On Demand Hardcovers?

[King Leonidas]

Completely fresh guy here and i do like my hardcovers. we can be playing Gurps after fall of civilization hahaha

[Edris]

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

Hey, all! The following isn't a set-in-stone definite plan, but more of a chin-stroking "Hmm... maybe?" contemplation.

Do folks here have any thoughts about making more hardcovers available as part of our On Demand program?

I'd love the chance to pick up hardcover editions of rulebooks for GURPS. The existing price delta between PDF > softcover > hardcover given as an example from the Girl Genius set referenced is low enough that I'd much rather spring for the hardcover edition; I'm personally not particularly interested in softcover books. I would also very much like them to be in color, as well, black&white would be disappointing.

However, I'd like to put forth that I'd strongly prefer that purchasing a hardcover edition also gives you the PDF version as well. Without that, I'd be a fair bit less inclined to purchase them. In a sense, I'd like this as an opportunity to get a collection (and help keep them in good quality) while giving some more monetary support to SJ games. Given that there's realistically a pretty small cost in serving up the PDFs as data, I'd like to see the hardcover editions as a "premium" purchase that gives you all the options (Book+Digital), essentially. Perhaps at most throw in a 5$ surcharge to also get access to the PDF when you buy the hardcover if you'd like something extra to cover hosting fees? Ideally I'd be able to buy the hardcover edition through W23, which would be shipped to me, and I'd also receive access to the PDF at the same time.

As for what I would personally purchase if most things were available, I'd likely wind up purchasing a few of the main-line rulebooks immediately: The core basic set, martial arts, powers, low-tech. After that, I'd start to look at picking up some extra things like high/ultra-tech and thaumatology later on, and then things like PSI-powers and bio-tech further out after that. I think I'm a little less interested in single hardcovers of very small books, like the GURPS:Power Ups series, as I doubt it would be very economical for anyone involved (Unless that could actually happen at a reasonable price); I would, however, be very interested in having a series of related small books in some sort of combination edition hardcover (Like, a single hardcover of Power Ups 1-8, or splitting it into 2 hardcovers. Those books are nice.)

I understand that nothing has been promised yet, but I would like to say that I am very eager to be able to get new original hardcovers. GURPS has been a big part of my life for so long, it would make me very happy.

[Dexion]

A little leading question.
As next year the 4th edition of the Basic Set celebrates its twentieth anniversary, could we have an increased or collector's edition?
This is the opportunity.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Dexion

could we have an increased or collector's edition?

Forgive my being slow, but what do you mean by an "increased" edition? More pages to include more rules out of some other books? (If so, which ones?) More artwork? Increased in what way?

[Dexion]

I thinking about some articles in Pyramid like Combat Writ Large (issue 3/77) or Ten for Ten articles (issue 3/70) for the 10 years anniversary.

[Kesendeja]

I'd love to see "Knowing Your Own Strength" out of Pyramid 3/83 and Quentessence out of 3/120 get the offical blessing of being in the main book.

[nudj]

Maybe Power Ups series incorporated.

Some rules from the Action line

Powers 2nd edition with some rules from Psionic Powers and Sorcery

New edition of Magic

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Kesendeja

I'd love to see "Knowing Your Own Strength" out of Pyramid 3/83 and Quentessence out of 3/120 get the offical blessing of being in the main book.

Quintessence pretty much covered in Power-Ups: Alternate Attributes.

Originally Posted by nudj

Maybe Power Ups series incorporated.

Some rules from the Action line

Powers 2nd edition with some rules from Psionic Powers and Sorcery

New edition of Magic

I'd like the Power-ups line, it could be easily a compendium treatment.
GURPS Sorcery and Psionics really have no new rules, just worked examples of rules already in Basic and Powers.

[nudj]

Sorcery has using imbuements as advantages in enchantments

Psionic powers has a new margin-based enhancement that sorcery uses in enchantments.

Basically I meant rules for enchantments using advantages. Should be in Powers IMO

[oma]

While I LOVE full color, and hardcovers, in my experience, the GURPS books are built terrible. They don't hold up at ALL well compared to any other books that I have. The bindings come loose and the hardcovers separate and pages fall out. They are by far the worst made books I have ever owned.

So while I love buying hardcover books for my gaming, I would probably not trust the company to make a quality product and just stick with PDFs from SJ Games.

I DO purchase hardcovers whenever possible from other companies, as I prefer print books for reading but I have been so disappointed by GURPS hardcovers that I sadly would probably not buy them. The only ones I have that still look good are the ones that I don't touch.

If I look at all my other gaming books that are NOT GURPS, they are of excellent quality (or at least good enough in that they don't fall apart) in their bindings.

If I had a way to trust the quality, I would prefer hardcovers ALWAYS.