Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

How do!

So Warhammer World just sold through their available stock of the Realms of Chaos reprints. But they still have Rogue Trader in stock.

For those unaware, these are pretty much straight up reprints of some of the very original and very, very best background GW has ever put out in the history of ever.

Like all early GW stuff, it was rough around the edges, but full of sheer creativity. Not “sod it, throw it all in” rough around the edges. Just stuff that was later refined into the background we all know today. And they are glorious reads. I’m lucky enough to have a complete set, and yes my Realms of Chaos books are reprints.

The reprints themselves kind of come and go from Warhammer World, but irritatingly without warning or pattern. So even if you’re making the pilgrimage with money in hand (at £40 a copy, I’d say they’re quite reasonably priced compared to seeking the originals), you’re far from guaranteed of snaffling copies.

But I see the fact they sell out really quickly as a good sign. Obviously not if you missed out. But a good sign there is a market for them. Hell, given how much more widespread GW is these days, I don’t think it would take long for them to sell more reprints than they sold on the original release all those decades ago.

So….why not just do a Print on Demand run? With the books and covers being all typeset and printable, the production costs are going to be fairly minimal after all. So let the dog see the rabbit and let everyone who wants one order one? Perhaps do one per quarter or one per month for maximum affordability, without overly denting money for your general pre-orders and new releases.

And why stop there? Sure not every historic volume would have the same market - but I’m pretty sure there’s plenty Boyz who’d go doolally for a Waaaargh! The Orks! reprint, spesh if you do it with ‘Ere We Go and Freebooterz.

Even if you need to create the print files from scratch, we know they have copies of those books in Nottingham. So it wouldn’t take much effort to scan and prep for a printer, surely? There’s even a chance that somewhere, they’ve got the original printing plates which could be used to create a copy for scanning.

Just…give us more of this please. And let anyone who wants one have a chance of getting their choice without scalpers getting a look in.

Heck even a rabid GW not liker such as myself would give them cash moneys for a copy of the red realms of Chaos book, my original was so heavily used it was largey held together by electrical tape, pva, and eventually rubber bands from the sheer page flipping early 90's Turnip subjected it too, didn't need all that fancy warcry stuff, just roll some dice and have at it with warbands

I agree that these should be available. GW rereleased the Ian Watson novels as print-on-demand, didn't they? I acknowledge that reprinting full color rulebooks is harder than just your average novel, of course.

I actually would love the old Liber Chaotica series, Dark Heresy 1st edition, and the old Forgeworld campaign books too.

As someone who recently got back into 40K, and just all the 40K rulebooks, replacing the ones from RT to 5th Edition that I had, then lost, and 6th through 9th that I never had, I wholeheartedly agree. I still need to get the supplements like Realms of Chaos, Lost and the Damned, Dark Millennium, and the various compendiums and Chapter Approveds. I'm not even going to attempt to get all the Codexes I used to have.

But then people would see how bad the current books are by comparison...

I wish we could order these - I had RT and the two Realm of Chaos books when I started playing 40k.

I think there's a lot of rose-tinted specs and nostalgia though if you think the books were better back then. They were predominantly black and white and the rules weren't as well thought out. They did have a lot of character though which the current books lack.