RT reprint available online from GW for a bit

[EricF]

Thought this might be of interest to a few... seems if you read right down to the bottom of this GW post:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/10/08/sunday-preview-new-releases-abound-from-the-age-of-darkness/

They are going to make the reprint of the RT rules available online (from 14th Oct I think) as a print on demand (until 8am BST on Monday the 23rd of October 2023), not a fast print on demand mind you (shipping within 180 days), but for those of you missing a copy or desiring one and not in range of Nottingham or willing to pay some eBay scalper maybe you can throw your money GW's way

 

[AranaszarSzuur]

That's taking the "Warhammer is for everyone." joke to the next level.

 

[EricF]

Link: https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/warhammer-40000-rogue-trader-pod-2023

 

[ManicMan]

depends on price.. I've nothing againt pod when done well but..

£40?.... 'faithful' when the cover they show has the bottom inch or so taken off? I'm not sure.. £25 i would go for a new hardback but... I can see why £40 but I'm not sure...

 

[EricF]

You've got me curious now what does your cover look like then? I've got three copies (2 soft back and 1 hardback) and all three have slightly different positions of the page cuts for the front/back covers I probably have about 3/16" more picture on the soft backs at the bottom than the hardback. Their picture looks much like my hardback, I'd say I maybe have 1/16" more on the bottom of mine:

 

[ManicMan]

not sure where it is right now, or what nick it's in, so i looked online for a cover scan and it seams to look about right to me, which is maybe the second one you got there. I guess it might be more a repro of the hardback.. Last repros there did that I've seen (though not in person) clearly show.. not perfect with contrast and some slightly decrease in quality (like they had a 70% compression jpeg scan).. useable but don't quite do what i call 'faithful'. though it's nick-picky

 

[Citizen Sade]

FWIW, here’s a picture of my hard cover book from the initial print run.

 

[EricF]

Cool that looks to be somewhere between all mine! Interesting to see how much it varied.

 

[AranaszarSzuur]

not sure where it is right now, or what nick it's in, so i looked online for a cover scan and it seams to look about right to me, which is maybe the second one you got there. I guess it might be more a repro of the hardback.. Last repros there did that I've seen (though not in person) clearly show.. not perfect with contrast and some slightly decrease in quality (like they had a 70% compression jpeg scan).. useable but don't quite do what i call 'faithful'. though it's nick-picky

It's sort of sad that instead of remastering with quality more faithful to original illustrations we're getting degraded copies for the same price as huge new full colour rulebook. Like when Inquis Exterminatus came out, many RT illustrations were much higher quality than in books they were originally printed in.

 

[EricF]

Alas I suspect the odds of getting hold of all the original illustrations and photographs is infinitesimally small, if they all still exist. Many probably ended up in private collections before digital scans (or photographic plates) of them were taken. It's a shame, but the likely reality, even putting to one side the cost of such a piece of work.

There have been a few art books over the years haven't there, but I don't think I've ever seen any to know if they had older or newer art in. Shame really as it was such a large part of 40k for me at least. I'd love to see some of the original pieces in the, flesh paper and if that's not possible a lovely big art book would be a decent runner up for me.

There are a few reviews of this particular copy around online (since it's been available for some years now), for instance:

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And there is a bit of background about creating it. It doesn't sound like it was rushed, and Louise Sugden seems to genuinely have a love of the older stuff if you watch her videos. So I'd have reasonable hope that this is a decent reproduction.

The starting point was a “pristine” Rogue Trader copy from the Games Workshop archive. Sugden says she melted the paper glue holding the book pages together with a heat gun and gloves, and carefully separated each page with a scalpel. Pages were physically cleaned and stored in individual archive pouches.

Sugden says it took “about two weeks” to scan in every single page of Rogue Trader, and months to digitally clean up scratches and marks from the scans. Nothing was removed or added to the text: “We had to keep it exactly the same, down to the last pixel”, Sugden explains, including the original page numbering and spelling mistakes.

Sugden says “I think they trusted me to do it because they know how much I love it… I went hard because I was personally invested in Rogue Trader”

I wonder who did the RoC books? Since they were out a few years before the RT reprint.

There are some battered copies of the original on eBay at present one at £10 and then someone wanting £20 for a copy with missing pages and rather damaged!, then for a further bit of madness we have just the front cover for the bargain of £12! Crazy. Not to mention the copies of this reprint for £80-90. So in a crazy twist on reality GW is actually cheaper for once Had to happen in the multiverse somewhere!

 

[sologamer]

Ordered it yesterday. ive Always had a passing interest but never bought anything before. Still have my 15mm Laserburn minis from the late 80s so they might be getting looked out again.

 

[AranaszarSzuur]

Ordered it yesterday. ive Always had a passing interest but never bought anything before. Still have my 15mm Laserburn minis from the late 80s so they might be getting looked out again.

Laserburn is still in print, by the way and miniatures are still in production. Some vehicles got remastered in resin too. Oh and the publisher, Alternative Armies is also releasing new editions of Ion Age.

 

[twisted moon]

Laserburn is still in print.

i bought a copy earlier this year (in the alternative armies sale). i need to find some time to give it a spin.
i wouldn't recommend advanced laserburn by the way, based on just reading it.

 

[sologamer]

i bought a copy earlier this year (in the alternative armies sale). i need to find some time to give it a spin.
i wouldn't recommend advanced laserburn by the way, based on just reading it.

I’ll second that on Advanced Laserburn. Way too complex.

Imperial Commander was my favourite out of them all.

 

[sologamer]

Laserburn is still in print, by the way and miniatures are still in production. Some vehicles got remastered in resin too. Oh and the publisher, Alternative Armies is also releasing new editions of Ion Age.

Still got my original copies bought in the late 80s.

 

[AranaszarSzuur]

It's the last day to get it. It closes on Monday at 0800 gmt.

 

[EricF]

So it seems these have started to be dispatched now (at least in the UK) ... wondered what the quality ended up being like? I understand they are digital prints and the printing was done in China. I'm assuming it's a scan of the first print run rather than the second imprint (which is what my hardback is). I suspect depending on the DPI of the print it'll be outlines to things that will show up the raster nature of the print the most, bits like around Rick's name on the cover, etc. Actually the cover will be interesting since the paper weight might not be quit the same and the internal binding may differ so I wonder if it's thicker/thinner in this reprint?