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View Full Version : D&D 5e Release Dates and Pricing Confirmed



CyberThread
2014-05-19, 09:31 AM
Here you go folks, as 5e segment of the forums is such a wasteland, and this is news overall even those uninterested in the topic.


http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134601-Dungeons-Dragons-Unveils-Full-Product-Line-Release-Dates-and-Details

Grod_The_Giant
2014-05-19, 10:31 AM
...why is it taking them four months to release the three core books? I guess maybe if you're just going through their adventure path you wouldn't need 'em, but still...

Yora
2014-05-19, 10:48 AM
$150 is quite a lot just for the basic core rules.

C&C is $90, AS&SH is $50, and even Pathfinder $130 (with Bestiary and Gamemastery Guide being actually optional).

erikun
2014-05-19, 10:58 AM
Yeah, this just seems like too much cost for something that I only have a passing curiosity about. I felt that $120 for buying D&D4e new was a bit too expensive, especially as it felt like a lot of stuff was left out of those books. I somehow think that $150 for a game I will likely never play is just too much.

$20 for what sounds like partial rules and only one quarter of the levels (and probably lacking other features) doesn't sound like a deal to me, either.

Yora
2014-05-19, 11:01 AM
If it's basically a demo version of the game, they should release it for free.

Kurald Galain
2014-05-19, 11:06 AM
That's way too expensive for me. PHBs for earlier editions are priced around $20, and of course 3E and Pathfinder have the free version on the internet; so no way that I'm going to shell out $150 for 5E regardless of how good it is.

RFTD-blog
2014-05-19, 11:08 AM
I don't understand their marketing plan. With so many other RPGs available on the market these days (and for cheaper), why are they delaying the rollout like this? I'm interested in that question like Grod_the_Giant is. As a DM, I like to have all the potential tools at my fingertips. I just don't understand some of the decisions they're making.

I think it would be a great idea to at least reveal some sneak peek rules, like a full class, monster, or sample adventure that could be run in a single session. Like Yora said, they should consider just releasing the demo version for free.

Anybody have some insight as to their rollout plan? I remember they did something similar for 4e as well, and I also didn't really get it then either.

CyberThread
2014-05-19, 11:42 AM
The way it is stagger, more then likely , the players guide will have both DM and Player info, much like 4e did, while the DM guide is just suggestions and a help book .


So in reality, 20 bucks to see if you like the system, and then probably just 50 bucks to buy it, then another 40 or so for the monster manual. Making it stagger also doesn't make it feel as expensive to most buyers, as you have to wait an entire paycheck for the add on's instead of feeling like you need to splurge and be "ripped off"

Airk
2014-05-19, 12:21 PM
Yeah, I'm guessing the spread out release is because it's easier to sell someone one $50 book a month for three months than it is to sell them three $50 books all at once.

Axinian
2014-05-19, 01:25 PM
Yeah, I'm guessing the spread out release is because it's easier to sell someone one $50 book a month for three months than it is to sell them three $50 books all at once.

Except it isn't? I'd much rather have everything all at once even if it looks like it costs more. It's way more obnoxious to have to wait for stuff than to pay more up front.

Not that these pricings would be acceptable even if they did come out all at once, but still.

Airk
2014-05-19, 01:45 PM
Except it isn't? I'd much rather have everything all at once even if it looks like it costs more. It's way more obnoxious to have to wait for stuff than to pay more up front.


WotC's marketing department begs to differ? And I daresay they have a wider sample than you do. :P

Not everyone has a big chunk of disposable income every month - you'd think that would be obvious. Besides, the alternative is probably "You wait until the end of that 3 month period to buy all the books" NOT "All the books are available at the beginning of those three months." Sooo...

obryn
2014-05-19, 01:47 PM
There will almost certainly be an online "survival kit" much like was printed in the back of the 3.0e PHB in 2000. But instead of making it take up valuable pages, it'll be free on the internet.

I'm in for the Starter Kit, just so I can see how it looks. $15 is really reasonable, after discount.

I am probably in for the PHB and MM; other than that, I'll wait for word of mouth.

Brookshw
2014-05-19, 01:54 PM
If they're throwing the magic items into the dmg again I suppose its not that "optional" unless you want to go for homebrew but we'll see. Definitely not a fan of the staggering and price. Unless it this edition offers some major tools to help planning an adventure (digital creature advancers, etc, ya know, the "free stuff" already made online but capable of investing the inevitable product line), I'm just not sure what this edition is really offering.

