Physical Quality of D&D 5E Books

Apparition · July 26, 2017, 03:52:58 PM

I've read numerous complaints on Amazon of people's D&D 5E books literally falling apart at the seams within a few months of purchase. Now that it's been out for three years, how are y'all's copies holding up?

Christopher Brady · July 26, 2017, 04:00:15 PM

Quote from: Celestial;978490I've read numerous complaints on Amazon of people's D&D 5E books literally falling apart at the seams within a few months of purchase. Now that it's been out for three years, how are y'all's copies holding up?

Mine are fine, have been for the last couple of years. But I know of a few copies are falling apart, so I'm not saying that it wasn't a thing, just saying that my first printing copies are still good.

Llew ap Hywel · July 26, 2017, 04:17:58 PM

Quote from: Christopher Brady;978493Mine are fine, have been for the last couple of years. But I know of a few copies are falling apart, so I'm not saying that it wasn't a thing, just saying that my first printing copies are still good.

Gave mine to my cousin but they always seem in perfect condition.

RunningLaser · July 26, 2017, 05:30:05 PM

I think the problem with their books binding appeared as soon as you got them. Mine split on the first opening. WoTC was good in replacing it.

The 5th edition hardcovers I've seen- PHB, MM, DMG, are all just glued bindings, not sewn like some other books. Glue can hold up pretty good though from what I've seen.

Steven Mitchell · July 26, 2017, 05:38:49 PM

Apparently the first printing had a much higher failure rate. Our group got most of our books early in the second printing, with a handful after that, and we've had no issues. I have the only first printing books in our group, and except for some very minor warping in the PHB (no appreciable effects in using it, but you can see it when closed and held at the correct angle), the book is fine. Though I am rather careful with gaming books.

S'mon · July 26, 2017, 05:49:53 PM

Quote from: Celestial;978490I've read numerous complaints on Amazon of people's D&D 5E books literally falling apart at the seams within a few months of purchase. Now that it's been out for three years, how are y'all's copies holding up?

My Monster Manual fell apart. PHB going that way. DMG still fine.

Robyo · July 26, 2017, 07:25:57 PM

PHB and DMG are fine, but Monster Manual is coming apart.

Doom · July 26, 2017, 07:47:33 PM

My MM more or less disintegrated the first few months of play. The second one is fine, though, and the other books are all perfect with minimal signs of wear at best (worst?).

Voros · July 27, 2017, 12:24:53 AM

Apparently it is true just for the early print runs and WoTC will mail you a replacement if you send them a pic of the book falling apart. They talk about it on the Nerdarchy youtube channel.

RPGPundit · July 30, 2017, 05:09:37 AM

Mine look great, but they haven't seen heavy use.

Omega · July 30, 2017, 06:02:00 AM

My PHB has some minour issues. But so far after heavy use has not come apart. Mines one of the pre-orders and from all Ive seen and heard those were the problems most. I get the impression they rushed them off the printer.

On a more onerous note... Mine arrived with all the pages severely warped.

Heres the DMG, also a pre-order 1st run. Its not as bad as the PHB was, which was ripples about twice as much.

Good news is after placing it under some other books and leaving it in front of a fan for hours then days it flattened out fairly well and now after all this time are all flat.

Voros · July 30, 2017, 06:24:28 AM

Here's the info on returning first run books that are falling apart.

Just Another Snake Cult · July 30, 2017, 12:09:42 PM

Duct tape has been utilized. Even on the relatively new Volo's.

To be fair, the books have seen a lot of play. But still...

crkrueger · July 30, 2017, 12:17:07 PM

So what's the deal with the original AD&D1 books? Why are they practically indestructible? What's the binding method they used?

My 5e ones are ok, but I opened them carefully a few times to not break the spine and they don't see a ton of use, but they did get used and passed around pretty heavy for about 10 6-8 hour sessions, plus my prep and chargen, so it looks like I didn't get the "disintegrate on opening" versions.

Omega · July 30, 2017, 07:38:21 PM

Quote from: CRKrueger;979569So what's the deal with the original AD&D1 books? Why are they practically indestructible? What's the binding method they used?

My 5e ones are ok, but I opened them carefully a few times to not break the spine and they don't see a ton of use, but they did get used and passed around pretty heavy for about 10 6-8 hour sessions, plus my prep and chargen, so it looks like I didn't get the "disintegrate on opening" versions.

Superior binding style and probably paper quality too. Theres an old thread somewhere here or elsewhere enumerating the process. I recall they are stitch-bound.
Theres a similar thing with the Palladium books. They used a superior binding and paper (but sometimes not so grand lamination of the covers)