No more hardbacks please

[Poi]

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1418

Why is this a hardback? It bumps the price up, but I'll only run through it once.

I want a printed copy, so I won't buy a pdf, but this obsession with hardbacks is making your stuff too expensive.

 

[Mage]

I like the hardbacks. They last, and all the other books without them that I own fall to bits. I hope it stays hardback.

 

[Poi]

It's an adventure.

Why does it need to be hardback?

 

[Mage]

I see your point, but it is a long one. If you do not like the hardback thing thats fine, I am willing to respect your opinion. What would the cost be with softback?

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

Ahhh come on, what else are we supposed to BUY that will drive our wives mad? At least things STRICTLY for ourselves and that do not involve projects around the house.

KEEP THE HARDBACKS... Softbacks suck!!!!

 

[Mongoose Gar]

Currently, Blood of Orlanth is coming in at around fifteen sessions of play; more if the players get involved in various side quests or dig into the politics and mythology presented. It's going to get a lot of use.

 

[Utgardloki]

Perhaps they can do what they do with other kinds of books: print the first run in hardcover for people who like hardcover books, and then print the second and following runs in softcover for people who would like the book, but can't afford the hardcover price.

I don't know if this model would work for RPGs, though. Maybe they'd be better off with softcover, since RPG books are hard to sell, and I don't see many RQ books on the shelves of any stores I go to.

 

[CthulhuFnord]

I enjoy hardbacks myself. Doing a second later run of softbacks might not be a bad idea.

 

[CharlieMonster]

Viva La Hardback! I like to hang on to my gaming stuff and Softbacks disintegrate with the sort of use they gey at the gaming table. I'd be surprised if it adds more than a fiver to the price.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

Viva La Hardback! I like to hang on to my gaming stuff and Softbacks disintegrate with the sort of use they gey at the gaming table. I'd be surprised if it adds more than a fiver to the price.

My Players guide is starting to fall out of the cover, and I've not finished reading it yet!

And while it's only a fiver, when you multiply that by the number of books in the line it soon mounts up.

Given a choice, I'd always go for softback - they are cheaper, lighter and take up less space. If we absolutely must have hardbacks, I just wish we had a pagecount that made it worthwhile - 104 pages still seems a bit slim to me to justify a hardback...

 

[Utgardloki]

I agree that as they are being published, Runequest books are too expensive. I probably have a lot more income to budget for RPG stuff than most players and GMs, and even I can not afford to run a Runequest game in Glorantha. If they would publish the same material either in softbacks or in hardbacks twice as thick, it would be a lot easier for me to keep up.

I think this constitutes a serious barrier to entry. People look at Runequest, and they look at D&D, and buy the D&D books because while the books themselves are more expensive, each book gives two-three times as much information, and you don't have to buy half a dozen of them.

Hardback adventure books are nice. I have the Witchfire Trilogy (320 pages for 35 dollars), Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (220 pages for 35 dollars), and Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (220 pages for 35 dollars). Paying 25 dollars for 104 pages is something that really has to justify the per page expendature.

 

[andakitty]

I'd be more inclined to buy into if it were paperbacks for $5 a hit less, and I have had better luck durability-wise with paperback rpg books in general.

 

[Poi]

104 pages is too small to justify a hardback.

Let's look at the rest of the Runequest/Glorantha line.

The Glorantha book asn't useable without the players guide. So why 2 hardbacks when 1 256 page hardback would have made much more sense to both players and GMs.

Same with main rulebook/companion, Cults books 1 & 2 and Lankhmar/Nehwon books.

256 pages is fine for hardback. 96 is just a waste of money.

 

[vitalis6969]

104 pages is too small to justify a hardback.

I wouldn't say that at all, I have spent that on MANY games over the years.

Let's look at the rest of the Runequest/Glorantha line.

The Glorantha book asn't useable without the players guide. So why 2 hardbacks when 1 256 page hardback would have made much more sense to both players and GMs.

Yeah, but the players guide IS usable without Glorantha, and there are some of us, don't know how many, who appreciate not spending any money on the world of Glorantha.

Same with main rulebook/companion, Cults books 1 & 2 and Lankhmar/Nehwon books.

256 pages is fine for hardback. 96 is just a waste of money.

Now here I agree with you, the main rulebook and companion should be offered as one book. Same as the Cults books. I remember my Advanced D&D days way back in 1980. HAD to have the DMs guide AND the player's handbook AND the monster manual. When you are 11, that is some serious bucks. DM's guide was 22 bucks, the others were either 12 or 15, I don't remember.

Just being Devil's Advocate here.

-V

 

[andakitty]

Yes, there are others who appreciate not having to buy into Glorantha.

