Asmor's Geek Blog

I was reflecting on some recent acquirements which, though very happy with, I had the same complaint with: they both seemed too expensive. And the more I thought about it, the more it occurred to me that maybe the problem wasn’t the price, but my expectations.

I’ve been buying RPG books from Wizards of the Coast since 3rd edition premiered in, what 2000? In that time, they’ve set a price point in my mind. $30 for a hardcover, full-color book; somewhere in the neighborhood of 250-300pp for “core” books and 150-200pp for “supplements.”

Now, of course, they have the unique benefit of a market that’s vastly larger than any of their competitors, and economies of scale bring the prices for their products down significantly.

The two items I’ve gotten recently which bring this sense of the “worth” of things are Cthulhutech and the Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion.

Quality-wise, the Cthulhutech core rulebook looks like anything WotC might have put out. Hardcover, about the right size, full-color. However, its MSRP is $50, which is about $15 more than I would usually be willing to spend on something like that (and ignoring the fact that whether you buy your stuff online or from a brick-and-mortar store, nobody pays full MSRP…).

The Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion is comparable to the Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition in form factor. The only qualitative difference between the two is that the Fantasy Companion has a glossy cover and the SWXE has a matte (which I vastly prefer, for both tactile and aesthetic reasons). The two books are similar in size and quality, both digest-sized paperbacks of around a 100 or so pages, give or take (I’m too lazy to go check at the moment). The SWXE’s MSRP is $10, which I recognize as a complete bargain, while the FC’s MSRP is $20. Given that I think the former is a bargain and the latter feels overpriced, I guess that sets my expectations for a product of this magnitude at about $15.

And now the real fun thing, which hadn’t even occurred to me until I actually started writing this post, is how I think about prices. For example, up above where I was talking about the expectation WotC has set for me? I realized that the core rulebooks for Fourth Edition were $34.95, while the supplements are typically $29.95. But in my mind, I think of both as being $30. And, indeed, as I think about it, if the Fantasy Companion has been priced at $18, I don’t think I’d have had any sticker shock.

I guess what it comes down to is that I think of things in $10 tiers. If something costs $x0.00-$x8.99, I tend to mentally round it down to $x0; if it costs $x9.00-$x9.99, I round it up to $(x+1)0. This is something I’ve been aware of for a long time; my disgusting levels of credit card debt in college can attest to how difficult it is for me to keep track of how much I’ve actually spent.

Hmm… So what’s the point of all of this? I’m not really sure. It certainly ended up going a different direction than I’d intended. C’est la vie.

Got this email today…

Hi!

I’ve been trying to put together a random encounter generator for an IRC bot, and it’s been going well with one exception. Data entry. As it turns out, copying the monster name, level, type, page, and source from the monsters by level section of the manual is a lot of work, and my .pdf scans make the whole thing non-uniform so I can’t even parse the data as needed without going 1 at a time.

I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor. You clearly have a considerable number of monsters listed in your 4e Random Encounter Generator’s database, and I was wondering if you would be willing to send me a copy of your monster tables.

Thanks.

(Emphasis added)

For those who weren’t aware, I actually input all the data manually from the actual, physical books. So I can’t say I have much sympathy for someone who’s having trouble parsing the data from scanned PDFs…

Key
[Spec (if required)] Class (Spell, Duration in seconds, additional notes)
CD: Cooldown, if any, in seconds.
Fear effect: Causes the target to run around randomly, potentially aggroing other mobs. Use carefully.

Any
Hunter (Freezing Trap, 60s, CD:30, *)
SV Hunter (Wyvern Sting, 30s, CD:60)
Warlock (Fear, 20s, Fear effect, ***)

Beast
Druid (Hibernate, 40s)
Hunter (Scare Beast, 20s, Fear effect)
Mage (Polymorph, 50s)
Rogue (Sap, 60s, **)
Shaman (Hex, 60s, CD:45)

Demon
Ret Paladin (Repentance, 60s, CD:60)
Rogue (Sap, 60s, **)
Warlock (Banish, 20s)

Dragonkin
Druid (Hibernate)
Ret Paladin (Repentance, 60s, CD:60)
Rogue (Sap, 60s, **)

Elemental
Shaman (Bind Elemental, 50s)
Warlock (Banish, 20s)

Giant
Ret Paladin (Repentance, 60s, CD:60)

Humanoid
Mage (Polymorph, 50s)
Ret Paladin (Repentance, 60s, CD:60)
Priest (Mind Control, 30s)
Rogue (Sap, 60s, **)
Shaman (Hex, 60s, CD:45)
Warlock (Seduction, 30s, Requires Succubus pet)

Undead
Ret Paladin (Repentance, 60s, CD:60)
Priest (Shackle Undead, 50s)

*Freezing Trap: Can be tricky to use in combat. Hunter should freeze before all other CC except Sap. Hunter can freeze a second target when cooldown is up. Also, distracting shot can be used in tandem to more reliably CC things post-pull.
**Sap: Can only be used out of combat; rogue should sap before all CC. Recommended
***Fear: All undead NPCs are immune to fear. If warlock has fear glyphed, target will stand in place rather than running away.