Iron Lore: Malhavoc's Surprise?

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Also, have you seen the final book yet? Monte said it had already gone to the printers...

The printer version isn't always the final version. Printers can make horrible, awful, perfectly grincy mistakes.

 

[A'koss]

The printer version isn't always the final version. Printers can make horrible, awful, perfectly grincy mistakes.

What usually happens is that a printer will pull press proofs first for the client (Malhavok) to approve. However, as it is mostly a B&W book (which will be a lot easier on the press), they'll probably just pull proofs of the few 4c pages that are in there and maybe one of the B&W ones. It is possible that they may pull a PP of the entire book though. After the colour is approved and the client has signed off on it, away it goes. As far as mistakes go, file prep screw-ups are far, far more likely than printer ones.

A'koss.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

True, but I've seen too many game books horrificly hurt by printer errors and screw ups to not be cautious. RPGs probably aren't the simplest projects or the most stable sorts of publishing houses to work with, so I imagine the problem shoots both ways.

Anyone have any opinions on the Designer Diary that just went up?

I'm wondering if, given the existence of token fueled feats, there aren't ways to gain tokens outside of class abilities. There are some ways in which I sort of feel sorry for the poor Harrier not getting tokens, though I certainly understand the reasoning for not doing so.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

DriveThruRPG is saying it'll be 14 bucks and up on Monday July 25.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/catalog/coming_product_info.php?products_id=2371

 

[A'koss]

DriveThruRPG is saying it'll be 14 bucks and up on Monday July 25.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/catalog/coming_product_info.php?products_id=2371

Interesting... so it looks like you'll be able to get the electronic version a little bit early after all. For myself though, there's no way I can justify spending nearly $20 CDN (after taxes) on a PDF. Especially if the harbound will be out a couple of weeks after that.

True, but I've seen too many game books horrificly hurt by printer errors and screw ups to not be cautious.

That is true, but... sometimes those so-called printer problems are actually file problems you can track back to the author or just being cheap in general. Files can contain pages in the wrong order, missing pages, poorly colour corrected images, cheap paper, bargain-basement binding...

Cheers!

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

That is true, but... sometimes those so-called printer problems are actually file problems you can track back to the author or just being cheap in general. Files can contain pages in the wrong order, missing pages, poorly colour corrected images, cheap paper, bargain-basement binding...

Cheers!

No doubt, no doubt. Many a masters thesis has come undone for such reasons among many others. The road to publishing is frought with peril.

I probably will get the pdf.

For me, I purchase them under two circumstances:

-the book is short, but interesting, and unlikely to show up at my local game store.

-the book is the major component of a game I expect to spend a lot of time on. If that is the case then I view the .pdf as a means to save the book wear and tear and as a means to get to know the work better. I'm one of those people who really learns things by both writing and typing them, viewing the content in two different mediums tends to cement it in my mind.

Naturally the above condition implies that such a substantial investment will pay off over a long period of time. Also, the .pdf tends to make things easier to explain to players as there are pieces I can print out such as feat and spell lists.

I think IH will fit into the second category. Also the timing of the .pdf release is particularly good for me, I will need something like a really great rule book to read on that particular date.

Plus by DTRPG standards IH is cheap. AE was a bigger book, but it cost a great deal more and there are far smaller books that have cost only slightly less. IH looks like it will be a good deal.

 

[DrSpunj]

Plus by DTRPG standards IH is cheap. AE was a bigger book, but it cost a great deal more and there are far smaller books that have cost only slightly less. IH looks like it will be a good deal.

Right, but I'm not sure why. If you take a look at the Malhavoc products at DTRPG they are all pretty much currently listed at 50% off, including Arcana Evolved (currently listed at $24).

I have to admit I've never purchased from DTRPG because of the protection scheme they started with. I'm on a Mac at home where I do most all of my gaming & prep work so I couldn't use them even if I wanted to.

So all of that leads me to a couple questions:
1) Are Malhavoc's PDF products always 50% off at DTRPG? Or is this a sale? Cuz the only sale I'm aware of was Malhavoc's Birthday sale a month ago and that was only 30% off.
2) I can't tell if DTRPG is only selling the protected copy of Iron Heroes or whether the standard PDF is also for sale. Anyone know one way or the other?

Thanks,
DrSpunj

 

[Nifelhein]

As far as I know most publishers are selling watermarked pdfs on Drivethrough, Malhavoc usually goes with watermarked pdfs, so i doubt they will change the policy for this one, they ahev supported pdfs from the beggining and are always interested in the products benefits while taking the security in consideration.

As for the prices, DrT has the following on their FAQ:

Does DriveThruRPG set the prices on these eBooks?
No, all publishers choose their own pricing structure. We recommend 30% off normal cover price for new books and 50% off cover price on anything over 6 months old. As you can see most of our books fall into the 50% off category. Different publishers have different reasons for listing their titles on DriveThruRPG.com and therefore different reasons for setting their prices to different levels.

 

[DrSpunj]

Thanks, Nifelhein! I'll have to do some reading on the Watermarked PDFs I guess. Is that the protection scheme that limits installations (which isn't a big deal right now) and the amount of copying & pasting (which may be, because I do quite a bit of prep work for each session basically typing up my own stat blocks, rules text relevant to the encounter, etc.). Or is that the DRM protection scheme and Watermarking is different?

I'm assuming that's what may require a version of Adobe Reader higher than what I currently have (though I'm not sure if they have an appropriate Macintosh version I could download now or not).

Also, good to know that 50% off doesn't seem to be a preorder price or special right now. That's cool!

Thanks,
DrSpunj

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I've never seen Malhavoc sell anything for over 50% but this is substantially lower than that.

All watermarking means is that you have your name and information on the bottom of your .pdf copies so that you can't go spreading them around the internet with impunity. I don't think there are any other limitations beyond the normal .pdf stuff and a limited number of downloads from the original site.