The other option was a Forge World Tallarn Gunner, but with my discount, the standard gunner is cheaper.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Tallarn Gunner (40K)
I got this idea from a White Dwarf photo of a Tallarn gunner on a Baneblade. It's a gunner from a heavy bolter or autocannon. The down side is that without bitz ordering, I had to buy the entire $15 blister to get this one guy. Now I understand the annoyance from veteran players about the program change. The machine gun doesn't quite fit correctly with the gunner, but it works when I remove the mount.
The other option was a Forge World Tallarn Gunner, but with my discount, the standard gunner is cheaper.
The other option was a Forge World Tallarn Gunner, but with my discount, the standard gunner is cheaper.
Dungeon Master's Guide
I've started reading the 4th edition Dungeon Master's Guide. It's what you would expect, full of helpful advice cobbled from various articles about how to run a game. It calls upon theater, technology, and psychology to advise game masters how to smoothly run their games, prepare in advance and satisfy every personality type. I might be old fashioned, but I don't allow laptops and technology at the table, although the book suggests we all join the 21st Century with smartphones and gadgets.
The book is fairly fluffy without much crunch. In fact, the book has noticeably less heft than the Player's Handbook, probably due to moving the magic item section to that book. I enjoyed the poison, disease and trap revisions, but they're certainly not something you're likely to use very often. The books is less table reference and more design toolbox for creating content. Combat and conditions are thoroughly covered in the Player's Handbook, as are magic items. Experience points are clearly given by monster, regardless of party level, a very helpful change. In 3.5 I would normally consult the DMG for experience points, crunching numbers on a charts (or a Java applet). So if you travel to your game with a bag full of material, perhaps you can credit Wizards of the Coast for saving you a few pounds off your back.
I'll post more impressions as I read more.
The book is fairly fluffy without much crunch. In fact, the book has noticeably less heft than the Player's Handbook, probably due to moving the magic item section to that book. I enjoyed the poison, disease and trap revisions, but they're certainly not something you're likely to use very often. The books is less table reference and more design toolbox for creating content. Combat and conditions are thoroughly covered in the Player's Handbook, as are magic items. Experience points are clearly given by monster, regardless of party level, a very helpful change. In 3.5 I would normally consult the DMG for experience points, crunching numbers on a charts (or a Java applet). So if you travel to your game with a bag full of material, perhaps you can credit Wizards of the Coast for saving you a few pounds off your back.
I'll post more impressions as I read more.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
The 925 Gang (40K)
The three sentinels are done. One was so badly mangled that it was banished to the shelf of unloved minis. The bases are painted Citadel terracotta, the color I plan for the infantry bases.
I played with the new Citadel washes on the last couple of sentinels, using it on the smoke stacks and the lascannons. These are new items that replace the Citadel inks. They'll be available in the store on Saturday. The washes are interesting, as they apply more like a paint wash than an ink wash, plus they don't leave a shiny finish like you get with ink. The concentration seemed to be what I was looking for, and I applied a black wash right out of the pot without any sort of dilution. You can darken the effect by applying more wash to the area.
I was considering dumping in a liberal amount of Future floor polish to make my own Citadel Magic Wash, but after trying a couple applications, I thought it was working fine without additives. My guess is that the simplicity of application will bring wash technqiues to less experienced painters, and of course their new painting book, also due out this week, will highlight new wash techniques.
The washes come in a set of 8 pots. The bottle design is similar to the Foundation Paints, but is slightly different in design, which is nice when you've got all three types of paints out in front of you. The black wash seemed to be a little lower in volume than the rest, but it might have been my imagination. The wash set is $25, but we'll also have individual pots for sale on the release date.
Characters I Want To Play (D&D4)
Despite my dislike for the religion fluff, I'm actually excited about the potential of D&D 4. I still haven't seen it in action, but the character build options have captured my imagination. The standard classes are fine; fighters, clerics, wizards and rogues look promising, although the ranger looks dull to me, but that's not new. The classes that have me excited are the paladin, warlock and warlord.
The paladin is a holy warrior, a malleable class that no longer must be lawful good or follow a strict set of guidelines. Time will tell if their combat prowess is up to snuff; the 3.5 paladin was a disappointment, along with the horse he rode in on (thankfully gone). The concept that has me excited is playing a narrowly focused concept paladin. For example, a paladin of Ioun, god of knowledge, might be devoted to seeking out and destroying those who dabble in forbidden lore (maybe even warlocks). A dwarven paladin of Erathis, god of invention among other things, might be a seeker of lost inventions, considered holy by his faith. A paladin of the Raven Queen might quest to destroy necromancers, who defile the dead, the core concept of his deities portfolio. Each of these paladins could have an interesting flavor and a focus other than bringing justice to evil doers.
