So anyone think that there's a conspiracy between the publishers and writers where they bound the first printing and filled it with mistakes so that when they had fixed the 'inconsistencies' in the rules and bound the 5th printing incredibly well that people who bought one of the first 4 printings would go out and get a new book as their first printing one was filled with errors and falling apart?

No, I haven't had any problems with my Binding.

Seriously. My SR4 rulebook is the toughest RPG book I've ever had.

I have to the best of my knowledge all Shadowrun books and NONE of them have ever had binding problems.

Just what is it you people do to your books?????? heck I even loaned out several books several times.

My first printing hardcover of 1st is still in great shape.

I put my book on the table, open it, then read, close when done and repeat.

I've had pages come loose from my 2nd edition hardback and softcover rulebook. The 3rd edition was bad where there were color pages and I managed to baby it for over a year, until I let someone else look at it and the first thing they did was open to the color character samples and put their hand on it to flatten it a bit on the table. I just about screamed because I knew the pages were going to come loose - and they did.

I think one of the 2nd edition magic books started getting some loose pages and I've had about 3 other SR titles develope loose pages. Usually the most used books, with the exception, iirc, of Matrix.

Amusing anecdote, I was in a SR group and the first time we got together everyone pulls out their 3rd edition BBB - all held together a different way. One spiral bound at Kinkos, another done at Kinkos also but with a comb binding, another in a 3 ring binder with pages in plastic sleeves, and another just duct taped together as best as possible. No one in the group brought an intact copy. And this was only a few years after 3rd edition was released, so the books weren't ancient.

Most my seconds edition books came apart on me as well.

I have two main books, and both split in half.
One of the Fields Of Fire books lost a good 10 pages in the back.

The SR2 books I found were not very well put together. I only own a couple SR3 and they look to be about the same quality and the SR2. The SR4 book though, it looks like it's a lot tougher than the SR2 and SR3 books.. though that could just be cause it's a hardcover book.

Hey, it wouldn't be a FASA game if it didn't fall out of its binding.

...my copies of the Rigger Black Book and London Sourcebook fell apart into so many fragments that I just cut the rest of the pages apart, three hole punched them & put them into binders.

Now my SR2 BBB (hardcover), is still remarkably intact. Must have got one of the rare ones.

my SR4 BBB has fallen apart the thing on the binding fell off even tho luckily the pages are still bound together and damn is it chock full of mistakes too but i survive and that is the only SR book i own as of now i need to get a Runners Haven soon.

--the schmitz

My SR4 book just fell apart and I've had it for less than 2 months. I really baby my books and I haven't even taken it out of the house. Luckily I bought it from Borders so I was able to get my money back with only minor arm twisting.

If Fanpro (Wizkids/InMediaRes/whatever) ever sell a book with decent binding, I might be interested in buying it again.

*knasser wanders in looking for discussion about spirits and drain. Wanders out again*

Haha played with first edition softcover so many times had so many people looking through it. was held together with ducktape and staples. Got hardcover for 2nd edition soft for 3rd and hard for 4th never had problem with others but learned somthing if gonna play the crap out of a game and have more then 2-3 players..buy more then one copy of main book it'll save on wear and headaches.

I don't see what people's problem is. I have the rule book memorised so I never need to open it at all.

I have books from each edition and so far 3rd edition was the one with the worst binding issues. Of course, I played the hell out of those books, but I had several that lost pages within a week or two of purchase. Hell, my copy of Corporate Download lost 2 pages when I first opened it. My 4th edition hardcover is starting to show wear in the gear and character generation chapters, but that's mostly from my incessant flipping through it.

My copy is, I believe, the first printing. I've had it since just after Gen Con, and have used it moderately. I've been pretty nice to it, and it's also falling apart.

I'm not a conspiracy nut, but I'm holding out as long as I can to buy a new copy to save a little $$.

Dread Polack