Release Dates in the USA?

[Ronism]

I'm a U.S. retailer, and I brought the RuneQuest corebook into my store to check out. I like it and am planning to carry the line. Upon contacting my distributor (ACD), they informed me they haven't even been solicited for anything other than the corebook, GM screen, and the minis. All these are out and coming to my store (well, they're out of stock on the GM screen), but I can already envision problems with release dates on the Mongoose website and my customers.

What are the U.S. release dates for this stuff?

Thanks,
Ron Blessing
Tucson, AZ

 

[mthomason]

The US release-to-distributor dates are the dates on the Mongoose site (we in the UK have to wait a little longer usually as Mongoose's warehouse is in the US)

Not familiar with ACD, but I know Alliance have everything listed

http://www.alliance-games.com/publicaccess/results.asp?SearchArg=RuneQuest+RPG&list=By_Game_System

As do Esdevium over this side of the pond. Sounds like your distributor is either not on the ball or has been left out of the loop...

 

[Ronism]

The US release-to-distributor dates are the dates on the Mongoose site (we in the UK have to wait a little longer usually as Mongoose's warehouse is in the US)

Not familiar with ACD, but I know Alliance have everything listed

http://www.alliance-games.com/publicaccess/results.asp?SearchArg=RuneQuest+RPG&list=By_Game_System

As do Esdevium over this side of the pond. Sounds like your distributor is either not on the ball or has been left out of the loop...

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm forwarding this info to my rep at ACD. I'll likely post the outcome of this saga here.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm forwarding this info to my rep at ACD. I'll likely post the outcome of this saga here.

Please do - it would also be very helpful if you could mail afennell@mongoosepublishing.com.

 

[Malakor]

Ron,

I'd be interested to know what you find out, my local store uses ACD as his primary distributor.

Thanks

Anthony Hunter

 

[mthomason]

Emailed Alex about two seconds after reading the original post

He's going to contact ACD so it ought to get sorted out.

 

[HyrumOWC]

Alliance does seem to be running a little slow. We've solicited our two adventures with them and should hopefully have their orders at the end of the month.

Hyrum.

 

[Fiddler]

Thanks for that update Hyrum. I was wondering whin to expect your companies products. Looking forward to reading and running them.

 

[Ronism]

Emailed Alex about two seconds after reading the original post

He's going to contact ACD so it ought to get sorted out.

I work for a company that has seven stores, so I'm not just in communication with a rep. He's actually the reps' boss. He's emailed me back and told me he's currently yelling at people and will keep me posted.

I, of course, will keep this community posted as to my findings. RuneQuest is the first in-print fantasy RPG I've found that I like in many years. I'd like to see it succeed.

<rant>This situation is just one of the many that are killing RPGs, in general. Since the d20 glut, distributors aren't taking RPGs anywhere near as seriously as they used to, unless, of course, it says "Wizards of the Coast" or "White Wolf" somewhere on the cover. I'm not sure who dropped the ball here, but I think it doesn't matter who dropped it. All parties (stores, distrubutors, publushers) have a stake in the success or failure of RPGs, and no one in the industry can afford to be negligent. This is why RPGs are dying.</rant>

 

[MongooseMatt]

<rant>This situation is just one of the many that are killing RPGs, in general. Since the d20 glut, distributors aren't taking RPGs anywhere near as seriously as they used to, unless, of course, it says "Wizards of the Coast" or "White Wolf" somewhere on the cover. I'm not sure who dropped the ball here, but I think it doesn't matter who dropped it. All parties (stores, distrubutors, publushers) have a stake in the success or failure of RPGs, and no one in the industry can afford to be negligent. This is why RPGs are dying.</rant>

Sing it, Brother. The risk has been pushed away from distribution and onto the manufacturer. I would like people to think about that before they complain about the pricing policies of RPGs

 

[Ronism]

<rant>This situation is just one of the many that are killing RPGs, in general. Since the d20 glut, distributors aren't taking RPGs anywhere near as seriously as they used to, unless, of course, it says "Wizards of the Coast" or "White Wolf" somewhere on the cover. I'm not sure who dropped the ball here, but I think it doesn't matter who dropped it. All parties (stores, distrubutors, publushers) have a stake in the success or failure of RPGs, and no one in the industry can afford to be negligent. This is why RPGs are dying.</rant>

Sing it, Brother. The risk has been pushed away from distribution and onto the manufacturer. I would like people to think about that before they complain about the pricing policies of RPGs

The saddest thing for me has been that I am trying to bring RPGs back in my local community, and whenever I try to do that with anything other than D&D or Vampire, I typically get resistance from the very people that supposedly want my money.

 

[jbuckmaster]

Personal experience as both a buyer and a game company employee is that distributor reps tend to misinform if not downright lie about anything they aren't personally aware of or doesn't let them hit their "targets." The game store here once told me that the distributor had outright told him the company I work for was going out of business and hadn't released anything in over a year... Just as I was getting my author's copies of the 6th major release that year.

It's been 3 years since then and I'm still getting paycheques...

-John

 

[Ronism]

Personal experience as both a buyer and a game company employee is that distributor reps tend to misinform if not downright lie about anything they aren't personally aware of or doesn't let them hit their "targets." The game store here once told me that the distributor had outright told him the company I work for was going out of business and hadn't released anything in over a year... Just as I was getting my author's copies of the 6th major release that year.

It's been 3 years since then and I'm still getting paycheques...

-John

I truly think this particular situation is based on honest mistakes, because I know this particular guy doesn't get any commission based on what he sells me. That said, it doesn't change the result. In this case, that would've been a medium-sized city (Tucson, AZ - metro area population of about 1,000,000) not being exposed properly to an excellent product that has the potential to attract new and former RPG fans to the hobby. If this hobby doesn't find a way to grow, it will continue to spiral downward.

 

[HyrumOWC]

Thanks for that update Hyrum. I was wondering whin to expect your companies products. Looking forward to reading and running them.

My pleasure.

We'll also have them available for sale on the site and in PDF once they're available in stores.

It also looks like we'll be getting European distribution for those on the other side of the "pond".

Hyrum.

 

[Ronism]

Okay, so here's the answer.

ACD is taking preorders for all the Runequest products. They do have a parts list for them. At this point, Mongoose has not asked ACD for numbers.

This concerns me only because many of these books are coming very soon, and the Mongoose website lists Runes of Chaos as released. Runes of Chaos is listed right along side the Ducks and Broo minis, so I'm a bit confused by this. Especially since Mongoose apparently confirmed to my guy's boss that they haven't asked for any numbers on Runes of Chaos.

What gives?

 

[Fiddler]

While on the subject of distribution Mongoose may want to update the regular book chains about your Runequest releases. I work for my local Barnes and Noble and they list the MRQ core book not being orderable. I wanted to get Runequest into the store to sell it to the RPG masses. Thanks.

 

[HyrumOWC]

While on the subject of distribution Mongoose may want to update the regular book chains about your Runequest releases. I work for my local Barnes and Noble and they list the MRQ core book not being orderable. I wanted to get Runequest into the store to sell it to the RPG masses. Thanks.

Heh.

Easier said than done, although Mongoose should be able to do it if they're interested in book trade sales. (Which are returnable, unlike sales into the hobby channel.)

Hyrum.