In contrast to kodiak71's thread, I'm very pleased with the DRAGON Compendium. It looks great, and there's definately lots of useful stuff in there. Of course, I had perused the TOC beforehand and knew the 3e-to-older-edition content ratio. Also, the illustrated endpapers are a nice touch. I wouldn't mind seeing more of that. ;-)
I do, however, have one complaint: the ink doesn't adhere to the page. For Volume II a more absorbant paper should be chosen (like the stuff Wizards' printer uses). I don't have excessively oily fingertips and don't generally leave fingerprints on magazine pages, so I'm dismayed that I do on the Compendium's. I even smeared about a cm² of ink off the edge of one page as if it were wet paint and revealed the glossy white paper underneath. Now I'm scared to touch the pages and hold it only by its cover. "Erasable" ink isn't the sort of thing I want to worry about for a book that'll see lots of action at the game table.
I just checked mine and I don't seem to have that problem...were they all printed in the same print run? A friend of mine used to work at a print shop many years ago and they had to use a different kind of ink in the middle of a print run and the last 400 books they printed ended up messed up similar to what you described.
I just checked mine and I don't seem to have that problem...were they all printed in the same print run? A friend of mine used to work at a print shop many years ago and they had to use a different kind of ink in the middle of a print run and the last 400 books they printed ended up messed up similar to what you described.
Or possibly my thumb was moist/sweaty at the time. Just giving the page a casual rub with a finger doesn't do it. Maybe the ink responds poorly to body heat? I don't know. It's seems like the ink didn't "bond" or "set" (or whatever the printing terms might be) into the paper. It's a sharp-looking book and I'd hate to have it ruined because of this.
I remember when FASA started getting into financial trouble in the late 80s. The ink in their Star Trek RPG books (yes, I played that) behaved like newspaper print: it would smudge on contact. I had to handle those books with kid gloves. It was sad.
FASA's Star Trek RPG is one of the most entertaining RPG's I ever played. There were 4 of us that played that game twice a week for almost 8 years in the 90's. One ST campaign a friend of mine ran had a player that came in from Phoenix (400 miles away) once a month for a marathon gaming weekend.
I loved the Starship Combat and sheer simplicity of the system. Deadly as hell, but so much FUN!
The guy that ran that game has totally gotten disenchanted with running games, which is so sad, because he was the only one in our group that did a decent job with that system.
He still plays in one of our D&D campaigns but his heart is not in it anymore.
Sorry to get off topic, but you got a fellow FASA ST fan here.
The only FASA books we had were from the early to mid 80's, so I never encountered the problem you described either.
However, I do live in a VERY dry part of the country...the humidity in my house is 13% in the wintertime and I have to use a whole house humidifier or we all wake up with bloody noses, so maybe that has something to do with it.
That's very strange. I have a copy here at work. I dipped my fingers in a cup of water I have here and tested getting a page wet. Nothing happened.
It might be simply a misprinted copy or something.
I have the same problem with both Dragon and Dungeon magazines - the ink rubs off the page if not handled careful.
That's very strange. I have a copy here at work. I dipped my fingers in a cup of water I have here and tested getting a page wet. Nothing happened.
It might be simply a misprinted copy or something.
Think this is something I should gripe to customer service about? I'm generally not one to complain. I was just recommending a more absorbant paper for the future. I noticed in another thread that someone is ecstatic about "the nice glossy paper". To each his own, but glossy paper isn't a big hit with me as glare off the page can be annoying.
I have the same problem with both Dragon and Dungeon magazines - the ink rubs off the page if not handled careful.
Dragon and Dungeon don't give me troubles in this regard. Other magazines, such as TIME Canada for example (which is printed on very cheap paper — understandable for a weekly) can be another matter entirely.
However, I do live in a VERY dry part of the country...the humidity in my house is 13% in the wintertime and I have to use a whole house humidifier or we all wake up with bloody noses, so maybe that has something to do with it.
That could be. I just checked my barometer. I've got 37% humidity in the house and no humidifier. And I live on the prairies. Go figure.
Sorry to get off topic, but you got a fellow FASA ST fan here.
The only FASA books we had were from the early to mid 80's, so I never encountered the problem you described either.
The only early 80s Trek book I had was Trader Captains, Merchant Princes (with the Federation stock exchange stuff in it), and you're right: as I recall the paper was nice and thick with decent tooth and the print could have come off any modern laserjet. Every other sourcebook I owned was post Star Trek IV and suffered the cheap print problem.
When I think about it, I suppose I was a big FASA fan. I was heavily into BattleTech for a while (though I never bought any of the books) and still wax nostalgic about it. I even fire up MechWarrior 3 on my PC from time-to-time.
I'm sorry to hear about your disenchanted friend.
I've had the experience that if your fingers happen to be greasy or oily (I have a bad habit of eating lunch while flipping through books & magazines), the oils can cause the inks to lift off the page, especially on glossy papers.
I'd say keep a napkin handy. :-D