The Case For Counters / Against Print-and-Play

[Shad]

Agreed!

[pmaidhof]

Since a second set of Beyond Normandy counters are required for some, yes just a handful, of it scenarios, I'd like to see sets of the BN counters be made available in "laser-cut" fashion.

[Shad]

Desert Rats also has at least one mega scenario.

You might be better off buying a second-hand copy and just tossing the maps, though. The older PG boxed games have very low resale value and are easy to get ahold of. I bet you could get a second hand copy of BN for less than $20 if you poked around a bit.

[pmaidhof]

You might be better off buying a second-hand copy and just tossing the maps, though.

I was suggesting more for the laser cut treatment on BN counters. I really like the Kursk Southern Front counters that I just received over the weekend.

[Michael Murphy]

Desert Rats also has at least one mega scenario.

You might be better off buying a second-hand copy and just tossing the maps, though. The older PG boxed games have very low resale value and are easy to get ahold of. I bet you could get a second hand copy of BN for less than $20 if you poked around a bit.

If I had the opportunity to score a second copy of something with paper maps (Guadalcanal, BN, AK, DR, C'44), I'd keep the maps as well. I haven't used my paper maps all that much but the wear along some of the map folds is still quite visible. I wouldn't mind having a good set of backup maps in case of a catastrophic map failure down the road.

[Dean_P]

in a perfect world all of those little obscure modules would be laser cut from the start. but could you imagine the risk they would take in doing this at the start? it would cost them an immense amount of money and provide possibly no return. i reckon do the print and play first if its a module you arent so sure about, dip your toe in the water. if the feedback is good then print it. those of us who loved the download would buy a hard copy. for example if edelweiss went back into print i would buy it even though i have the download.

I think the biggest cost is figuring out how to use the laser printer, but that cost seems to be already bought. The cost of printing any DIY/PnP game now has almost no additional cost, especially if the laser is nearby. Print the sheet and attach it to the chipboard, take it to the cutters, pick it up and mail it. You may get a volume discount if you have 1000 sheets to print, but for small runs the cost shouldn't be exhorbitant.

[larry marak]

Well finally, sort of, Shad's proposal became history and the other PG downloads became available with laser-cut counters. And according to Mike they are actually selling briskly.

[armyduck95]

I never printed a lot of my downloads because I have a lifetime of gaming to be done with my hard copies. HOWEVER, the recent offerings caused me to decide to try and make my counters to see how much investment in time and effort it took before I decided to sink my original download costs and add another $100+ in buying hard copies.

Turns out making counters, at least my technique, is super fast (<2 hours), super cheap (<$3 per counter 165 counters), the print quality is better than laser cut, and I am satisfied with the overall quality for play - no worse than going die cut. While I will certainly buy hard copies, I no longer fear that I won't get around to turning my downloads into physical products.

[Hugmenot]

I print my PDF's at a local shop - about $0.80 a page - and just uses cchipboard or stuff I save from our Amazon shipments as backing. Other costs are 3M Super 77 glue, Krylon for a finish coat or two, and a fresh x-acto blade for every new sheet. I'd say somewhere $2.50 and $3 per sheet, all costs considered.

Tow hours of work sounds about right for me too if I do not count the time for the glue and finish to dry.

[zaarin7]

I now use Avery large label sheets for making counters. Saves on the glue cost and preparation. Just print, peel and stick on.