I got my copy of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia in this week, along with the Creature Catalog, and while it's exciting to have them, the sad truth is that the scan used to make the print copy of the Rules Cyclopedia just wasn't ideal. It's readable....I guess....but the scan quality is just a bit fuzzy, almost like you're trying to read something with heavy bleed-through or shadowing effects. On the PDF (which has the same effect) I didn't really mind it because I could expand the PDF to make it easier to read, but the print edition (being "locked in" to a certain size and all) sort of hammers home that this is an issue.
Not for everyone though! Some people on the rpgnow.com listing for the Rules Cyclopedia are saying they see no issues. I'd love to find out if this is an eyesight thing or if it's an actual print issue (I have heard Lighting Source, which does the POD for OneBookShelf, has more than one printer and results can vary).
But for now, the problem is: I'm finding the book hard to read, and when I compare it to the Creature Catalog, which is also a scanned image print, the Creature Catalog is easy to read, clean, and causes no headaches at all.
On the plus side, I suspect this means original copies on Ebay will stay a strong commodity! But for me, I think I'll be dumping my copy of the Rules Cyclopedia on Ebay ASAP.
EDIT: someone suggested I contact OneBookShelf about the issue, which I did, and their continuously amazing customer service was great. OBS remains top dog on my "best customer service online" list, forever.
Showing posts with label creature catalog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creature catalog. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
D&D Rules Cyclopedia and Creature Calalog both POD Now
Long after it's original release, the D&D Rules Cyclopedia has it's chance to shine once again as a fully POD edition at rpgnow:
This is the definitive "final" word on the classic BECMI edition of basic Dungeons & Dragons, the quasi side-edition which ran coterminously with AD&D from roughly 1981 to 1993ish. After that there was an attempt to adapt Mystara to an AD&D 2nd edition setting. In 1991 or thereabouts the D&D Cyclopedia was something the "hardcore" D&D fan picked up as a curious novelty...a sort of one-volme collection of all that had come out of five boxed sets in the prior decade, a weird sort of mirror universe edition of AD&D that spoke of worlds in which elves were a distinct thing unto themselves, demons had never been exercised from the Monster Manual because they weren't there in the first place, and multiclassing was anathema.
In 1993 the Creature Catalog, also now POD at rpgnow, arrived. It was a revision and reprint of classic D&D's version of the Monster Manual, after a fashion:
With these and other classic D&D books in POD now, this game is arguably more alive and available that AD&D is at this point. For me, it is much more interesting now to pick these games up and realize that their unique level of simplicity has stripped away any sense I once had that these were the crude hill cousins to AD&D 1st and 2nd edition, and that indeed the prospect of using them feels more viable now than it ever did 25 odd years ago.
I have a soft spot for these books, as this is where one of my favorite monsters, the neh-thalggu brain collectors, got their first appearance.
(Yes, ordering these PODs right now! To set next to my original copies of Basic and Expert with the Otus covers....still my defacto preferred edition).
This is the definitive "final" word on the classic BECMI edition of basic Dungeons & Dragons, the quasi side-edition which ran coterminously with AD&D from roughly 1981 to 1993ish. After that there was an attempt to adapt Mystara to an AD&D 2nd edition setting. In 1991 or thereabouts the D&D Cyclopedia was something the "hardcore" D&D fan picked up as a curious novelty...a sort of one-volme collection of all that had come out of five boxed sets in the prior decade, a weird sort of mirror universe edition of AD&D that spoke of worlds in which elves were a distinct thing unto themselves, demons had never been exercised from the Monster Manual because they weren't there in the first place, and multiclassing was anathema.
In 1993 the Creature Catalog, also now POD at rpgnow, arrived. It was a revision and reprint of classic D&D's version of the Monster Manual, after a fashion:
With these and other classic D&D books in POD now, this game is arguably more alive and available that AD&D is at this point. For me, it is much more interesting now to pick these games up and realize that their unique level of simplicity has stripped away any sense I once had that these were the crude hill cousins to AD&D 1st and 2nd edition, and that indeed the prospect of using them feels more viable now than it ever did 25 odd years ago.
I have a soft spot for these books, as this is where one of my favorite monsters, the neh-thalggu brain collectors, got their first appearance.
(Yes, ordering these PODs right now! To set next to my original copies of Basic and Expert with the Otus covers....still my defacto preferred edition).
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