BlackDiamond's page

Ironically however, I was more willing to buy hardcopies of 5e core when it first came out and 5e stuff on release from a gamestore than online. I of course am not all...

It's not just customers, retailers generally despise Paizo for a) selling direct, b) having an online discount store, and c) feeling organized play is designed to feed back to their direct sales. I buck the trend, but it's because we have a strong Pathfinder community.

So retailers REALLY want D&D to succeed. They have religious FAITH in D&D. They need D&D to be a win.

Do you report 3PP sales of pathfinder compatible books (if there are any) as Pathfinder sales in the ICv2 surveys?

I'm pretty confident in saying retailers sell an incredibly low number (if any) 3PP products.

BlackDiamond wrote:

... I can sell 80 Pathfinder core rulebooks a year, every year, since about 2010.

Question for you. The buzz we have from distribution, and from other retailers, is that D&D is doing great. For some, a little better than Pathfinder; for some, a little worse. But they pretty much all say—and our own sales figures say—that Wizards' success is not coming at the cost of Pathfinder—that their Pathfinder sales are in the same ballpark as before, if not up a little. What are you seeing in that respect?

It's the question of whether D&D 5 can increase the size of the pie. It's the same question I asked with Pathfinder and D&D 4. Pathfinder increased the size of the pie for a short period before D&D 4 cratered. Then PF became de-facto D&D. The pie.

We're in that same period now with D&D 5. The pie is increasing in size. My D&D 5 sales outsold Pathfinder 2:1 since Summer, without being at the expense of my Pathfinder sales. That was with six D&D products compared to 300+ with Pathfinder.

Will this last? No. The reason I can sell 80+ Pathfinder core rulebooks all day long is I have 300+ products backing it up. If all I sold was core rulebooks I would never see sales anywhere near this. Most retailers would agree. That's what D&D is in danger of experiencing. All dressed up and nowhere to go.

I felt my ears burning. A couple things.

I like ICV2. I'm one of those retailers who regularly gets interviewed by ICV2. However, ICV2 numbers are based on informal phone surveys of a handful of retailers. They are not remotely scientific or definitive of what's going on. It's more a mood than a quantitative analysis.

But the premise is still valid. How long will D&D 5 top Pathfinder in sales? It's kind of complicated. On one hand, they only have core books and will only have these core books and some minor accessories for most of this year. On the other hand, I can sell 80 Pathfinder core rulebooks a year, every year, since about 2010. In fact, 75% of my Pathfinder sales come from just hardcover rulebooks, which account for a dozen titles of the 300+ that I stock.

So D&D 5 has no extended content, but those core books might have legs. Those core books are REALLY good too. That said, if Wizards of the Coast doesn't start producing some traditional "popular" content, sales will fall. When I talk to third party publishers who have tentatively ventured into 5E publishing, they have no faith WOTC will deliver. I call it D&D 5: The Stable IP Edition, because I think it's basically a place holder for developing money projects, video games and movies.

--gary

Black Diamond Games

You have to be direct and tell him to his face that the place smells, that this comes from a place of kindness and you want him to succeed. There is a strong likelihood that he's entirely unable to perceive the smell.

We used to have an all male staff and as we hired women, we finally hit a critical mass and they banded together to let us know that our standards of cleanliness would have to be improved if we hoped to attract and retain female customers. It was a shock, since by my own standards, the store was pretty clean. It wasn't nearly clean enough it turned out. "Pretty clean" is not clean.

It costs actual money to keep a store clean. Ours requires about 5 hours a week of intensive cleaning and an hour a day of maintenance, along with maybe another 5 hours a month of "projects," like carpet cleaning or painting the walls. When we weren't making money, those hours seemed like madness, and they never felt like they were enough to get the job done. But you have to do it.

It also requires that everyone agree on standards of cleanliness. One person can't be responsible for keeping the whole place clean. Just ask your mom. ;)

Those card packs are the slowest selling items for us. I only carry them to be a completist and I kind of wish they would go away. Perhaps subscribers buy them more often, but not so much for us.