And personal gripes: I don't really want there pregen adventures/campaigns for anything, hope they didn't factor such sales into there strategy. Also the art, didn't care much for 4e, don't like the covers of these much.

erikun
2014-05-19, 02:19 PM
If it's basically a demo version of the game, they should release it for free.
Star Wars RPG from Fantasy Flight has a very similar Starter Kit and sells for $30, includes just some pre-generated characters and up to level 3. However, that's a particular unusual example - something very high quality and specifically tailored to new players - and I'm hesitant to assume that WotC is pulling off something similar. I definitely agree that it sounds more like a free demo version than what Fantasy Flight is offering, but I guess we'll see.

obryn
2014-05-19, 02:22 PM
Star Wars RPG from Fantasy Flight has a very similar Starter Kit and sells for $30, includes just some pre-generated characters and up to level 3. However, that's a particular unusual example - something very high quality and specifically tailored to new players - and I'm hesitant to assume that WotC is pulling off something similar. I definitely agree that it sounds more like a free demo version than what Fantasy Flight is offering, but I guess we'll see.
They confirmed that it'll have character creation, which is a major plus for me and what convinced me to pull the trigger.

EotE's starter kit had to be more expensive on account of the nifty dice. This has a standard 6-set (with no percentile 10).

Airk
2014-05-19, 02:42 PM
If they're throwing the magic items into the dmg again I suppose its not that "optional" unless you want to go for homebrew but we'll see. Definitely not a fan of the staggering and price. Unless it this edition offers some major tools to help planning an adventure (digital creature advancers, etc, ya know, the "free stuff" already made online but capable of investing the inevitable product line), I'm just not sure what this edition is really offering.

Well, odds are that if they haven't sold you on it already, you're not going to be interested. Honestly, they're in a pretty weird place with 5E, with a lot of people asking what the objective is, and no real clear answer that I have heard forthcoming.



And personal gripes: I don't really want there pregen adventures/campaigns for anything, hope they didn't factor such sales into there strategy. Also the art, didn't care much for 4e, don't like the covers of these much.

If they're actually trying to GROW the market, as opposed to just selling "upgrades" of D&D to everyone who already owns it, modules are a crucial part of that strategy.

Axinian
2014-05-19, 03:21 PM
WotC's marketing department begs to differ? And I daresay they have a wider sample than you do. :P

Not everyone has a big chunk of disposable income every month - you'd think that would be obvious.[/spoiler]

Right. How does staggering releases help with that. It doesn't since you said yourself:

[QUOTE]
"You wait until the end of that 3 month period to buy all the books"

Staggering releases doesn't make sense since either you have the money to buy them at the beginning or you wait. Just release them all at once. The people who are buying them later were gonna buy them later anyway so make them all available for the people who can pay now.

Also if they cared about people with less income they wouldn't price each gorram book at an outrageous $50, and basically make at least 3 of them required to just play the game.

SoC175
2014-05-19, 03:46 PM
Mearls posted on twitter that the staggered the releases so that they had more time to work on each book. They want to avoid having to do that much errata as in 4e and admitted that they don't have the capacity to do a good job on all three at once.

1337 b4k4
2014-05-19, 04:00 PM
Staggering releases doesn't make sense since either you have the money to buy them at the beginning or you wait. Just release them all at once. The people who are buying them later were gonna buy them later anyway so make them all available for the people who can pay now.

In general, the american public likes instant gratification. If you release all the books at once, and if all the books are required to make use of any of the books, then there is some fraction of your customer base that won't be buying books (and therefore won't be generating revenue) until much later if at all as all the other things they want that cost < $150 will take preference over your set of $150 books.

OTOH, if there's enough content in the PHB to get started, then a lot of people would be willing and able to drop the $50 immediately. I know in general it doesn't seem to make sense, but there really is a psychological component to this. On some level there are people that will see "1 book available now at $50" and be more willing to spend that $50 then if there were 3 books available now at $50 a piece. And though I don't have any data to back it up, I strongly suspect that as far as the TTRPG customer base goes, there are many more of the "If I buy it I must buy the whole collection" types than in the normal population.

Lastly, you also have to consider the parental aspect. When Timmy and Jane ask mommy and daddy to buy them this new D&D game, if mom and dad hop online and see one book for $50, they'll be more likely to drop that money than if they see that they need to spend $150 for this game. It's a small window, but a window none the less.



