Mythras: Who to buy from?

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Llew ap Hywel

Lord of Misrule
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Hi all,

Quick question for the Mythras hivemind.

If you were buying a physical copy of the Mythras books but possess all the PDF's who would be the best to buy from?

  • Lulu
  • Aeon Publishing
  • Drivethru
And going forward with new stuff the best to get physical and PDF's.
 
I've got the DriveThru POD. It's fine, but not gonna win any awards for durability. If there are better binding options elsewhere, go there.
 
I am very happy with the quality of the Hardcover POD from Lulu.
 
In the UK I'd go for Aeon, but there is also the new hard copy Imperative available on Lulu (wait a while for the typos etc to be fixed for that). DTRPG/Lightning Source is OK but the Lulu product is slightly better in my opinion.
 
Honestly, I would buy direct from TDM (if possible; some of their books are PDF only in their webstore after they sold out their stock). Second place would be Aeon, followed by Lulu (I believe Loz Loz mentioning on the TDM forums that he was pleased with the quality of their most recent printings. DTRPG isn't bad, but I've never been wild about their hardbacks, but it's been over a year since I bought one from them; maybe they've gotten better?
 
Lulu has the best quality for POD.

I'll be honest here - we're likely to focus on POD almost exclusively. The costs of offset print runs have increased a great deal in recent years, and when coupled with warehousing, handling and shipping costs, the economics work against it.
 
Lulu has the best quality for POD.

I'll be honest here - we're likely to focus on POD almost exclusively. The costs of offset print runs have increased a great deal in recent years, and when coupled with warehousing, handling and shipping costs, the economics work against it.
That's fair. As someone has griped a lot about POD books in the past, there has been a real increase in the quality of POD hardbacks lately. All my recent POD book purchases have been as good, if not better than, RPG books I bought in stores in the '80s and '90s.
 
i have two from DTRPG. They are fine, though I ahve not abused the crap out of them or anything. for all the grief i hear about DTRPG, I have quite a few books from them and don't see the issues.

if you already have PDF, Lulu appears good as well.
 
The most recent batch I've had from Lulu are really, really nice. Even Lyonesse, which is the biggest book we've ever done, is very sturdy. DTRPG is good too; for a long time, both Lulu and DTRPG were iffy and we steered clear of them. These days though, they are very, very close to trad offset, and the unit costs are certainly competitive.
 
I havent gotten any Mythras from Lulu, but I used them for a few classic games ad the print quality was fantastic.

I was a little less impressed with Drivethrurpg's stuff - the paper is very, very thin
 
I can say, at least in the eastern United States, Lulu is superior to DriveThruRPG. DriveThruRPG is much better than it used to be (their printed books were absolutely terrible eight years ago), but still not quite as good as Lulu IMO.
 
I havent gotten any Mythras from Lulu, but I used them for a few classic games ad the print quality was fantastic.

I was a little less impressed with Drivethrurpg's stuff - the paper is very, very thin
DriveThru uses thicker paper on color books, so some publishers have taken to having a "color" option available on black and white books that customers can select to get better paper.
 
I favor Lulu as well, just based on what I've bought from them vs. DTRPG.
But there is stuff on DTRPG I want hardcopy of that Lulu doesn't have so... it's a mix.
 
Hi all,

Quick question for the Mythras hivemind.

If you were buying a physical copy of the Mythras books but possess all the PDF's who would be the best to buy from?

  • Lulu
  • Aeon Publishing
  • Drivethru
And going forward with new stuff the best to get physical and PDF's.
I get everything from TDM direct, but I've bought a couple extra copies of books at the FLGS for players to use.

Loz Loz if you go POD, which printers are you going to use?
 
If I get something POD, I usually use DTRPG, the Premium option if there is one, with PDF combo if they have it.
Never tried Lulu, but everyone says they're better so guess I'll try it.
 
Thanks all, ordered a sampler from Lulu.

what’s shipping like for TDM direct to Wales?
 
I get everything from TDM direct, but I've bought a couple extra copies of books at the FLGS for players to use.

Loz Loz if you go POD, which printers are you going to use?
Lulu and Drivethru.
 
Lulu has the best quality for POD.