Also, not mentioned here, we actually sell the novels pretty regularly and stock the full line. If you decide to go "full line," don't forget those.

It will depend. The problem with 3PP is the incredible rate at which Paizo puts out high quality products. Most people who follow Paizo don't have the mental bandwidth to deviate too far from the source. We sell a ton of Pathfinder but have difficulty with most 3PP.

Honestly, with Pathfinder as the new D&D, I think it's reasonable for a store to carry the full line. It's what you would expect to do with D&D. The full line of every Pathfinder item is about $3,000, which is a tiny bit of inventory compared to other investments. 3PP is something to consider after you've got all the Paizo stuff.

All of this product integrates and builds off each other, so the more you have, the more you sell. You're also trying to be the reliable source for Pathfinder products, so having the full line means your customers can come to you first.

Game Mastery Guide is an excellent book if you run your own campaign. It's the least popular of the hard covers, due to its narrow focus, but it's still worth carrying.

After the hardcovers, the most current adventure paths would be my next choice. After that, you could do supplements that tie into those adventure paths. Some stand alone adventures might be worthwhile, knowing that they'll be the usual slow sellers.

Map Packs and Flip Mats are useful for both D&D and Pathfinder, with Flip Mats being the more popular of those. Focus on the Basic mat, taverns, and common outdoor scenery, like forests, river crossings, etc.

The strategy I employ involves carrying the full line. I can't compete on price, but I can compete on selection and service (when combined with Pathfinder Society play and knowledgeable staff). The last time I checked, it was probably a $3,000 investment. That's cheap compared to most hobby games.

Here's how mine began, with the PCs in their seaside abode:

You awake the next morning to a commotion outside. Floating in the harbor and littering the beaches are bloated, green bodies. There are dozens of dead sahuagin. The people are in near panic, as they run around in confusion, certain something horrible is happening.

After some investigation, the PCs discover the bodies have been mauled, ripped and bitten by human teeth, with the brains missing. My group is doing this part online and used a Speak with Dead to realize the sahuagin were attacked by "sailors" in their home. Their home is an underwater settlement miles down the coast.

As they examined the bodies further, they notice the rot, and soon thereafter (we haven't gotten there yet), the sahuagin will "turn" and attack them as Armageddon zombies.

This initial attack will be followed the next day by waves of "sailor" zombies, who have been walking along the bottom of the sea.

My scenario, using the zombie apocalypse ideas from the Gamemastery Guide, has a center of undead power rising, raising all the dead in ever increasing concentric circles. This particular zombie invasion was when that circle expanded to the coast and overlapped an old lighthouse and site of countless shipwrecks. All those corpses of dead sailors raised at once and headed to the closest life, which was the sahuagin, who put up a good fight. Following the sahuagin, the closest life is the PC's town.

I'm thinking throwing in a CR5 in each wave, either a tough thug of a zombie, or a zombie spellcaster to slow down their ability to just wipe them out with Area of Effect stuff. I've got HeroLab for templates, so that's easy to work out.

I'm also thinking throwing in a handful of low level townsfolk to help defend the town, not because I want to be helpful, but because I want the cinematic gore of what happens when an apocalypse zombie kills its victim. Then we get the problem of the spread into town that they have to clean up as the line gets jumped.

My main "campaign" goal is to give them a wake up call of a bigger problem, so it doesn't need to be a final battle of any sort.

I'm wondering if maybe I should just keep them coming until a certain in-game criteria is met or whether to give them a set amount. There are D-Day invasion rules for various games that are kind of like that.

I'm looking for some advice on encounter structure for a zombie apocalypse type attack. The current stage of the apocalypse has risen zombies underwater who make their way to a port town. I'm looking to have them attack the town in waves, but I know from experience, a bunch of mooks is rather tedious as an encounter.

The party is around 7th level, and I'm hoping to have around 100 zombies total, in waves. I'm guessing I'll want to mix up the CRs to keep it interesting. Any suggestions on how to stage this properly?

