Re: [DL] Re: Combined Format [Heivilin]

[Ross Coburn <coburn@sympatico.ca>]

on 9/27/00 10:30 PM, travis lide at sinisterdexter@mindspring.com wrote:

> This I must disagree with. Pinnacle charges $25 for the main books, which is
> $5 less than most other RPGs. If you to consider Shadowrun is a $30 book
> with a $20 Companion piece, Pinnacle's price balances out to be the same,
> but in a hardback book, not some softcover that falls apart. L5R and 7th Sea
> both have
> Player's and GM's Guides and run $30 each.

See my previous post on the subject; firstly, what we pay here in Canada is
not necessarily what your boys are charging, but there are the prices we
must pay, and books are judged accordingly.

Also, as previously mentioned, quality and content go a long way, and PEG
often falls short.  (When they're on, they're right on, but when they're
off, it's painful.  As much as I enjoyed the Agency book, for example, I've
rarely seen such rot as the S&R book.)

By comparison, you pick a single White Wolf supplement chosen from their
defunct Werewolf Wild West line (and competing with Deadlands, in my opinion
the superior product, I'm glad to see that the market seemed to have
asserted itself there) which is not at all representative, and hold it up
against the best PEG has to offer (the main and Marshal's books being in my
opinion far better than the average product).

Let's compare apples to apples here: Deadlands main rulebook to Vampire's:

Price in Canada:  White Wolf wins by $10.
Number of pages: 208 for PEG vs. 312 for WW.
Production quality (binding etc.): Miles ahead for WW
Art and layout: Again miles ahead for PEG.
Quality of prose: About a tie.  If we were comparing with pre-revised
edition Vampire, PEG would take it hands down.

The same can generally be said down the (two) lines for the two products; a
128 page WW supplement is generally (not always) much more densely-packed
with useable, useful information than a comparable PEG offering, and
generally FAR more attractively produced.

And the worst part is, I prefer Deadlands for gaming these last couple of
years, so it's not like I'm biased against the people at Pinnacle; it's just
that their production people aren't in the same league.  (Not that WW, to
continue the comparison, hasn't had some truly memorable gaffes of their
own, but if you want forther evidence of this you'll have to turn to Page XX
of this email for details...)

Ross Coburn
coburn@sympatico.ca