The warlock is slightly less sinister than its 3.5 version, although it's certainly meant to be walking a fine line. The concept that captured my imagination was the bookish warlock, scholars who believe they can use forbidden secrets for a greater purpose. I imagine a Giles like character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, librarian by day, demon hunter by night. Perhaps there's a secret society dedicated to destroying infernals by channeling the energy of otherworldly beings, or vice versa. Perhaps the devils and demons are so afraid of Cthulhu like outsiders that they've entered an ancient pact with humans to fight them. With just a bit of flavor text, the 4.0 version of the warlock seems more interesting and more accepted in D&D society than the 3.5 version.
The warlord is a battlefield master, a support character that can assist in combat by moving the party and monsters around like chess pieces. Some have said this is the perfect class for the player who likes the bard, a helpful sort who can provide battlefield bonuses to the party. Others say it's perfect for the micro-manager, who pulls his hair out as he watches the party make dumb tactical decisions. Don't like what the party is doing? Shift them around. I would much prefer that the helpful player take up the warlord. As a DM, the warlord worries me, as it's new and I have a hard time envisioning how its powers are employed without the game turning into Warhammer or chess. A more timid DM might ban the class, but I'm curious to see it in action, especially employed by a thoughtful player.
The paladin is a holy warrior, a malleable class that no longer must be lawful good or follow a strict set of guidelines. Time will tell if their combat prowess is up to snuff; the 3.5 paladin was a disappointment, along with the horse he rode in on (thankfully gone). The concept that has me excited is playing a narrowly focused concept paladin. For example, a paladin of Ioun, god of knowledge, might be devoted to seeking out and destroying those who dabble in forbidden lore (maybe even warlocks). A dwarven paladin of Erathis, god of invention among other things, might be a seeker of lost inventions, considered holy by his faith. A paladin of the Raven Queen might quest to destroy necromancers, who defile the dead, the core concept of his deities portfolio. Each of these paladins could have an interesting flavor and a focus other than bringing justice to evil doers.
The warlock is slightly less sinister than its 3.5 version, although it's certainly meant to be walking a fine line. The concept that captured my imagination was the bookish warlock, scholars who believe they can use forbidden secrets for a greater purpose. I imagine a Giles like character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, librarian by day, demon hunter by night. Perhaps there's a secret society dedicated to destroying infernals by channeling the energy of otherworldly beings, or vice versa. Perhaps the devils and demons are so afraid of Cthulhu like outsiders that they've entered an ancient pact with humans to fight them. With just a bit of flavor text, the 4.0 version of the warlock seems more interesting and more accepted in D&D society than the 3.5 version.
The warlord is a battlefield master, a support character that can assist in combat by moving the party and monsters around like chess pieces. Some have said this is the perfect class for the player who likes the bard, a helpful sort who can provide battlefield bonuses to the party. Others say it's perfect for the micro-manager, who pulls his hair out as he watches the party make dumb tactical decisions. Don't like what the party is doing? Shift them around. I would much prefer that the helpful player take up the warlord. As a DM, the warlord worries me, as it's new and I have a hard time envisioning how its powers are employed without the game turning into Warhammer or chess. A more timid DM might ban the class, but I'm curious to see it in action, especially employed by a thoughtful player.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Religion in D&D 4
I've read through the classes in the new Player's Handbook. There's a curious change to how religious characters obtain their power. In previous editions of D&D, religious characters prayed to their deity or pantheon and received powers based on their faith. The deity or deities might be listening or might be distant, but the power gained came from the gods.
In 4th edition characters are divorced from their deities. They gain power from their investiture into the faith, not even from their faith itself. A deity becomes the religious characters fashion accessory. The character can defy the will of the deity, defy the will of the faith, or do whatever they want, but that invested power is irrevocable. I find it an odd design decision and I don't like it.
Meanwhile, wizards "tap the true power that permeates the cosmos." The warlock also taps into power from beings they "commune" with, either fey, infernal or alien. Don't get me wrong, I like the new designs of these classes, but why downplay the religious character? I can't imagine it's out of some concern over religion in the game, because honestly, this approach strikes me as rather hostile towards the whole concept of religion.
Paladins are no longer paladins. They're more like holy warriors from Player's Handbook II or Book of the Righteous from Green Ronin. There is no more paladins' code, no restrictions on association, and a definite step away from the pompous knight that nobody wanted to play (which is good). They must be the same alignment as their deity, even if it's unaligned. Paladins are also invested into their faiths, their power coming from ritual, rather than their god that they must follow in alignment so closely. But what if they don't want to tow the line? Their paladinhood is irrevocable, as neither the god nor the religious order seems to have any control over the paladins power once he's invested.