I'm planning to use the apocalypse zombie as the base.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/zombie/zombie-apoc alypse

The version I have up now should pass muster. It includes OGL only content, plus it's cleaned up quite a bit. If someone could direct me to a site where I could submit it as a free adventure, I would appreciate it.

http://www.blackdiamondgames.com/downloads/ThePit.pdf

What if you did this:

Salt Mummy:
In all respects, Salt Mummies resemble a standard mummy, albeit one encrusted in salt. However, rather than Mummy Rot, Salt Mummies have a Desiccating Slam, similar to the Desiccating Touch of Salt Wights.

Desiccating Slam (Su)

As part of its slam attack, a salt mummy draws the water out of its opponent’s body, causing the victim to wither. The target must make a DC 16 Fortitude save or take 1d6 of Constitution damage.

Thanks! I might do that. I also went ahead and knocked down the golem a bit (CR11 to CR 8) and built up the drake (CR8 to CR 9). Oh, and gave "The Builder" a secret escape hatch (a row boat to the salt lake). He did build the place after all.

Hey folks,

Someone asked for a copy of my notes, so I wrote this up with more detail than I would normally include for myself (but less detail and polish than something you would expect to be published). The extra work turned out to be helpful for my thought processes, which will be of great benefit at the table. It's one more way you guys provided assistance.

This was also the first time I've done a digital dungeon map (Dungeonographer) which went well with my overland map (Hexographer). This made it especially easy to drop the maps into a Word doc and create a PDF.

Finally, there is likely some proprietary stats in this document, such as the Salt Mummy from WOTC and various stolen graphics. The Salt Golem is from Kobold Quarterly. Everything else is cut and paste OGL or mentions of new stuff from Ultimate Equipment (which will likely become OGL). So, you know, for personal use only.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

The adventure has half a dozen encounters, a few traps and hazards, and potentially huge campaign implications if they can liberate a salt mine. Feel free to post corrections or questions. I won't be running it for at least a month.

POWER LEVEL: My sandbox group is large (6-players), of mixed level from 4-6, with way more magic and gear than normal. So BIG WARNING, my encounters don't follow what might be safe or survivable in standard adventure design. There are EL 11's and such (that Salt Golem). My guess is this might work best for a standard 7th level party of four characters. You might want to tone down the Salt Golem or beef up the Salt Drake if you're going for that true, balanced feel. If you do, please post your stats, as I might want to do the same.

Anyway, it is here:

http://blackdiamondgames.com/downloads/SaltMine.pdf

Salt was extremely valueable in the ancient world. There is a quote which refers to the value of a man's weight in salt. I forget the whole thing.

I've been hyping the salt mine in our group forum, something akin to discovering an abandoned gold mine. There's also a book entitled "Salt" that's a history of the world based on the value of salt. Wars were fought, empires built up and destroyed, etc.

For thirty gold coins (or $30, or 25 euro, or 20 pounds) I can accept the quest to do exploration, search for the actual monsters living in the salt mine and report my findings. With another $100 (for a total of $130, er, 130 gp) I could get cheap camera and make photos for you!

Love it!

I think I've got what I need at this point.

Also wanted to point out the "toxic waste dump" idea is an excellent one. If this were a bigger adventure/campaign, I might have a kind of Banewarrens built there, where all the dangerous magic items/magical creatures could be kept safe.

I'm running a sandbox campaign, so the primary motivation for going to the mine is to claim it for the local city-state. The Norse abandoned the area ages ago and now the local Celts are rising up and taking over. I want this to last about two, four hour sessions.

Here's what I've got:

So the Norse soldiers who worked the mine as punishment (it was a kind of wilderness prison) were left to die when their brethren abandoned the island. They're now angry salt wights. They wait for the return of their brothers at the mine entrance.

