Dark Champions Character Pack now in Online Store

[Steve Long]

I think the product is deficient, and I won't buy it. I will encourage other people not to buy it.

You're well within your rights to do so, and I'd be the last one to say otherwise. I think your opinion about the product is dead wrong, but as a consumer you're entitled to hold it.

guns are important to the genre

Absolutely. As I explained, that's why they're not in there -- we want you to buy the book to get them. You might be willing to pay $34.99 for a Character Pack with guns, but it's our opinion that more consumers would prefer the $7.99 deal without them.

We want customers to buy the book to obtain the gun information. We stay in business by selling books, not Character Packs. If the Character Packs start to become preferable to the books, we're not long for this world.

This is unprecedented in previous HD pack releases

That's not correct. Unless the contractor violated my explicit instructions, the FH Character Pack doesn't include the weapons from that book, either, for the exact same reasons. And the same will apply to every other genre book we do, unless we have a good reason to do otherwise.

[Cpt.Storm]

Hmmm. That's certainly worth considering, though at this stage it would mostly be reprinted material from other books, and I'm not sure how attractive that sort of product would be to the average potential consumer. But I'll give it some thought.

Steve,

Please do consider this. Even though it may be a rehash of previously published material, I think it would be awesome to have one source to turn to for equipment choices.

Just my opinion but I suspect I'm not alone.

Thanks,

Cpt. Storm

[BobGreenwade]

Hmmm. That's certainly worth considering, though at this stage it would mostly be reprinted material from other books, and I'm not sure how attractive that sort of product would be to the average potential consumer. But I'll give it some thought.

Steve, I for one would be all over a Heroic Gear book, even if it was 100% reprinted material (and I don't think it would have to be). Historical weapons, firearms, martial arts gear, electronic devices from every era.... even with no material directly related to my SH game (and I'd presume it would have at least a little), it'd be a gold mine.

[Eodin]

Yep,
A book like the old 'Armory' with all sorts of weapons and gear would be great. I third that comment.

[Steve Long]

I for one would be all over a Heroic Gear book, even if it was 100% reprinted material (and I don't think it would have to be).

It would be if I didn't have the time to do any extra work, which I don't. Reprinted material I could slap together pretty quickly. Coming up with new stuff would take time and research. But you never know; there are probably at least a few new bits and pieces I could easily dig out of the dark and shadowy corners of my hard drive.

A book like the old 'Armory' with all sorts of weapons and gear

Well, that's pretty much what Dark Champions already is. I wouldn't expect to add a whole lot in that department, at least not at this stage. But again, one can never tell.

[JmOz]

I would not be interested in but think it would be a worthy product to make (In otherwords while I will not buy it I think others will) to have book of all the weapons from Fantacy, Dark Champions (ACTION HERO DANG KNAB IT ), Star Hero, and Ninja Hero, However I would state the following about such a product:

1) Make sure it clearly says on the back that this is reprinted material

2) Keep it generic: We should not see specific fictional weapons from settings (So nothing SPECIFICALY from Alien Wars, etc)

3) I would like to see it as part of the Ultimate line, but that is a prefrence (The Ultimate Weapons Locker)

If you do an HD file for it, have Dan fix the way equipment prints (It prints as a power, really most heroic games need a sumary not a power...)
subpoint: I Know all equipment is built with powers, but it does not have to look that way on a character sheet

[BobGreenwade]

It would be if I didn't have the time to do any extra work, which I don't. Reprinted material I could slap together pretty quickly. Coming up with new stuff would take time and research. But you never know; there are probably at least a few new bits and pieces I could easily dig out of the dark and shadowy corners of my hard drive.

Maybe you could put it on the 2006 schedule, or make it one of your "spare time" projects. (Or farm out at least the researching new material part. )

[Cpt.Storm]

Maybe you could put it on the 2006 schedule, or make it one of your "spare time" projects. (Or farm out at least the researching new material part. )

2006?!!! ACK!! I can't wait that long. hehe Was hoping maybe it could sneak in on the 2005 schedule. Ah well...