Also if they cared about people with less income they wouldn't price each gorram book at an outrageous $50, and basically make at least 3 of them required to just play the game.

I covered this in the other thread (in the D&D Next section) but it's entirely possible that $50 isn't at all outrageous for the product that's being provided. It may still be outside the price range you want to pay, but the realities of publishing is that 300+ page full color hardback books are expensive.

Kurald Galain
2014-05-19, 04:02 PM
Mearls posted on twitter that the staggered the releases so that they had more time to work on each book. They want to avoid having to do that much errata as in 4e and admitted that they don't have the capacity to do a good job on all three at once.

Hm, that may actually work. I'm told the time between having the final version of the book done and having it printed/distributed is between one and two months, so if they have three months between PHB and DMG then they'll be able to print errata to the former in the latter. Knowing the internet, they'll get lots of feedback on the PHB almost instantly: many forumites will recall how extremely quickly 4E players were able to come up with the basic broken builds (notably a mid-level ranger that could easily defeat the strongest enemy in the MM, Orcus).

Then again, it took the 4E team about two years to errata the another obvious broken PHB1 build, i.e. the Blood Mage :smallamused:

Grytorm
2014-05-19, 04:17 PM
You know this makes me wonder if Wizards could leverage MtG in any way to sell D&D any easier. Not directly but convince the stores that hold FNM to help a little in running a promotion. It probably won't happen but offering a discount to the core rulebooks if you bought a starter kit. Wizards would foot the bill but the stores would run the system. Have the stores be the one who processes things.

Airk
2014-05-19, 04:18 PM
Right. How does staggering releases help with that. It doesn't since you said yourself:

Because people aren't going to save up their money three months in advance to buy D&D 5E. They're just not.



Staggering releases doesn't make sense since either you have the money to buy them at the beginning or you wait. Just release them all at once. The people who are buying them later were gonna buy them later anyway so make them all available for the people who can pay now.

You sir, have no idea how people buy things. As has been pointed out, we're all about instant gratification here. If you can buy "that new D&D book" for $50, three months in a row, you will. If "All the new D&D books" come out at once for $150, you'll go "F-, I can't afford $150." and maybe buy one, maybe.



Also if they cared about people with less income they wouldn't price each gorram book at an outrageous $50, and basically make at least 3 of them required to just play the game.

That's a completely different issue. Anyway, I didn't say they CARED about people who have less income, I IMPLIED that they want to SELL to people who have less income. Those are not at all the same.

Kurald Galain
2014-05-19, 04:28 PM
You know this makes me wonder if Wizards could leverage MtG in any way to sell D&D any easier.

They tried, by selling collectible/tradable action cards for 4E. They didn't catch on though, despite being more-or-less mandatory for organized play for awhile.

Knaight
2014-05-19, 06:18 PM
The $150 is kind of ridiculous here. That might have flown in 2000 (though inflation was not high enough to make up the entire difference), but now? RPGs are available for cheap. I can buy Burning Wheel for 25 dollars, and it's every bit as complex as D&D is. There's a number of big, rules heavy games that cost 40 dollars total. Even if I thought D&D 5e looked promising (and I don't), it doesn't look as promising as 5 complete, highly polished, hardback games.

CyberThread
2014-05-19, 07:45 PM
The $150 is kind of ridiculous here. That might have flown in 2000 (though inflation was not high enough to make up the entire difference), but now? RPGs are available for cheap. I can buy Burning Wheel for 25 dollars, and it's every bit as complex as D&D is. There's a number of big, rules heavy games that cost 40 dollars total. Even if I thought D&D 5e looked promising (and I don't), it doesn't look as promising as 5 complete, highly polished, hardback games.




Eh to be fair, your also buying for the Name; higher amount of effort put into a d&d book then rings, and more likelyhood to find players that know what your talking about when you want to find a game to play.

Knaight
2014-05-19, 08:57 PM
Eh to be fair, your also buying for the Name; higher amount of effort put into a d&d book then rings, and more likelyhood to find players that know what your talking about when you want to find a game to play.

Burning Wheel had just as much work put into it. Legend of the Five Rings had just as much work put into it. Qin: The Warring states had just as much work put into it. It's not the rules light, minimalist, quickly made indie games that are 5 times cheaper, it's the other big ones.

