You're lucky- the 2003 Monographs were embossed on the sole of Sandy Petersen's shoe. If you purchased one, he would visit your home to kick you in the head until the words were impressed upon your bleeding flesh. All in all, I'd rather have the photocopies.

Outrageous, this thing went for $20 "new". Better read it then I suppose, so I can convince myself content trumps presentation.

sauromatian wrote:You're lucky- the 2003 Monographs were embossed on the sole of Sandy Petersen's shoe. If you purchased one, he would visit your home to kick you in the head until the words were impressed upon your bleeding flesh. All in all, I'd rather have the photocopies.

Huh?

megnelwil wrote:I've just won a copy of Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 on Ebay. It's dated 2004 and looks for all the world like a fairly decent photocopy bound with tape. It has a card cover, print quality is awful - very like a toner job. Is this how these earlier Monographs were put together or have I just been had?

Sounds like my early monographs.

I've been meaning to pick up a copy of that one at some point.  Let me know how the content is.

I was thinking hockey tape, but I suppose they might have splurged and gone with electrical.

sauromatian wrote:You're lucky- the 2003 Monographs were embossed on the sole of Sandy Petersen's shoe. If you purchased one, he would visit your home to kick you in the head until the words were impressed upon your bleeding flesh. All in all, I'd rather have the photocopies.

too true.  reports are that the most recent productions have improved somewhat. but still expect typos, editing errors, limited illustrations.  adventure content is what you are buying.  back to the old school  

They provide the cover art though, do they not?

What I find hugely encouraging about Chaosium's experiment with monographs is that they seem very popular, despite their relative lack of graphic and production quality (that is, compared to some of the lush material which is on the market, and not intended any way to denigrate the efforts of the many authors).  While no sales figures are available, Chaosium seem happy to produce and sell them, which indicates that they are selling direct in enough volume.  Further, their very recent appearance on ebay has resulted in, thus far, solid resale prices.  This is some evidence that people are keen to buy new material not on gloss but on imaginative and innovative content.  Which is of course just like the D&D we celebrate here.      

red_bus wrote:What I find hugely encouraging about Chaosium's experiment with monographs is that they seem very popular, despite their relative lack of graphic and production quality (that is, compared to some of the lush material which is on the market, and not intended any way to denigrate the efforts of the many authors).  While no sales figures are available, Chaosium seem happy to produce and sell them, which indicates that they are selling direct in enough volume.  Further, their very recent appearance on ebay has resulted in, thus far, solid resale prices.  This is some evidence that people are keen to buy new material not on gloss but on imaginative and innovative content.  Which is of course just like the D&D we celebrate here.      

I agree. I must say that a couple of their monographs managed to entertain my group for almost a year: I especially liked the End Times one