What's up with Dark Sun


4th Edition


It is out, right? Or did it get delayed? I get most of my books from Chapters and they have had nothing related to Dark Sun up here in Toronto.


Dark Sun has been out about 3 months now.


Larry Latourneau wrote:

It is out, right? Or did it get delayed? I get most of my books from Chapters and they have had nothing related to Dark Sun up here in Toronto.

Dude, go to an actual gaming store. Chapters is shit for new gaming books. TO only has about 20 gaming stores.


PsychoticWarrior wrote:
Dude, go to an actual gaming store. Chapters is s@@% for new gaming books. TO only has about 20 gaming stores.

Actually, up until now, the local Chapters has been great for gaming books. They tended to get them out earlier than the actual release dates and my discount card made the prices competitive. Trying not to be a pessimist, but not having it come out in Chapters at all makes me worried. (I did a search of all Chapters/Coles within 100 km of me. There is one store that has 2 copies of the Dark Sun Campaign setting.

As for the Toronto gaming stores, it comes down to convenience. I had 2 that were (relatively) close to me. One closed up last summer due to the owner's wife wanting to get out of Toronto, the other has stopped ordering new gaming books at all and has moved it's focus to comics and collectables. Downtown is just not the easiest to get to, park, etc.


Larry Latourneau wrote:
PsychoticWarrior wrote:
Dude, go to an actual gaming store. Chapters is s@@% for new gaming books. TO only has about 20 gaming stores.

Actually, up until now, the local Chapters has been great for gaming books. They tended to get them out earlier than the actual release dates and my discount card made the prices competitive. Trying not to be a pessimist, but not having it come out in Chapters at all makes me worried. (I did a search of all Chapters/Coles within 100 km of me. There is one store that has 2 copies of the Dark Sun Campaign setting.

As for the Toronto gaming stores, it comes down to convenience. I had 2 that were (relatively) close to me. One closed up last summer due to the owner's wife wanting to get out of Toronto, the other has stopped ordering new gaming books at all and has moved it's focus to comics and collectables. Downtown is just not the easiest to get to, park, etc.

If your local game stores are having trouble selling game books then odds are your local Chapters is having the same trouble and Chapters/Indigo really go all out on their analysis of what sells and where. Chapters/Indigo does not leave shelf space fallow for that long. If they carry game books and those books don't get scooped up at this location consistently then they change whats taking up that shelf space and sell something else.


Apparently, the Dark Sun books were so popular that the first print run is sold out.


I was looking at this as a very bad sign for 4e. Having your shelf space reduced/removed from a major retailer is not a good thing.

We are talking about going from 2-3 shelves full of D&D to only a handful of books.

But now I am not so sure. Looking at the new Essentials Red Box, they are all over Chapters/Coles. I am assuming that they are trying to avoid market confusion by focusing the Essentials line into big box type book stores to attract new players/old players who haven't played in a long time. Keep the other books in the specialty stores for those who are already into D&D.


Larry Latourneau wrote:

I was looking at this as a very bad sign for 4e. Having your shelf space reduced/removed from a major retailer is not a good thing.

We are talking about going from 2-3 shelves full of D&D to only a handful of books.

But now I am not so sure. Looking at the new Essentials Red Box, they are all over Chapters/Coles. I am assuming that they are trying to avoid market confusion by focusing the Essentials line into big box type book stores to attract new players/old players who haven't played in a long time. Keep the other books in the specialty stores for those who are already into D&D.

WotC really does not make a call like this, not without taking extreme measures anyway. The stores themselves decide what they carry.

That said if Fabes is correct and the print run sold out then your store may just not be able to get any more. Thats the alternative version of your situation...maybe two months ago they bought a bunch and sold them here and at most locations. There are still 2 kicking around at some location that never sells any game books.

Anecdotally I think that may well be what happened, Reviews where really good for the campaign book and it was an absolute pleasure to read. Many of my players snagged this and none of us even plan to play in it except in some hypothetical 'one day' sense. A ton of non 4E fans also grabbed it just for the nostalgia so I think demand may have way outstripped WotCs projections on how well this would sell.

Silver Crusade

My local B&N still has copies. Of course that doesn't mean it isn't sold out at the distributor level, but the copies are out there. Did you look online? I know of a great online rpg store with awesome messageboards...


I guess I would just ask Chapters to order the book and if they refuse, then find another avenue to support the games you like to play.

Dark Archive

If you are having a lot of problems getting the book, and you know you want it, look for it online. Amazon probably has it, or you can check out other popular gaming sites for them.

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