Stephen Schubert:
On Random Boosters:
The random booster has a significant advantage for retailers, as they need to only track and stock 1 “SKU” for each minis set. While your FLGS might not mind having a large rack of minis, the single SKU helps us get other stores to sell the product (like bookstores and larger retailers). The random packaging so far has proven successful, and there’s still a healthy market for those that want to pick and choose (via online retailers or FLGS selling “singles”).
That secondary market also lets us figure out which minis are most popular, which encourage us to include them in future sets.
Themes in sets:
Our themes truly are loosely defined, and as few as 8-12 minis might identify the “theme” of a set. Instead of filling a set with similar creatures, we try to put a few different groups of creatures in it, so that each set has a pretty broad appeal.
Why can’t sets stay in print forever?
Key monsters are reintroduced in later sets. There were orcs in Harbinger, but that didn’t keep us from putting orcs in War Drums or other sets. Popular creatures like Mind Flayers will show up every few sets, to ensure that newer players/collectors have an opportunity to get one. Also, by ending production on a set, we actually enhance collectability, (collectibility?) as a restricted supply leads to greater demand.
From a skirmish perspective, we have to make sure that old, hard-to-find skirmish favorites get some reasonable analogue in the future. The Eye of Gruumsh was a great mini in its day, but current players might use a Werewolf Lord in its place, for example. But we’re also trying to do this in a way that keeps those older pieces relevant, since we don’t have a set rotation policy (I can hear hearts seizing everywhere).
Storing and carrying the miniatures is so difficult!
A couple years ago, I went on a backpacking trip with a couple of friends. We wanted to game a bit out in the wild, but didn’t want to take along heavy rulebooks — so we packed up 4 warbands, some dice and tiles, and hiked out into the wild. Since we had to carry 30+ lbs each, weight was a premium, but other than a deck of cards, it was possibly the lightest game we could have taken.
That said, I’d agree that toting around a collection, or even trade fodder, is a challenge. I’ve seen guys at cons with huge rubbermaid bins full of minis, that they wheel around on a hand truck… My collection would need an actual truck, and sorting and storing them is time consuming.. These are the tribulations with which we must contend…
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