[Michael Chandra]

I collect RPGs. For a 480 page full color book? $60 isn't bad. If they did a LE run, I'd probably buy that, instead. WW has been doing their LE's with Kickstarter. If Catalyst did that, I'd drop money on it.

-Ariketh

Original price indication for Limited was $100, but that might be $120 now since Core went from a predicted $50 to an actual $60. They're going to make a post on the Limited Edition in the future, we'll find out the details then.

I wish I could order one through the gaming shop myself, but the FLGS can only order what a french distributor company lists in its catalog and that doesn't include the Limited Edition so far. No, I'm not French. There's a country inbetween us and France even. -_-

[Lysanderz]

Ummmm, my local store is pre-selling a limited edition. Are they lying to me?

[Michael Chandra]

Nope, local stores already have the option of pre-ordering Limited Editions. I received the suggestion at one point to let my FLGS know it could still preorder some, but unfortunately the distribution companies it knows don't list it. Lucky you. :<

[PeterSmith]

Ummmm, my local store is pre-selling a limited edition. Are they lying to me?

Did they ask for a deposit on the LE pre-order, or did they tell you the final price?

[Michael Chandra]

Note that my changed-price-possibility is just a hypothesis too, I could easily be all wrong there.

[PeterSmith]

And truthfully, its not even just the new edition that's bugging me as much as it is the damn price (59.99 last I knew) and the fact that this means a new round of supplements to also purchase.

Part of the price is the books themselves. They're bigger, you can tell Randall's influence on BattleTech carried over here as well. The quality of the materials chosen are higher. There is a lot of coverage on every page, it bleeds out to the edges of every page. The bindings of the books lend themselves to the book laying open flat. The books are also hard cover. Each of these decisions by Catalyst ups the price point of the individual books. There is also the material costs of the books, the wood and the transportation. The distributors and the retailers also have their markups, they do have to recoup their costs for performing their services. Like everything else in the world it's more expensive.

I'll offer you this as a counter, this is very much a "You get what you pay for" situtation. I had a collection of Rifts books that I gave away a few years ago. I played Rifts when I was younger, part of the reason was the books were cheaper. Looking back at them with a more industry critical eye I saw how cheap they were made. The paper was ok, the bindings flat-out sucked, and the layout looked like it was done with a copy of Word. It wasn't until a year or two ago that I saw the core Rifts book had artwork with text flowing around it. Something that FASA did when they were still in business (more than twelve years gone).

I do understand that money is tight, that spending has to be watched even if you have the means to spend. I still feel that Catalyst sets their prices appropriate for the books printed. I also feel that the price point on the PDFs is proper, that it allows for people to become players without having to shell out money they might not be able to afford to. I am sorry that the pricetag was a bit of sticker shock, I hope you do understand why the price is where it's at.

[Michael Chandra]

Took SR5 pagecount / SR4 pagecount, multiplied a $40 pricetag with that and then added 2009->2013 3% inflation per year, pretty much ends me at a $60 pricetag. So it's fair, and that doesn't even include the SRO code and the special artwork page thingy.

[Shinobi Killfist]

I do understand that money is tight, that spending has to be watched even if you have the means to spend. I still feel that Catalyst sets their prices appropriate for the books printed. I also feel that the price point on the PDFs is proper, that it allows for people to become players without having to shell out money they might not be able to afford to. I am sorry that the pricetag was a bit of sticker shock, I hope you do understand why the price is where it's at.

Speaking of the PDF price.  Is there any hope of a bigger disocunt for a package deal.  So far the discounts have been really tiny.  The PDF is just a minor perk past the actual book for me, I use it on the odd occasionas when I want to look something up but am away form my books like on a break at work and a character idea popped in my head.  Once you shell out the $60 it would be nice to get the PDF in addition to that for like $5 while keeping it at $20 if that is your sole purchace.   

[Valashar]

No idea how they'll do it for SR5, but they have offered PDF/print bundles via the BattleCorps site in the past.

[Shinobi Killfist]

Yeah they had bundles, the cost break just sucked.  The vast majority of the value is the rules themselves, a new format is much less valuable. 

[GiraffeShaman]

You can pre order on Amazon for 38$ and you get free shipping. It just takes a little willpower to wait.

[Crunch]

Yeah they had bundles, the cost break just sucked.  The vast majority of the value is the rules themselves, a new format is much less valuable.

Of course if the bundle is too good they cut out the FLGS. If the FLGS is cut out they have no incentive to stock the new product which is still one of the primary points of discovery for rpg gamers.

[Jetpack]

You can pre order on Amazon for 38$ and you get free shipping. It just takes a little willpower to wait.

That's what I've done.  I considered cancelling, as I don't really care about 5e other than the skill mod changes, but less than $40 isn't a big deal.  Rather do that, than buy the PDF and have to print it out.

Really looking forward to knowing more about the Seattle box set in a few months, though.

[Sipowitz]

How much of the new larger page count is going to be rules and such compared to short stories/fluff.
How much of the new larger page count is the result of the new eye porn layout?

[StarManta]

Let's break down the differences (SR4 to SR4A to SR5):

Flavor Text/stories:
SR4: 8+(1 x 12) = 20 pages
SR4A: 8+4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4+4=52 pages
SR5: 6+4+4+4+4+4+4+4=34 pages

History:
SR4: 12
SR4A: 14
SR5: 4

6th world life:
SR4: 15
SR4A: 15
SR5: 19

Game Concepts:
SR4: 18
SR4A: 15
SR5: 13

Creation:
SR4: 18
SR4A: 14
SR5: 48

Sample Characters:
SR4: 16
SR4A: 15
SR5: 15

Skills:
SR4: 26
SR4A: 22
SR5: 25

Combat:
SR4: 31
SR4A: 27
SR5: 51

Matrix:
SR4: 35
SR4A: 32
SR5:  45 +7 (rigger-only chapter) = 52

Magic:
SR4: 41
SR4A: 36
SR5: 51

Note: the next 3 chapters are heavily rearranged from 4th to 5th, so their raw length as listed here does not mean much. However, there is a LOT more to the GM Advice chapter, including drop-in locations and so on, in addition to incorporating some of the elements from other chapters.

Friends & Foes:
SR4: 27
SR4A: 26
SR5: 37 (includes most parts from RtS, below)

Running the Shadows (minus GM Advice):
SR4: 23
SR4A: 18
SR5: (included in above)

GM Advice:
SR4: 5
SR4A: 6
SR5: 44



Gear:
SR4: 44
SR4A: 41
SR5: 51




So where did the extra book space go? Pretty evenly spaced between character creation, magic, tech, combat, GM advice, and gear.