Conan 2nd Edition - quality issues

[Mangus]

Well, a friend of mine was kind enought to buy us both a copy of the newest edition of the Conan RPG. We have been looking forward to this for a while now. Now that we have the books I have to say that I am a little disapointed in the qualuty of the cover, and the binding. The artwork is top notch, and the quality of the actual pages are not an issue at all. I am very pleased with the "look" of the book. The problem is that the cover of the book is already starting to bubble, and the clear lamination is sperating from the cover. Also, when you lay the book down it never fully closes. The first 10 pages or so, and the last 10 or so have a rippling effect where the pages meet the spine of the book. Has anyone else had these issues with their copies?

Thanks,

Mangus

 

[Spectator]

The printing/ bookbinding was outsourced to a Zamoran firm, from what I gather. Mongoose was bamboozled by guarantees of low cost, however you get what you pay for, as they say.

YEah this 2ed has been a total disappointment. I am a little more mad than you about a number of factors besides the actual physical characteristics of the book.
Suffice to say this has been the last straw.
I would like to start a forum dedicated to the old 1ed rules and stuff, purely out of spite of course.

 

[Sutek]

That rippling, bubbling and delaminating of the clear coating on the cover sounds like a bad reaction to moisturet or the timing of processes where chemicals are itroduced into the product. Not necessarily that it has gotten wet, but that it was packed in or shipped through high humidity, or that a chemical reaction has occured somewhere.

My guess is the latter. If bits of the binding and/or pages were still damp from printing or the binding process, that moisture can screw up the glues that paste everything together and it just fails, causing things to separate. But more likely is that a mixture of the glues and ink chemicals have reacted with one another. That's what delamination is - glue failure. Two things that are normally sticky can have fumes that cause them to not stay that way when combined, or most probably stuff was done very quickly and between printing, binding and laminating, it was all done too fast and each process's chemicals reacted and now they are goffed up.

 

[thulsa]

That rippling, bubbling and delaminating of the clear coating on the cover sounds like a bad reaction to moisturet or the timing of processes where chemicals are itroduced into the product. (snip)

Dude, sounds like you have at least 13 ranks in Craft (books) !

- thulsa

 

[Ashigaru]

So, it appears the general consensus is that Mongoose's in-house printing is unsatisfactory. We've had Mongoose reps providing contact info for exchanging books and so forth, but has there been any comment about plans to improve the printing process? I'm interested in the 2nd ed books, but I'm not going to put down any money until I'm confident the binding issues have been sorted out.

 

[MongooseMatt]

has there been any comment about plans to improve the printing process? I'm interested in the 2nd ed books, but I'm not going to put down any money until I'm confident the binding issues have been sorted out.

It has already been done - that is why we are offering the exchange.

 

[Mangus]

Matt,

I was unaware of an exchange procedure underway already. Can you explain the proper process, so I can get the ball rolling.

BTW, thank you for the speedy reply to my post, and to Mongoose for addressing the quality issues with the books head-on.

Mangus

 

[MongooseMatt]

Matt,

I was unaware of an exchange procedure underway already. Can you explain the proper process, so I can get the ball rolling.

BTW, thank you for the speedy reply to my post, and to Mongoose for addressing the quality issues with the books head-on.

Mangus

Just drop us a line at rveal@mongoosepublishing.com, with your postal address and where you bought the book - we'll take things from there!

 

[heffe2001]

Mangus actually posted the original thread for me. We've gotten our 2 replacements (one one week, the 2nd a week later), the first replacement is much better than the 2 we bought (except the front cover is a bit warped, but it's not a show-stopper). Now the 2nd copy we got in yesterday, has a pretty serious problem. The spine is broken where the back cover attaches to the pages. It's completely detached. I requested that they be packed very well (as we had read the packaging wasn't sufficient for a overseas shipment of such a large book), and both were shipped in a bubblepack envelope, which looked like someone played soccer with it.

I've got a pre-order of the players book in, and now I'm wondering if I should cancel until I find out how good of quality those are? (As you may be able to tell, I'm not exactly happy with the quality so far, as it's most definitely not up to Atlantean edition's standards).

 

[aethelwulf22]

I must say I find this all pretty worrying. I got my copy of Conan 2nd Ed a while back and it has a slightly curved cover...not worth me going through the hassle of changing it for but certainly something that is making me reluctant to buy more Mongoose books without having a chance to see them first...and that might be a problem seeing as my local games shops don't really do Conan. So I've taken a chance with RttRoKs and ordered it direct from Mongoose (and I'm still waiting) but this will decide me as to whether in future I will buy any more Mongoose over the internet...and with its rarity in my local stores that will effectively determine how many Conan books I will buy in future.

Still the above combined with the recent thread about poor quality maps for RttRoKs is leaving me a little jaded...especially when I turn to some of the other books I've recently bought and compare quality (Solomon Kane RPG, Hollow Earth Expedition...absolutely fantastic!).

 

[Mangus]

Yeah, its a shame that all gaming products can't equal the beauty of Hollow Earth. That is one snazzy book!

Mangus

 

[Valgrim Bragisson]

Hi,

I haven't posted in months, it's good to be back. I just got my 2nd Ed. a few minutes ago. The covers are warped, and the binding is cheap. The lack of quality is surprising. The B&W is OK, and the content looks good, but the book itself won't last long.

MP

 

[The King]

Let me suggest that Mongoose propose the Conan line like the Harn game supplements: perforated pages and a binder.

 

[windman]

oh no, that sounds disastrous!

first of all binders are bulky and unwieldy.

I hated the old edition of monster manuals in binder format.

the major problem though, it that perforated holes will eventually tear.
the only way such a system could be durable if the paper was especially strong and reinforced, at least along the edge wit the holes. some how tear-proof.

I like the hardcover format of conan now, so long a s the bindings are properly stitched.

Perhaps two core rule books, each thinner than the 2e book yet with more pages and info in total, a players handbook and GM guide, would have been a better way to go.

 

[Strom]

I agree with windman - no binders. Just fix the problem with the bindings. Which Mongoose seems to have done.

 

[azoth999]

has there been any comment about plans to improve the printing process? I'm interested in the 2nd ed books, but I'm not going to put down any money until I'm confident the binding issues have been sorted out.

It has already been done - that is why we are offering the exchange.

Indeed! I had an issue with my initial copy of the 2E rulebook... the binding was coming loose in sections. msprange offered to replace my copy, and the new copy just arrived in the mail. The binding issue is resolved. It's much more solid and more what I've come to expect.

Thanks again, msprange!

 

[Keraii]

The quality of the binding is in my mind second to the horrible black and white inside! All the artwork is clearly meant to be color and so most of it are much too dark now. It looks really, REALLY bad. Not a good job. Very disappointing.

/Molly

 

[heffe2001]

I haven't gotten my 2nd replacement yet (hopefully tomorrow), and hopefully it'll come packaged better than the last 2 (who uses bubble envelopes to ship a heavy book like Conan overseas, really??).

 

[Dpetroc]

Still waiting on mine since early November...

 

[MongooseMatt]

Still waiting on mine since early November...

Drop me a line at msprange@mongoosepublishing.com, and we'll see what has happened - you should have received it by now.