While Neutral Grounds started stocking D&D books again, they didn't get everything (no Complete Champion but there was Drow of the Underdark for example). One find at A Different Bookstore's Serendra branch was Dungeon Tiles, although someone should seriously talk to them about which items to get and not get. I mean aside from Dungeon Tiles, the only other D&D product they had was Dungeon Master's Guide II and while I appreciate the bookstore stocking D&D books, in my opinion they've been stocking the wrong D&D books. Just like the first and only time National Bookstore stocked D&D gaming books was the adventure Speaker in Dreams (no PHB, DMG, or MM).
Anyway, so I got to use them last weekend, although I didn't really use any elaborate terrain. Still, they were quite fun and sturdy, and complemented the miniatures well. It's easily one of those products that you want to buy a lot of (since you could always use more tiles), and surprisingly they still worked even without lines. Previously, I was using the D&D Miniatures maps and tiles and while they were good, didn't give me as much flexibility.
2 comments:
Hi, Mr. Tan, I regularly read your blog on A Different Bookstore as I help manage the store. I would very much appreciate your D&D and other book suggestions. Rest assured, if you suggest certain titles, they will definitely be on our shelves very soon.
Hi! Do you have a way I could contact you? The manager at your Podium branch knows my mobile no. or you can email me at charlesatan [at] gmail [dot] com.
Don't worry, I'm not blaming you for your D&D stocks. It's a hard industry to break into and most the shops haven't gotten them right. Most retailers also aren't aware of the strategy the publisher, Wizards of the Coast, is implementing.
Basically, their best-selling books have been The Player's Handbook 3.5 (PHB), Dungeon Master's Guide 3.5 (DMG), and Mosnter's Manual 3.5 (MM). These are the gateway books, the "main" books so to speak. The rest of the books are merely supplements to these three. What I mean by that is that the PHB, DMG and MM is easily the book that the company is selling and all the other books are like Cliff Notes or Study Guides. Or put it another way, they're like Book 1 of a series and you need to have Book 1 to expand the customer base.
The newer releases, while I as a fan buy them (and in fact I was buying them when they were being stocked at your store in Glorietta and then later on, in Ink & Stone since that was closer), is not growing your customer base for D&D. So my best advice is that instead of stocking the newer books, try stocking more of the core books (PHB, DMG, and MM) more than than the newer supplements (or at least they should go hand in hand). Of the three core books, the PHB should sell more than the other two books (so it should be probably at a 2:1:1 ratio if not more). As for the newer supplements, you can get them but not in the quantities that you're importing them right now, and not more than the quantity you're ordering PHB's since PHBs virtually determine your maximum customer base.
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