Smoldering Wizard's Old-School Gaming Forums

DriveThru finally has Expert in print format. I'm assuming it is perfect bound since they don't do saddle stitch binding anymore.

Oddly, they don't have Basic in print yet.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/11 ... 28_0_0_0_0

Yeah I noticed that. Strange.
You never know - it might be on its way (Basic in POD).

Bill

Narmer wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 27, 2023 6:23 pm

DriveThru finally has Expert in print format. I'm assuming it is perfect bound since they don't do saddle stitch binding anymore.

Oddly, they don't have Basic in print yet.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/11 ... 28_0_0_0_0

Wow, great news that is finally in POD, and yep, that probably means Moldvay Basic is on its way also. Now, if they would just do Holmes Basic we would have everything from OD&D to BECMI and AD&D in print again!

I hope they do Basic soon. And the price isn't bad either. I started with Holmes so that would be outstanding. I just wish they still did saddle stitch.

Expert is $8.86/£7.30 so it's likely that Basic will be a reasonable price, although it wouldn't surprise me if they charge more for it with it being the entry point into the edition.
All of Gary Gygax's AD&D 1e hardbacks are currently available POD except Monster Manual 2, which admittedly isn't the most essential of the five book series, but having it in print would be nice (it's only available as a PDF). The monsters and creatures in it are definitely good opposition for high level characters, and there are some good entries for wild animals too.
I started with BECMI whilst at primary school, but over the years I have grown to appreciate B/X more, as BECMI falls apart a bit in the CMI part. The quest to become a Demi-God is pretty much a different game, the Thief gets nerfed in order to spread it out over 36 experience levels, and the Weapon Mastery system could have been thought out better. The presentation is admittedly more professional with the artwork by Easley and Elmore, but it certainly isn't any more evocative, and I've grown to like the art by Erol Otus and the others. I also don't like the skill system as presented in the Gazetteers, as I would rather have a generalised Secondary Skills system like in AD&D, because it fits much better with the character class system.

Has anybody ever tried printing Jonathan Becker's B/X Companion? If so how did it go? I've wondered if Lulu would do a hardback version, but there's no separate cover for it, and it's only 67 pages in length. I've also wondered if I could get it printed in magazine format.

Bill

William wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 27, 2023 8:56 pm

Has anybody ever tried printing Jonathan Becker's B/X Companion? If so how did it go? I've wondered if Lulu would do a hardback version, but there's no separate cover for it, and it's only 67 pages in length. I've also wondered if I could get it printed in magazine format.

I have not tried printing the B/X Companion - but for any PDF where you don't have a separate front and back cover image, you can use a nice bit of free software called PDF Arranger to delete or re-arrange pages in a pdf and re-export them. It's available for Windows and Linux.

merias wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 01, 2023 3:53 pm

William wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 27, 2023 8:56 pm

Has anybody ever tried printing Jonathan Becker's B/X Companion? If so how did it go? I've wondered if Lulu would do a hardback version, but there's no separate cover for it, and it's only 67 pages in length. I've also wondered if I could get it printed in magazine format.

I have not tried printing the B/X Companion - but for any PDF where you don't have a separate front and back cover image, you can use a nice bit of free software called PDF Arranger to delete or re-arrange pages in a pdf and re-export them. It's available for Windows and Linux.

Thanks!