Big Bang: Guide to Modern Weapons... print edition?

[thundershot]

Believe it or not, this has nothing to do with the recent stuff going on about DTRPG... (okay, it sorta does, because I wouldn't have bought a few pdf samplings at rpgnow if the thread didn't cause me to browse..)

But I digress.

What are the chances of seeing these all collected up into a single print book? I got the german weapons one, and I'm impressed. They don't all jump out at me to "BUY ME!" but I would sure as hell buy a collected edition in print to put on my bookshelf.



Thanks
Chris

 

[Ranger REG]

I don't know. You'll have to ask the author.

 

[trancejeremy]

I don't know. You'll have to ask the author.

I think that's what he's doing by posting here, as the author of the books reads this forum

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

The answer is....


Yes, there will be a printed version. I announced plans to do so last October, IIRC. But I have been at a conundrum for months as to what format to use. I could print as regular volumes matching the PDFs, collect it into one monstrous annual compendium, or print it in a binder-based fashion like TSR's 2nd ed. ad&d monstrous compendium series (yeah, I even found a POD that does short runs that way). Problem is, while everybody is happy to tell me how stellar the work is, absolutely none of my customers has expressed any opinion in what format they'd like to see a print version in.

So the end result is I did a lot of thinking, a lot of numbers crunching, and the series will be published in volumes matching the PDFs. I will also being doing the compendium version as limited editions, for both restricted direct sales and as prizes for charity events. Try to market the compendium in any other fashion would be foolish, since the book would be near 500 pages long and cost more than most gamers are willing to pay in a single purchase. I doubt I'd sell more than 50 or 60 of them at $60 a pop. The print volumes will be released one at a time, hopefully one per month starting next month, with the compendiums appearing once the given year's individual volumes are all in print. All the PDFs are being reformatted and revised (well, volume 4 and earlier, anyway), and we'll start providing a global acrobat index for the PDFs soon as well.

BTW, volume 7 will be out in PDF at the end of the month, focusing on conceable, camouflaged spy-type weapons.

This post has been edited for processor-induced ommissions. Downloading 25 episodes of Naruto at once in order to feed my Narutarded addiction to that show tends to cause bottlenecking when done at 500 kb/second...

 

[thundershot]

Hmmm........ Excellent. Thank you!



Chris (thinks you should just have the print volumes with prepunched holes to put the books in binders.. they'd be thin enough, and it'd be an homage to the old TSR books)

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

Hmmm........ Excellent. Thank you!



Chris (thinks you should just have the print volumes with prepunched holes to put the books in binders.. they'd be thin enough, and it'd be an homage to the old TSR books)

well...

First, Volumes 1 & 2 and the special edition are all over 100 pages long. They aren't exactly thin like the old TSR modules, and being perfectbound, they aren't a bunch of booklets in a cardstock folder, either.

Second, most everything will be POD. Aside from Big Bang, I have a nasty habit of being a publisher of experimental products. One of my experiments is showing that POD can be a successful business model by publishing every print product via POD. Aside from one publisher, none of them provides the option to tap books for notebook storage.

Third, the tapping press required for drilling books for binders costs $1700. And on top of that would be the added expense of not being able to drop ship books straight from the printer.

Admittedly, the reason for taking Big Bang straight to PDF to begin with was the option to stick it in a binder, allowing consumers to organize the various volumes as they saw fit. Group them by alphabetical order, type of weapon, manufacturer, nation of use, year/era of manufacture/use, etc. as you see fit, without the need to flip through multiple books. I have toyed around with the idea of at least having custom binders done up, but that was rather cost prohibitive.

Incidentally, the first Big Bang book that will see print will be Gun Opera, a sort of side book that presents a drop-in damage system designed to drastically reduce the time it takes to resolve combat in most games. I'll be finishing the last bits of work on that tonight.

 

[Ranger REG]

Hmm.

I would prefer either perfectbound (glue) or staplebound format.

While it would be nice to offer it in pre-punched holes for binders, I'd be spending more of those print versions if I suffer any tears to my print product. I don't have the PDF to allow me to replace those damaged pages for free.

IOW, I'm no longer a fan of those Monstrous Compendium binders. And I've had it with those hole reinforcements.

Please consider printing it in perfectbound softcover format.

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

Hmm.

I would prefer either perfectbound (glue) or staplebound format.

While it would be nice to offer it in pre-punched holes for binders, I'd be spending more of those print versions if I suffer any tears to my print product. I don't have the PDF to allow me to replace those damaged pages for free.

IOW, I'm no longer a fan of those Monstrous Compendium binders. And I've had it with those hole reinforcements.

Please consider printing it in perfectbound softcover format.

Yeah, they're going to be staplebound unless the page count requires perfectbinding. Even the compendium will be perfectbound, even if it is the size of a phone book... Heh, there's a sales pitch... I'll offer the first lethal weapon about guns.

The other options were too expensive. The tapped and shrinkwrapped ready-for-binders POD version would cost 50% more to produce than perfectbound, and custom binders would have cost $12 each to manufacture.

A tip for preserving monstrous compendiums - use locking o-rings and the binders made for them. Overall, the binders are more expensive, but the rings don't have those biting, clamping seams in them like regular binders and damaged rings can be replaced. However, when put away for any significant length of time, the binders need to be hedl shut with heavy rubber bands, since the rings have a level of unifrom swaying play that allows the pages to protrude up to an inch out the top or bottom at any given time. Rubber bands tend to stop that unless someone tosses the binder across the room.

Same tip works well for any printed PDF as well. I have a number of them that I printed cardstock covers for (you can buy a ream of cardstock from most office supply stores for $5-8), and I just pop some small o-rings on them without the binder. Works pretty well.