STRPG release schedule!

[qerlin]

Yup, my local RPG store is, well...worthless. I do any buying now via mail. Hence why getting a solid release schedule is helpful for me; otherwise, I don't know the stuff's out there. Don't catch my attention...well, I'm liable to spend that money on gas and food going out for a cruise on my bike.

[Karg]

I guess i'm pretty lucky, While my FLCS generaly doens not Carry The Star Trek Game (He does carry RPG's though) He will order me a copy of any new releases.


BTW, is there any word on the next release?

[Lowly Uhlan]

The next release is the starfleet ops manual.Should be out in less than 2 weeks.Should be prettycool.If nothing's changed ,Starships should be out after that.

[Balok]

My only game store action was WoTC, and they've adopted a policy of only selling their own stuff or stuff that closely hooks to their d20 stuff (I think stuff like Sword and Sorcery, or Kingdoms of Kalamar). All well and good for d20 needs (yes, I do play that game, too).

But the closest store for other needs is a state away. Needless to say, I don't get up there all that often.

And FRP Games, my usual source for online games, doesn't carry the Star Trek line (they do carry the LoTR line). Talon claims to carry the Decipher line, but my experience with him was that he takes a long time to ship. In some cases, weeks. And judging by his own message boards, I'm not the only one who has that problem.

Anyone know a good online source for Decipher Trek products?

[qerlin]

Nromally, Fes, I just order from Decipher direct. They were great about shipping things out quickly. However, they're not carrying their own new RPG products, it seems.

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

Fesarius, I just found a sotre that sells the Decipher stuff. In fact its where I got my NG. It is in Rockville, Maryland. ABout 1 Hr and 30 min from baltimore.

www.dreamwizards.com

[Mijoro]

My FLGS also refuses to carry the Star Trek RPG (which is kinda odd since they have the Lord of the Rings in stock... ).

Anyway - do what I did just pick up the books from Amazon... same books, cheaper price.

[Bill Harris]

Originally posted by Lt Cmdr Matt
Fesarius, I just found a sotre that sells the Decipher stuff. In fact its where I got my NG. It is in Rockville, Maryland. ABout 1 Hr and 30 min from baltimore.

www.dreamwizards.com

Dream Wizards is a great store. I do all my RPG shopping there.

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

Same with me. I love Dream Wizards. Great Store and nice people! Hey Bill, who knows we could have seen each other 100 times by now!

[Balok]

Huh. I actually called them way-y-y-y-y back when (actually, about a year ago), and they hadn't heard Decipher was releasing RPGs. Prior to that, I'd called them to get Hero games stuff after DOJ bought them, and they told me emphatically that no one was publishing HERO stuff. I even gave them the website, and when I called back, they *still* thought HERO wasn't being published.

At that point, I gave them up as a company that wasn't terribly interested in keeping track of new releases.

But two people have endorsed them, so maybe it's time to give them another look.

[RaconteurX]

In response to Chris Jones, it is not a matter of faulty marketing on Decipher's part in the least. In my experience as a games retailer, the majority of game stores are staffed by persons who play but a tiny fraction of the games which are represented in the market. A salesperson whose interests are limited to Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering will tend to ignore advertising aimed at players of Warhammer, Hero Clix and even Star Trek.

A fundamental rule of sales is this: products with which your salespeople are familiar always sell well. An informed staff can help the customer make informed choices, and an informed customer is one who almost always a paying customer. Ignoring potential future sales in favor of immediate cash-in-hand may get a retailer ahead in the short run, but it is a recipe for disaster in the long haul. Of course, many game retailers are just in it for the quick buck, which bodes ill for the hobby.

My practice was to hire staff with diverse game interests but one or two strong areas of general specialtization, such as roleplaying or historical miniatures or import boardgames. While such staff often had considerable personal preferences, as a rule I found that they frequently lacked any bias toward specific rules sets and made recommendations based upon a customer's needs and desires, voiced and sometimes unvoiced.

What this policy accomplished was to increase my department's sales by 300% in my first month as department head and by 700% by the end of my first quarter... and this in a department which already consistently had the second-highest overall sales in the store in terms of dollar amount. Even our reasonably brain-dead owners could not argue with the efficacy of my methods, even though it meant a marginally higher overhead due to increased wages (I paid my staff well).

In short, do not blame the manufacturer for the faults of the retailer.

[Ramage]

Originally posted by RaconteurX
In response to Chris Jones, it is not a matter of faulty marketing on Decipher's part in the least. In my experience as a games retailer, the majority of game stores are staffed by persons who play but a tiny fraction of the games which are represented in the market. A salesperson whose interests are limited to Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering will tend to ignore advertising aimed at players of Warhammer, Hero Clix and even Star Trek.

**sigh**

It's based on that that I thought my FLGS would carry Trek, as the guy who runs the place is a big Trekkie (sorry, "TrekkER"). He played FASA and ICON, and was looking forward to CODA.

I asked him about it. Repsonse: "I kept getting jerked around about release dates and people who came in asking for the game wanted it NOW, not 'call me when it comes in'. Not worth it for me to try and stock something if I don't even know when or if it will be supported."

[Bill Harris]

Originally posted by Fesarius
At that point, I gave them up as a company that wasn't terribly interested in keeping track of new releases.

In my experience, they (Dream Wizards) are usually the store that gets new stuff first.

When you hear that something has been sent to the distrubitors, you can bet real money that they'll have it within a week.

[Rayaru]

Well my narrator's screen just shipped from amazon...

Greetings from Amazon.com.


We thought you'd like to know that we shipped your items today, and that this completes your order.


Thanks for shopping at Amazon.com, and we hope to see you again soon.


You can track the status of this order, and all your orders, online by
visiting Your Account at http://www.amazon.com/your-account/

There you can:
* Track order and shipment status
* Review estimated delivery dates
* Cancel unshipped items
* Return items
* And do much more


The following items were included in this shipment:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Qty Item Price Shipped Subtotal
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Star Trek Narrators Screen $10.47 1 $10.47


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Item Subtotal: $10.47
Shipping & Handling: $3.99

Total: $14.46

Paid by Credit Card: $14.46


--------------------------------------------------------------------

[Bill Harris]

Originally posted by Lt Cmdr Matt
Same with me. I love Dream Wizards. Great Store and nice people! Hey Bill, who knows we could have seen each other 100 times by now!

If you see a guy wearing a US Naval Observatory t shirt, that's probably me.