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Tuesday, 27 February 2018

The book with Sig's blessing

Eagle-eyed Fabled Lands aficionado John Jones has spotted an error in the regular-format edition of The Serpent King's Domain. Luckily it's not a catastrophic crash-type bug -- you can still play the book -- but irritating nonetheless. I can only apologize to those who snapped up copies as soon as they went on sale.

The mistake is in section 929 where the negative modifiers for the CHARISMA roll have been missed out. That table of modifiers should look like this:


That only applies to the regular (5" x 8") paperback, not to the large-format (8" x 10") edition with the colour map on the back. And of course, all copies of both editions sold from now on have the modifiers included.

If you already bought the book and were stymied by that section -- well, why don't we say you got to make the roll with no negative modifier? So there's an upside for you rogues and low-rankers. And if you ever encounter me or Jamie and present us with one of the uncorrected copies, we'll sign and certify it as a special "Sig's blessing edition". Deal?

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18 comments:

  1. johntfs1 March 2018 at 01:59

    To be fair, I actually missed the modifier for being Rank 4 or lower. Even though I'd copied it to Dave, I somehow hadn't processed it in my head.

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    1. DM1 March 2018 at 08:17

      And yesterday somebody pointed out an error in the 2010 edition of War-Torn Kingdom where the text reads "SCOUTING" where it should say "codeword". We all missed that. I have changed it in the file, but unfortunately in doing so I attracted the attention of the Createspace watchdogs who are now saying the file contains "font errors that are displaying as boxes". So those would be the checkboxes that have been in the book all these years. It means that book 1 is temporarily out of print, and I now have the task of trying to explain to Createspace that those boxes are images, not font characters. Sigh. Next time I'll know to leave the errors uncorrected.

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    2. Vandervecken7 March 2018 at 22:15

      Where in War-Torm Kingdom is the error? So I can correct it by hand.

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    3. johntfs8 March 2018 at 02:07

      It's in section 130.

      Delete
  2. Unknown1 March 2018 at 11:31

    Can you submit all of the books to Barnes and Noble as well?

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    1. DM1 March 2018 at 13:01

      They don't have a print on demand facility AFAIK. If I can transfer all of the books to Ingram Spark they will show up on B&N, but that's going to take 6-8 weeks to pull them out of the Amazon extended distribution network.

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  3. Tobias N4 March 2018 at 21:46

    I noticed on Amazon that the entire Fabled Lands series is to be published in large format. That's great news, as I like that format better! Would it be possible to print Book 7 in large format with the green day-theme cover (currently that's only available for the regular, small version)? For some reason, I think the day-theme captures the FL series much better, as well as the feel that I associate with a book on the Serpent King's Domain... not sure how others feel about that?

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    1. DM5 March 2018 at 08:17

      I prefer the day-theme cover too, Tobias, but unfortunately Kev never painted a hi-res version of that, so it's just big enough to print okay on the smaller paperback but I couldn't stretch it to the 8" by 10" edition.

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  4. Andi4 March 2018 at 22:19

    Dear Dave,

    So I've been thinking about what can be done to be able to raise more Shards for another hypothetical 5 books.
    It feels like the target group for new fabled lands books is old-time fans for the major part and some newly interested buyers.
    Therefore I think it may be viable to specifically address such enthusiastic fans, by releasing two versions of one book; to some extent this practice is actually already being done with the two covers of book 7. It could be "cosmetical" changes only, such as in one version the character you meet is grumpy, which leads to an awkward conversation, whereas in the other they are glad to meet the adventurer. I think this would not pose much extra work as far as writing is concerned, because the setting of the encounters does not change, only the manner. At the same time playing two totally interchangeable versions would be almost like having extra material.
    So the idea is that hardcore fans, who'd buy two editions anyway, might as well buy two slightly different editions, while it makes absolutely no difference for newcomers, who have the whole world of fabled labds ahead of them.
    Btw I really enjoy the book on Brexit!

    Yours
    Andi

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    1. DM5 March 2018 at 08:28

      Interesting idea, Andi. We've been looking at all sorts of ways to raise money for more books. There have been some requests for T-shirts but I don't think they make much more than manufacturing cost. There's also a half-completed boardgame that could go on Kickstarter -- but that would barely raise enough to cover itself, never mind "profit" to spend on book 8.

      My only concern about doing two versions of a book is that it smacks a bit of the multiple-cover printings done in comic books. Many's the time I've ended up with a comic without the cover I'd prefer, because that's the one my local comic shop had in stock, and not being a millionaire collector I wasn't about to go and buy a bunch of other copies of each issue.

      Still, nobody would be forced to buy both versions, I guess. I'm leaving book 8 to Jamie to figure out -- I just can't see a solution, other than cutting all the artwork and forgoing an editor and typesetter.

      Glad you're enjoying Can You Brexit? That's probably the last gamebook I'll ever write, so I wanted it to be a good one!

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  5. Handsome Handy Hubby17 April 2018 at 02:34

    So how can we tell if we're ordering the version with the missing tables? Amazon only lists the publication date.

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    1. Dave Morris18 April 2018 at 09:18

      It's print on demand, which means that all new copies ordered from this point on will have the corrections.

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    2. Handsome Handy Hubby3 May 2018 at 22:46

      Just got my copy and its just as you said. Thanks. Also, are there any references to the Serpent King's Domain in the previous books? And are the references to non-extant books in the Serpent King's Domain hinting at possible future books or were those just titles from years ago and possibly wishful thinking? Thanks in advance.

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    3. Handsome Handy Hubby3 May 2018 at 23:00

      I realize this may be common knowledge but I'm a relative newcomer to this series and would appreciate your indulgence.

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    4. Dave Morris4 May 2018 at 12:18

      No need to apologize for being a newbie, everyone's welcome here. There are links from Over the Blood-Dark Sea (book 3) into Serpent King's Domain, and possibly from other books too - I'd need to check. And Serpent King's Domain has links back into Over the Blood-Dark Sea as well as into The Lone & Level Sands (book 8).

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    5. Handsome Handy Hubby4 May 2018 at 13:50

      Also, Legions of the Labyrinth and The Isle of a Thousand Spires and The City in the Clouds are referenced in The Serpent King's Domain.

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  6. K'Pow9 October 2018 at 20:13

    Hey, I'm new here. My brother bought me all the fabled lands books when i was about 10 and I loved them the day I got them!
    I randomly googled fabled lands one day and to my surprise I noticed the new addition on Amazon.

    Can we not crowd fund the missing books? Surely there is enough demand... these books are me and my mates childhood memories haha

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