I'll be honest here - we're likely to focus on POD almost exclusively. The costs of offset print runs have increased a great deal in recent years, and when coupled with warehousing, handling and shipping costs, the economics work against it.

Can I beg a request from you? Ask that you shift the left (inner) margin further right a bit? When I self print the smaller books and toss them into a folder part of the text is not viewable due to the various binders I've tried using. The right side (outter) margin is much wider, so there is space there as an aside.

Also always consider any post I do in regard to Mythras material to include the unspoken begging for a larger more readable font type. Lol. The font makes me want to shell out the money for a full version of Adobe just to go through the books page by page and make them less eye fatiguing.
 
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I just ordered Lyonesse from Lulu, and sent my order number to TDM to see if I can get the free pdf.
Will be interested in seeing the quality of the Lulu books, as previously I have used DrivethruRPG for my hardcover Mythras collection.

UPDATE: I just received my free pdf from TDM and it looks great!
Very happy indeed, very quick service, and now I'm really looking forward to the printed copy to arrive from Lulu!
 
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I just ordered Lyonesse from Lulu, and sent my order number to TDM to see if I can get the free pdf.
Will be interested in seeing the quality of the Lulu books, as previously I have used DrivethruRPG for my hardcover Mythras collection.
When Lyonesse was first released I ordered the premium hardback plus pdf from Drivethrurpg. It looked awesome, opened it and the binding totally separated from the pages at the spine. I sent them pictures and they refunded my purchase. I then re-bought the pdf to make sure I was supporting TDM. I think you'll have much better luck with Lulu, I've only heard good things about their quality. I need to open a Lulu account and have my Lyonesse book printed.
 
When Lyonesse was first released I ordered the premium hardback plus pdf from Drivethrurpg. It looked awesome, opened it and the binding totally separated from the pages at the spine. I sent them pictures and they refunded my purchase. I then re-bought the pdf to make sure I was supporting TDM. I think you'll have much better luck with Lulu, I've only heard good things about their quality. I need to open a Lulu account and have my Lyonesse book printed.
Sorry to hear about your experience with the DrivethruRPG printing of Lyonesse.
I haven't struck a problem with any books from DrivethruRPG, but I have not bought any printed copies off them recently.
I did read that some people thought the production quality was not up to par, especially if they were paying for the premium versions.
Given the actual physical size of Lyonesse I was quite apprehensive getting Lyonesse as a POD, but I have read good comments from Loz here and elsewhere (possibly FB) that Lulu was the better place to go for Lyonesse at present.
Fingers crossed! :thumbsup:
 
Sorry to hear about your experience with the DrivethruRPG printing of Lyonesse.
I haven't struck a problem with any books from DrivethruRPG, but I have not bought any printed copies off them recently.
I did read that some people thought the production quality was not up to par, especially if they were paying for the premium versions.
Given the actual physical size of Lyonesse I was quite apprehensive getting Lyonesse as a POD, but I have read good comments from Loz here and elsewhere (possibly FB) that Lulu was the better place to go for Lyonesse at present.
Fingers crossed! :thumbsup:

I've ordered quite a few books from over the years, this was the first serious failure I'd ever had. It's gotta be due to the size. I wonder if a softcover wouldn't have worked better.
 
I've ordered quite a few books from over the years, this was the first serious failure I'd ever had. It's gotta be due to the size. I wonder if a softcover wouldn't have worked better.
The softcover (Lyonesse) from DTRPG worked out well for me. It'll be my table-copy/loaner when I get around to running it "soon".
 
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I'd point out that the book that parted company with it's cover was Fioracitta and not core Mythras. Weighing in at 500+ pages it's not surprising that the lower quality DTRPG product was less able to stand the pressure on the end papers.
 
Lulu has the best quality for POD.

I'll be honest here - we're likely to focus on POD almost exclusively. The costs of offset print runs have increased a great deal in recent years, and when coupled with warehousing, handling and shipping costs, the economics work against it.
To be honest, I like POD. I can and do play most games from PDFs, but some people just insist on having a print copy...

And for those, having an option to get a print copy that would be available even years from now can be really helpful.

