Why don't more RPG books come in a paperback format? I've only noticed a few that do...

Why don't more RPG books come in a paperback format? I've only noticed a few that do, namely Savage Worlds and Pathfinder, and I'm just curious as to why more companies haven't put their games into this sort of format. It's cheaper for both the publishing company and the consumer, often takes up less space on a shelf, and is more convenient to transport. It just seems odd to stick with hardcover.

Paperback books are also a lot less durable, and rpg books get handled a ton.

True, but it's a problem that's easily solved by being respectful and careful with the books, whether they're yours or someone else's.

Granted if someone spills a drink on the thing, it's screwed either way, hardbound or paperback.

So when someone answers your question of "why is [THING] not made of a less-durable medium" with "because it's not as durable", your solution is "just be more gentle with it"

But really it's because when they print in bulk the cost per unit goes down, but maintaining an artificially high price is easier to justify to the consumer if it looks like a heavy, expensive hardcover

What I don't get is why not more companies have both hardcover and softcover books? I'm sure as shit not going to buy a 60 bucks hardcover book if I don't like it, but I picked up pretty much every softcover and hence cheap RPG up my FLGS had to offer, and when I really liked it I sometimes bought the hardcover on top.

In theory, yes, especially if you use cheap and shitty binding. On the other hand, I've seen more hardcover books with cracked spines than I can count.

Honestly, what the fuck do people DO with their books? It's not like I'm autistically anal about preserving my stuff and pretty much every soft and hardcover book I've used for gaming is fine, unless it was some incredibly shitty production that fell apart when you looked at it.

>why not more companies have both hardcover and softcover books?
I imagine they worry the two offerings will "cannibalize" one another, splitting consumers between the two without generating enough extra sales to justify the effort.

Personally, I wonder why more games companies don't do regularly-updated PDFs or other digital text media. Say, instead of just putting out errata documents, they could also give updated PDFs to buyers.

>Honestly, what the fuck do people DO with their books?
Bludgeon unruly players about the head and neck until they cooperate?

it's hard to charge 50 bucks for a paperback.

>Paperback
Falls apart within a year of intense use
>Hard-cover
Falls apart within a decade

Dunno, user. It's like you enjoy to waste money on useless shit.

Let me get this straight
You are supposed to read a book less to make it last for more?

Are you fucking insane?

I really don't understand what you people are doing to your books that makes you think they disintegrate. Just don't throw them around or hit people with them. Regular reading isn't supposed to damage a book at all.

i have a friend who likes to collect books, I don't even like borrowing books from him cause i'm destructive.

even he had to buy a second copy of deathwatch. (for the shelf)

Seems like reading isn't your strong point.

Leaving them open for extended periods of time on charts that need to be constantly referenced(a common feature in many game systems). This puts stress on the spine and a shittily bound book will fall apart. It's almost impossible for a paperback to have a strong enough spine to support that, especially when you consider what sizeable tomes most RPG rulebooks are. OF course it's still possible to fuck up the binding on a Hardback, see the 5e D&D PHB for example.

I carry my books around a lot as we play at different locations depending on what suits out group, so having a hardback is useful.

Plus, ours is very much a beer and pizza thing, so the added durability is very useful.

The real reason is money; people will spend more on a hardcover.

However, I imagine that fantasy players like the idea of possessing arcane tomes of ancient knowledge and a hardcover feels more like that - at least, it does to me. And since more rpg creators are also rpg players, I think that may play a small part of it.

In my experience. The 40k rpg books have horrible bindings.
The only rpg books ive ever had break down are ffg 40k ones.
Which is odd. Because ive never had an issue with their star wars books.

That's interesting, because I vastly prefer softcovers for their lighter weight when travelling and from my experience hardbacks tend to get damaged more if you carry them around a lot.

I carry them in a backpack along with my character sheet, which I keep in one of those big plastic folders with the hooped metal binder clasp things.

Hardbacks are also useful for leaning on if you need to make adjustments to your character sheet. We usually plan on sofas and cushions around a coffee table or something.

Paperbacks are more comfy, however.

Why not coil-bound? I have a copy of Basic Fantasy RPG that uses that binding and it's nice to have it lay flat for ready rules reference. Or heck, just do it like some college textbooks do and print the pages with pre-punched holes so people can stick the rules in binders.

For me I just pirate the PDFs and then have another company print them out. That way I get rid of the useless pages and get to add in stuff I might actually use.

Coil binding is very useful but looks like shit ESP on a book shelf. A well (properly) bound hardback will lay flat.