Alternate cover for an older Paranoia book?

[Kurgan]

Ok, I ran across this image recently, and am dying to know what the heck it is. Has anyone ever seen this before?

Looks like some aborted limited edition. I had to resize the image to post it, so you might not be able to tell, but that's a red leather cover, with gold lettering and gold... ah, shoot, can't remember what those suckers are called. The metal bits on the corners.

Absolutely beautiful book, if it had ever been published. Heh, I almost hope it wasn't, because that'd be adding a pretty rare and probably expensive item to my collector's checklist, one that would likely be a major headache trying to find.

Still, my curiosity is definitely getting the best of me. Was it a concept book or something?

 

[Danforth]

Looks like library binding to me... i.e. a big library (maybe a city or a university one) has sent this and other books off to be rebound in a standardised format, to keep them in one piece. Cloth, leather or leather-patterned plastic covers are common components, as is said cover featuring only the title, in gold or silver foil, all upper case letters. The spine would have the title, author and Dewey number. In such a case, the book would probably be a psychology text rather than an RPG...

Or I could be utterly wrong

 

[Kurgan]

I could almost buy the library angle, if it weren't for the spiffy metal corner protectors (that's still drivin' me nuts trying to remember what those're called) and the font used for the lettering on the front (same as used on Send in the Clones). That tells me two things. One, it was done by someone who truly loves the game, and two, it was done by someone who's familiar with more than just the rulebook (they knew about the SitC font, and even worse, took the time to track it down for the print job).

Yep, I'm convinced this was either a custom jobbie done by a seriously die-hard fan with cash to throw around, or that it was a prototype for a limited edition somewhere along the way.

It's worth mentioning that, just a few minutes ago, I ran across a PDF I had floating around in my files for the "Fifth Edition" game book, and darned if this image isn't being used for the cover (the normal cover is just after it). Wishful thinking, perhaps? Or do you think it's possible that the mythical "limited fifth edition" actually exists (at least as a prototype, if none were actually circulated). There have been occasional mentions of it from time to time, but I've yet to find anyone who has actually seen a copy or knows for sure it existed.

God, what a sad shame if that was the case. Imagine, of all the versions of Paranoia that could've gotten that sort of limited edition, there's a slim possibility it was "Fifth" edition. Scary thought!

Tell ya what. If Mongoose were to bind all three of the new core books together, and slap a leather cover on it as nice as this one, I'd be there with bells on. (And I'd probably have to sell my Blue & White books to pay for it!)

 

[Danforth]

I'm intrigued! And yes, what a terrible use for a one-of-a-kind book binding process that would be; the worst version of the game

As for those metal bits... are they called corner charms?

 

[Arkku]

Ok, I ran across this image recently, and am dying to know what the heck it is. Has anyone ever seen this before?

That, I think, is supposed to be the limited deluxe version of the 5th edition rules. At least this is the picture I've seen for it in a catalogue, but never actually seen the book or been able to confirm if it exists. Of course, being 5th edition makes it rather unattractive for anything else except the cover…

 

[Arkku]

It's worth mentioning that, just a few minutes ago, I ran across a PDF I had floating around in my files for the "Fifth Edition" game book, and darned if this image isn't being used for the cover (the normal cover is just after it). Wishful thinking, perhaps?

Could be a photoshop job on the cover? Or perhaps this is not a cover of the book but some limited edition slipcase with the regular book inside? This would actually make it rather attractive… But this is mere speculation, of course.

 

[Kurgan]

At least this is the picture I've seen for it in a catalogue

Ah, good. I'd wondered if this was the same cover you'd seen in the cat, after you mentioned it earlier in the checklist thread.

Could be a photoshop job on the cover? Or perhaps this is not a cover of the book but some limited edition slipcase with the regular book inside?

Nope, it's an actual book, I'd swear to it. The image I found was massive (2437x3499x16MB!). Naturally I had to shrink it way down to post here, but in the original you can clearly see the detail. Definitely a photo of an actual, physical object. The corner doohickies (meh!) make me think it's not a slipcase.

I know that it's not uncommon for a printer to run off a copy or two to show the customer what the final print run will actually look like. If a company is planning on doing, say, a 1000 print run for a signed limited edition, there'll actually be something like 1001 or maybe 1005 copies made total, the first few coming early as proofs. Those extra few books will typically be shelved, tossed out, or given away to friends of the game designers.

So, maybe they'd done the proofs, but ended up cancelling the full print run? I dunno.