"How much would you pay." Topic

You're at a show and you've come across a new company selling a set of rules for a genre/scale you're interested in.

The rules have a colour cover and black & white pages, including full rules with a points based army building system, army lists and scenarios. They're of a reasonably good quality – artwork, backgrounds etc.

How much would you be willing to pay for such a rulebook? Would £10.00 GBP be too much for a buy from an 'unknown' company.

How much would you be willing to pay for the electronic rules that include a 'mirror' of the physical rulebook (artwork, full colour etc) and a 'stripped back' version designed for printing and tablet/pc use?
is £10.00 GBP too much here? *Should* an electronic rulebook be less than a physical rulebook?

(I know its a little hard to say without really knowing about the game/seeing the rulebook, but guesses and past experiences are accepted!)

Thanks

Hope you are not looking for a "correct" answer here.The responses will all be very subjective. If it looks good, then £35.00 GBP no problem. A subjective thought though. Can be altered by how rich you are or whether you really like the period? Colour pages are nice, but it is the mechanisms and completeness that I would seek.Some rule books are worth the money for the information given. On a personal note I would not want an electronic rulebook. I enjoy the tactile nature of dice, figures and books.

Martin

£10.00 GBP would be fine, unless it was a couple of pages.

Being from an unknown would not phase me in the least though.

*Should* an electronic rulebook be less than a physical rulebook?

I would not pay as much as I prefer paper books to e-books.

Most people will pay a lot more than they say they will.

For example, you'll routinely get guys on TMP talking about how ten dollars is a reasonable price for a rulebook, and Hell No, they won't pay a penny more, and anything else is outrageous fluff and eye candy and who are the fools who buy such things, anyway…

…and then they go to a show and impulse-buy $200 USD in terrain and a 55 dollar hardback glossy rulebook that requires at least three codexes at another 25 each.

I'm afraid there's no way to know, just by asking. You'll have to try, and see what the market will bear.

The equivalent of 10 Pounds is quite doable.

I think it depends on the genre and how common rule sets are. If it's WW2 I likely wouldn't buy any rulebook on impulse at almost any price – I'd wait to read some reviews so I can compare it to others.

If however, there was a rulebook specializing in the Malayan Emergency with scenarios – I'd just empty my wallet and say "take what you want".

I think "unique" rulesets can command more than eras that are well covered.

I would definitely consider £10.00 GBP and probably more, especially in a convention situation where I can talk to others about the game, look at the book, and maybe even play a demo.

£10.00 GBP sounds eminently reasonable, maybe even cheap, for a hard copy of that description. I'd be comfortable still at £15.00 GBP, and think about it at £20.00 GBP Above £20.00 GBP I'd probably be looking for full colour, or need a really good reason to think they're worth it.

For a PDF a tenner is pretty much top end for me, and at that I'd have to have a good reason for thinking the rules are going to be up my street as it were. (I know some people think PDFs and hard copy ought to be relatively equal in price, but it simply doesn't work for me – in part, because obviously the costs to you are extremely dissimilar, so equal PDF price feels like profiteering, and in part because if I don't like the rules, a book has second hand value, while I would never consider trying to resell a PDF.)

The real issue is simply having a reason to buy them though; I rarely buy rules on spec any more – unless it's an author who I view as particularly reliable in supplying what I'm looking for in a game (which pretty much means Toofatlardies, Peter Pig, and maybe Chris Peers) I'm unlikely to buy rules without having heard favourable reviews and/or had a good explanation of the game's general mechanisms and style of play. Price isn't close to being the most important factor in making the sale; convince me I'll get a good game, and the cost of the rules is pretty unimportant up against the figures, terrain etc. If you don't convince me they'll provide a good game, obviously the cost's still an irrelevance…. ;-)

On impulse, 20 dollars or so.

I would be prepared to pay £10.00 GBP for a physical copy, however I would expect an e-copy to be substantially cheaper (perhaps a pound or so – the publisher has no production or distribution costs and I would need to print and bind a copy for use).

I probably wouldn't pay anything for it. I probably would have to be paid to take it at this point. I don't like reading rules. I have rules to play most of the stuff I want to play. And the book would just be useless clutter.

I try rules before I buy them these days. Last set I bought with a color cover and black and white text was Fireball Forward, which I think was $25. USD

I'd go up to $50 USD if I really liked the rules, but it had better have all the stats and stuff included. Fistful of Tows was roughly $50 USD as a PDF and I purchased that one, once again I knew what I was getting…

Five cents.

