Earlier this year when I agreed to do A Knights of the Old Republic game in the Star Wars Saga game, I picked up the core rules, and of course the KOTOR campaign guide. Both were around 40 bucks, and I managed to get both for close to 30 on Ebay in great shape.
I heard rumors a week or so ago online about how the KOTOR book was suddenly super-rare. A couple of the players at my first game Sunday mentioned it as well. I just looked on Amazon, and it's going for nearly 100 bucks! Dang.
What would cause an RPG supplement to go critical so fast? I dunno, but it's popularity may be helped by the fact that the XBOX game from years ago is still popular. I considered getting this sourcebook a year ago anyway, because I loved the video game so much and really loved the setting.
What other game books have shot up in price so fast? I got 60 bucks for my 70's copy of Bunnies and Burrows a couple of year ago, and that was almost 30 years after it went out of print.
Rare games are like antiques...depends on what folks are collecting at any time and what's "hot."
ReplyDeleteIt took me a LONG ASS TIME to find a copy of Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits...and couldn't get one at all off Amazon. Then a little more than a year ago I stumbled across one for sale at a used bookstore, I think for a measly $10 or so. But 4th Ed. had recently come out, and some people were probably dumping older stuff on the market.
I ALMOST picked up the KOTOR supplement at Christmas, myself, as I was a HUGE fan of the XBox game (somehow D20 plays better on a console...weird). I thumbed through it, looked at the miles and miles of stat blocks and figured, "I could stat this up as easy as they did...or even easier, I could fire up the old XBox and play it some more!" I passed...and with hindsight I'm glad. I'm not looking to make money on the speculative value of out-o-print games.
; )
JB: After the prequels, I had a certain distaste for Star Wars. I wanted to love it, but too many Jar Jars and Wattos and Boss Nass' ruined it for me (among other things, including a bitchy, whiny young Vader). That XBOX game presented a fresh take on the universe for me, with no baggage. So, like I said, the KOTOR book would have been a good read for me regardless. It came in real handy in Sunday's game, because I used mandalorian neo-crusaders (on Dantooine, like the XBOX game), horned Kath hounds, and viper kinraths, and these I was able to xerox right out of the book for easy reference. It was handy, because I am still pretty shaky on the rules.
ReplyDeleteI have this book—but I had no idea it was Rare. I don't actually play D20 Star Wars (I'm still hooked on D6 as my own blog will tell you :P), but overall, I've been pleased with the background information and adventure hooks the D20 stuff provides. I'm not REAL fond of the price of these books, however, especially since a lot of the page count is taken up with blocks of stats that don't really apply to my own game (but that's another issue entirely). Love the KotOR setting. Love the classic setting, but yeah, like a lot of folks, the movies themselves kind of soured me on the Prequel Era stuff. I'm slowly getting over that, but mainly because I've reshaped it in my mind and ignore much of the established canon in the movies (i.e. the midicholorians, gah).
ReplyDeleteRolog: Yeah, those midicholorians really bummed me out. So much for the fantasy/spiritual aspect I loved in the first movies.
ReplyDeleteKOTOR campaign guide should have been 25 bucks max. It is a nice looking book though, and I love that the art evokes the time period pretty good (and no Hayden Christiansen glaring out at me).
I figured something was wrong when I noticed that you can buy all the Star Wars SAGA edition books from Paizo except for this one. I emailed customer service and mentioned this suspected product catalog bug and got a reply saying "The Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide is no longer available through Paizo."
ReplyDeleteThe price rise is surely linked to the announcement of the new KOTOR MMO, right?
ReplyDelete