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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
PHB and DMG are fine, but Monster Manual is coming apart.
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?).
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.
Mine look great, but they haven't seen heavy use.
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.
(https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2340273.jpg)
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.
Here's the info on returning first run books that are falling apart. (http://dndadventurersleague.org/so-your-dd-fifth-edition-players-handbook-has-fallen-apart/)
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...
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.
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)
Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;979567Duct tape has been utilized. Even on the relatively new Volo's.
To be fair, the books have seen a lot of play. But still...
On the new Volo's as well? Well, that's worrying.
Quote from: Celestial;979657On the new Volo's as well? Well, that's worrying.
Mines a pre-order and was actually one of the few Ive gotten not warped. Its also held up fine to extensive use.
So the situation isnt so much worrying as puzzling as to why some prints are a mess and some arent.
Quote from: Omega;979649Superior 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)
I've read the same thing about early AD&D books- stitched binding. Palladium's bindings are pretty much bomb proof.
My PHB has some pages that feel looser than I'd like. I'll probably end up doing some repair work on it sometime soon. Believe it's a 1st printing. Comparing it against the 3E books I had, the binding doesn't feel quite as solid (and the AD&D 1E books I have sitting on my shelf are, as many have mentioned here, bombproof). No real problems with either my DMG or MM, and they're both 1st printing.
I have 2 copies of the PHB, MM and DMG.
the original PHB in particular is a mess, pages loose all over.
The 1st print run MM is pretty bad too.
All the other 5e books (and I have most of them) are ok.