Current Digital Editions of old Print Editions

[Jakob]

I'd like to get Magic World to round out my BRP collection, and also I think it might actually work well for me ... however, I don't read digital, so if I get the pdf, I'll need to print it out and have it binded. The alternative would be to hunt down a used print copy. So does anyone know whether the current digital version has been improved in any way? There's lots of talk about the many mistakes that ended up in Magic World, mainly due to copy&paste from previous BRP games; were some of these problems adressed in later digital editions of it?

Edited July 5, 2018 by Jakob

[Nick J.]

There was only one revision that cleaned up quite a bit of errata, but there are still some mistakes scattered throughout. The bestiary and the weapons table/class list still have some errors. 

On the other hand, the PDF from Chaosium is unencrypted, so if you wanted to write up your own corrections and append it, or directly edit the document, then use a POD service, it'd be a way to get a clean copy customized to your tastes. I can't advise you as to the legality of that, but I would say it'd be bad form to try and distribute or sell such a thing.

[Jakob]

Thanks! I'll guess I'll go with the pdf than and print it out ... it doesn't have to be perfect, I just want the version that has the least mistakes!

[Atgxtg]

15 hours ago, Jakob said:

 The alternative would be to hunt down a used print copy. 

Another alternative would be to hunt down a new print copy. Amazon and a few other sites still have some hardcopies of Magic World, available. You'd still have to deal with some corrections, but it's a possibility. 

[rsanford]

You can still buy print copies of Magic World at Chaosium at https://www.chaosium.com/magic-world-2/. If you PM me your email address I can email you the latest errata when we return from vacation. Probably be the 9th.

[Jakob]

12 minutes ago, rsanford said:

You can still buy print copies of Magic World at Chaosium at https://www.chaosium.com/magic-world-2/. If you PM me your email address I can email you the latest errata when we return from vacation. Probably be the 9th.

Thanks! I wasn't aware that the print edition is still available.

[g33k]

1 hour ago, Jakob said:

Thanks! I wasn't aware that the print edition is still available.

I expect the fact that they DO have existing stock of this game -- five years on! -- is an excellent example of why they don't see it as a viable.product line.  Few companies can afford to tie up capital in product that doesn't move for years at a time ...

[Jakob]

35 minutes ago, g33k said:

I expect the fact that they DO have existing stock of this game -- five years on! -- is an excellent example of why they don't see it as a viable.product line.  Few companies can afford to tie up capital in product that doesn't move for years at a time ...

Makes sense ... it is still kind of a pity, and I would say that MW is a victim of how it was handled by the previous Chaosium. For example, due to the BRP logo on the cover, I never even suspected that MW was its own product line - I thought that it was actually a fantasy suppelement for the big gold book, and since I wasn't interested in a toolbox system, I gave it a pass and instead turned to OpenQuest. Had I known that MW was actually a stand-alone fantasy system based on Stormbringer (which kind of used to hit the sweet spot for me in terms of complexity), I would have definitely bought it back when it came out. I've been reading about MW here on the forums for a while now, and it just seems to offer a lot of the elements that I always liked about Stormbringer (rolled armour, major wounds instead of hit locations).

At the point when the new team came in, cancelling the line was probably the only logical step, because really, there was not a game line to speak of. And since they keep selling it and have opened MW up to community content, they're actually doing more for MW than the previous chaosium team, despite having officially cancelled it.

Anyway, I'd say MW probably doesn't really need to be a product line, anyway. It's nice to have a generic BRP fantasy ruleset by Chaosium out there (I like OpenQuest, but some of it is a little too simplistic), and that's it.

Edited July 6, 2018 by Jakob

[Nick J.]

19 hours ago, Jakob said:

Thanks! I'll guess I'll go with the pdf than and print it out ... it doesn't have to be perfect, I just want the version that has the least mistakes!

 

16 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Another alternative would be to hunt down a new print copy. Amazon and a few other sites still have some hardcopies of Magic World, available. You'd still have to deal with some corrections, but it's a possibility. 

Yeah I didn't mean to imply you shouldn't buy the print copy. Definitely buy it! But if you wanted a definitive version without referring to a separate sheet or file, there's a couple of ways around that.

[Atgxtg]

Yeah. I think one of the best approaches might be to either print the PDF of get the book and then put the pages in a binder, nad swap out the stuff with corrections. Basically the HARN approach.