The FRPG Business

[JD Lail]

I would like to make the members of this list aware of some of how
the games industry works.

When a product is printed it is normal to print up enough for 12-18
months of sales because of the savings that can be had in larger print
runs. Even runs of 20-50 thousand units however are still considered
small by the printers who jack up the price on runs smaller than 20 K
and who give no breaks until you are much talking runs that are much
higher than any gaming firm will ever print up (other than a new ed. of
AD&D.)

The gaming firm will sell off much of the print run in the initial rush
but will still have significant inventories for quite some time.

If the product is a module it will probably not be reprinted. The demand
for such is too little to justify tying up scarce capital in inventory.
Also the used market satisfies this need somewhat.

If the product is an accessory reprinting may occur if there is enough
initial demand to recover printing costs quickly.

While there are exceptions small print runs simply not economically viable
to any publisher being run as a business (as opposed to a hobby or as a tax
loss).

Ed has mentioned that the war cards drove up costs. Too true, and so did the
large maps, the box itself, the large cards, and the rest of the other odd
pieces. And finally boxed products require assembly. All of these drive up
prices .

Enough !

There will be a Quiz later :)

[Ed Stark]

At 11:06 AM 12/25/97 -0500, you wrote:
>I would like to make the members of this list aware of some of how
>the games industry works.
>
>snip<

That was a pretty darn good summation.
-- ->-- ->-- ->--@
Ed Stark
Game Designer, Wizards of the Coast/TSR Division
Asst. Brand Manager, BIRTHRIGHT/GREYHAWK/MARVEL Group
TSR Website: http://www.tsrinc.com
(soon to be http://www.tsr.com)

[James Ray]

- ----------
> From: James Donald Lail
> To: birthright@MPGN.COM
> Subject: [BIRTHRIGHT] - The FRPG Business
> Date: Thursday, December 25, 1997 10:06 AM
>
> I would like to make the members of this list aware of some of how
> the games industry works.

As luck would have it, i work in the printing industry. The only thing i
could possibly suggest to help with high printing costs is that the
materials be printed in one color - no fancy artwork, and no elaborate
maps. Two separate plates are used for each side of each page for each
color. My copy of King of the Giantdowns was brinted in black and varying
shades of grey. I'd be curious to know wether that cut TSR's production
costs to improve its profitability.

Folding of the maps is probably real expensive, too, especially since the
ones ive seen were printed on very fragile, light weight, glossy paper.
The only problem with the paper used is that it tears easily - if the
printers didnt print enuff extra to cover for those lost to the predations
of the folding mahines, then they have to make a new set of plates, print
some more, and the cost of all that generally gets tacked on (i dont work
THAT end of things - i just make sure sideguide and cut-off on the pages
are OK) to what the customer pays. On our presses, things can only get
folded in one direction, and that is parrallel to the direction the web is
running. I cant think of any press we use that can print perpindicularly
to the direction of the web.

Perforation is probly the easiest thing to do to paper, though. I am also
curious to know wether TSR uses web-fed or sheet fed printers for their
stuff? I dont know wether some of the higher-weight paper products, like
the War Cards, can go through the presses i work with, but couldnt they
have been printed on regular 70-lb stock, or even 90-lb? Then the
perforating of the cards would've been relatively easy (i know - im not an
estimator, but i watch for the placement of perf, too), and its not any
harder to perforate one grade of paper than another. You just use perf
with longer teeth.

Then again, i dont work for TSR, either, dont know who they have printing
their products (I know we dont do any of their AD&D stuff, but we have done
stuff for one of those company's that make the card games), how much they
pay for it, or any of that. I do think that if they are taking it on the
chin, financially, at the printer's, they might want to check to see if
they are 1) using the optimal printing technique (sheet-fed vs web-fed) for
their needs 2) using the right grade of paper (too light nd to strong are
both bad things) and 3) using too many different colors (no matter HOW you
print or what grade of stock you use, you pay a LOT for plates)

im sorry that this is so long, and so off subject. i just felt that i
could contribute something :-)

James

[Jim Cooper]

Ed Stark wrote:
>
> At 11:06 AM 12/25/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >I would like to make the members of this list aware of some of how
> >the games industry works.
> >
> >snip<
>
> That was a pretty darn good summation.
> -- ->-- ->-- ->--@
> Ed Stark
>
Hey, at least it was succinct -- but on the same token, you could learn
a lot from the words about the person who wrote it and what the FRPG
business does to those involved in it, huh?

[Ed Stark]

At 11:12 PM 1/26/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Ed Stark wrote:
>>
>> At 11:06 AM 12/25/97 -0500, you wrote:
>> >I would like to make the members of this list aware of some of how
>> >the games industry works.
>> >
>> >snip<
>>
>> That was a pretty darn good summation.
>> -- ->-- ->-- ->--@
>> Ed Stark
>>
>Hey, at least it was succinct -- but on the same token, you could learn
>a lot from the words about the person who wrote it and what the FRPG
>business does to those involved in it, huh?
>
I'm not sure what you're saying here. I was just responding that the prior
summation regarding the FRPG industry (see the post I "snipped" that one
line out of) seemed very accurate to me.


-- ->-- ->-- ->--@
Ed Stark
Game Designer, Wizards of the Coast/TSR Division
Asst. Brand Manager, BIRTHRIGHT/GREYHAWK/MARVEL Group
TSR Website: http://www.tsrinc.com
(soon to be http://www.tsr.com)