The investiture approach to divine power is one step too far for my liking. I appreciate the concept that a god might not be paying attention and that a follower might deviate from the straight and narrow (or crooked and wide, if they worship an evil god). I like that the high priest of the good god can be corrupt without some simple spell revealing his schemes. What I don't like is the divestiture of religious power from the game. It makes the gods and the heavens irrelevant and elevates the arcane and alien. It's a simple enough fluff decision to change, but I find it odd that the designers felt the need to do this and I wonder why.
In 4th edition characters are divorced from their deities. They gain power from their investiture into the faith, not even from their faith itself. A deity becomes the religious characters fashion accessory. The character can defy the will of the deity, defy the will of the faith, or do whatever they want, but that invested power is irrevocable. I find it an odd design decision and I don't like it.
Meanwhile, wizards "tap the true power that permeates the cosmos." The warlock also taps into power from beings they "commune" with, either fey, infernal or alien. Don't get me wrong, I like the new designs of these classes, but why downplay the religious character? I can't imagine it's out of some concern over religion in the game, because honestly, this approach strikes me as rather hostile towards the whole concept of religion.
Paladins are no longer paladins. They're more like holy warriors from Player's Handbook II or Book of the Righteous from Green Ronin. There is no more paladins' code, no restrictions on association, and a definite step away from the pompous knight that nobody wanted to play (which is good). They must be the same alignment as their deity, even if it's unaligned. Paladins are also invested into their faiths, their power coming from ritual, rather than their god that they must follow in alignment so closely. But what if they don't want to tow the line? Their paladinhood is irrevocable, as neither the god nor the religious order seems to have any control over the paladins power once he's invested.
The investiture approach to divine power is one step too far for my liking. I appreciate the concept that a god might not be paying attention and that a follower might deviate from the straight and narrow (or crooked and wide, if they worship an evil god). I like that the high priest of the good god can be corrupt without some simple spell revealing his schemes. What I don't like is the divestiture of religious power from the game. It makes the gods and the heavens irrelevant and elevates the arcane and alien. It's a simple enough fluff decision to change, but I find it odd that the designers felt the need to do this and I wonder why.
Seminar in Madison III
Turn Rates
At a trade show a couple years ago I sat in the hospitality suite between two store owners who both did a million dollars a year in sales. One store owner had a turn rate of 6 while the other had a turn rate of 1. What does this mean? The turn rate is how often you sell through, or "turn" your inventory in a year. The guy with a turn rate of 1 had a million dollars in inventory (retail). The guy with a turn rate of 6 had $167,000 in inventory. Put a different way, the guy with the 1 turn rate was sitting on $833,000 in inventory that wasn't performing for him. That's a lot of money that could be in his pocket. I don't think anybody plans to do a million dollars in sales with a million dollars of inventory, it just creeps up on you over the years. Who has that kind of money?
Those of us starting out have limited inventory dollars. Every dollar needs to count. Inventory needs to perform in a timely fashion or else get dumped like a bad employee. You need to be ruthless with your inventory. We can determine if our inventories are performing well using various tools, but one I like to use is turn rate analysis. You divide sales by the retail value to come up with a number, usually between 1 and 8. So what's a good number?
Old school retail sources say that 4 is a good turn rate. I think this is a good overall number, but some things in the game trade turn faster or slow than this. For example, the collectible model is known for a small amount of inventory that sells continuously. You might have a turn rate of 6-10 on collectible miniatures or trading cards. On the slower end of the spectrum are things like paint. You probably won't get a high turn rate out of your paint department unless you've limited your selection drastically. Everything else is in between, but aiming for a turn rate of 4 is a good practice.
Having a very low turn rate, overall, clearly wastes money. Those inventory dollars could be put into better inventory or into your pocket. A very high turn rate, overall, is also a danger. It could mean that you're losing out on sales and you're running too lean. Adding more inventory in those areas might increase your sales.
Your trusty spreadsheet is the tool you'll need to perform turn rate analysis. Here's one I did recently, removing departments that are less than a year old. It's got some excellent performers and some real dogs:
The numbers from this spreadsheet come directly from my point of sale machine. It can run a report on annual sales by department and a report on inventory value, but it lacks the ability to crunch these two numbers together.
What does it say? The most important number, I think, is the overall turn rate. It's 3.1 on this analysis, which tells me I have room for improvement to get to my target number of 4. We moved the store in October and increased inventory by 65%, so there is still a lot of room for performance improvements. Still, turns are up by about 20% from last year.
