D&D 5E Would you buy a D&D deluxe goodies box like this one to improve D&D storylines?

[Fabio Andrea Rossi]

Hi all,

I just wanted to share an idea on what I would love to see in 5E support and see if I am alone in that camp. If you like this, say it here aloud, who knows, someone from WotC may be listening

I am impressed from the amount of support every Pathfinder AP gets and I would like something similar done in 5E. I find myself adapting PF modules to 5E (which I largely prefer as a system) just for the sheer amount of accessories available for those modules. NPCs cards, item cards, miniatures, heck, even adequate music…all optional goodies, I know, but D&D is my favorite toy and I would love to get more shinies.

What I dream is: a “deluxe box” for each “story” 5E launches with additional, optional support material, they don’t need to go the same PF road. Imagine a boxed set with:

• Main enemies minis. Just the main 4-5 baddies. They are not in the Mini sets so it would be great to have them, some new mini is always good for the players and DMs alike;
• Players handouts! Give me a cloth map of the area, or even a good quality paper one, to hang in the game room. Give me diary abstract in simil-parchment relevant to the adventure: an unmarked map, villainous notes, this kind of things ready to be used out of the box. People will pay for convenience. Well, I would;
• Magic Item card complete with items descriptions on the back for the main campaign items. They already have beautiful illustrations for those, it’s nearly criminal not to use them. Leave the potions but give us the other 10-20 magic items;
• Main NPCs illustrations to be given to the pcs, to give an idea of the good/bad guys. It does not need to be cards, it does not need to be all of them, they can be used as art in the Adventure, it does need to be high quality;
• A print of one or two low quality paper combat grids for some significant location. Of course, plastic foldable ones would be great...
• The final icing on the cake: some form of token for the Inspiration Die. Like, you know, a die with a different icon on 20. You know you want it.

Would you buy something like that? I don’t think the price for that would be stellar, perhaps as much as the adventure itself.

They could call it Loot Box, or Treasure Crate, or…well, you got it

I’m fairly sure gamers would buy that, some for the reusable bits, some for collection, some just to get the toys.

If you are with me, tell it!

 

[the Jester]

So you're suggesting a separate product to run alongside the adventure?

I've no interest in such a thing, and I suspect that it would lose tons of money. After all, it would have to sell very well indeed to cover the costs of new mini molds, custom cloth maps, etc, and when the market is limited to a subset of those who bought the adventure, it just doesn't seem too viable to me.

OTOH if the adventure itself came with a couple minis, handouts, etc.... yeah, that would be cool. But the adventures are already $50 each, which puts them out of impulse buy range and into "think hard about this" pricing. If they were an additional $20 or something... no way.

I just don't know whether this is economically viable.

 

[TerraDave]

I would not run or buy one for those things, but if I was going to then I would like those things and would pay extra.

I might be in a minority though.

 

[MerricB]

Main enemies minis. Just the main 4-5 baddies. They are not in the Mini sets so it would be great to have them, some new mini is always good for the players and DMs alike

I have a feeling that these are produced by Gale Force Nine, but often come out later than we'd like.

For instance: http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=287&CategoryID=13389&PageIndex=2

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I'd rather have a tight product than one that tried to cover too many bases, so for that reason I'd rather the minis be separate. Handouts are ALWAYS welcome addition, and something I would pay for. They dont need to be fancy or cloth either.

My wife and I backed the Horror on the Orient Express kickstarter, and we were delighted by the passports, napkins, etc the included in the box set.

 

[aramis erak]

Not particularly interested, but will note that maps on good stock without the adventure locations marked would be nice.
They could easily be included in the adventures in an appendix, even.

See, the issue for me is I like to put the hex-maps in front of the players, but the recent ones are all already labeled with the adventure locations.

 

[Lanefan]

I'd be unlikely to buy such a thing; most of the time when I use a pre-written module I'm chewing it up to adapt to my own story and-or setting and-or whatever, and many of the products suggested (e.g. maps, character minis, etc.) would only be of use if I stuck to using the module as written. Ditto for magic item cards, as other than some basics the items my parties find don't often conform to the usual standards. I'd probably never use them.

Lan-"the bright side is the money I'd save by not buying this could be used to buy more adventures"-efan

 

[steeldragons]

I'd be unlikely to buy such a thing; most of the time when I use a pre-written module I'm chewing it up to adapt to my own story and-or setting and-or whatever, and many of the products suggested (e.g. maps, character minis, etc.) would only be of use if I stuck to using the module as written. Ditto for magic item cards, as other than some basics the items my parties find don't often conform to the usual standards. I'd probably never use them.

Lan-"the bright side is the money I'd save by not buying this could be used to buy more adventures"-efan

This. Chalk up another "No, thanks."

 

[vandaexpress]

I'm big on bringing the best possible production value to the table and my players, I buy the GF9 minis for each adventure path I run and have them professionally painted. I print out magic item cards on glossy photo paper, I scour the internet for pictures of the major NPCs and locations from the books, and I scan in pictures if I can't find them online. I print off villainous notes on parchment, and I project the battlemaps onto a table using a projector and then I have a 46" flatscreen hooked up for displaying NPC portraits, etc.

I say all of this because I am THE target demo for this kind of a product, I throw ridiculous amounts of money at this hobby and love to delight my players, but the bottom line is that as time goes on, I rely less and less on physical products and more and more on digital versions of them. We use miniatures on a projected battlemap, but I no longer use physical battlemaps. Nearly everything you listed can already be obtained, with the sole exception being the villainous notes and item cards, which I make on my own, using Tintagel's MSE card sets and a printer.

So I wouldn't bite on this, not because I don't love the idea, but because of its physical format. If there's one thing I learned early on in this hobby it's that I hate rifling through a zillion books and handouts and pieces of paper to find what I need. I hate how much space my D&D stuff takes up. If you were to offer these things in a DIGITAL format, I'd be all about it. I'd be happy to pay the original artists for high-res versions of the artwork featured in the books. I'd be happy to pay extra for the digital version of exclusive battlemaps that they didn't have room to include in the book itself (like the bonus maps that they included in Fantasy Ground's Hoard of the Dragon Queen). I'd be happy to pay extra for bonus digital content to help me run the adventure, like extended NPC backgrounds, etc.

In fact, although the demand would probably be lower for a digital version of these things you're talking about, I think it would probably be the only way to make it financially feasible since the distribution costs for digital products are negligible. I love pathfinder's support for their APs too, but I think physical gaming is on the way out and it pains me when I go to my FLGS and I see all these pathfinder AP bonus goodies collecting dust.

 

[delericho]

I'm afraid I'm with the majority on this one: it's not for me.

The truth is that while I have all the Pathfinder adventure paths (and the 3 from Dungeon) and both "Tyranny..." and PotA (and will no doubt pick up the next one too), I've only ever run one Adventure Path. And given out current game schedule, that's not going to change - with one three-hour session every two weeks, a full-blown path would just take too long to play through.

So I'm not in the market for support products for a Path I'll never run.

But I have another problem with the product as envisaged: it's too limited for a premium product. Specifically, when it suggests minis... but only for the key villains, that's a turn-off. Either include visual representations for all the monsters, or don't bother. (That doesn't need to be minis, though - Pathfinder's "Pawns" are a good product.) Likewise, magic item cards for some of the items (indeed, excluding the potions, for which they'd be most useful) is a turn off.

In short: go big, or go home.

Sorry, I know that's not really helpful.