D&D (2024) What's In D&D's New Starter Set?

Sacrosanct said:

I'm currently in the research stage for mini cost for a boxed set, and one of the first things I noticed was that there were no minis there. For a large run like WoTC will have, injected minis per box wouldn't be that costly, Whereas they would be for me (at a less than 1000 print run lol). But the bigger thing that tells me is that box space is a premium, and a bag of minis uses a lot of box space. The difference between a 1.5 inch box height and a 2.5 inch box height. And on a large scale, that's logistically important.

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For many tabletop games, the single most expensive component is the box! Mainly because it has to be durable enough to hold up in shipping and serve as storage for years after you buy the game.

Sacrosanct said:

I'm currently in the research stage for mini cost for a boxed set, and one of the first things I noticed was that there were no minis there. For a large run like WoTC will have, injected minis per box wouldn't be that costly, Whereas they would be for me (at a less than 1000 print run lol). But the bigger thing that tells me is that box space is a premium, and a bag of minis uses a lot of box space. The difference between a 1.5 inch box height and a 2.5 inch box height. And on a large scale, that's logistically important.

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SlyFlourish said:

To me, this seems like the most important product for the future of TTRPGs. This is the product most likely to bring in new players and expose the to the hobby we love. Along with the three core books (now released) and the 5.2 SRD, this is the third pillar of what I'm really looking forward to from WOTC and how it can grow the whole hobby.

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These statements are related, because this item will live on shelf in stores like Target, Walmart, B&N, and others. The bigger the box the higher the strain on shelf space.

And I'll echo @mearls getting to $30 would be ideal. Catan, Carcassonne, and those types of games are 25-40 at Target.

mearls said:

That sounds high to me. Based on the Pathfinder boxed set, and some pricing I did a month ago on an unannounced Chaosium product, I think the price should be around $30.

OTOH, if they're printing in the US it might end up around $50 especially if they don't have a ready source of dice.

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Let them eat chits! It was good enough for us!

50 bucks is pretty comparable to a lot of board games nowadays. Does WOTC ever play the 'loss leader' card with their products?

michaeljpastor said:

Let them eat chits! It was good enough for us!

50 bucks is pretty comparable to a lot of board games nowadays. Does WOTC ever play the 'loss leader' card with their products?

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Once in a while from memory.

michaeljpastor said:

Does WOTC ever play the 'loss leader' card with their products?

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They have a lower profit margin on the three core books, historically, although I don't think Hasbro (or any company that intends to stick around) will sell their products at an actual loss.

...shocking amount of positivity in this thread...

michaeljpastor said:

Does WOTC ever play the 'loss leader' card with their products?

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I don't know that WotC has any incentive to have a loss leader. Loss leaders in retail, as a small business owner, are used to get people in the door. You than expect that customer to purchase other items that have a higher margin to make up the difference. For a small business, I need a certain percentage margin to make my bills. Below that margin percentage my business slowly, or quickly, dies. Loss leaders lower that margin if unsuccessful in the above goal.

We can think of it this way. If I sell a product at a profit of $1, I make $10 if I sell 10. If I put that product at a price where I make 50 cents, I need to sell twice as many to make the same raw dollar amount. I'd be working harder for the same money in this comparison. This complicates the math on a loss leader, as it works the same with two items. If I sell two items for a profit of $2, and drop one to a loss leader at $0 profit. I'm selling the second one at cost. To make that make sense, financially, I need to sell twice as many of the first, profitable, item.

This is a gross oversimplification. But it illustrates why WotC may choose to not engage in that strategy. If they make $1 per starter set, just for illustration purposes, and $1 on each core book. And they loss leader the starter set to below cost at -$1 raw profit. They than have to increase the combined sales of the three core books by twice the amount of starter sets sold to just break even.

In this case they may take a break even for the increased customer base. But the decision is ultimately on whether there is enough potential customers or sales to be gained on other products to offset the cost of the loss leader. And that increase has to be a result of the loss leader. If the calculation is that most people will buy it at normal retail, or that the market is not likely to grow, they simply would have no reason to take the risk of making the starter set a loss leader.

I don't know that loss leaders make sense for WotC in this industry. They seem like they would be unlikely to see a rise in sales large enough to off set the cost. But that is a non-expert opinion as my small store doesn't compare to their billion dollar company.

EDIT: This is even harder if you are selling through partners, as those partners may choose to take the extra margin negating any real world effects of your loss leader. Meaning you'd just be burning money for, likely, no sales gain.

mearls said:

That sounds high to me. Based on the Pathfinder boxed set, and some pricing I did a month ago on an unannounced Chaosium product, I think the price should be around $30.

OTOH, if they're printing in the US it might end up around $50 especially if they don't have a ready source of dice. Depends on what margin they are looking for and the components. The Phandelver set was printed in the US except for the dice. We'd order massive numbers of dice sets each year from China and use them across all our products that needed them. That helped keep costs low.

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A problem as old as D&D! Lol

THEMNGMNT said:

...shocking amount of positivity in this thread...

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Well it looks good, why are you surprised.

THEMNGMNT said:

This video shows footage of the actual set being previewed at the New York Toy Fair. (Hopefully this link previews OK.)

This Starter Set is totally unlike anything WotC has released before. I love it. You might hate it. But it's not for us. It's obviously meant for people who have zero--ZERO--experience with TTRPGs.

I think it's a great move and long overdue.

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WOW! Looks great and very easy to learn. An auto-buy for me.