When the mine was operating, to make a little money the guards brought the sick (those who couldn't afford expensive clerical magic) to the mine's sanitarium. Here they were treated with various herbs and some actual magical remedies, including healing balms and creams. When the mine was abandoned, so were these patients. Most died, either because they couldn't escape or from the angry miners, except for one very sick fellow. Wrapped in magically treated bandages, his body was preserved by both the magic and the salt. He now haunts the sanitarium wing as a salt mummy, wanting nothing more than to enact his wrath on the miners.

When the mine was abandoned, various small battles for control/freedom took place, so there are barricaded hallways where miners made their last stand. They had some time (nobody wanted to dislodge them) and the tools, so they created several nasty traps, including giant blocks of falling salt. Those miners are dead now, many trapped by their own devices, but the hazards remain.

A salt drake, a creature that consumes salt, found a way into a top level of the mine where it made its lair, killing all the remaining miners and all other life, mostly out of spite and greed that they might take its precious salt. At one point some goblins tried to break into the mine, and their skeletal bodies still adorn the drake's lair, along with the semi caved in entrance the goblins had constructed. Their leader's glowing sword provide's an eerie light in the immense, salty cavern.

Through the small goblin tunnel, various other salt related creatures have made their way in, living in harmony with the drake. A couple Sand (Salt) Striders run across the underground lake, collecting stray vermin, like bats and insects. Salt Mephits patrol the other entrance to the mine for anything that gets past the angry salt wights who guard eternally.

Then there is the salt golem who turns the big wheel that crushes salt blocks and brings it to the surface via a series of pulleys from the master chamber. Its last order was to "guard."

Maybe the "rumor" of a salt lich might be enough for the joke. As in, "and they say there's a lich in the salt mine, but that's just nonsense."

Good tip on the earth subtype. That opens up a lot of monsters.

I may need to steal "desiccating thirst" and give it to the kind of boring salt mummy.

Was reading a modern day story about African salt miners, and they had a heck of a time with healing cuts and sores. They were using super glue to seal their skin.

Love the salt-infused template. The bleed is a nice touch that doesn't happen with other "salt" monsters.

Ghost slugs are hilarious, even if I don't make them attack. Or better yet, "Wait until I get to you...."

Salt Mummies would be perfect for my sanitarium.

It is, in fact, based on the Wieliczka mine. I've got a little temple to a Norse mining god and an old sanitarium area. I like the caryatid column or gargoyle idea. I know just where to use them too.

Ropers do seem weird and cool, but I have that in a little mini adventure close by (before or after, depending on where they go).

Undead fish may have to replace the spiders....

Giant spiders, scorpions, rats... anything left unattended long enough attracts vermin.

and after the vermin move in it's only a matter of time before the predators move in after them.

Also, any humanoid underground dweller might find the idea of having walls that they can use to spice up their humdrum food appealing.

How long has the mine been out of use?

A couple hundred years of disuse.

I'm planning to have the wights and drake run the show, so to speak. With the wights keeping out intruders (easy meals) and the drake (which eats salt), keeping all the "treasure" for itself. The rest of the monsters are either incidental or part of the original installation.

I like the spider idea. I put in some sand (salt) striders that I allowed to walk along an underground salt lake.

I'm wondering if there's anything else that might like the sterile environment, perhaps a gelatinous cube.

Thought I would crowd source my attempt to populate a salt mine with monsters. There are a lot of creative ones out there already. We've got:

Salt Drake (My big bad guy)
Salt Wight (the former miners)
Salt Golem (Kobold Quarterly) (the engine for grunt labor)
Salt Mephit

I could use a few more. Any other ideas on creatures that would do well in a mostly lifeless, but relatively sterile environment? Undead are obvious, as well as constructs.

Kthulhu wrote:

Yes, and D&D's print offerings have been pretty minimal for well over a year.

I will hazard an uneducated guess that it's the Core products (4E: PHB/DMG/MM/Essentials, PF: CRB/BBox) that form a core of sales for both platforms.

Black Diamond's Games findings seem to support that ("The core rulebook is our best selling non CCG product in the store, which is pretty amazing.").

