Tower of Power

Our D&D 4 display sits in front of the cash wrap area, waiting to be unwrapped tomorrow. The pre-orders are in one of the display cases: 38 gift sets and 3 Player's Handbooks. The freight company delivered everything right to the floor of the store, so the delivery went as smoothly as possible. I had to order more books, however, since the Baker & Taylor order didn't ship any Player's Handbooks or Monster Manuals. They said they were back-ordered until sometime in June. I canceled the order, but man, with 5 months advance notice, you think they could have pulled it off.

This release should give you an example of what it's like in a small retail store. You take a big chance on a giant release. That release is sold by a variety of very large competitors, both online and brick & mortar, who may or may not sell them early or at a gigantic discount. As far as I can see, any attempt at a huge profit on anything is tempered by these competitors. It's like a release valve when the pressure gets too high. That's great if you're a consumer, but it's a tough way to run a business; many down sides, no longer many upsides. It works well when you get lucky, but any of the players along the way can screw over the small store without recourse.

Watching Customers

Sometimes I feel self-conscious about watching customers, especially when they're not regulars. Some people get a little paranoid about being watched. Some people are not accustomed to friendly staff. Some want to be left alone like in the big box stores, where many people shop almost exclusively. Some want to avoid high pressure sales tactics. Anyway, I thought I might shed some insight into why we take an interest in our customers, why we observe them and try to help.

Shrinkage. The most obvious reason to watch customers is to make sure the small percentage of thieves don't walk away with the stuff. Rule number one for employees is protect my stuff. Rule number two is sell my stuff, followed by number three, which is keep my stuff clean. Those are the highlights of retail right there.

Customer Curiosity. Store managers are desperately curious to divine what customers are thinking. We watch as customers walk the aisles. What direction do they turn? Do they pause? Heck, are they in any danger? Once a customer knocked a precarious plastic model off the shelf down onto their small child, who began crying. What a jerk I was! Looking back, I saw that problem coming as that shelf wobbled each time a customer handled the model.

Product Curiosity. We're also wondering about product interest. I know some products are picked up and examined because of their superior packaging. Other products might be good but get passed over. They might need some explanation. Puerto Rico is the highest ranked board game, and has been for years, yet the photo on the box is of a German version of the game. Some explanation on our part could help. Sometimes we'll discover that an item is damaged or shelf worn, and would normally sell if it was in better condition. It might take months to realize this.

Sometimes we'll notice synergies that aren't being exploited, like the fact that RPG books are in one part of the store, while RPG miniatures are at the opposite end. Why not put them together? We're not a grocery store where customers will walk to the back to pick up their milk. Small children will not cry at night if they don't get their Reaper miniature of a snakeman.

Watching customers peruse product also allows us to make suggestions, part of rule number two, sell my stuff. Suggestions or conversation are two way streets, and we gain lots of information from knowledgeable customers. The goal is to be helpful, so you can sell them stuff, but it's also a social outlet, if time permits. Not that it's the goal, but the longer a customer spends in the store, the more they buy. That's mostly a justification for some social time, rather than a cynical reason to engage customers.

The Dark Side. It's hard not to profile people. As you gain experience, you know your target audience. You also know who steals from you. Eventually you start seeing patterns emerge and we are talking about money here, your personal money as store owner. It's the money you use to feed your family. If red headed teenage girls keep stealing your Bella Sera cards, aren't you going to pay a bit more attention to the card section when these gals are around? It's unfortunate if you're a red headed girl, as even the most liberal of sales person will be treating you with a bit too much attention, but that's life and my family needs to eat. The key is to try to be fair about it. Some red headed teenage girls make excellent customers.

Controlled Chaos

Today our main Dungeons & Dragons 4 shipment is scheduled to arrive. It's kind of a crap shoot. It's arriving via freight (meaning on an 18-wheeler), which is the exact opposite of efficiency, especially compared to FedEx, the usual Wizards of the Coast shipping method. It's not uncommon for truck drivers to get lost and attempt to call us. There's also a chance they'll arrive without a lift gate. This is the thing on the back of the truck that allows them to unload freight without a loading dock or forklift. Arriving without one happens about a quarter of the time. It's also up to the truck driver whether or not he'll be helpful unloading. Some roll up the back door and tell you to get to work. Some will unload it and bring it inside (rarer). Still considered helpful is handing down stuff off the pallet. This is all supposed to happen while I'm running the store by myself.

We're getting a wooden pallet of D&D 4, the largest order we've had that didn't involve a major store expansion. Without a lift gate, it means we have to unpack the pallet in the truck and hand it down to someone on the ground. It's something we need extra people for, so we've got staff and volunteers standing by. In exchange for this potential hassle, we get the books on Wednesday instead of Thursday, which means if all else fails, I can get them from a second source if the freight delivery goes all wonky. Remember, they forgot to ship us Keep on the Shadowfell. As smart a plan as that may sound, it turns out I'll have problems if I need that second source (really third), as I'll explain.

If you were thinking people are still on the fence about D&D 4, you would be wrong. They're sold out already at WOTC, and they've gone back to press. The print run was 50% higher than D&D 3,5, but we all know what a fiasco that was. The gift set is #4 at Amazon, while the Player's Handbook is curiously at #130. With that kind of ratio, I'm thinking the intense gift set pre-order is only the calm before the storm. What happens when those DM's or alpha gamers start their games? Unfortunately, the intense demand also means the distributors are down to a very small supply.

My main distributor has fewer gift sets available than I have pre-ordered. So much for plan C. Plan B was our book distributor order and they shorted us, despite having ordered months in advance. Talk about not giving us any love. Just an FYI, that the gift sets are in limited supply. The three core books are plentiful. The difference is the fancy cardboard sleeve.

The dual concerns of early release and piracy have been overblown, in my opinion. Other than the buy.com early release of what I now believe to be more than 8 copies, there has been little widespread breaking of the street date. There is the occasional mistake, but nothing serious. Today will be somewhat telling on street date breaking. The big stores got their Tuesday orders in yesterday, and it would be a common error to release the books early by mistake. We'll be listening closely for that and sending people around if we hear rumors. However, it will take a store receipt and a discussion with WOTC for us to break the date.

There's a lot of retailer concern about piracy, with the books easily downloadable via torrent, but I think in this specific case, it has actually knocked people off their fence. Early reviews from these pirate copies are everywhere and additional pre-orders have rolled in based on review impressions and electronic acquisition. These are books that really should be made into electronic format, but they're also books that are important to have as paper copies.

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.

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 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.