Unfortunately, I can't imagine that your books will arrive without some damage.  I hope they do.  Both of mine had fairly large corner dings, more so on one cover, than the other, depending on whether that cover was on the inside or outside.

The problem was that there was little clearance between the books and the box.  Any ding/dents, which are inevitable with most shippers handling practices, will directly impact what's stored inside.  Wish they would have used a slightly larger box and a little buffer paper.

Goodman has also layered cardboard on the inside before with my orders, which has helped as well.  Not sure with these collectible books why they would have thought ahead on this one.

My two copies arrived today...one foil and one standard.

When she heard a gamer friend mention it, my wife had encouraged me to get the foil version as a birthday present.  So, I've got one.

The books arrived with minor corner bumps...and one pretty good one on the back top corner of the foil edition cover.

I don't think their collector value has been destroyed for all time because I believe virtually all of these books will have been damaged in shipment.  That is pretty much guaranteed by the fact that they are heavy tomes and they have been shipped in tight boxes with no padding.  It would have taken hard work by the postal service not to bump their corners.

So, I'll gently straighten out the worst corner bump and I'll put these on my shelves.  I really like the game.  I just didn't like the company statement that said, essentially, "We know you paid a lot for a collector's edition, and we also know that the way we are shipping them is almost sure to damage every one of them.  But, if you complain, we officially declare you to be a doo doo head."  Okay, I can work with that, but the doo doo head caveat probably should have been in the initial listing for the item.

DCC #66.5 Doom of the Savage Kings is intensely nice.  It is short...only eight leaves (16 pages) with three pages taken up by maps.  The maps are cool, hand-drawn items that enhance the feel of the module.  No CGI here.  The artwork depicts cartoon gore and mayhem, warning the players of its lethality.   You get a well-drawn village, a wilderness area and a short dungeon.  This module was supposed to be only available with the initial pre-order, right?  On the cover it says, "Free with DCC RPG purchase," but it also says, "$9.99 otherwise."  Curious?  Or did I misread the original offer?

Overall, I prefer the look of the standard book to the foil copy.  I think the cover art catches the wind from Melnibone better than the puzzling skull on the foil version. (It looks sort of Central American to me....?)  The DCC RPG has limited spells...which suits me fine.  The spells only go up to 5th level and there are darn few of them on the upper level list.  This means that either the designer didn't intend for your character to live that long anyway, or there's another supplement coming.  The back cover blurb does state the "DCC RPG is a complete role playing game."  A supplement to get to higher levels would sort of cast a shadow on that whole "complete" concept.  (One of the essential mistakes of 4th Edition D&D was presenting the gamer with an incomplete system in its initial three books.)  I like the random spell results.  I think spell-casters in general are too cocky.  Characters cab influence the random spell rolls and some of the results are decidedly in the spell-caster's favor.

Looking at the back cover...someone has already pointed out that the female figure behind the disco barbarian has had a bow erased from her hands.  I think this was done because the figure's stance demanded a longbow and the resulting image would have projected into the book spine's gutter.  A light crossbow has been drawn in at the figure's waist, giving the impression that this clumsy NPC has dropped her weapon...or that it shrank out of her grasp.  I would have drawn daggers in both hands to hide the weapon switch.

Now, here is an irony:  The interior artist whose work looks the best to me is Russ Nicholson, the chief artist of the Fiend Folio.  Times have changed.

I think the initial price will hinder the spread of the game, but this is a version of D&D well worth trying to play.  If nothing else, it is a platform to keep on collecting the DCC modules.  If the modules keep the relative quality of #66.5, we have a winner.  And, the PDF price is easier than the hardcover price...so the RPG might not be that out of reach in an era of Ebooks and readers.

FormCritic wrote:Overall, I prefer the look of the standard book to the foil copy.  I think the cover art catches the wind from Melnibone better than the puzzling skull on the foil version. (It looks sort of Central American to me....?)

It reminds me of Motorhead (1977):



http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/201 ... r-pig.html

From the thread in the goodman forums:

Goodman Games wrote:Some customers did receive damaged orders, which is a shame. We're working with them to get things taken care of. Just to put it in perspective...the number of "damage reports" is running at well under 1% of the pre-orders shipped. There are a lot of DCC RPG hardbacks moving through the postal service right now.

Many of you have ordered lots of products via mail order. Some of you have even shipped lots of products via mail order. Over the course of running Goodman Games, I have shipped hundreds of thousands of books. The packaging used to ship DCC RPG is sufficient for the vast majority of postal situations. You're hearing complaints not because there are "a lot of damages" but because there are "a lot of books shipped," and the small percentage of those that got damaged is a high enough number to generate some posts.

No matter what I do, the post office will damage some copies. I have experimented in the past with several mailing options (bubble wrap, foam peanuts, double-layered cardboard, etc.). Even in those situations, books sometimes get damaged. With the modern trend toward "collectible copies," the bar is raised continually higher, and collectors in particular tend to identify defects that are more and more subtle in nature. Many of the collectors are looking for that "perfect 10" copy, which is hard to guarantee under any circumstances. I'm sure you've all seen the guy at cons who looks through 30 copies to buy the most perfect one...some of you may even be that guy.  

If there's anyone out there with a dinged-up book who hasn't already contacted me, feel free to do so and we'll sort it out. As noted on my web store, I can't guarantee "collectible perfection" but if the copy is materially damaged in some manner I'll replace it.

Drop me a PM dave if you're interested - my credit card is currently clear so I reckon we can do this!
Carl

The book looks fantastic. Very nice mention of the Acaeum and the North Texas Con in Appendix O: OSR Resources. Just glancing through it I love the profuse illustrations, and in keeping with their other module covers DCC66.5 looks like it should adorn the notebook of a 9th grader who drew over a nice background illustration.

As previously noted the $9.99 price on the cover makes me wonder if this is actually a limited production module.

I received this from a third party who placed it in a small box inside a larger box and made sure that the small box was centered, sitting on packing, with packing around the corners, and packing on top. The outer box was damaged. The cocooned box was safe, and snug, and secure so that the book and module arrived undamaged.

I will sit down and really read through this rulebook, enjoying the multitude of pictures greatly. (As an aside D&Dnext creates no great interest or anticpation for me. Maybe I am alone in this, but Goodman has succeeded magnificently in attracting me as a consumer, while WotC has not).

Mine arrived kinda smushed too--its a collectors edition; I pinged GG custpomer servcie several days ago--no response yet. Figure I'll tell Harley in Dallas

davidc wrote:Sounds like a reasonable response to me... can't guarantee perfection but will correct damage.

Joe didn't say that Goodman would correct damage.  He said that he would correct books that were "materially damaged."

I don't plan to keep beating up Goodman over this, but they did sell a collector's edition and then kind of make light of us picky collectors for wanting the book in collectible condition.

Goodman Games wrote:...If there's anyone out there with a dinged-up book who hasn't already contacted me, feel free to do so and we'll sort it out. As noted on my web store, I can't guarantee "collectible perfection" but if the copy is materially damaged in some manner I'll replace it.

[/quote]

This fits my criteria as a reasonable response to varying critical demands... has anyone not been made 'right'?