concerns about product availability

[kreider204]

I'm looking at the webstore (Yankee version, I think ... ), and a couple of the products, including the core rule book, are listed as unavailable. Is this game going out of print? Just kind of wondering before I start investing in new books ...

[Otaku-sempai]

The core book is currently sold-out but is scheduled to be reprinted in the near future. The same is probably true of the other product listed as 'unavailable'. But you might try the C7 webstore and a few other sites.

[zedturtle]

Yeah, my understanding is that unavailability is due to high demand, which means good things for the future of TOR, not bad stuff.

[kreider204]

Good to know, thanks!

[spivo]

Until you start seeing the books on sale, you don't need worry about lack of availability.

[Hermes Serpent]

It shouldn't come down to this but posters who don't understand how the retail and distribution of gaming products works always causes fits and panic when they write things that confuse people.

A company prints number of books based on what they think will sell and they go into distribution or to stores as well as their own warehouse. This forms a supply chain which fills up from the start to the end (a store). As sales occur the end point draws dow,n from further up the chain, extra product. The publisher soon gets a good idea of sales over time and when the start point is down to the number of product units that would sell in the time to reprint the product then orders a reprint. Sudden surges of product purchase can throw this carefully choreographed system out of whack causing short term gaps in the chain.

Other consideration concern funding the fresh reprint while having sufficient cash on hand to pay writers and illustrators for fresh material. Running a company selling RP material is hard work and no doubt a lot of Dom's time is taken up managing the production process and keeping the bank happy.

Please don't post things that have no basis in fact as it causes ructions in the fabric and can require intervention from the C7 folks who have better things to do. I'm sure that if Sophisticated Games lost the M-e E license we'd all hear about it quickly enough.

[Rich H]

Looking forward to a reprint of 'The Heart of the Wild'; it's glossy cover annoys me as it doesn't match the other matte finish ones!

[zedturtle]

It shouldn't come down to this but posters who don't understand how the retail and distribution of gaming products works always causes fits and panic when they write things that confuse people.
. . .
Please don't post things that have no basis in fact as it causes ructions in the fabric and can require intervention from the C7 folks who have better things to do. I'm sure that if Sophisticated Games lost the M-e E license we'd all hear about it quickly enough.

I don't see where kreider204 is making any assumptions. They are just asking a question, which was (to me) a reasonable one. Whether or not the question has been asked once or a thousand times is of little import, just that someone had a concern... we (the fans) have addressed it as best we can, and that should be it.

And I believe that the elided information could have been presented in a less ructious manner, with or without the parts I did quote. Remember, it's always somebody's lucky day to learn something new and they don't need to be talked down to in order to learn it.

[Hermes Serpent]

"Is the game going out of print" is really spreading Fear and Doubt. There's no evidence of the game going out of print even if AiME is at the forefront for the last couple of months.

Posting things like that really causes no end of speculation about the company's health and financial security that can result in a downward spiral.

[Majestic]

None of that, though, means that the intent was to do anything other than ask a legitimate question.

And again, there's really no need to speak harshly to someone for asking a simple question.