Re: [Re: Speed of Age in the Astral]

Doubting Eric wrote:

> I like PS; my wife loves it. We alternate running SJ and PS on alternate
> weeks, in fact. I think the reason it wasn't profitable, though, wasn't a
> matter of popularity, but a matter of production value. The overhead on
> gaming supplements is very narrow, and books with high production values
> (color art, glossy paper, lots of pull-outs) tend to cut the profit even
> smaller. Witness the original Feng Shui core book from Daedalus: Every
> page was high-gloss and a great number of them were in color. From what I
> understand, the production costs were so high, the company very nearly
> /lost/ money on every book they sold.
>
> It's a paradox. A better-looking game will sell you more copies, but a
> cheaper-produced book will make you more money.
>
        That's why boxed sets were phased out.  TSR said that they weren't
profitable, but that probably means that the profit margin was so very
low that they couldn't sell enough in bulk to turn a profit.
        Never really complained about the quality of PS products, just found
the chant annoying:)  Most PS products were pretty good (I own a
half-dozen or PS products).

--
Adam Miller