Maybe Mongoose will start doing POD for specialized hardbacks with the fancy new printing facility? That would be nice, because everyone seems a little different as to what they consider an ideal or worthwhile book. I wonder how practical something like that is for them.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Maybe Mongoose will start doing POD for specialized hardbacks with the fancy new printing facility? That would be nice, because everyone seems a little different as to what they consider an ideal or worthwhile book. I wonder how practical something like that is for them.

We are certainly looking into things like this - they won't come quickly, but they are possible.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

104 pages is too small to justify a hardback.

I wouldn't say that at all, I have spent that on MANY games over the years.

Sorry, this makes no sense. Are you saying that you have Bought many harbacks of 96-104 pages over the years? I find that reasonably unlikely as the insistance on hardback only volumes is a fairly recent phenomenon. Or are you saying that the price of a MRQ rulebook is comparable with the price of other rulebooks - which is generally true, except that other rulebooks tend not to only provide you with half the necessary information and require you to buy other volumes to get the rest due to an insistance on producing lots of slim volumes rather than giving the work the page-count it deserves.

Let's look at the rest of the Runequest/Glorantha line.

The Glorantha book asn't useable without the players guide. So why 2 hardbacks when 1 256 page hardback would have made much more sense to both players and GMs.

Yeah, but the players guide IS usable without Glorantha, and there are some of us, don't know how many, who appreciate not spending any money on the world of Glorantha.

The players guide is usable without "Glorantha - The Second Age" - but I'm not sure how that makes it useful for people "who appreciate not spending any money on the world of Glorantha." - I wouldn't have thought those people would be queueing up to buy "The Players Guide to Glorantha" myself...

 

[CthulhuFnord]

If the book contains more usefull game mechanics rather than Glorantha background material I'll consider it usefull. I'm not at all a Gloratha player nor gm, however I found both the Cult Books and Magic of Glorantha to be quite usefull.

The players guide is usable without "Glorantha - The Second Age" - but I'm not sure how that makes it useful for people "who appreciate not spending any money on the world of Glorantha." - I wouldn't have thought those people would be queueing up to buy "The Players Guide to Glorantha" myself...

 

[vitalis6969]

Sorry, this makes no sense. Are you saying that you have Bought many harbacks of 96-104 pages over the years? I find that reasonably unlikely as the insistance on hardback only volumes is a fairly recent phenomenon. Or are you saying that the price of a MRQ rulebook is comparable with the price of other rulebooks - which is generally true, except that other rulebooks tend not to only provide you with half the necessary information and require you to buy other volumes to get the rest due to an insistance on producing lots of slim volumes rather than giving the work the page-count it deserves.

Sorry, I thought it was fairly obvious that I was referring to the fact that a 96 to 104 page hardback is not out of line at all... I'll type slower next time.

The players guide is usable without "Glorantha - The Second Age" - but I'm not sure how that makes it useful for people "who appreciate not spending any money on the world of Glorantha." - I wouldn't have thought those people would be queueing up to buy "The Players Guide to Glorantha" myself...

Right, my exact point, so why should we have to pay MORE money for a book with information that we don't want nor do we need. The Core rules should be separate from any "setting" type books. Again, sorry you didn't understand what was written...

-V

 

[duncan_disorderly]

Sorry, I thought it was fairly obvious that I was referring to the fact that a 96 to 104 page hardback is not out of line at all... I'll type slower next time.

That would be helpful - "I have spent 104 pages on many games" makes little sense unless you are claiming to be the author.

And other than "Sorceror" I am still struggling to come up with all these slim hardbacks from any other source than Mongoose...

The players guide is usable without "Glorantha - The Second Age" - but I'm not sure how that makes it useful for people "who appreciate not spending any money on the world of Glorantha." - I wouldn't have thought those people would be queueing up to buy "The Players Guide to Glorantha" myself...

Right, my exact point, so why should we have to pay MORE money for a book with information that we don't want nor do we need.

You don't. But my question was why are you buying "The Players Guide to Glorantha" if you aren't interested in spending money on Glorantha? - You don't need the "Glorantha the 2nd Age" book to use the Players guide, but just how useful is a book of Gloranthan Backgrounds, Occupations, races etc from someone who has no interest in Glorantha?

The Core rules should be separate from any "setting" type books. Again, sorry you didn't understand what was written...

Conversley, Games should be complete and self contained. If I want to run an Elric campaign, why should I need to buy, and carry around Elric and MRQ and MRQ companion and Arms & Equipment and RQ Monsters and Legendary Adventurers, and then ignore the sections in each of the core books that are not relevant?