The blue items are very good, as the highest turn rate items are mostly collectibles and food. I could look at the numbers for role-playing and decide I could loosen up the inventory there, taking a few more chances since the turns exceed 4. It's probably the only department in this report that warrants increasing inventory.
The green items are average, but might need some attention. I was concerned with dice last year, so I made some changes. I down-sized my dice collection by about 50% from the year before and sales went up 25%, doubling the turn rate and providing me $1,000 to spend on other things. You can have too much inventory and a reduction of slow sellers or dead product can often increase visibility of your good product.
The purple items are in need of attention. Miniatures have dropped over the last couple of years, and we're slowly reducing slower sellers, hoping that D&D 4th Edition will pick up sales. We've tried to become the local source for board games, so we've allowed the board game inventory to grow at a rate beyond what's justified by their sales. Our main board game competitor closed up shop recently, so we'll look at this again in another year to see if it improved. Departments like classic games and puzzles have been disappointments. They mostly exist in our store because people expect them, but we're trying to visualize the store without them. A better visualization? How about $5,000? That's roughly the inventory dollars these two departments suck up that could be spent on things that sell.
Caveats. This is just a tool. You can use turn rate analysis by department, by game category, and by item. When I'm re-ordering items, I check the turn rate and drop things that aren't performing. Beginning stores will likely see a fairly slow turn rate, possibly 1.5 the first year, 2 the second year, 3 the third year, etc. We're in our fourth year and I would be very happy with a 3.5. It's important to give your inventory a chance and to avoid dumping a product lines before you really know what your customers want. That could take as long as 18 months. Also don't be afraid to gradually bring things back that you dropped early on.
You might also allow slower sellers to remain out of a sense of cohesion. For example, we made a point of stocking every Dungeons & Dragons book in print because we wanted to be the local D&D source. The key here is that you want it to be a conscious decision, not something you do on instinct or because you're a gamer.
Finally, one of the most important things this analysis can do for you is allow you to be nimble with your ordering. If you see a game declining, you can begin shifting inventory dollars to something that's performing better. This keeps you from having a lot of inventory dollars captured by dying games and having to spend your valuable time liquidating inventory on eBay or in-store sales.
At a trade show a couple years ago I sat in the hospitality suite between two store owners who both did a million dollars a year in sales. One store owner had a turn rate of 6 while the other had a turn rate of 1. What does this mean? The turn rate is how often you sell through, or "turn" your inventory in a year. The guy with a turn rate of 1 had a million dollars in inventory (retail). The guy with a turn rate of 6 had $167,000 in inventory. Put a different way, the guy with the 1 turn rate was sitting on $833,000 in inventory that wasn't performing for him. That's a lot of money that could be in his pocket. I don't think anybody plans to do a million dollars in sales with a million dollars of inventory, it just creeps up on you over the years. Who has that kind of money?
Those of us starting out have limited inventory dollars. Every dollar needs to count. Inventory needs to perform in a timely fashion or else get dumped like a bad employee. You need to be ruthless with your inventory. We can determine if our inventories are performing well using various tools, but one I like to use is turn rate analysis. You divide sales by the retail value to come up with a number, usually between 1 and 8. So what's a good number?
Old school retail sources say that 4 is a good turn rate. I think this is a good overall number, but some things in the game trade turn faster or slow than this. For example, the collectible model is known for a small amount of inventory that sells continuously. You might have a turn rate of 6-10 on collectible miniatures or trading cards. On the slower end of the spectrum are things like paint. You probably won't get a high turn rate out of your paint department unless you've limited your selection drastically. Everything else is in between, but aiming for a turn rate of 4 is a good practice.
Having a very low turn rate, overall, clearly wastes money. Those inventory dollars could be put into better inventory or into your pocket. A very high turn rate, overall, is also a danger. It could mean that you're losing out on sales and you're running too lean. Adding more inventory in those areas might increase your sales.