The network effect is real here, as is the brand name. The effort? Not so much. I also really don't care about the brand name, so it becomes a matter of the network effect. More specifically, is D&Ds network effect as valuable as 4 other games? I'd go with no, for basically everyone. In my particular situation, where I actually favor rules light games and usually have to teach the mechanics to people regardless of whether it is D&D or not? It's a very certain no.

Axinian
2014-05-19, 09:21 PM
sir, have no idea how people buy things. As has been pointed out, we're all about instant gratification here. If you can buy "that new D&D book" for $50, three months in a row, you will. If "All the new D&D books" come out at once for $150, you'll go "F-, I can't afford $150." and maybe buy one, maybe.

Except that's completely contrary to instant gratification. If I can't buy the whole game now I'm not getting any gratification. If I buy one book now and I'm not satisfied, I'm not gonna buy the rest. However, if I get them all at once, I will likely be more satisfied because I have the whole game, AND they'll still have all my money if I'm not. Rather than some now and none later.


Mearls posted on twitter that the staggered the releases so that they had more time to work on each book. They want to avoid having to do that much errata as in 4e and admitted that they don't have the capacity to do a good job on all three at once.

That's a better reason. It'd be nice if I could believe it would actually make a difference in the overall quality of the game, but this is WoTC we're talking about here.

veti
2014-05-19, 09:38 PM
I'd consider paying $150 for the basic rulebooks, if they would promise in return that every official rules supplement, including every module that contains new monsters/spells/items, will be published on the internet for free.

But paying $150 for just the first instalment of what we all know is going to be an endless drip-feed of ever-more-broken kitchen-sink rules? The word of mouth is going to have to be pretty damn' good to sell me on that value proposition.

Airk
2014-05-19, 10:28 PM
Except that's completely contrary to instant gratification. If I can't buy the whole game now I'm not getting any gratification. If I buy one book now and I'm not satisfied, I'm not gonna buy the rest. However, if I get them all at once, I will likely be more satisfied because I have the whole game, AND they'll still have all my money if I'm not. Rather than some now and none later.

No it's not. Instant gratification maps exactly to what you can get NOW. If you can't afford $150, you're going to be dissuaded from buying a piece of it.

Again, obviously, people who have done a HEAPTON more research than both of us put together clearly support the idea that releasing the books piecemeal is a good idea, so you can argue until you're blue in the face, and the evidence will still be against you.

Axinian
2014-05-19, 10:30 PM
No it's not. Instant gratification maps exactly to what you can get NOW. If you can't afford $150, you're going to be dissuaded from buying a piece of it.

Again, obviously, people who have done a HEAPTON more research than both of us put together clearly support the idea that releasing the books piecemeal is a good idea, so you can argue until you're blue in the face, and the evidence will still be against you.

I don't care. It's not how I buy things and this marketing decision has done nothing but make me less likely to buy it.

Airk
2014-05-19, 10:33 PM
I don't care. It's not how I buy things and this marketing decision has done nothing but make me less likely to buy it.

Yeah, because when you have to choose between waiting three months voluntarily to buy all three books at once (because they are released one at a time), or waiting three months involuntarily to buy all three books at once (because they held them all until all of them were ready), it's CLEARLY BETTER for people to FORCE you to do it one way, right? :)

erikun
2014-05-20, 05:44 AM
I'd consider paying $150 for the basic rulebooks, if they would promise in return that every official rules supplement, including every module that contains new monsters/spells/items, will be published on the internet for free.

But paying $150 for just the first instalment of what we all know is going to be an endless drip-feed of ever-more-broken kitchen-sink rules? The word of mouth is going to have to be pretty damn' good to sell me on that value proposition.
This is, probably, the biggest turn-off for me as well. I might even consider $150 for a single system that is intended to be a complete package. But $150 for just the base system, without interesting campaign and setting details? From a company that is well known for releasing Item Collections, Spell Collections, and a strategy of selling the remainder of the rules in supplements over the next few years? No thank you.

Hunter Noventa
2014-05-20, 07:11 AM
After being burned on 4e (Never bought more than the core books, never played more than one campaign) and investing more and more into Pathfinder, it's pretty hard to justify buying these books. I suppose I'll have to go have a look at them in my FLGS as well as wait for official reviews and such.

DigoDragon
2014-05-20, 07:33 AM
That might have flown in 2000

Not for me though. I've never paid more than $30 for an RPG book (which was for D&D 3.5 back in... 2003? I bought the the 3-book basic set for $90).
If I were to buy 5e, I'd wait until the price comes down. But I do that with all my entertainment, like video games, so it's not specifically against WotC.

