I've got a fever...a fever for the Frog God

In case you hadn't heard, Frog God Games has this new daily deal thing going. So far I've picked up The Lost City of Barakus and Against Tsathogghua in PDF for $2, Tome of Adventure Design in PDF for $10.50, and today I snagged Razor Coast in print and PDF for $60. Honestly this started even before the new sale deal when I pre-orded my copy of Fifth Edition Foes last week and then got a coupon for Stoneheart Valley in print for $20. Good stuff. I suggest signing up for news and offers on their site, it's worth it.

If you didn't know it, this is a hardcover revision of Wizard's Amulet, Crucible of Freya AND Tomb of Abysthor represented as a full setting

A couple important details if you've never ordered from Frog God before, because until I got Fifth Edition Foes this was not obvious from their website: when you buy a print copy of a book, you also get the PDF as part of the deal. Most web retailers note this (Pelgrane and Kobold Press, for example) but for the longest time I didn't try to buy from Frog God directly because it seemed like the listing was for the print or PDF, not both. So, keep that in mind....it makes their prices a better deal, and the sales even nicer.

If you get a coupon and it doesn't work, contact their service via email on site. They had my issue fixed like two minutes later and the code worked.

Most of Frog God's games are in Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry formats, so you can pick your preferred poison. So far they have the free version of Wizard's Amulet and the forthcoming Fifth Edition Foes out for 5E (the PDF is available immediately, and its pretty awesome). I am hoping for a lot more 5E from them in the future, but honestly conversion in 5E is a piece of cake (something I suspect WotC intended for this edition), so I've been snagging lots of Pathfinder-friendly versions to that end....although in retrospect S&W versions might actually be easier to convert to 5E. Ah well...

Anyway, these sales are great....I've actually been keen on most of what Frog God has to offer, but their products are not available through retail and frankly have been priced at "prestige" level prices, putting the bulk of their tomes out of my $$$ comfort zone for something I wasn't sure I'd use at the game table or not. $100 for Razor Coast? Eyyaaaaah I'll just wait and watch Ebay for a few years. $60? Well that's not too much more than the Core Rules for Pathfinder.....sure, I'll bite. PDF comes with it? Deal!!!!!

The description of this module alone sounds worth it. I shall now hope that future sales include discounts on the other books in the series.

Shopping Around: Price comparing Nook vs. Kindle storefronts

Some discussion has been had on more than one occasion about the issue of pricing in the Nook and Kindle stores. The general consensus is that the Barnes & Noble storefront for Nook is more expensive on average, and the Kindle usually has slightly better prices across the board. I thought I'd put this to the test with a comparison of books in both storefronts.

To make this work I'm going to compare three sets of titles: popular current titles, new titles, and obscure titles. I tend to buy heavily from option #3 (obscure) and as a result may see more savings on average with Kindle than Nook....or so my buying experience suggests. So lets get on with this!

1st Comparison: Popular Current Titles

For this entry I'll look at the "top listings" for each store and pick a sampling based on subject mater: sci fi/fantasy for our purposes will be the control measure, using the top seller listings on each site as of 1/3/14. To qualify each book below must be on one of the two top seller lists:

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card: Both Kindle and Nook list it for $3.99.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin: $4.99 on Nook, $3.99 on Kindle.

A Song of Ice & Fire Five Book Set: $19.99 on Kindle, but $28.47 on the Nook. Interestingly, the Nook has the four-book Nook set for $34.99.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss $6.74 on Kindle and $6.74 on Nook.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. Kindle has this listed for $7.69 but the one-volume Lord of the Rings set for $10 (bwuh?) while Nook has the same exact prices, including a $10 one-volume set.

Result One: the prices match, with a couple exceptions. Kindle comes out ahead a bit due to Martin's books.

2nd Comparison: New Titles

For this entry I look at "newly listed" to see how the prices on these shiny new tomes appear. The source is this and this list as of 1/3/14. To be on this list it must appear on at least one of the two new lists, and be available now or preorder in both stores. Bias of Note: I am excluding any book that looks like a "urban fantasy vampire chick" novel from the test set:

The High Druid's Blade: The Defenders of Shannara by Terry Brooks. $13.99 on the Nook and $11.84 on the Kindle.

Words of Radiance by Brian Sanderson. $12.74 Kindle edition and $14.99 Nook edition.

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch (fyi this book sounds very cool). $13.99 Nook and $10.99 Kindle edition.

Halo: Mortal Dictata by Karen Traviss. $9.99 Nook edition vs. $8.89 Kindle edition.

The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor Part I by Robert Kirkman. $11.99 Nook edition vs. $9.83 Kindle edition.

Result Two: It's like this across the board....in terms of new, Kindle really wants your dollars, and B&N hasn't quite figured this out apparently.

3rd Comparison: Obscure Titles

I am a master of the obscure, as I expect many tabletop gamers are. What follows are a sample of my library, taken from both the Nook and the Kindle, for comparison:

Heavy Metal Pulp: Pleasure Model by Robert Vardeman. $7.59 on Kindle and $7.99 on Nook.

Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds. $7.59 on Kindle and $8.99 on Nook.

Resident Evil: City of the Dead by S.D. Perry. $6.59 Kindle vs. $7.49 Nook.

Weird Space I: The Devil's Nebula by Eric Brown. $4.61 on Kindle and $5.49 on Nook.

Punktown by Jeffery Thomas. $5.99 on Nook vs. $3.99 on Kindle.

I tried comparing recent favorites of mine such as Zombie Pulp and The Hive both by Tim Curran but they aren't even on the Nook store it turns out.

Result Three: the Nook isn't as interested in discounting these mostly obscure titles. The selection I picked was random, but I could unfortunately just keep listing and listing and listing...and it would still be the same; virtually all these obscure titles are a bit cheaper on the Kindle.

The question I might pose to those who self-publish and release books through both storefronts is: why is this? What policy is in place that ends up with a higher mark-up on the ebook at B&N than at Kindle? Do authors and publishers have much control of their pricing, and does Nook have a more difficult "discounting structure" than the Kindle, assuming that's a tool available to publishers? Is it just a market share issue? According to a recent article Amazon holds a 67% market share....could this be the reason?

Humble THQ Bundle

Usually they're Humble INDIE Bundles, but it turns out the Humble Bundle system can work for big publishers in serious financial trouble, as well. Either way, this is an amazingly good deal, and I wish I didn't own all of these games already. Instead, I point it out to those of you who might not already own all of these games (going for 5.60 as of the time I write this):

Metro 2033 (Best Russian post-apocalyptic shooter/adventure out there)

Titan Quest (an aging but very good hack and slasher that kept the torch burning during the dark years between Diablo II and Diablo III)

Saints Row The Third (you know how much I love this off-beat parody of the GTA Sandbox style games)

Three Company of Heroes Titles (okay I don't own these but I don't play RTS's either)

Red Faction: Armageddon (and it's DLC pack; a decent if unoriginal alien space marine shooter accidentally grafted onto a setting known more for being a "humans on Mars with hammers and highly destructible environments" style of game, thus why it flopped)

Darksiders (a game that many people seem to like but which I was unable to personally get any joy out of)

And a bunch of soundtracks.

Six days left as of 12/6/12....$5.60....hard to beat!