I am with 79th, $20 USD on impulse.

$20 USD is about what I'm comfortable paying for any set of rules. I feel ripped off by the new style rules.

Even if the company is unknown, most likely they will be charging a price that is inline with what others charge, because most likely those prices reflect the cost of printing, marketing, convention cost, etc.

Second, what I find interesting is that when it comes to price, many consumers on the page consider low prices to also mean low quality.

The contents are missing some eye candy but are actually playable, $20 USD-25 isn't unreasonable. If I want to look at pretty pictures of figures, I'll either search 'em out on the net or take 'em myself.

(I know some people think PDFs and hard copy ought to be relatively equal in price, but it simply doesn't work for me – in part, because obviously the costs to you are extremely dissimilar, so equal PDF price feels like profiteering, and in part because if I don't like the rules, a book has second hand value, while I would never consider trying to resell a PDF.)

I find the parody of PDF and print book prices ludicrous at best. It has flat out stopped me from trying rules before. I've just never been able to express my distaste for that idea as well as Dom.

I buy almost everything the Lardies sell in PDF and consider them money well spent. I would be the same for VBCW, but the shipping kills that possibility as they don't offer PDF.

At that price (as long as its more than 40 pages), I'd dive in!

The paper vs PDF is always interesting. assuming a rule book of your description, the print cost is actually pretty small. Certainly $5 USD or less depending on length. I ran a job recently that was 60 pages and raw printed cost was $3.25 USD each. So a PDF might be $5 USD less, but you;re being paid for the work of making a good game, not the paper it's printed on.

That said I sell a lot of rule books as you describe for between $20 USD and $40. USD

Good points EC, although there's a trans-Atlantic divide there I think – printing seems to be one of those fields where it's a *lot* cheaper in the US than the UK.

A exelent, complete, historical, easy to learn, clear and simple PLAYTESTED ruleset is worth everything! I mean it.

One nice tin figures costs today already 20$ or more!

If it is exelent you will invest years and decades of your future in it. Maybe rebase all your collection and/ rebuild all you terrain…. Convince all your friends to do the same….

Artwork and finishing is nice but it is the content wich is important.
A point based army building system is a indicator that the rules are not complete …. And only of reasonable good quality as you said.

If they are complete a 60 dollar is fair. I would and have paid prices of more than 400 dollars for complete sets to cover extra periods.

I wish you all the luck!
Greetings

The content is important. If it is packed with game charts and scenarios and useful stuff, then more money. If it is packed with fluffy articles about how to collect an army and pics of Stu with his minis and the like, then not so much, unless the pics are all in color and are a useful reference.

To my mind, $20 USD-$25 is about right for a color cover and B&W interior pages. I priced As Per Margin, the age of sail rules from Brother Aelred (he of MWAN's Monk's Corner fame) and the Wally Simon's Secrets of Wargame Design series at $19 USD retail.

By the time you factor in distributor costs to place it in your FLGS, print costs, royalties, layout costs, marketing costs, and so on, that's the bare base minimum for a printed set of anything. Mind you, there's nothing wrong with these $60 USD full-color hardbacks that serve as combo rules, painting guide, and army list, but if you already have the troops, then what you are looking for is the content (rules).

If you add tear-out QRS or color center sections with markers or templates or such, then the price goes up because the printing cost goes up. If you use heavier weight paper, or glossy paper, or both, the cost of production goes up, and thus, either you cut pages or raise prices.

For small print runs, this color cover/B&W interior print on demand is the way to get your ideas out there. If you want to go to full color interior, 500 copies is about the minimum, with 1500+ being the tipping point. At least that's the pricing examples I was looking at -- but that is just printing. This does not factor in that you'll want to include color illustrations/photos. Add in all this extra effort, especially if you need to hire professional painters, photographers, and/or artists, and you can see how rulebooks end up in the $50 USD+ range.

Russ

I'm never going to buy a set of rules unless I've a good idea before hand what I'm actually purchasing…i like to do quite a bit of research before I'm willing to part with my cash but if I do I'd pay well over the 10 pounds even for b/w but only if I was pretty convinced there's something innovative within and I'd be likely to actually play the rules…otherwise I won't even bother reading them no matter how little the cost

Wow guys, a lot of really usefull information in here.
Definately confirmed some ideas and dismissed some others.

Given us a lot of think about. Much appreciated!