I had VRG to the Mists Printed on Demand

[Jester of the FoS]

Hey, been a while community.
Haven't had much to add or say in a while. But recently I've been teaching myself InDesign and playing with Print on Demand websites. Doing personal D&D books so I can have hard copies of my homebrew rules.

Recently I had the idea to send the unpublished 3e product Van Richten's Guide to the Mists to one publisher. After giving it an editing & formatting pass to make it as close to finished as possible.

It turned out pretty decent.

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I tried to get all the little details to look "right'. Fiddled with the credits and making my own cover with yellow gem.

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I slipped in a few images flagrantly stolen from other Ravenloft products, just to break-up the text and make it look more "official". Plus the little formatting tweaks like the ornate letters at the start of sections.

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I even made sure to put all the rules text and the like into sidebars, which was pretty laborious

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I did goof on the tables, so there's ugly column and row lines. Crud.

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Sadly, the company I used didn't approve of me printing a personal copy and locked my account. But not before they shipped the book.
So while I can't do a second printing to fix a few things I'm less than happy with, it's close enough that I'm still pretty happy with the results and it's a nice addition to the shelf.

[tomokaicho]

Looks good. Pity about your locked account.

[Mischief]

Hey, been a while community.
Haven't had much to add or say in a while. But recently I've been teaching myself InDesign and playing with Print on Demand websites. Doing personal D&D books so I can have hard copies of my homebrew rules.

Sadly, the company I used didn't approve of me printing a personal copy and locked my account. But not before they shipped the book.
So while I can't do a second printing to fix a few things I'm less than happy with, it's close enough that I'm still pretty happy with the results and it's a nice addition to the shelf.

A lot of companies won't let you print something they think might be a copyvio, even if a good chunk of it is your own original work. Artists run into it all the time with their own work.
You might be able to dispute on account of the WotC's open gaming license, if you can get a human by phone or email.

[Cromstar]

First, it looks very nice. Quality job you did. If you posted it was a pre-print mock-up that had actually been made before the whole thing was dropped, I'd have believed it.

Second, I love the "You can't have it, but here it is."

[Jester of the FoS]

Second, I love the "You can't have it, but here it is."

It's slightly more complicated than that...

I ordered an earlier book and it arrived after two weeks. I ordered this and two other books; when they hadn't arrived six weeks after the shipping notice, I emailed.

Which caused them to look into the files, spot some of the legal terms I'd cut-and-pasted and ask me what the deal was. I opted to reply honestly rather than try to BS and they kept the account locked. But refunded me for the purchase.
Then, this week, two-and-a-half months later, they arrived.

So I got them. For free. But can't ever use that service again, even for legal purposes and OGL compliant books.
Win/ lose?

[Cromstar]

Second, I love the "You can't have it, but here it is."

It's slightly more complicated than that...

I ordered an earlier book and it arrived after two weeks. I ordered this and two other books; when they hadn't arrived six weeks after the shipping notice, I emailed.

Which caused them to look into the files, spot some of the legal terms I'd cut-and-pasted and ask me what the deal was. I opted to reply honestly rather than try to BS and they kept the account locked. But refunded me for the purchase.
Then, this week, two-and-a-half months later, they arrived.

So I got them. For free. But can't ever use that service again, even for legal purposes and OGL compliant books.
Win/ lose?

Definitely a win/lose situation. But that does make it weirder that you got them at all.

[Zilfer]

You mad man. I guess you have something Gonzoron will never have in his collection.

Be sure to show it to him, so he can go cry on the shoulder of his Strahd Cardboard Cutout.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

You mad man. I guess you have something Gonzoron will never have in his collection.

Be sure to show it to him, so he can go cry on the shoulder of his Strahd Cardboard Cutout.

Rude.

[Zilfer]

All in jest my friendly ancient undead.