Scourge of the Demon (Print, Lulu, Saddle Stitch binding, PDF NOT Included) $15 (available now)
Scourge of the Demon (PDF, Lulu) $10 (available now)
Scourge of the Demon (PDF, RPGNOw) $10 (available now)*
 *There will be a print option on RPGNow in about two to three weeks.



Three died. They were mauled beyond recognition. The Baron sent his huntsmen to kill the beasts and for a fortnight they tramped across the countryside. Between their whoring and drinking they killed twelve wolves, parading their skins through the village. They were hung on poles as trophies of victory. Then the huntsmen left, the beasts slain, the village saved... so we thought.

As the fields turned golden under the summer sun the killings began again. Four more died. Then the Baron's man, the bailiff, was killed on the high meadow in sight of Mitra's Temple. His screams could be heard well into the village. He was only identified after we reassembled the pieces.

With the priest's help I wrote a report to our liege, the Baron of Westtower. My report ended with,
 
There will be no harvest until the beast is slain and the killings stopped.

A 72 page adventure compatible with the Swords and Wizardry rules and a setting supplement to the Majestic Wilderlands. detailing a small barony, a complete fantasy village, a conclave of mages, a crossroads hamlet, and a camp of wandering beggars.

Why two to three weeks on the print option for RPGNow? Quite simply the b/w format didn't have the quality I wanted. And when I setup this i September it all I had for a reasonable price. Since then the standard color option was released and there is only a .20 cent difference in cost.

The Lulu version used their standard print option, because of the low page count, and the map and illustrations look great. This is wasn't the case with the publisher grade option used for the Majestic Wilderlands Supplement.

Rather than push out an inferior product .20 more in profit I opted to wait a bit and release the RPGNow as standard color so I can get a better quality book out. Of course this means I have to wait for another proof copy to arrive.

The heart of the problem with Lulu's publisher grade and RPGNow b/w is that they really can only print two colors. This means that grays have to be dithered. The grayscale is replaced with dot patterns of different densities. Which also breaks up the fine lines of my map symbols unless they are perfectly black. And even then without anti-alias they look a lot worse than an image with a full grayscale range.

The upshot of all this is that in the future color books on RPGNow are about to get drastically cheaper for certain projects. You probably still want to use premium color on books loaded with full page artwork but if you have maps with spots of color, simple color graphics, etc now there is little difference between going b/w versus standard color.

Will all options be saddle stitched? This book is on the cusp of where I really prefer non-saddle-stitched...though, who am I kidding? I'll likely buy it anyway.

Quote from: Bobloblah;593539Will all options be saddle stitched? This book is on the cusp of where I really prefer non-saddle-stitched...though, who am I kidding? I'll likely buy it anyway.

No only Lulu is saddle stitched, RPGNow doesn't give me a choice as it solely based on page count. I got a saddle stitched copy in from Lulu and it looks pretty good and lays flat better than the perfect bound RPGNow version.

This one definitely has my interest

Good luck with this one, Rob.

Congrats.

RPGPundit

Excellent.

The Lulu print doesn't have the greys issue you talked about then?

Quote from: Benoist;594046Excellent.

The Lulu print doesn't have the greys issue you talked about then?

Nope, it way better than Majestic Wilderlands. I think it has to do with the fact it was created using standard paper option instead of the publisher grade I used for Majestic Wilderlands. Apparently the print process for standard paper uses continuous tones for the grays.

This problem will be fixed at RPGNow as they now have a standard color option which cost is only .20 more to print for Scourge. So now I just have to let it churn through the pre-processing cycle and get a proof copy.

Also right now folks get at a 20% discount at Lulu until the 26th of October by using the coupon code JEKYLL.

Does that coupon work for everything? If so, maybe I'll pick scourge up now, as there are a few other things I've been eyeing, too.

Quote from: Bobloblah;594206Does that coupon work for everything? If so, maybe I'll pick scourge up now, as there are a few other things I've been eyeing, too.

Yes It is a Lulu wide coupon. HYDE gives a 25% discount on orders of $300 or more.