Years ago I bought a three hole-punched MRB and put it in a regular black page binder. Reading the thing is a chore -- it's much too heavy and some of the pages in the back are starting to become separated.
Finding myself with some extra cash (a rare occurrence) I've been toying with the idea of ordering an unpunched MRB and having the thing bound at Kinko's. Probably spiral bound. I'm thinking this will cut down on the weight (no binder) and allow me to leave it open at any particular page more easily.
I'm open to suggestions, though. How is your MRB stored?
Scanned in and OCR'd
Then it's full text search. It's the only good way to do it.
Well, actually, its my back up. My original scan and search technique required no technology and is still in pretty good shape.
Kinko's spiral-bound, works
Kinko's spiral-bound, works great.
I did this, but as I was
I did this, but as I was unemployed at the time, I took it a step or two further, I took out all the blank white space, "shuffled" everything together in order, added the errata available at the time, and produced a rulebook somewhere in the range of 1200 pages after all of the scenarios, R sections, and annexes.
Then I made two copies, one was a hard copy to put in a binder, and the other is a pdf version with all of the cross-references hotlinked together. (Where it says "See (X.X) for an exception", clicking on it takes you to (X.X)). I keep the CD (which also has scans of the SSD's) in the front pocket of the binder so I can print what I need wherever I'm at.
Of course, if SVC knew about this...or did I say too much?
What are the rules...
"Of course, if SVC knew about this...or did I say too much?"
Can you make a photocopy/scan of your stuff as a legitimate backup if you dont share it with anyone else?
With CDs I believe you can, but are the paper copyright laws the same?
Two rulebooks
Since I never play anything but Tournament SFB, I took my MRB and separated out only the material needed for Tournament. That is in a 3-hole punch binder.
All the other MRB pages are in a separate, larger 3hp binder with my old Captain's rules. If I were as hardcore as some of you guys, I'd buy a brand new full MRB. But, again, since I doubt I'll ever play any non-Tournament SFB again, I don't see the need.
Chris, dude... Now that's a labor of love... You're crazy, but I guess that's another example of the truism that "Love makes you do crazy things sometimes"...
Trust me, a lot of it was
Trust me, a lot of it was boredom. I had to have something to do.
I wouldn't do it again. It was pretty much the entire set up until R10, F1 and 2, J2. The only things I don't have are Omega, Magellanic, and anything after R10. You'd think I'd know the rules better after that.
I did start another project about a year later, which was to take the SSD's, and edit in the year in service dates, explosion strength and required escorts directly on the sheets to make planning a fleet more convenient. I made it through the Klingons and I think Romulans...
Now you see why I keep trying to find players, I've put a lot into this thing. Too much to give up on it.
Dude !
"I did start another project about a year later, which was to take the SSD's, and edit in the year in service dates, explosion strength and required escorts directly on the sheets to make planning a fleet more convenient. I made it through the Klingons and I think Romulans..."
Check out SFBOL. Gives you that info on all the SSDs. If you ever find any which dont have it, you look up the data, send it off to the SFBOL guy and he updates it.
Magic !
NERDS!
To quote Ogre from Revenge of The Nerds ;)
I have my MRB and module A in a 3 ring binder along with a couple laminated pages with various charts like weapons arming cycles and Klingon special phaser arcs. The handiest of these by far is the psuedo speed calculation chart which is perhaps the most useful SFB play aid ever created IMO.
The rest of my crap is in a large plastic tub in my closet next to my guitars and stuff.
You can do it legally....
if you don't distribute it in any way. Digital media may be copied for archive purposes, one coy each. Again, you cannot distribute it in any way...... it doesn't matter whether or not you take money.
I haven't distributed it. I
I haven't distributed it. I haven't even given copies to my friends. They appreciated when I brought it with, though. Search function helps tons, so does hyperlinking.
Hardbound Rulebook
To the person who split his rulebook up and 3 hole punched it I'll go one further. Back about 15 years ago I made (and sold with the permission of SVC) copies of the doomsday rulebook HARDBOUND. I still have mine (as I'm sure some of the others out there still do. I never made much money (like maybe $500 for the entire time I was doing it not to mention the HOURS standing at the copy machine) but it was a labor of love that many appreciated.
I still wonder if SVC would be willing to get me proofs and do it again.. but I think all of those ships have sailed. I'm much more casual about my play even now (not to mention the 9 year hiatus from the game).
yes, Love does make us do strange things.
Tom (aka Eric the Silent)
I've got a copy I bought off
I've got a copy I bought off Mike Raper a few years back. Pride of my collection. Nice work!