About 75% of our Pathfinder sales are the hardcovers, and we carry the full line (over 170 items, last time I checked).

Neither do Paizo's subscriptions, which form the core of their business.

Which you know how?

Had this idea for a character named "Clutch," who simply is too mean, dumb and angry to die. He's the guy who always comes through after the rest of the party is bleeding out on the floor.

Thoughts on what that would like like? Half-orc seems ideal with Orc Ferocity, and the Fight On feat came to mind.

Sorry if there's a forum for this.

The original PDF link doesn't work. Does anyone know where this went (or have a copy)?

New Pathfinder campaign begins Sunday March 4th, from 5pm-9pm in Richmond, CA at my house. We'll be playing every other week as regularly as possible.

It's a home brew sandbox campaign starting at 1st level. So what does that mean? It means there is a wide world to explore, but also that there are a goings on, with plots to be uncovered and a frontier town to save. It's highly detailed, planned in advance, and completely up to to the players to create the agenda. Thankfully, they're all very experienced.

There are five of us now, all well adjusted guys in their mid-30's to mid-40's. Everyone is experienced with Pathfinder (and 3.5 before that). One of the players is more of a "guest star," AKA a wonky schedule, so we're really short one person at the moment.

We've got a Facebook group with tons of detail and that's generally how we schedule, transmit campaign info and plan.

I just want to point out that the original poster came into a store, found what he was looking for and bought it. It could have been a satisfactory experience if the store owner hadn't demoralized him. If the store owners attitude were different, he could have asked the customer what *else* he needed, offered to order or stock that, and picked the customers brain about organized play. He could have been apologetic that he hadn't quite ramped up his PF selection and perhaps provided examples of how that could happen. Perhaps a customer so intent on understanding the business side could organize some Pathfinder Society play. Pathfinder doesn't work for every store, but neither does D&D.

Everything else said is more or less on the money. Selling Pathfinder as a retailer means turning a blind eye to those who buy direct, to those who come for Pathfinder Society in my store who subscribe to nearly everything from Paizo and Amazon everything else. Yes, Paizo is a direct competitor of mine. They're also a partner. I can say the exact same thing about Wizards of the Coast. Paizo is just more obvious about it (and better at it). So I can gnash my teeth and lament lost sales or instead find a way to better serve my customers. I'm a business owner, not a fan boy, so my job is to find solutions, not pontificate (which I do anyway).

I've got a Blog Post that breaks down what we sell in a pie chart.

Besides core rulebooks, which make up 60%+ of our sales, Chronicles, Adventure Paths and Flip Mats are very good sellers. Stand alone adventures and map packs don't sell nearly as well.

If I were starting out, I would carry the rulebooks, the last two adventure paths, and Chronicles books related to those paths. The flip mats are great because there's a lot of D&D cross-over. From there, it's easy to listen to customers and bring in requests.

If there's serious demand, as in D&D level demand like my store has, I recommend carrying the full line. Carrying the full line has a "rising tide" effect, where stuff that barely sells with only some of the line suddenly sells very well when you carry the full line.

CapeCodRPGer wrote:

I would really like to see the lines for the extra parts. If anyone has them message me please.

Sorry I missed your request, CapeCodRPGer. Pesky work travel...

I would also love to get the extra lines. I don't see how to email you though. Mine is gray (at) blackdiamondgames.com

I'm not sure how well this is going to work, but I've managed to create all six encounter areas on one table using Dwarven Forge:

Overview
Detail

I think we'll be fine as long as the group understands that adjacent areas are more representational. Anyone else try this?

It might seem really obvious, but I re-worked the Urban Tracking 3.5 variant feat to Pathfinder for my group:
Urban Tracking Feat (Bonus)

Let me know if you see any problems with it.

Nice program. Would it be helpful to remove or modify previous posts with the older versions? I downloaded and played with each one before finally getting the excellent version 1.2.

Oh, and I would pay a few bucks for an iPhone app of this.