Also, guys, I've got only good words for the Lulu hardcopy (though I usually revert to the Kindle because it's easier to carry around).
Mythras is, of course, one of the relatively few games I've got in print, to noone's surprise:grin:!
 
When Lyonesse was first released I ordered the premium hardback plus pdf from Drivethrurpg. It looked awesome, opened it and the binding totally separated from the pages at the spine. I sent them pictures and they refunded my purchase. I then re-bought the pdf to make sure I was supporting TDM. I think you'll have much better luck with Lulu, I've only heard good things about their quality. I need to open a Lulu account and have my Lyonesse book printed.

Thanks for doing so!

I have several DTRPG Lyonesse POD copies, both soft and hardcover, and the quality is just fine; but there obviously will be one-offs where the glue doesn't quite take, or the signatures aren't seated properly. As I've said before, we've had more quality production issues with full offset books than we've ever had with POD. Mythic Britain was produced with misaligned spines on 600 out of 1000 copies. Logres, all the pages fell out resulting in the entire print run being pulped and reproduced properly. When these things go wrong on a traditional offset run, it's usually across the entire run, resulting in a hell of a lot of aggro.

While it was true that POD was much inferior to offset produced books about 10 years ago, it's just not true now. And if you're a small company that isn't shifting books in Fria Ligan One Ring style quantities, POD is a very effective way to bring your product to market.
 
I'd point out that the book that parted company with it's cover was Fioracitta and not core Mythras. Weighing in at 500+ pages it's not surprising that the lower quality DTRPG product was less able to stand the pressure on the end papers.

Fioracitta has 230 pages. Maybe you are talking about Lyonesse?
 
I have not bought anything POD from DTRPG but I have been buying both hard and soft cover books from Lulu for the past ... oh, 8 years or so. Their build quality has never disappointed. In my day-to-day usage I am not kind to the books I read and these have all stood up very well to the abuse.

I waited to by my Mithras books until Lulu had them in hardcover and I am VERY happy with how they came out.
 
Thanks for doing so!

I have several DTRPG Lyonesse POD copies, both soft and hardcover, and the quality is just fine; but there obviously will be one-offs where the glue doesn't quite take, or the signatures aren't seated properly. As I've said before, we've had more quality production issues with full offset books than we've ever had with POD. Mythic Britain was produced with misaligned spines on 600 out of 1000 copies. Logres, all the pages fell out resulting in the entire print run being pulped and reproduced properly. When these things go wrong on a traditional offset run, it's usually across the entire run, resulting in a hell of a lot of aggro.

While it was true that POD was much inferior to offset produced books about 10 years ago, it's just not true now. And if you're a small company that isn't shifting books in Fria Ligan One Ring style quantities, POD is a very effective way to bring your product to market.

Yep, I speculated to my wife that it felt like they didn't set the glue/spine properly. Bad luck for me, but it happens. Beautiful book. Don't blame you all at all for shifting to it, reducing the costs and logistical demands aren't a bad thing at all.
 
While it was true that POD was much inferior to offset produced books about 10 years ago, it's just not true now. And if you're a small company that isn't shifting books in Fria Ligan One Ring style quantities, POD is a very effective way to bring your product to market.

Excuse me Loz, although I fully understand that as a small company it is much more convenient for you to use POD, I do not agree that the current quality is very similar to a good offset book made by a professional printing company.

For example, the quality of your Casting the Runes offset edition (which is, among other fine things, section sewn bound) is light years ahead of any current POD. It's even a great deal better than Aeon Games Publishing's offset books (that are just perfect bound, so-so hardcover or not). And I'm just talking about the standard version, not the deluxe. It is really very nice. Congratulations.

If I could choose between one or the other for my games, I would have no doubt about which one to choose.
 
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As a general rule I always try buy from the retailor that offers the best percentage to the maker. I don't know the economics of printing but I'd always assumed that printing it the traditional way and selling it yourself yielded the best quality product at the best cost to the maker. Given current circumstances in the world I understand that POD is currently the most effective/efficient way to get the books out there. I mean, it is what it is these days.

I've got several POD Mythras books and I will likely buy them directly from The Design Mechanism when/if they decide to start printing them again.
 
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