I am breaking this off from the discussion in the Players Guide Poll threadas that thread is about the players guide contents, not the new printing press.
It is the first RQ book off the press. There were a couple of others before it (BF Evo was I think the very first title off the press) but it is one of the first.
I compared mine to my older books last night. It definitely uses heavier stock for both the cover and the interior pages - it is noticeably thicker and heavier than the RQ Companion (also 96 pages B&W). Interestingly, the pages are smaller than the older books. Players Guide pages are just as tall as older books but about 1cm or 1/2 inch narrower than the older books. The text area and outside borders are the same, the text runs that much closer to the binding on the inside of the pages.
On to the binding. The new books the pages are bound by glue while the old books used a sewn binding. The sewn binding allows the books to lay open flat nicely when opened to any page (even page 1). The new binding does not lay open very well. If you lay the book open it will close unless you open it to around the middle of the book (pages 40-60 or so) and even then the pages lift up around the binding to form a kind of squished McDonald's M rather than laying flat. Note one disadvantage to the old sewn together in groups of pages (I didn't count them but I would say 8 physical sheets - which is 16 printed pages - to a group) so that page counts are constrained by multiples of this number. The new binding seems as though any number of pages can be bound together, so that is a plus (the only plus?) to the new binding method.
The narrower margins near the spine combined with the tendency for the pages to bulge out from the center make it a little hard to read the text right next to the spine - it is not that bad but when compared to the older books wider inside margin and ability to open flatter it is a world of difference. It is a very minor issue admittedly but it used to be not an issue at all.
The color on the cover is definitely more vibrant than my older Glorantha Books. I think the color books will be very nice indeed. The interior art is all B&W but the solid blacks are much blacker than the old books, a dark inky black. Very nice, but...
... the printing screen (the little dots that make up the grayscale) is much courser than than the old books. In my Companion you can't really notice the screen and in my Players Guide you definitely can. Since Mongoose uses textured backgrounds you can notice the screen dots over the entire page. Look at the scrolled parchment corners of an illustration or text box to compare the differences - it is very apparent there.
Finally, I have no way of knowing how long the binding will last. The pages seem very solidly put together - there is no indication they will start falling out - but the older sewn binding I know will hold up.
That is my take after carefully comparing my players guide with older books. Note none of the points in this post have anything to do with the poor quality of the assembly of the binding (except possibly the narrower pages?) - these points will probably all still stand even with a well bound book. I don't know if they can get a finer screen for the printing or not.
So though there are a couple pros to the new book I have to say I prefer the old books construction. The new book isn't bad by any means though, and if we start to see some of the advantages of the in house press (more flexible page counts, ability to do projects that would not be cost effective or too risky or with too small runs to be profitable otherwise, and hopefully even some day customised rule books) then it will be probably a worthwhile trade off (so long as these books hold up through use).
Rurik said:
andakitty said:
It is the first RQ book off the press. There were a couple of others before it (BF Evo was I think the very first title off the press) but it is one of the first.
I compared mine to my older books last night. It definitely uses heavier stock for both the cover and the interior pages - it is noticeably thicker and heavier than the RQ Companion (also 96 pages B&W). Interestingly, the pages are smaller than the older books. Players Guide pages are just as tall as older books but about 1cm or 1/2 inch narrower than the older books. The text area and outside borders are the same, the text runs that much closer to the binding on the inside of the pages.
On to the binding. The new books the pages are bound by glue while the old books used a sewn binding. The sewn binding allows the books to lay open flat nicely when opened to any page (even page 1). The new binding does not lay open very well. If you lay the book open it will close unless you open it to around the middle of the book (pages 40-60 or so) and even then the pages lift up around the binding to form a kind of squished McDonald's M rather than laying flat. Note one disadvantage to the old sewn together in groups of pages (I didn't count them but I would say 8 physical sheets - which is 16 printed pages - to a group) so that page counts are constrained by multiples of this number. The new binding seems as though any number of pages can be bound together, so that is a plus (the only plus?) to the new binding method.
The narrower margins near the spine combined with the tendency for the pages to bulge out from the center make it a little hard to read the text right next to the spine - it is not that bad but when compared to the older books wider inside margin and ability to open flatter it is a world of difference. It is a very minor issue admittedly but it used to be not an issue at all.
The color on the cover is definitely more vibrant than my older Glorantha Books. I think the color books will be very nice indeed. The interior art is all B&W but the solid blacks are much blacker than the old books, a dark inky black. Very nice, but...
... the printing screen (the little dots that make up the grayscale) is much courser than than the old books. In my Companion you can't really notice the screen and in my Players Guide you definitely can. Since Mongoose uses textured backgrounds you can notice the screen dots over the entire page. Look at the scrolled parchment corners of an illustration or text box to compare the differences - it is very apparent there.
Finally, I have no way of knowing how long the binding will last. The pages seem very solidly put together - there is no indication they will start falling out - but the older sewn binding I know will hold up.
That is my take after carefully comparing my players guide with older books. Note none of the points in this post have anything to do with the poor quality of the assembly of the binding (except possibly the narrower pages?) - these points will probably all still stand even with a well bound book. I don't know if they can get a finer screen for the printing or not.
So though there are a couple pros to the new book I have to say I prefer the old books construction. The new book isn't bad by any means though, and if we start to see some of the advantages of the in house press (more flexible page counts, ability to do projects that would not be cost effective or too risky or with too small runs to be profitable otherwise, and hopefully even some day customised rule books) then it will be probably a worthwhile trade off (so long as these books hold up through use).
