Quote from: jeff37923;445218You know, most of us would want to see the book before buying it (to look at binding and other signs of quality) and at that price, I also wonder if many stores will stock it since it may not sell at that high price.

Monte Cook had made tremendous efforts of marketing with the Ptolus book. This included one of the best campaign of communication with retailers I've ever seen, which basically included tons of information about the product upfront, regular updates about the production posted on the website, deals for customers asking their shops to order the product instead of getting it online, etc etc etc. I mean. That was just beautiful to see. I wish Necro/Frog God would do something similar.

Also, I just posted what follows on Dragonsfoot, and since this is related, I'll just repost it here too:

I would provide a strong caveat to my purchase: the binding needs to be top notch. And by "top notch," I mean encyclopedia strong. I would look towards Ptolus for comparisons.

From the Ptolus FAQ:

QuoteWill the binding on a book this big really hold together?

In order to make the binding as durable as possible, we used a process called cambric reinforcement on the first and last signatures of the book. Cambric reinforcement is a process and material similar to medical gauze. Actual gauze is wrapped around the page signatures and is adhered to the case. Normally in casemaking, the binder only wraps craft paper partially around the signatures. This reinforcement is a basic requirement in the library industry, and our printer tells us it's part of the National School Textbook Association's parameters for text book binding. It will make Ptolus' binding more durable and able to withstand more abuse.

See also Ptolus: the White Book.



For a book at that price with that page count, I expect a binding that lasts decades.

Matt Finch (Mythmere) answered my post on Dragonsfoot, indicating that "part of [the book's] cost is indeed the binding, because it's going to be smythe sewn. A glue binding on 1000 pages wouldn't just break, it would explode into a billion pieces."

About Smythe sewn binding, for those who wonder what the hell that is.

Quote from: Benoist;445238Monte Cook had made tremendous efforts of marketing with the Ptolus book. This included one of the best campaign of communication with retailers I've ever seen, which basically included tons of information about the product upfront,

See also Ptolus: the White Book.

Case in point: he published that picture and info 45 weeks before the book came out!

Quote from: PaladinCA;445198A 1000 page book is going to come apart without premium binding.

In defence of Frog God: They rejected the hard cover binding of the first printing of Swords & Wizardry Complete because it was not up to their standard.

I'm interested, but will have to wait to buy. That's a lot of money for one book.

I wish they'd just done a "best of" all three books, and cut the page count down to 400 or so.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;445286In defence of Frog God: They rejected the hard cover binding of the first printing of Swords & Wizardry Complete because it was not up to their standard.

And the second. First was the binding, then was the cover-board material.

Why does the PDF cost as much as the book itself? That's ridiculous.

Quote from: Phantom Black;445431Why does the PDF cost as much as the book itself? That's ridiculous.

I imagine that's an error. Bill's only taking pre-orders for the printed book, and I bet he put the same price down accidentally on the pdf. Pdfs of all the other Frog God products are way lower than for the print copy.