1337 b4k4
2014-05-20, 08:33 AM
I don't care. It's not how I buy things and this marketing decision has done nothing but make me less likely to buy it.

Other than your obvious dislike of WotC and this particular sales decision I'm curios as to why you feel this makes you less likely to buy? If your intent was to buy all 3 books at once, then all this sales strategy means is that for you personally, the release date of the game isn't until November. I mean, if they had announced that in November all 3 books would come out at the same time for the same price, we wouldn't be having this conversation and your likelihood to buy would be the same as it is normally. So why does WotC allowing other people who need to (or would rather) buy over time by releasing some of the books earlier make you less likely to buy the books in the first place?

Airk
2014-05-20, 08:42 AM
Other than your obvious dislike of WotC and this particular sales decision I'm curios as to why you feel this makes you less likely to buy? If your intent was to buy all 3 books at once, then all this sales strategy means is that for you personally, the release date of the game isn't until November. I mean, if they had announced that in November all 3 books would come out at the same time for the same price, we wouldn't be having this conversation and your likelihood to buy would be the same as it is normally. So why does WotC allowing other people who need to (or would rather) buy over time by releasing some of the books earlier make you less likely to buy the books in the first place?

Because...REASONS!

Yeah, I dunno, this is pretty much exactly what I said earlier. Some people just like being forced to do things a certain way, I guess.

Yora
2014-05-20, 08:52 AM
It's not that it makes an actual difference if you buy all books in november or buy two a few months earlier. You still got all 3 books in november either way.
But having the release drawn out over three months does raise some questions on what they are doing in their offices, and can make you feel uncertain if these people are actually capable of delivering a good game that would be worth to invest a considerable amount of money into. If you are hoping on eventually having 50+ splatbooks to chose from, but it turns there will be only 8 books in total and that is it, it could be considered a waste of money. It really comes down to confidence.

obryn
2014-05-20, 09:28 AM
But having the release drawn out over three months does raise some questions on what they are doing in their offices, and can make you feel uncertain if these people are actually capable of delivering a good game that would be worth to invest a considerable amount of money into. If you are hoping on eventually having 50+ splatbooks to chose from, but it turns there will be only 8 books in total and that is it, it could be considered a waste of money. It really comes down to confidence.
Devil's advocate: Spreading out the release displays more confidence in the finished material. Nobody will buy the Monster Manual or DMG if they don't like what they see in the PHB.

Airk
2014-05-20, 09:30 AM
But having the release drawn out over three months does raise some questions on what they are doing in their offices,

I dunno, it seems like the obvious answer is "finishing the books"?



and can make you feel uncertain if these people are actually capable of delivering a good game that would be worth to invest a considerable amount of money into.

Because...working on some books for longer than others implies a lack of ability? I'm not sure I see the connection here. If anything, I tend to think "Hey, these guys are smart enough to realize that not all these things are going to be production ready at the same time, so it sure is a good decision for them to not release stuff that's not done."



If you are hoping on eventually having 50+ splatbooks to chose from, but it turns there will be only 8 books in total and that is it, it could be considered a waste of money. It really comes down to confidence.

But I don't see how you can POSSIBLY make a judge of confidence about how many splatbooks are coming based on the release window for the core books. No, really, how do these two things connect at all?

Yora
2014-05-20, 09:45 AM
That would be the people who already bought the PHB and liked it, who then feel more confident that the DMG and the MM will be to their liking too. But those are people who already are on the hook. My point being about people uncertain if if will even be worth to give the PHB a try.
And those people who decide from the start that they will only buy the PHB first and base their descision to buy the others based on what they see, would still have the option to do that if all books become available at the same time.

No purchaser benefits from the delayed release in any way that would be noticeable to them.

What reasons could there be to decide to do the release this way?
They don't have the resources to do all at once. As a subsidiary of Hasbro, that seems very unlikely.
They first wand to see actual demand before getting the other books printed, so they don't get stuck with lots of unsellable books. That would mean they people who make that descision are not very confident in the product, which would be bad.
They are unable to finish all three books before november, but can't wait for that long to get cash in. That would not be indicative of a well polished game.

Not saying any of these are the case, but "the world wonders" and none of the answers people propose sound good.

