Slitherine

The online shop is showing the rules and both list books as unavailable. Same for FoGR books. Will these eventually be available again? Or are these available through other sources? Wondered since Dead. and I are putting on a demo game of FoGN at our upcoming convention.

Blathergut wrote:The online shop is showing the rules and both list books as unavailable. Same for FoGR books. Will these eventually be available again? Or are these available through other sources? Wondered since Dead. and I are putting on a demo game of FoGN at our upcoming convention.

Neither Terry nor I know that kind of stuff I am afraid not being, as such, members of the Slitherine team or in regular touch with them- or at least I am not - so I don't know what stocks they may hold or can access.

In a conversation with JDMc at a show ( SALUTE last year ) he said that Osprey had only done a limited print run of FOG(N) - which he did not appear to be thrilled about . I had noticed Amazon looking to buy back copies - which one assumed was because they were in short supply and they had demand they could not meet. But since then they keep trying to sell them to me after I buy other military stuff so that may not be accurate.

Have you tried Amazon or indeed Osprey ?

It seems they are considering a computer version, no more paperback

bahdahbum wrote:It seems they are considering a computer version, no more paperback

Oh for f**ck's sake. We went through this with the FoG:AM v2 rules.

<sigh>

Marc

babyshark wrote:

bahdahbum wrote:It seems they are considering a computer version, no more paperback

Oh for f**ck's sake. We went through this with the FoG:AM v2 rules.

<sigh>

Marc

Well as the saying goes "F*ck" knows" , but if he does know stuff he's never around when you really need him . If there are such plans I am unaware of them -(but then why would I be - not really an author call ?).

Was not the V2.0 solution a mix of download and print on demand? How did the downloadable version work in the end? I use the print on demand version so have not tried it.

For myself ,working on a first draft of 18th century rules, I should have thought that approach would be adopted. But from the start, I would hope, with minimal or even zero " eye candy", a much more reader and PC/screen friendly design and much better text layout, with para and sub para numbers for ease of cross referencing , larger clearer font , single columns of text on a page, standard paper size etc,. Not the style that is used in the Osprey oeuvre.

Theirs are not really designed as practical documents, like manuals of instruction, so much as something to be read cover to cover with lots of pictures. It is the same with their MAA series etc which so unhelpfully put all the big illustrations in the middle and the descriptions at the back so you have to flick back and forth! (Just like most of uniform books save the Funcken's ). The Avalon Hill/SPI style of layout for boardgames is a good exemplar( but not IKEA!).

But I guess the original print set up costs have already been incurred for the various Osprey published FOG's so print-on-demand using the original software etc is feasible . For new stuff not sure how that works out.

I do feel you need to have something easily readable, printed on robust paper, that you can lay on the table and flick through swiftly . The eye is quicker than the moving finger I reckon.

Anyway, with all the positives changes, a reprint would be appreciated

I do not object, in principle, to publishing the rules electronically. In fact, there are some real potential advantages, not the least of which is potential cost savings (that could be passed on to the players).

But there are many, many potential pitfalls, and the FoG:AM v2 publication ended up falling into most of them, IMHO. Some are technical: the rules were only available on one platform, the index (and thus search) was bad, and so on. Books, on the other hand, are easily flipped through to find the correct section. Also, finding a vendor to put the rules into useable electronic format turned out to be quite difficult, whereas typesetting a book is a well-understood process.

Some of the challenges are player-based: not everyone has or wants to have a gizmo suitable for reading the rules, but everyone can read a book.

I am convinced that electronic versions of table top rules are still a cycle or two away from being practical.

Marc

babyshark wrote:I do not object, in principle, to publishing the rules electronically. In fact, there are some real potential advantages, not the least of which is potential cost savings (that could be passed on to the players).

But there are many, many potential pitfalls, and the FoG:AM v2 publication ended up falling into most of them, IMHO. Some are technical: the rules were only available on one platform, the index (and thus search) was bad, and so on. Books, on the other hand, are easily flipped through to find the correct section. Also, finding a vendor to put the rules into useable electronic format turned out to be quite difficult, whereas typesetting a book is a well-understood process.

Some of the challenges are player-based: not everyone has or wants to have a gizmo suitable for reading the rules, but everyone can read a book.

I am convinced that electronic versions of table top rules are still a cycle or two away from being practical.

Marc

I am with you on that. I think we are in vigorous agreement

I still prefer the printed page not just for me but for guests. It's just if we ( as a hobby) are to go for downloads they need to be made easier for folk to do that and to use them and print them off . It is like e-books. I find them useless for research where I often want to look at several pages in different books at the same time or flick between pages. On a Kindle there are no page numbers as you can vary the font size. I can often remember in my head where on a printed page a fact or nugget was - top left, bottom right etc. No good for pictures maps and diagrams.

MikeHorah wrote: I am with you on that. I think we are in vigorous agreement

I still prefer the printed page not just for me but for guests. It's just if we ( as a hobby) are to go for downloads they need to be made easier for folk to do that and to use them and print them off . It is like e-books. I find them useless for research where I often want to look at several pages in different books at the same time or flick between pages. On a Kindle there are no page numbers as you can vary the font size. I can often remember in my head where on a printed page a fact or nugget was - top left, bottom right etc. No good for pictures maps and diagrams.

Vigorous agreement, indeed.

Marc