Why is the Beginner Box (and other PF2 products) so expensive?

[BlueDrake]

As the gateway purchase into the system $40 seems a bit steep for a VTT edition. I get why the physical box is $40 with the printed books, dice and tokens, but I don't get why it's $40 here where there are no printing or warehousing costs. yes I know there are server costs, but they're not as costly as printing/warehousing.

I guess this is aimed as much at Paizo as Smiteworks, but maybe consider lowering the price for the PF2 products on FG. The 5E D&D stuff is not as expensive as the physical books, why is the PF2 stuff so high?

My group wants to shift from 5E to PF2, but the cost difference is making that a tough choice. After using FG for close to a decade we're considering switching VTTs to try PF2.

[hawkwind]

they do include a pdf from pazio or if you already have already purchased the pdf you get the cost as a discount on your FG purchase

[Moon Wizard]

Also, the pricing is ultimately set by the publishers; so that is something you can reach out to the publishers about.

For Paizo, as @hawkwind mentioned, they already offer a discount equivalent to PDF purchase for the FG version (if you bought from Paizo first); or you get the PDF for free (if you buy from FG first).

Regards,
JPG

[SkelebuddyPizzaParty]

Haven't we literally had this discussion before, almost verbatim?

The long story short is because places like roll20 and FG license Paizo's stuff, of which Paizo sets the prices and sets the discounts if any.

[Trenloe]

After using FG for close to a decade we're considering switching VTTs to try PF2.

As mentioned above - Paizo set the price. So if you're going to switch VTTs you'll find the cost of official Paizo conversions to be similar. The exception is the Beginner Box on Foundry is $10 less, and the Foundry conversion of the first part of the Blood Lords AP is $3 more than the FG version - then everything else on Foundry is full price, also their current official content is pretty limited compared to the official content on Fantasy Grounds.

[esmdev]

If you have close to a decade of experience with FG, I think you will be astounding by how much the other more modern VTTs don't do. For instance, out of the box the DM has to apply all damage to tokens (Foundry) as opposed to FG where this happens automatically. Many things are manual unless you use macros which you may or may not have to write yourself.

Not that FG is perfect, there are a few things that I would want (like support for the Gamemastery Guide variant rules) but FG runs smoother and faster, especially for people who are used to it.

[BlueDrake]

Thank you for the replies. I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond.

I know a pdf of the product is included with the purchase price (or discounted from it), but I'd be reading the pdf on the same PC I have FG installed on so that's not a huge incentive. I'll post a suggestion over in the Paizo forums; it seems like that would be the more appropriate place if pricing is set by the publisher.

I think PF2 is a really cool system. It might attract more people if the pricing was adjusted to be more in line with what WotC has done here.

[ddavison]

We were the first VTT to be licensed by Paizo and at that time, digital products were still pretty new for them. Our contract does not currently give us any flexibility in the matter of pricing, but Paizo is aware of this and is working to revise the contract into a more modern version that will allow some greater flexibility.

[esmdev]

We were the first VTT to be licensed by Paizo and at that time, digital products were still pretty new for them. Our contract does not currently give us any flexibility in the matter of pricing, but Paizo is aware of this and is working to revise the contract into a more modern version that will allow some greater flexibility.

Great news, thanks for the 411.

[Trenloe]

As mentioned above - Paizo set the price. So if you're going to switch VTTs you'll find the cost of official Paizo conversions the same. The exception is the Beginner Box on Foundry is $10 less, and the Foundry conversion of the first part of the Blood Lords AP is $3 more than the FG version - then everything else on Foundry is full price, also their current official content is pretty limited compared to the official content on Fantasy Grounds.

Wow - part 2 of the Blood Lords AP has been released on Foundry for $34.99 - $16 for the Foundry only code! Whereas, when released (very soon) this will be the FG/Paizo standard of $26.99 ($8 for the FG code when the PDF cost is taken into account). So, those thinking of switching VTTs, I'd have second thoughts if I were you - and this is purely based on price, I've seen some comments recently mentioning that the FG PF2 specific implementation is superior to Foundry as well... So many reasons to play PF2 on Fantasy Grounds!