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Author Topic: $197 for a roleplaying game  (Read 9987 times)

Caesar Slaad

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$197 for a roleplaying game
« Reply #90 on: August 27, 2016, 11:03:00 AM »
I listened to an interview with Monte (on the Tome Show) to figure out what the hell this was about.

And frankly, it does sound cool. The basic concept is "reality is a magic-Matrix, and you are the neos of the setting". Which works for me.

The idea of rules that recognize the reality that not all gaming groups can play week-in week-out Friday 6-12 is good. Making the ideas of smaller sessions with a subset of players a fun and do-able gaming experience is good.

Nonetheless, I'm not sure I can commit. With any luck, Monte will churn out some rules ideas that make it to the larger gaming world, but given the Cypher System (which is a serious meh in my book), and I don't get the immediate impression this would displace anything in my current gaming palette, I'm less certain than I'd like to be that the cost is worth it for me.
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DavetheLost

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« Reply #91 on: August 27, 2016, 11:47:15 AM »
Quote from: Ronin;915694
I actually agree with Dave here.


You sound surprised.
I shall try to be less agreeable in future. ;)

Haffrung

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« Reply #92 on: August 27, 2016, 01:07:09 PM »
Quote from: yosemitemike;914553
Expensive and overpriced are not interchangeable terms.  Some people in the hobby seem incapable of grasping this.

Hang on, are you trying to tell me that anyone who charges more than I'd pay for a game product isn't necessarily a deceptive, greedy fuck who is trying to shit all over the little guy?

Quote from: Omega;915665
Unlike Cook though he doesnt seem to be cashing in on his name (or at least as much). And more riding on the merits of his work. (what little I've seen) Which I respect.

You can't make a living in the creative economy without making a name for yourself. You are your brand. That's just reality. And why do you think Cook has a name to begin with? Presumably it's because he has a lot of happy customers who enjoy his work. And good for him. Not many people can earn a full-time living at RPGs, and we should appreciate whenever someone can, even if they make products we don't like.

The amount of resentment in this hobby never fails to astound me. Such a night and day difference with the boardgaming hobby, where hobbyists support designers and publishers and don't have a problem with them trying to make money.
 

Simlasa

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« Reply #93 on: August 27, 2016, 01:34:06 PM »
Quote from: Caesar Slaad;915695
The basic concept is "reality is a magic-Matrix, and you are the neos of the setting".
Again, that kinda sounds a bit like Kult... though I assume it's not dark and full of horrors.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2016, 04:31:19 PM by Simlasa »

DavetheLost

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« Reply #94 on: August 27, 2016, 03:43:20 PM »
I was surprised when I did the price check on CoC 7 and D&D 5e, just picking two games at how close they came to IS in price. You could easilly drop the same and more on FFG Star Wars, or The One Ring from C7. How much was John Wick asking for 7th Sea?

I know I dropped $200 on Ogre designer's edition. That on a box full of cardboard.

There are board games I look at the price on and scratch my head. But having maps and counters and boxes printed is not cheap. Never mind the tooling to make the plastic figures that are so popular these days.

$200 for IS may be more than I want to pay, but that has more to do with spending money on a game I likely won't play.

Ronin

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« Reply #95 on: August 27, 2016, 03:56:11 PM »
I think another difference at least with 5e. Is that you don't feel the full brunt of the cost all at once. 50 here, another 50 a couple months later, and etc. It makes it more palatable.
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crkrueger

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« Reply #96 on: August 27, 2016, 06:16:07 PM »
Quote from: RPGPundit;915630
What I don't get is why Tweet isn't treated with the same reverence? I mean, he probably had a lot more to do with the actually GOOD ideas in 3e, based on everything he produced before and after vs. what Cook has produced.

1. d20 World of Darkness
2. Ptolus and lots of 3e material
3. Cook is just a way cooler name than Tweet, even after Twitter came out.
4. Monte makes him sound British, therefore smarter.  Glasses help.
5. Cook looks semi-normal, Tweet looks like the type of gamer you avoid at a FLGS.
6. Tweet's Rick Rubin, everyone has heard of his name, everyone in the industry wants to work with him.  99% of people who love his work wouldn't recognize him sitting across from them.  Monte Cook is Eminem, his name is on the direct covers of a lot more product, and his controversies against The Man (WotC) and The Soccer Moms (SJW stuff) give him street cred.
7. Monte bangs a hot sex-positive feminist. Tweet, who knows, could be a basement dweller.
8. Tweet gets together with a bunch of other people (his name lower billing) on a 4e knockoff called a "Loveletter to D&D". Cook makes a cardboard Hellraiser Cube and stuffs a game inside.
9. Monte aggressively markets his stuff.  I only know Tweet's still around because I haven't seen anything announcing otherwise.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2016, 06:22:53 PM by CRKrueger »
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Kyle Aaron

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« Reply #97 on: August 27, 2016, 07:04:27 PM »
Quote from: Rincewind1;915678
There's nothing uncapitalistic about making your customers take the investment risk. It's just really clever, ruthless free market practice.
In normal business, investors will get a share of the profit, if any.