Your trusty spreadsheet is the tool you'll need to perform turn rate analysis. Here's one I did recently, removing departments that are less than a year old. It's got some excellent performers and some real dogs:
| Department | Inventory value | Sales | Turns |
| Trading Card Games | $6,086.38 | $ 62,358.22 | 10.2 |
| Snacks | $1,415.95 | $ 10,937.64 | 7.7 |
| Collectible Miniatures | $4,484.53 | $ 32,910.95 | 7.3 |
| Role Playing | $9,923.92 | $ 45,276.85 | 4.6 |
| TCG Supplies | $1,815.34 | $ 6,750.44 | 3.7 |
| Dice | $2,573.20 | $ 8,754.92 | 3.4 |
| Card Games | $6,280.93 | $ 18,949.66 | 3.0 |
| Tactical Minis | $31,349.07 | $ 85,140.38 | 2.7 |
| Board Games | $18,717.86 | $ 45,001.21 | 2.4 |
| Paint | $7,949.84 | $ 18,025.49 | 2.3 |
| Flames of War | $7,736.43 | $ 11,827.88 | 1.5 |
| Miniatures | $9,089.09 | $ 8,662.81 | 1.0 |
| Classic Games | $7,440.71 | $ 6,190.49 | 0.8 |
| Puzzles | $2,989.10 | $ 1,911.00 | 0.6 |
| | | ||
| Total | $117,852 | $ 362,697 | 3.1 |
The numbers from this spreadsheet come directly from my point of sale machine. It can run a report on annual sales by department and a report on inventory value, but it lacks the ability to crunch these two numbers together.
What does it say? The most important number, I think, is the overall turn rate. It's 3.1 on this analysis, which tells me I have room for improvement to get to my target number of 4. We moved the store in October and increased inventory by 65%, so there is still a lot of room for performance improvements. Still, turns are up by about 20% from last year.
The blue items are very good, as the highest turn rate items are mostly collectibles and food. I could look at the numbers for role-playing and decide I could loosen up the inventory there, taking a few more chances since the turns exceed 4. It's probably the only department in this report that warrants increasing inventory.
The green items are average, but might need some attention. I was concerned with dice last year, so I made some changes. I down-sized my dice collection by about 50% from the year before and sales went up 25%, doubling the turn rate and providing me $1,000 to spend on other things. You can have too much inventory and a reduction of slow sellers or dead product can often increase visibility of your good product.
The purple items are in need of attention. Miniatures have dropped over the last couple of years, and we're slowly reducing slower sellers, hoping that D&D 4th Edition will pick up sales. We've tried to become the local source for board games, so we've allowed the board game inventory to grow at a rate beyond what's justified by their sales. Our main board game competitor closed up shop recently, so we'll look at this again in another year to see if it improved. Departments like classic games and puzzles have been disappointments. They mostly exist in our store because people expect them, but we're trying to visualize the store without them. A better visualization? How about $5,000? That's roughly the inventory dollars these two departments suck up that could be spent on things that sell.
Caveats. This is just a tool. You can use turn rate analysis by department, by game category, and by item. When I'm re-ordering items, I check the turn rate and drop things that aren't performing. Beginning stores will likely see a fairly slow turn rate, possibly 1.5 the first year, 2 the second year, 3 the third year, etc. We're in our fourth year and I would be very happy with a 3.5. It's important to give your inventory a chance and to avoid dumping a product lines before you really know what your customers want. That could take as long as 18 months. Also don't be afraid to gradually bring things back that you dropped early on.
You might also allow slower sellers to remain out of a sense of cohesion. For example, we made a point of stocking every Dungeons & Dragons book in print because we wanted to be the local D&D source. The key here is that you want it to be a conscious decision, not something you do on instinct or because you're a gamer.
Finally, one of the most important things this analysis can do for you is allow you to be nimble with your ordering. If you see a game declining, you can begin shifting inventory dollars to something that's performing better. This keeps you from having a lot of inventory dollars captured by dying games and having to spend your valuable time liquidating inventory on eBay or in-store sales.
D&D 4 Gift Sets and 40K 5th Edition
D&D 4th Edition gift sets are sold out at Wizards of the Coast and it will take a couple months for them to reprint them. We'll have about 30 extras on the release date, and I have absolutely no idea how long they'll last. If you're still holding out, I suggest you buy one soon, either from us or at your local store. We're still offering the 10% discount on gift set pre-orders, either in full or with a non-refundable $30 deposit.
Warhammer 40K 5th edition. Our store copy arrived yesterday. You're welcome to peruse it in the store. There was quite a bit of in-store discussion about it, but you'll have to see it for yourself. Similar to the WOTC gift sets, the Gamer's Edition product, with the ammo box and templates is sold out at Games Workshop. It's been sold out for about a week now. We still have 8 slots available for pre-orders. I expect them to be sold out in the store within two days of release.
Warhammer 40K 5th edition. Our store copy arrived yesterday. You're welcome to peruse it in the store. There was quite a bit of in-store discussion about it, but you'll have to see it for yourself. Similar to the WOTC gift sets, the Gamer's Edition product, with the ammo box and templates is sold out at Games Workshop. It's been sold out for about a week now. We still have 8 slots available for pre-orders. I expect them to be sold out in the store within two days of release.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)