Rivendell Preview 2: The Valley of Imladris

[Andrew]

I didn't know it was going to be hardcover. This vexes me.

Same as Heart of the Wild and Darkening of Mirkwood.

[Glorelendil]

I didn't know it was going to be hardcover. This vexes me.

This is a head-scratcher. I love hardcover.

[beckett]

I wish I had a TARDIS so I can travel a few weeks into the future and buy the Rivendell sourcebook. Then travel back to my present day and brag about how I have the book ahead of the pre-order even going live.

So go ahead and brag: on the forums, no-one knows whether you have a TARDIS or not.

Well I suppose anything's possible when you've got two hearts.

[Murcushio]

Hnnnn.

I didn't know it was going to be hardcover. This vexes me.

Do you object to hardcover? A knife, some glue, some paper and a touch of skill can turn it into a softcover.

It's more like I generally don't like paying the hardcover premium unless the page count is high enough that attempting a softcover binding would be inadvisable.

For me the breakpoint is around 200-225 pages or so. Above that, I'm okay with hardcover, especially for a core book in an RPG line. Things that are presented journal sized (as RPG books typically are) start looking really weird if they're a softcover of that thickness, and there are real durability issues when it comes to the glue. You can go thicker if you're digest sized, but that's different.

Once you get down under 175 and especially down around 150, tho? Softcovers all the way, man. Hardback is just an unnecessary expense at that point. It's especially egregrious once you're down in the double-digits for pages; I own a number of RPG supplements and graphic novels where the thickness of the covers is literally greater than the thickness of the pages they contain, and at that point you feel ripped off.

Rivendell is evidently clocking in at around 144 pages, which is way to thin to justify it being exclusively hardback, in my opinion.

Same as Heart of the Wild and Darkening of Mirkwood.

Yeah, and I didn't care for it then either.

[trystero]

I'm sorry to hear that the hardcover binding isn't to your taste, Murcushio: it's definitely to mine. I've been very happy to get the recent TOR supplements in hardcovers, and wish we could get a hardcover Tales from Wilderland to go with them. (*cough*Kickstarter!*cough*)

I do know what you mean about very thin books not justifying hardcover releases -- there's one publisher in particular which often irritates me on this point -- but my cut-off point must be lower in page-count terms than yours is.

[Murcushio]

I
I do know what you mean about very thin books not justifying hardcover releases -- there's one publisher in particular which often irritates me on this point -- but my cut-off point must be lower in page-count terms than yours is.

To be fair, this is one the perennial debates within those who consume RPGs. There are a lot of people, like me, who feel that the premium you pay for hardcover isn't worth it until you hit a certain page count. There are more extreme examples; I've encountered people over at RPG.net and in real life who insist that all RPGs should be printed digest-sized, non-glossy paper, no illustrations, minimal attention given to attractive layout, etc. in order to make the price of the finished product as low as possible.

Conversely, you get the people who think everything should be accompanied by lavish, full-color illos on paper with custom background and water marked paper, glossy, stitch binding (not glue! never glue!) only, and should always be in a hardcover unless in rare circumstances, screw the cost. Leather binding with a slipcover, please and thank you.

Most people fall somewhere in between the two extremes, of course.

[gatharion]

I'm really happy we're getting the new core book in hardcover.

The 144 page Rivendell Book... I could go either way. I don't mind it being hardcover and I didn't mind Heart of the Wild as a hardcover either, but it was a tad on the tin side to justify it. A book that's under 100 pages I'll almost certainly prefer in soft cover.

[Murcushio]

Oh yeah, the Revised core is, what, like 325 pages?

You can print that in softcover, but you probably shouldn't. Not presented journal-style, at least. Maybe if you sprung for really good binding, but at that point you might as well be going to hardcover.

[Beran]

I'm with Murcushio on the subject of HC, if it is a slim book then I would prefer to pay for a soft cover. But, with all the areas in ME that I really like finally coming to light I will still probably shovel out the coin to pay for whatever format C7 put out.

[zedturtle]

Yeah, a 96 page book in hardcover is kind of ridiculous. 128 pages is borderline, but I'm okay with 144 pages.

But, as Beran says, the whole fact that it's getting published is more important than what format it's in.