What if the books for shadowrun were made to come apart,and be put into binders or something like that. So when you have never rules for magic you, open up your binders or what have you and place them next to the rules you already had.

THe only problem would be the index..But that can be take care of by having something like M for magic..So when you need to look up rules for magic you can go to M part of the rules.

That is how I do my calculation books, and people love it...

P for Plans.
E for Elevations.
D for Details.
Etc.

And they are easily added to and removed from without mucking with the order and Table Of Contents.

This is one of those ideas that /sounds awesome/, but getting distributors and stores behind it is difficult, as such products are often more prone to breakage and shelfware ... plus, it's just "not the norm" and distributors/stores are often afraid of that.

Underground - back in 1994 or so - did something similar. They had a product called the "Underground Notebook", which was a binder that included a bunch of sheets with locations, characters, etc. Other products included additional sheets that could be put into the notebook.

Underground, however, tanked.

Does it sounds feasible in the case of PDF books, though (should such ever appear)?

Some of my books appear to have been made to come apart.

2nd Edition D&D did that with the Monstrous Manual. It had mixed reviews.

Ew, this idea doesn't sound awesome in the least.

*Shudders at the idea of rearranging book pages*

~J

color coded sections wouldn't be too bad, but individual pages would be a nightmare.

I reccomend you just photocopy the important bits and place them in a binder,
saves time, and the spines of your books.

I'd be happy even if the books were published somewhere near the standard of the current D20 books.

Meaning alot of the newer books fall apart. But I know of some D20 books that fall apart just as much.

Sadly, some of my longest-lasting game books are D6 Star Wars and AD&D, which are far far older then say..Matrix.

I wish I could simply suggest that they sell the books for RPG's without a binding.

Seriously. Just package them in a bundle of pages with a coversheet, and give them all 3 holes.

I'll be more than happy to go get the plastic sheets for every page and a binder for a few bucks total and put it all together.

I would prefer that too, but only because I used to play Rolemaster. Man there were a lot of tables.

Oooh! I got and E-tiny crit on the "knockdown, bash , batter, ram, beef injection" table!

God, that game was a math major's wet dream.

Task Force Games (the publishers of Star Fleet Battles, Prime Directive, etc) did this with their Star Fleet Battles (SFB) line. the base package was a large binder with all of the 'basic rules' modules already included, and subsequent rules modules were added by purchasing three-hole punched pages in shrink-wrap with a 'disposable' cover-sheet specifying things like module name, Edition, price, etc. ~ these would be dropped right into your binder in alphabetical order by module Letter.

The game did very well for a time went through at least four editions, and about 20 years of play.

The SFB model of distribution might work, for reducing shelf-wear it might even be possible to 'upgrade' the cover sheet to a 'cover-box' or some similar (although this raises packaging costs) ~ then again, I like my books, and when they fall apart I usually go and get them hardbound.

I'd also like to mention that the First printing copies of most of my Fanpro texts are holding together much better than my old FASA ones (It might be climate too, I moved to an area where winters aren't nearly as extreme a few years ago)

lol. I played the hell out of Rolemaster, Jray. I know what you mean, but godamn if some of those descriptions weren't funny as hell.

On topic, SR books have always had issues with their bindings. I'd be down with the three-ring notebook style of books, rather than using my covers as sheaths for the material inside. I've had 7 books rebound by my printer friend in the past.

Only problem with binders, or having shoddy SR books cut and put into binders, is that my copy of Matrix, which the binding died and I put them into page protectors and into a binder, is that it takes up 5x the space it used to, when closed, and it more difficult to keep opened as well.

um...you know they make thin, regular book style size binders too right?
You don't have to settle for those huge school binders.

I am lucky. I work at a place with a spiral binder, a velobinder (plastic comb that melts the pages together, sort of), and can do 3 hole copies on high speed reproduction duplex printing and PDF at the same time if I want. I have rebound a couple of my books here.

Bigity,

You just don't have your priorities straight. You need a whole room dedicated to SR.

I had one, but then I got married. Now we have to have food and a deep freezer and crock-pots and all that kind of garbage that doesn't cook regularly, but just collects dust--which must be cleaned off even while not in use

I still have a couple of bookshelves for games though...but I'm starting to feel like I should post an armed guard because of the looks they are getting lately.

this is true. in most WotC d20 books, rules are where you'd expect to find them. in SR, the rules wait in silent glee, invisible to the perceptive capacity of mere mortals. then, just when you think you're safe, they leap out and steal your ice cream. crafty, tricksssy rules.

Yeah, me too. She's even looking at my computer now....

Start giving the same looks to the useless cookware. I cook regularly and still don't use most of that stuff.

~J