I have noticed in three of my D&D books the Races of Ebberon, Lords of Madness, and the new Magic of Incarnum the paper of the books is not the same as my older books. It seems a lot lighter, thinner, and looks almost like it has been water damaged at the top or bottom. I have been browsing the book stores that I have access to in the bay area and its not just the books I own. I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this. If i'm not the only one then you have to ask your self is wizards skipping on the printing costs or just being lazy?
Creative Director
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Wizards changed printers recently, and as a result the new products just feel different than the old ones. I can't testify to if the paper used in these books is cheeper, but it does feel different. It's not thinner though. If it were thinnner, Lords of Madness, to take an example, would be a thinner book than a similarly-sized book from a few years ago, say, Monster Manual II. Lay them side by side and you'll see that they're the same thickness. Hence—the paper is the same thickness.
As for being water damaged... that's probably a defect with a few of the books themselves. None of the copies we have here have any water damage. And we're in Seattle! ;-)
Im not saying that its actualy water damaged in the strictes sence that actual water was spilt on them. They looks as if it was water damaged and the paper is not as high in quility. Like to much ink was used on the pages and if it was just a few books why was it the same at three different book stores that the defect is found. Also some of the color was not as vibrint as some of the other books now that I relooked as those copies that I have.
just looked at MoI and I thnk I see what he is referring to as "water damage". It is most likely due to the different type of paper used by the different printer.
The last books I picked up were Weapons of Legacy and Stormwrack. Can't say I can tell a difference in paper quality from the old books to the new, nor do I see anything that makes me think of water damage about them (when the books lie closed and flat, so do the pages; there's no rippling or anything, which I imagine is what's causing Psyicman's concern).
I did notice that my DMG2 has a narrower cover than all my other books, so that if I push it all the way to the back of my book case it recesses between them.
As for "defects", I've only had one defective book: LoM. The cover was improperly bound. The book didn't open or close properly and the cover flopped away from the pages when it was lying open. In fact, the spine of the cover didn't at all touch the spine of the pages, so the only thing holding the two together was that black construction-paper-like lining — which had been cut too short. With some fuss, I refolded the lining and re-attached the cover with regular old white glue. Opening the front and back covers it's now plain the lining is about a ½" too short at each end, but the book holds together as well as the rest — and the pages themselves are fine.
I've worked in stores for about ten years before I worked in an office. I say, that if anybody thought that they purchesed a book with a defect (or any other merchandise), to simlpy return the item for an exchange. I don't believe that the bookstore would loose a good client (D&D players buy between 200.00 to 2000.00 dollars worth of books a year EACH) over a 40.00 item (wich they can return to their suppliers for a refund anyway).
Ultradan
The last books I picked up were Weapons of Legacy and Stormwrack. Can't say I can tell a difference in paper quality from the old books to the new, nor do I see anything that makes me think of water damage about them...
Huh... I thought for sure that Stormwrack had water damage.
The one thing I'll never complain about is the physical quality of WOTC books. The binding is the key and you can tell that they've raised the bar. They are head and shoulders above other RPG makers, although I will say that Green Ronin and a few others put out really nice books too. If you are going to charge $30+ for a hardbound book, it better last you a while. Take the Conan books for example, great content, nice glossy, colored pages but the bindings are sub par. They really feel like they are going to fall apart in your hands which is a shame considering the price tag.
Yeah my Lords of Madness has a binding issue also. It was the only copy left and I really wanted a copy of it. But the other copies as well had bad binding when I checked it out the first time befor I came back later and picked up a copy.
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Lords of Madness had binding issues at my gaming shop as well. Had to return 2 copies because the binding was loose on one side. The new one has an issue as well with the binding but this time i'm sticking with it. It's not as bad as with the previous two. I'm not all that happy anymore with recent wotc books (content or quality of print).
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I have noticed in three of my D&D books the Races of Ebberon, Lords of Madness, and the new Magic of Incarnum the paper of the books is not the same as my older books. It seems a lot lighter, thinner, and looks almost like it has been water damaged at the top or bottom. I have been browsing the book stores that I have access to in the bay area and its not just the books I own. I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this. If i'm not the only one then you have to ask your self is wizards skipping on the printing costs or just being lazy?
What I think he may mean in water damage is the paper is wavy. I have noticed alot of my newer books all the pages are wavy especially the thiner ones. I order all my books through Amazon.com
As for "defects", I've only had one defective book: LoM. The cover was improperly bound. The book didn't open or close properly and the cover flopped away from the pages when it was lying open. In fact, the spine of the cover didn't at all touch the spine of the pages, so the only thing holding the two together was that black construction-paper-like lining — which had been cut too short. With some fuss, I refolded the lining and re-attached the cover with regular old white glue. Opening the front and back covers it's now plain the lining is about a ½" too short at each end, but the book holds together as well as the rest — and the pages themselves are fine.
Should have just returned this as a defective product. Pretty much every retailer will take a defective product back - we just send it back to the distributer who presumably sends it back to the manufacturer - so its not like we loose money. Lost time is a pain but c'est la vie - thats the cost of doing business.