Here is a question for all you veterans. You speak of these rpg boxed sets. I assume these were packed with stuff. How come I do not see these nowasays? And what were they like?
Now I am not sure but I believe they were originally released that way because most wargames (Avalon Hill and others), the direct parents of Role-playing, were released in boxed sets. Also when D+D came out many of its starter sets were put out in boxes.
Of course they were all a little different, but generally came with three books, and a series of handouts and maps. Chaosium was really a master of these boxed sets and perfected the art. Generally, the three books/pamphlets included a background or setting book, a scenario book and some kind of players book.
A big key to this was that the scenarios were in a different book than the rules stuff. Also the inclusion of poster sized maps was a great boon.
What was really great for RQ was the inclusion of pre-generated monsters in a separate book. I constantly re-used these in different Adventures. The Encounters book for Borderlands (perhaps the best box set) was the essential encounter book for Prax in the early days. During RQ III, I often used a book out of Monster Coliseum (an otherwise marginal box) for pre-generated extras.
The flip side of this was that during RQ3 days, the books (the main rulebooks in particular) were stapled together paper with no real cover. They fell apart almost as soon as they were out of the box. Oh, and of course, someone would always sit or step on the box and crush it. :evil:
All in all I still miss the boxed set stuff.
As for the second question....
I would assume they do not sell as well...supply, demand and all that. It sure would be inspiring to see a few more scenarios. I liked the pattern in Stupor Mundi were the first part was about the setting and the latter half was cool little scenarios to show off what could be done with game world. Nehwon was also a lot like this and very enjoyable to read because of it.