Cpt. Storm

[wylodmayer]

Thank you, Steve, for you comments on the matter. Whatever my opinion of the Dark Champions HD Character Pack in particular, I believe that your willingness to pay personal attention to the comments of the consumers has made Hero Games's products in general the best in the business.

And I would like to apologize again if I insulted anyone. I certainly did not mean to, although upon review of my earlier posts, I admit that I came on a bit strong.

Steve, you haven't changed my mind about the pack, though I respect the fact that you - with a far better perspective for viewing the subject than I - feel that my opinion is in the minority. However, I just wanted to say that I just can't wrap my head around the idea that the addition of the guns would jack the price of the character pack up to greater than the cost of the book, and make it "more desirable." To be perfectly clear, the main reason I want the guns in the HD pack is *convenience*. I just don't like entering in those stats; I'd much rather be able to point and click a gun into a character's inventory. As for the Dark Champions book, I bought it first and foremost for the genre and meta-game information; chapters one, three, four, seven, and eight. I buy the HD packs for the crunchy stuff, and the books for the *real* information; the game advice, genre conventions, and nifty insighst from people (or a person, in this case) who knows the genre intimately. I suppose we just see these things from different perspectives entirely; the HD pack could have every gun, knife, and super skill in the DC book in it, and cost only 1.99, and I'd still buy the book. There's a lot more of value (much greater value, in fact) to me in the book than the "crunchy" bits. I only buy the character packs for creation convenience.

Peace.

[zornwil]

Exactly. Even if I were willing to ask GamePhil or whoever to do the work, the guns are too major a part of the value of the book. We'd have to increase the cost of the DCCP to $34.99 if the guns were included. Otherwise the Character Pack would be too attractive a purchase as compared to the book -- and ultimately we stay in business because we sell books, not Character Packs.

FWIW, I am not buying DC for the guns, I'm buying it for other stuff such as ideas and forensics and such, and would prefer to see the guns in a prefab as that's the ONLY place I personally would see any value in them. In the book I'm just going to pass through them briefly.

Just giving my 2 cents, that's all.

[BobGreenwade]

FWIW, I am not buying DC for the guns, I'm buying it for other stuff such as ideas and forensics and such, and would prefer to see the guns in a prefab as that's the ONLY place I personally would see any value in them. In the book I'm just going to pass through them briefly.

I'm pretty much on the same page here (if you'd pardon the pun).

[zornwil]

I'm pretty much on the same page here (if you'd pardon the pun).

Well, since we're on the same team, so to speak, I'll pardon it THIS time!

How you doing, Bob?

[cndblank]

I'll Second that. Actually it looks like I'm Fourthing or Fifthing it.

The Guns charts are not the main part of the book. Steve DID do a great job with all the ammo and other information on guns.

The guns would be much more useful to me in a format I could put on a Hero Designer character sheet that was easy to read.

[BobGreenwade]

How you doing, Bob?

Not too badly. You may have heard that the funding for my Forest Service job got cut last spring (actually someone in another facility decided to spend money he wasn't supposed to on some new equipment, and the money ended up being my salary for most of the year along with that of another person). I'm now getting ready to start on a new position, also with the USFS but not nearly as vulnerable.

But that's neither here nor there (except that I'll be "there" -- in Portland -- later this week for a bit of orientation and trial).

[zornwil]

Not too badly. You may have heard that the funding for my Forest Service job got cut last spring (actually someone in another facility decided to spend money he wasn't supposed to on some new equipment, and the money ended up being my salary for most of the year along with that of another person). I'm now getting ready to start on a new position, also with the USFS but not nearly as vulnerable.

But that's neither here nor there (except that I'll be "there" -- in Portland -- later this week for a bit of orientation and trial).

Congrats on finding something less vulnerable, I recalled something about the job issue before.