Are elitist and mega high-quality RPG editions hurting the hobby?

Roleplaying and board games reviews, podcasts, videos and interviews

question_markBy Paco Garcia Jaen

Recently one of my contacts in Spain gave his opinion about the high quality of roleplaying games productions and how the prices of books might be hurting the market. He questions if having cheaper books with fewer illustrations and simpler layout would make for cheaper print-runs and thus affordability so more people can buy more games.

Personally, I *love* good looking book editions. From the lavish material Fantasy Flight produces, Monte Cook amazing production values, Pelgrane lovely attention to detail and layout, Cubicle 7 tremendous art directions… I could go on, but you know what I mean. I love them. And I love limited editions.

And yes, they cost a lot of money. And I know because I buy most of the games I read. And if I get any for free I review the crap out of them and have people in podcasts and talk about their games and make sure I do all I can to help those authors recoup the money they’ve invested in me (yes… giving me free stuff is guarantee that I will talk about your game. What I’ll say though depends how good I think your game is.)

I’m not sure they are expensive, though. The amount of illustrations, greater attention to detail, proof reading and editing, layout work, paper quality… They might cost a lot of money, but they’re certainly not expensive.

But would it pay off to have lower quality editions of the same games, or simply only have lower quality editions, to make them more affordable and thus sell more? Would they really sell more?

And a question to my publisher friends, do you think you sell less because the high quality you put into your books put the price up?

It’s a tricky one!

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