1337 b4k4
2014-05-20, 09:54 AM
They don't have the resources to do all at once. As a subsidiary of Hasbro, that seems very unlikely.


Even with the resources of Hasbro, how big is the D&D team? A hundred people? And how many of those people are actual game design / layout / editing people vs artists, writers and so on? There's only so much so many people can do at one time, and editing and proofing is a time consuming process. And like most things, you don't make things better by throwing more bodies at the problem. Heck we do this all the time in software development, major changes get rolled out in pieces, not all at once. It's easier for everyone involved.

Airk
2014-05-20, 09:56 AM
No purchaser benefits from the delayed release in any way that would be noticeable to them.

No purchaser is harmed by delayed release in any way that would be noticeable to them.



They don't have the resources to do all at once. As a subsidiary of Hasbro, that seems very unlikely.

Yes, because there are an infinite number of extremely talented RPG writers and editors out there. Obviously. Just look at the consistent quality of all previous RPG supplements. C'mon, talk sense.


Not saying any of these are the case, but "the world wonders" and none of the answers people propose sound good.

Dunno mate, the obvious one is still the obvious one.

obryn
2014-05-20, 10:08 AM
3.0 was released staggered, and it didn't hurt its popularity any. :smallbiggrin:

1e was released over years, but it managed. 2e was pretty staggered, too. 3.5 wasn't, but that was a revision.

The only full edition that hasn't been staggered was 4e, and all the books could have used more editing.

veti
2014-05-20, 05:47 PM
But having the release drawn out over three months does raise some questions on what they are doing in their offices, and can make you feel uncertain if these people are actually capable of delivering a good game that would be worth to invest a considerable amount of money into. If you are hoping on eventually having 50+ splatbooks to chose from, but it turns there will be only 8 books in total and that is it, it could be considered a waste of money. It really comes down to confidence.

Speaking as someone who actually works in an office... "publishing 3 large books in 3 successive months" sounds like a way easier goal than "publishing 3 large books all at the same time".

You have any idea how many times some poor sod is going to have to re-re-re-re-re-re-re-check the same text, over and over? I don't know if you're old enough to remember the sorts of game copy protection we had pre-Windows, where you had to "enter word 3 from line 16 from page 82 of the manual" when you started up the game? The proofreader will be able to answer that kind of question from memory, by the time the books go to press.

Now imagine doing that to all three books at the same time. I wouldn't have wanted to do it that way, even in my 20s when I didn't think much about sleep. Maybe they tried it with 4e and have learned their lesson.

Also, why do you think "more splatbooks" increases the value proposition? Each splatbook is going to cost you another, let's guess, $30. And each one adds more rules, more cheese, so being unaware of those rules is going to put you at a severe disadvantage compared with those who have read them. (It's the difference between "playing a core fighter with Weapon Specialization" and "playing a warblade".)

Pex
2014-05-21, 07:25 PM
I still might buy the Player's Handbook just to see what they come up with and a good read. I'm not happy about the price but not disgusted either. I'll get the book when I have the cash to spare. The DMG I won't get right away when it comes out because of the prices. I will get it if I like 5E enough to care, but at this moment that's not likely. I won't get the Monster Manual at all because I never get the Monster Manual of any edition.

da_chicken
2014-05-21, 08:31 PM
To those people who haven't figured it out yet, they stagger the release dates for the book and gaming stores. If you have to order the PHB, DMG, and MM all blind without any idea what your local market looks like, you're risking a huge amount of money for product you can't sell. The books probably cost retailers $30-35 a copy. Say you think you can sell 15 PHB, 5 DMG, and 5 MM. That's $750-875 right there, and you don't know how well it will sell or how quickly your customers will buy since a lot of your customers will buy one book every two weeks or so. You have to sell 15-18 to break even.

It's much easier to order just 15 PHBs. You don't have to invest as much, your break-even point is 11, you learn what your market is, and you can gauge how many players come in and ask for the remaining books and take pre-orders. You also get people coming back to your store, so you can show off the character sheets, the DM screen, the new adventures coming out later, etc. You have four months of new product to advertise, too! That's four months of hype, store display kits, and giant "D&D SOLD HERE" "PLAYER'S HANDBOOK AVAILABLE NOW" "MONSTER MANUAL AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER" "DUNGEON MASTER'S GUIDE ON SALE THIS NOVEMBER" "RESERVE YOUR COPIES TODAY" banners for your windows. A staggered release almost markets itself.