Eric, James, et al.,
Just curious - how well is the book selling?
I hope its doing well enough that they are going to continue the trend with Age of Worms.
The shackled city HC is the best buy in PnP I've purchaced since 3.0 came out as far as I'm concerned..for a casual DM like myself its just awesome and so far my groups really enjoying it.
Chief Technical Officer
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Initial orders from distributors were, frankly, terrible. Fortunately, we were able to persuade most distributors to increase their orders to a reasonable level before the book shipped, so the initial shipment was about where we needed it to be.
We've had a few reorders, but it's still too early to gauge long-term reorder potential. (The first shipments of a product generally cover most - or hopefully all - of the product's costs, so reorders usually add directly to the bottom line.)
-Vic.
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I hope its doing well enough that they are going to continue the trend with Age of Worms.
Same here! I didn't read the individual Shackled City adventures as they were published because I didn't have a regular group at the time. Reading through the thread here with the book editor discussing the minute details of the Adventure Path (and how it could be made better) convinced me to buy the book, and it's lived up to even my high expectations ;)
I did run a one-day session through part of the Whispering Cairn, and now I've got that Age of Worms fever. Quick question (well, two, actually): did going through the process of producing the hardcover for Shackled City help iron out the process a bit so that an AoW hardcover would be easier and/or more cost-effective? And when might The Powers That Be feel justified in making a decision, one way or the other, about going ahead with that? I know it's too early to tell, really, but Shackled City turned out so well I'd hate to see the trend stop with just the one book.
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Creative Director
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I did run a one-day session through part of the Whispering Cairn, and now I've got that Age of Worms fever. Quick question (well, two, actually): did going through the process of producing the hardcover for Shackled City help iron out the process a bit so that an AoW hardcover would be easier and/or more cost-effective? And when might The Powers That Be feel justified in making a decision, one way or the other, about going ahead with that? I know it's too early to tell, really, but Shackled City turned out so well I'd hate to see the trend stop with just the one book.
Absolutely.
The Age of Worms adventures are set up and laid out so that they can be relatively easilly transformed into chapters in a book. You'll notice, for example, that we're opening each adventure with a full page illustration rather than the standard "widescreen" illos we use for other adventures, for starters. Plus, we planned out the campaign itself in much more detail than we did with Shackled City, so assuming Age of Worms does get reincarnated into a hardcover book, we won't have to retrofit any campaign elements and rewrite sections of the earlier adventures to reflect more accurately on events that occur in later adventures.
Now, that all said, there is no Age of Worms hardcover release on a schedule yet. As Vic said earlier, it's still too early to determine if the demand and desire for this type of product is enough to justify future hardcovers. I certainly hope we do a hardcover of Age of Worms, but even if everything works out perfectly, I wouldn't expect to see a hardcover version appear until at least a year after the last adventure appears in the magazine (which would put its earliest release into the middle of 2007).
A lot can change in 2 years is all I'm really saying.
SC hardcover is on the "new lookie here!" shelf at my neighborhood shop here in L.A., seems like a good omen that I saw people thumbing through it.
I bought it. And I'd buy the AoWHC if it gets released.
I picked mine up through an independent retailer on Amazon.com, it would be nice if Amazon would get it directly, even if they sell it like their other D20 small publisher stuff...
Hopefully we will see an AoW hardcover.
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We've been getting decent reorders lately. On a scale 1 to 20, I'd say we're at maybe a 13.
Just checking in again to see how sales are going now that SCAP has been out for a while. With the SCAP Hardcover and now the Dragon Compendium out, how bright is the future looking for future AP and Compendium hardcovers?
Going through all of those old Dragon archives must have been a monumental task; it would be nice to see it pay off in future Compendium releases, especially given how well the first one turned out.
Thanks in advance, and keep up the great work! It's certainly appreciated.
I must say the quality of the Hardcover is brilliant. The binding looks like and obviously does a good job. Built to stand the rigours of time and use. Well done one and all on the production. A top notch product indeed!
Perhaps a pdf or rotating image showing the quality may help sales to the tentative people. They sure will be happy with how good the book is to look at, read, and lasts :)
I know what would boost SCAP Hardcover sales! A pdf download on the Paizo website with tips and tricks to convert Cauldron to Eberron, Forgotten Realms, or Greyhawk!
And you could call it "Shackled City Overload"... man, that's a good idea...
I've never been happier with a D&D purchase (except possibly with the purchase of the three core books, since I needed those to play in the first place). Excellent content, great physical quality. I've gotten already gotten at least thirty times more use out of it already than any WOTC supplement I've ever bought, and I'm only halfway through Chapter Two in terms of running the adventure for my group of players!
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Chief Technical Officer
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Shackled City is selling consistently, and well. We definitely chalk it up as a success, but it hasn't really been the gangbusters breakaway number-one-with-a-bullet hit we thought it could be. We're hoping, though, that it stays a long-term consistent seller throughout the remaining life of D&D 3.5. And we're very, very pleased with the pretty much universal critical acclaim it has garnered.
The Dragon Compendium, that's one I think we can safely call a home run. Again, initial orders were lower than we expected, but reorders have been fast and furious, making up the difference pretty much immediately, and we're already starting to think about when we might need to schedule a reprint.
Paizo definitely wants to follow up both products; hopefully Wizards will agree.
-Vic.
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Paizo definitely wants to follow up both products; hopefully Wizards will agree.
-Vic.
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I hope an AOW hardcover comes to fruition. You guys are really doing a great job with it. Heck, I'd be willing to put a $50.00 deposit on it right now.
I hope an AOW hardcover comes to fruition. You guys are really doing a great job with it. Heck, I'd be willing to put a $50.00 deposit on it right now.
Indeed. I also would be willing to pre-order.
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I know Mr. Mona stated elsewhere that AOW is reaching proportions of size where they can't really add extra material to it, but I'd will willing to pay extra if need be for an even bigger book. Heck I already ordered Monte Cook's Ptolus book (at the tiddy sum of 120 bucks) and that book is 670 pgs or so...
Tallknight
Paizo definitely wants to follow up both products; hopefully Wizards will agree.
Happy to hear that. Not only because the followups of both products interest me, but also because I like to see that these great quality products see their well deserved successes. Congratulations.
Stefan.
I'm prepared to board the preorder bandwagon as well for a AoW hardcover AND a Dragon Compendium for Greyhawk.