On Demand Hardcovers?

[pawsplay]

If it's 128 pages or less, realistically I'm going to gravitate toward softcover or PDF. I would definitely buy hardcovers of more substantial tomes, but probably not such a purchase every year.

I divested of my most of my GURPS print a number of years back during a move, and have been living in PDF land, but I would like to rebuild my collection, and hardcover core books and Magic are appealing.

[Jpot]

I would love to see 4e back in Hardcover availability.

I've been systematically getting good copies on Ebay. 4e Hardcovers look amazing and handsome on a shelf. There are a few I do not have though, & prices are going up, good deals harder to find.

I don't think anything replaces the majesty of a new RPG hardcover. PDF is convenient and fast - but to own the physical when it comes to books is a timeless joy.

Also, I don't care to have a bunch of devices at a table. It's distracting as people get alerts, emails and texts etc.There's AP mode of course etc but still...everyone sitting around staring at a screen. Let's use RPGs to get off the screens and into one another's company.

[namada]

Originally Posted by sparcipx

Unless, like me, you're colour-blind.

I didn't take that into account...lol, but totally makes sense.

Originally Posted by johndallman

I'm not colour-blind, but my colour discrimination is poor enough that the colour chapter borders in GURPS books are confusing rather than helpful.

I've never encountered this before now, but that's understandable that you'd rather B&W over color.

[mstart7000]

Any update to this subject? I want to get my hands on the Hardcovers and Print on Demand might be the way to go. Please provide an update if you can. Thanks

[namada]

Originally Posted by mstart7000

Any update to this subject? I want to get my hands on the Hardcovers and Print on Demand might be the way to go. Please provide an update if you can. Thanks

It was a question, never a promise, so I'd not expect an update until it actually happens, if it ever does. You'd probably be wasting your time waiting around for it to happen.

[NocTempre]

I would consider it, but only if it were "comprehensive", pulling in the various pyramid articles, errata, and extensions. For example, a "Social Engineering" HC that pulled in Pulling Rank, Back To School, Keeping in Contact and potentially even Boadrooms, Cities, and Realms. The availability of condensing the library might justify keeping a print library again in the first place. As it stands now, even the DFRPG box set barely sees any use compared to the reality of digital play being so much better most of the time.

[Bud]

I like hardcovers and agree that 128pp is the over/under. I also prefer B&W to color interior, but it's a minor point.
I have the bulk of the hardcovers, but I think they'd be well received as PoD.

[SRoach]

I'd love to get hardcovers over paperback, but only if they're properly case bound, with the Smith-sewn individual signatures and backer strip.
Perfect binding...isn't.
Perfect binding makes a good magazine.

Heck, I wouldn't mind Smith-sewn "softcover". I don't care about the boards so much as I do the pages being properly, and reliably, sewn together.

As to the smaller, serial, products, how about saddle-stitched, with an attached set of 3-ring loops? Not 3-hole-punched through the paper, which damages the paper over time, but attached loops protruding from the spine. That would let you build your omnibus, section-by-section, as they were released.
A fabric loop would be better, as it wouldn't interfere as much when trying to open it on a table. Although it would complicate getting it back into the binder. Something like the binder-end of one of those Zip-lock pencil bags you can put in a binder. Attached, and flexible, possibly with grommets.

That said, my budget is perennially tight. I only JUST ordered one of the "core" titles, Martial-Arts, and still have a few "critical", "core" titles to collect yet.

[NocTempre]

Seeing what's been done with the Basic Set recently, I've changed my answer on interest level (I am interested in High Quality, sewn back, color books that are also playable) but I do retain my critique that an editorial consolidation of closely related works would be VERY appreciated.

[FawkesFraser]

+1 to traditionally sewn hardcovers. Perfect binding hardcover is not worth it in my opinion. I have managed to collect most of the 4e material available in hardback and it has been primarily through ebay due to them being out of print. I would gladly have paid a premium to support SJG however if they had been available on W23!