalis]

Personally, I think the male/female aspect of the setup makes no sense from a product marketing standpoint.

Why 3 minis with a split of 2 male and 1 female? This is a very odd setup and combination. Not to mention it definitely means there will be lots of possible combinations ignored.

Why not simply follow the example laid out in the PHB and have 4 minis per pack 2 of each race male and female?

As an example, you could have a pack of say Eladrin and Elf Rangers.
* 1 Elf Male Ranger
* 1 Elf Female Ranger
* 1 Eladrin Male Ranger
* 1 Eladrin Female Ranger

Seems much more simple and well balanced. I really sit and scratch my head at times wondering what "thought process" goes into some of WotC's marketing plans. I honestly think at times that their idea of a marketing strategy involves a big dartboard, some darts and a blindfold...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Personally, I think the male/female aspect of the setup makes no sense from a product marketing standpoint.

Why 3 minis with a split of 2 male and 1 female? This is a very odd setup and combination. Not to mention it definitely means there will be lots of possible combinations ignored.

Why not simply follow the example laid out in the PHB and have 4 minis per pack 2 of each race male and female?

As an example, you could have a pack of say Eladrin and Elf Rangers.
* 1 Elf Male Ranger
* 1 Elf Female Ranger
* 1 Eladrin Male Ranger
* 1 Eladrin Female Ranger

Seems much more simple and well balanced. I really sit and scratch my head at times wondering what "thought process" goes into some of WotC's marketing plans. I honestly think at times that their idea of a marketing strategy involves a big dartboard, some darts and a blindfold...

I think the thought process goes along these lines:
- We still have less female players then male players. Most players play their own gender. If we put out a pack with an equal split, half of the pack is useless to most of our clients. Now female players would still be disappointed in what they can get - but they might be the least likely to buy minis on their own anyway. But taking away their chance to find a fitting mini in another plays mini collection doesn't seem like a good idea.
- People are only interested in a fitting mini for their actual character. If the pack is too large, he might find he's paying for 3 minis he doesn't really want. (And in a 2:2 scenario, he pays for 2 he will probably never consider using)

Ultimately, it's balancing "realistic expectations" with "trying to have something for everone".

 

[justanobody]

Well, 1 female on 2 male figures isn't lack of female minis. If you split them in "all-male" and "all-female" packs, the likelihood that a newly starting female gamer doesn't get any fitting mini when she starts the game in an existing group is high. This looks better to me.

I wouldn't be surprised if this ratio would actually be better then the original ratio in the old boxes...

As it stands with 64 male and 64 female variants from PHB alone, not counting PHB2 at all, there is going to be 90 total minis through 2010 as earlier presented.

That means there will be 30 female minis. Less than half to handle the race and class combinations in the PHB alone, not counting those present in PHB2.

While male minis could be lack just 4 combinations from the PHB itself with the 60 minis they get in this product series.

When you think that the pool of races and classes is from both PHB and PHB2, you have to wonder what will be missing. Is there an off chance they have looked at EVERY existing mini for race/class/sex combinations and will NOT be including them in this series to provide those that are missing?

So only the newer race/class combinations get minis?

At least giving male packs and female packs or a split packs 2x2 then you get a better chance of getting what you could use.

I find the number of sit-ins wouldn't be a problem as they would just take what they are given or a character would be written for an existing mini. The problem is the long term players that may have a favorite character and get left out in the minis.

I don't understand your logic here. Female gamers will have one-half the options that male gamers have. But they "have to buy" exactly as many packs of minis as male gamers: The one pack that contains their preferred mini for their character.

Also considering what I just said, if a player only plays female characters they pay $12 give or take on tax, for a single mini, and if they happen to have several characters to represent they have to buy a whole pack for each (if available) and still only get one mini for their effort.

Sure they could be traded one for one since they cost the same across the board, but the odds of trading for fixed minis is low as someone won't really need someone else;s spares as there wont be that many spares.

So making packs with three of each sex or split packs it offers both real world sexes, or PC sex choices better options.

This is the first time I have ever seen anything like this. White metal minis were in packs of males or females. When you had a mixed pack I always got one of each. Drow for example have one male and one female. While you could get a progressive pack of female mages from low, medium, and high level variants, same for a pack of males.

AD&D Blister Packs

So your 1 pack doesn't really fit as the Martial pack could have both types the male may play in one pack, while the female will need to buy both Martial packs to get what she wants. Female gamer/PC whatever.

If you only ever want 1 PC mini then yes everyone needs only buy the one pack.....IF that mini combination is made.

Why bother with specific minis for a race and class if you don't want the race and class you are going to play? This counts out people that don't care about the specific race and class, but come on...some people do care. You won't get the post you want unless you make it yourself or mod it, but the least that can be done is provide the combinations of races and classes in the PHB for each sex.

For those that missed the math the first time through.
PHB
8 races
8 classes
64 combinations

Sexes
2

64*2=128

18 minis per set in the Heroes series.
5 sets scheduled through 2010 (This isn't even soon for most of the sets.)

18*5=90

We don't even know what from PHB2 will get thrown into the mix, so this is all coming up very short to begin with.

I would be very curious to see what they deem worthy of playing and making a mini for for class/race/sex combinations, as it says anyone playing something else isn't playing the right ones. I don't like that attitude or the sexist one of the packs either.

Too bad they still don't have Linae around to correct them on that. hope she is working with those mice she mentioned the last post I read from her around here.

Yes. I am a mini collector and lover, and don't take kindly to people making offensive decisions with them that is sexist in nature.



[/rant]

 

[Bagpuss]

Monsters are still going to be randomized; $14.99.

Semi-random one is in a visible window remember, and no 'hero character' figures.

So old randomised. $14.99 for 8 mix of everything.

New, 3 heroes (+3 unique power cards) 10.99 + 5 monsters 14.99 semi random = 8 miniatures for $25.98

I make that over a 73% price increase.

Even if you were only interested in monsters.

8 monsters for 14.99 down to 5 monsters for 14.99

That's a 60% price increase.

I know they said none random would cost more but really (and these are still semi-random)?