Ptolus: Printing the monstrous PDF. . .

[jdrakeh]

I received this (the Ptolus PDF) as an early Christmas present. But it's huge. And anything this huge, I really would prefer to have in print. The good news is, printing the whole thing will cost me about half as much as buying the hardcopy itself. . . has anybody else printed this monster? If so, how did you do it? Did you break it up by chapter? Bind as one big-ass book? I need some suggestions here, folks.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Spiral binding may be the way to go.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Hm. If it went neatly into two or three parts, I'd probably print and bind it that way. But I'm not that familiar with Ptolus, so I wouldn't know.

 

[jdrakeh]

Spiral binding may be the way to go.

Yeah, it's looking that way -- but I'm not certain how one book that thick will hold up as a spiral-bound tome (JAGS Fantasy, which is about 1/3 the size of Ptolus is pretty unwieldy as a spiral-bound tome). I keep thinking that each chapter bound as its own book makes more sense, both for utility and longevity.

I guess, this approach may give me more control over what players get to see and when they get to see it. For example, I can throw the player primer and Praemal sections out for 'general knowledge' stuff that all characters are assumed to know, while holding back the more specific sections for individual characters or later discovery.

 

[Jason Anderson]

I ended up binding it in two spiral bound books roughly equal size. They were large tombs, but still manageable.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hm. If it went neatly into two or three parts, I'd probably print and bind it that way. But I'm not that familiar with Ptolus, so I wouldn't know.

It breaks pretty naturally into three or four chunks:

1) The world
2) The city
3) The urban campaign
4) Monsters, spells, prestige classes, chaositech, technology

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I ended up binding it in two spiral bound books roughly equal size. They were large tombs, but still manageable.

Good lord, who did you bury in them?

 

[Jason Anderson]

Good lord, who did you bury in them?

My players - they kept rolling too well

(Ok, yeah, I admit there was a typo in my post )

 

[Thanee]

I have bought the preprinted PDF version without any electronic support whatsoever (i.e. the book), but considering it's size, I would definitely bind the printout in at least two, more like four seperate entities.

Bye
Thanee

 

[SWBaxter]

For example, I can throw the player primer and Praemal sections out for 'general knowledge' stuff that all characters are assumed to know, while holding back the more specific sections for individual characters or later discovery.

Just so's you know, there's a Player's Guide to Ptolus available as a freebie download, for exactly that reason. So if your players can be trusted to do a little homework, you can point them at the guide and save yourself 30ish pages of printing.