Of course, there are variations where the guy begging for money just takes it and runs, and the USA has been an innovator in fraudulent practices for decades, so it shouldn't surprise us that kickstarters come from there, too.

1. make the product
2. sell the product
3. use the money earned to increase amount and variety of things produced

in that order. That's capitalism.
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yosemitemike

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« Reply #98 on: August 27, 2016, 08:18:06 PM »
Quote from: Rincewind1;915678
There's nothing uncapitalistic about making your customers take the investment risk. It's just really clever, ruthless free market practice.


No one is making anyone do anything.
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DavetheLost

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« Reply #99 on: August 27, 2016, 09:04:04 PM »
Quote from: yosemitemike;915775
No one is making anyone do anything.

Very true. We are free to buy in or not buy in at what ever level we can afford. I very much doubt that MCG will send a representative aaround to your house to make you pledge the Kickstarter or play the game.

I actually want to like IS. However I have some sharp criticsm of the way it seem sto be presented. A presentation which puts me off. Just because we are not all Monte Cook fanboys basking in the privilage of the Invisible Sun does not mean we hate him and wish him ill. We just don't like this KS.

TheShadow

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$197 for a roleplaying game
« Reply #100 on: August 29, 2016, 11:38:42 AM »
The $200 price point seems too high - it's not so much the expense, because I've spent way more than that on multiple lines. But for a single box set, I think that price requires cramming stuff in just to make it super deluxe. I can see a box set for $100-$120, though - that's about right for several slim books, aids, dice and one or two spiffy doodahs.
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J.L. Duncan

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« Reply #101 on: August 29, 2016, 12:03:23 PM »
Does no one get it!!! Your not just paying $200 for a boxed set! Your paying $200 for a boxed set which by means of levitation and magic opens and presents its gaming contents, upon your table!

As others mentioned, I would liked to have seen more in the Kickstarter presentation before deciding to back it. $200 is a bit steep for me, but I may have, if more information about the mechanics was provided.

Edit: On a side note good for him.

Luca

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« Reply #102 on: August 29, 2016, 01:15:09 PM »
I wouldn't mind the price tag if the game was worth it, but stuff like "This game has *OFFICIAL SECRETS* that you can only get by sending Monte lots and lots of money" killed the deal right then and there for me.

The moment I buy an RPG the campaign becomes mine, which means it's more than likely going to diverge from its initial state much less whatever other crap the original author intended as follow-ups. If there's important info I need it before the start so I can properly incorporate it.

It's mildly interesting as a collector, though, but I'll pass anyway. The September's collector's money is going to be allocated to Petersen's "The Gods War" and boy is that going to be expensive.

RPGPundit

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$197 for a roleplaying game
« Reply #103 on: August 30, 2016, 01:22:22 AM »
Quote from: Omega;915665
Wondered that too. But Tweet for some reason allways rubbed me the wrong way. I think some of his magazine articles were good. But his RPG writing to me at least allways comes off... not right. Unlike Cook though he doesnt seem to be cashing in on his name (or at least as much). And more riding on the merits of his work. (what little I've seen) Which I respect.


For me it's just the opposite. Most of the system-writing Cook has done over the years I found pretty awful (only CoC D20 as an exception) whereas most things Tweet did have been great, even things that had no right being great (like Over the Edge, Everway, or the tiny Omega World D20 game).
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Omega

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« Reply #104 on: August 30, 2016, 07:58:57 AM »
Quote from: DavetheLost;915685
The cost is not that much more than the slipcase for Call of Cthulhu 7e, $129.99. D&D 5e has an MSRP of $149.85 for the three core books, plus $14.95 for the GM screen..


5e is still going on WOTCs Amazon store for 80$ for the core books. The GM screen is made by someone else. You can though count the Adventurers Guide to FR. Though its got very little rules in it. Another 28$.