New Starter Set

[Rick Meints]

9 hours ago, Jason D said:

Some stuff has changed, some things are still the same.

"Meet the new boss..." 

Same as the old boss...

[AndrewTBP]

I’ll be buying the Starter Set even though I started in 1981 and RQ2 was my 2nd RPG purchase after Traveller. 
😉

I can’t promise I won’t decide at the last minute to buy the PDF only as I did with RQ Classic. 

[Lordabdul]

7 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

Same as the old boss...

....says the new boss.... 😄 

[Rick Meints]

20 hours ago, lordabdul said:

....says the new boss.... 😄 

Ask Jason about the ongoing debate of the quote in the book...

[Sumath]

I honestly don't know why boxed sets went out of fashion - I can remember buying the Games Workshop RuneQuest boxed set as a teenager.

Besides the incredible cover art, I loved the way the deep box lid slid off of the box bottom - it made you feel like you were unboxing a Christmas present every time you opened it, and then to find inside not just that wonderful 2nd edition rulebook, but also the Basic Roleplaying booklet, the FANGS supplement and the Apple Lane scenario book and my first ever set of polyhedral dice (albeit not great quality). It was like a GMs arsenal for creating adventure.

I'll never forget the palpable sense of excitement from that, and I hope that newcomers get the same buzz from this new Starter Set. Plus, I used to use that box to store all the scenarios, maps and handouts I created for my games.

The same was true for another box set I owned at the time - Golden Heroes - they became repositories of gaming goodness.

[soltakss]

2 hours ago, Sumath said:

I honestly don't know why boxed sets went out of fashion - I can remember buying the Games Workshop RuneQuest boxed set as a teenager.

In the EU, we paid Value Added Tax (VAT) on Boxed Sets but not on books, so boxed sets were automatically 17-20% dearer than books would have been.

I remember some books having a PYOD Logo, for Provide Your Own Dice.

[Rick Meints]

6 hours ago, Sumath said:

I honestly don't know why boxed sets went out of fashion - I can remember buying the Games Workshop RuneQuest boxed set as a teenager.

Besides the incredible cover art, I loved the way the deep box lid slid off of the box bottom - it made you feel like you were unboxing a Christmas present every time you opened it, and then to find inside not just that wonderful 2nd edition rulebook, but also the Basic Roleplaying booklet, the FANGS supplement and the Apple Lane scenario book and my first ever set of polyhedral dice (albeit not great quality). It was like a GMs arsenal for creating adventure.

I'll never forget the palpable sense of excitement from that, and I hope that newcomers get the same buzz from this new Starter Set. Plus, I used to use that box to store all the scenarios, maps and handouts I created for my games.

The same was true for another box set I owned at the time - Golden Heroes - they became repositories of gaming goodness.

Most RPG people I know love boxed sets. Unfortunately, there are a variety of reasons they are not more common.

The single biggest factor is that they cost more to make. Printing 4 booklets, some handouts, and a box to put them in costs more than producing a single bound book with all of the same contents. Boxed items also are more prone to damage, both during shipping and during use, especially for flimsy/thin boxes. A well made book, not nearly as much. Boxes often contain a lot of extra empty space. That means they cost more to store, take up more precious shelf space in a game store, and cost more to ship. Large shipments have their costs calculated by weight AND by dimensions. I also want to echo what has been said about sales tax in a number of countries. Books are not taxed as much in many countries as boxed "games" are.

So why are boxed starter sets an exception to all of the above "negatives". While I cannot speak for other companies, I believe in the following logic. When you are trying to attract NEW customers you want to entice them with as cool and inexpensive a product as you reasonably can. In our case we feel $29.99 isn't too big an investment for the "RQ curious". There's lots of enticing art, including the box cover art. We've had lots of positive first reactions from people who come to our convention booth, see the CoC starter set, browse through its contents, and find its price very enticing. Many come back at subsequent conventions, or sometimes a day or two later at the same convention and happily switch to buying our RPG books from us. It's a little like the printer and ink cartridge situation. Most of the income we get from customers are the repeat customers who become long term customers. The hardest part is getting them to take the initial plunge. There are a lot of other RPGs vying for their $$$. That's probably the final factor worth mentioning. We are competing with a number of other RPG companies that have cool boxed starter sets on the market. Not doing likewise is somewhat of a disadvantage.

[Akhôrahil]

7 hours ago, Sumath said:

I honestly don't know why boxed sets went out of fashion - I can remember buying the Games Workshop RuneQuest boxed set as a teenager.

I believe a lot of it had to do with shifting production costs. Early on (I only know this for the Swedish market, but it might be generalizable) printing big hardback books was expensive, so it made sense to print multiple booklets and box them instead (plus, you could include character sheets and dice, that not everyone might already have had in those days). 

Then things shifted so that single big books became more feasible.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Akhôrahil