ICRPG QS/2e hybrid - Handmade Tome

[Nicolas_Bohnenberger]

So, getting there!

I had bound it to be ready on Saturday, BUT I messed up badly and the book was starting… on page 80. I had bound the sections all backward. Had to tear the book up, and lost my covers, cover boards, endpapers, buffer papers, AND the first sheet of each section (12 pages in total). So, the first order of business was to rewrite all the lost pages.

While pages dried (remember, fountain pen ink is wet), I readied new boards, new covers, and new endpapers (I didn’t have A4 red paper handy, had to buy a big sheet), and prepared them for binding. Changed to a slightly thicker thread since the punch holes had been widened by the first binding, and got to it.

After that, glued it again (checking if the pages were in the right order first), and had to wait the night till it dried. Want to take the moment here to thank @CLOAK for letting me listen in to their Alfmarches game while I went through the process!

This morning, glue dried, all working nicely, BUT since it was my first time bookbinding I had a wonky-ass book in my hands. The only side that was straight was the top. I didn’t like that.

So I went fully insane and decided to… sand down the edges of the book. Yup, with a file. Having seen a dude with 30+ years of experience doing that once in a video, why wouldn’t I be able to, right? Funny enough, right! I managed to do it! Had to improvise a standing press with common tools, but it worked.

After that, I began the covering of the book, the final stage of it all. I’m still in it, but I’m at a point in which I don’t want to show more before it’s fully done, so I’ll leave you with a tease: a staple of the sewn-board cover, the breakaway spine, already completed and glued.

This is it, for now, next time I’ll have the full book on hand ready to show!

[Nicolas_Bohnenberger]

The day’s work is done. The cover is on.

Trying to embellish it a bit, my Wizard’s Lock came out wonky - reflecting the madness and effort and sentiment poured into this project.

This, finally, is The Tome I envisioned back in September 2020. A translated core of ICRPG, with Player’s Guide and Gamemastery section, and the pieces I like to have to help improvisation.

I’ve just read this whole thread again, from top to bottom. Knowing what I know today, I’d have done a few things differently, but so much of it exactly the same. I’m in a different place in my life now, and that certainly affects things, but the happenings of this project as it was, the messages you all left here, are something I’d never change. Thank you all for that.

I considered dropping this project many times - it was daunting, of course, but for other reasons, the incompleteness of The Tome for months on end felt like failing - but at random points came a stray like here, a comment there, and I told myself I couldn’t drop it.

Now here we are. The Tome is done, and I get to change my ‘title’ (that I gave to myself hehe) on the Runehammer Discord, going from simply the Scribe to the Maker of The Tome.

Because, now, it is complete.

[Micah369]

This is INSANE. Excellent work, it’s a beautiful book!

[Alex]

Berger, this is what Hank talks about when he speaks of “the doing.” Too many folks have grand visions but then never even take a step toward making the vision a reality. You are to be commended for all of this hard work.

This is a gorgeous book, and now you have the satisfaction of enjoying something exceptionally unique and singularly yours. Congrats, my friend!

[JigokuBosatsu]

Bravo! A very cool project indeed.