White Dwarf Compendium?

[INKS]

Have they ever done a book or product that has ALL the previous White Dwarf's from over the years? I looked around a bit and wasn't able to fine anything. There are particular ones I am looking for and to be honest I would buy a product like this. 

 

Ex: Here is a White Dwarf book on all the Batreps they've ever done

Here is a book on all the lore

Here is a book on all the painting tips

etc etc. Or maybe just a series that covers issues 1-100 and 101-200 and so on.

[Bryan Blaire]

My only recollection of something like this was the Index Astartes collections that were done. IIRC there were like 4-5 Chapters per collection, and some additional material, like “Making of a Space Marine.” Nothing that has all of portion or whole magazines from years of content - even the IA stuff was specific articles from a specific period, more like “batreps from issues 101-106”, etc.

[The Yncarne]

There was a compendium and compilation in the Rogue Trader days. But BB's Index Astartes mention is the only thing I recall at hand.

[INKS]

I appreciate the feedback. Damn. Well they need to make such a product. :P

[Closet Skeleton]

3rd ed era Chapter approved columns got collected and the rules from more recent White Dwarfs ends up in books but battle reports and misc articles generally don't get reprinted.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I appreciate the feedback. Damn. Well they need to make such a product.

They've previously been asked to make the full WD back-catalogue available as a digital product, but they've said that it'd take too much work to optimise them correctly for digital consumption (this was despite the person asking saying a PDF is fine, and generating a PDF from a DTP application should be easy ...)

 

(I can't remember whether that was on Warhammer Community or in a recentish White Dwarf)

Edited May 15, 2020 by Firedrake Cordova

[Grand Master Laertes]

 

 

I appreciate the feedback. Damn. Well they need to make such a product.

They've previously been asked to make the full WD back-catalogue available as a digital product, but they've said that it'd take too much work to optimise them correctly for digital consumption (this was despite the person asking saying a PDF is fine, and generating a PDF from a DTP application should be easy ...)

 

(I can't remember whether that was on Warhammer Community or in a recentish White Dwarf)

Consider that each issue is composed by many files, so you'd have to generate 10+pdfs for issue and merge them together. Multiply it for the number of released issues and add the fact that surely gw changed its dpt software more than once in the years, and that the oldest files might be read correctly by the latest versions of the software... So, yeah, it is NOT easy at all, and it would be extremely time-consuming

[Firedrake Cordova]

Consider that each issue is composed by many files, so you'd have to generate 10+pdfs for issue and merge them together. Multiply it for the number of released issues and add the fact that surely gw changed its dpt software more than once in the years, and that the oldest files might be read correctly by the latest versions of the software... So, yeah, it is NOT easy at all, and it would be extremely time-consuming

I take your point on the version compatibility, but otherwise I guess we'll have to disagree, as it's not been my experience (scripting/automation to the rescue).  Of course, it may be that GW no longer has the source files, or a licence for the software to open them (or it doesn't work on a modern operating system, etc) ...

Edited May 15, 2020 by Firedrake Cordova

[Warhead01]

The compendium, if you will, I liked the most was the collection of Battle reports put out some time during 2nd edition.  I think those battle reports had far more work put into them than most of the reports I've read from the WD in the last 4 or 5 years and it came with a card stock bunker as well. A nice bonus. 

[Brother Bish]

It’s been years since I worked for Games Workshop on the Studio Web Team, I left in 2008, but at that time most of the older White Dwarf back catalog was not available digitally. We had a CD library of scans we could refer too, but they were not the best quality and would not have been something you could use for a real release. I don’t know if in the years that have past since, if they have made better scans, but it would be a huge undertaking to scan every page of every non-digitally produced White Dwarf.

 

They have however done some new scans of various articles for different publications, so a good example of what you would be getting is the “Apocrypha” books they released around 2016. Even the re-releases is the Original Rogue Trader book and the Slaves to Darkness books that were available at Warhammer World were scans of the original books, since the originals were made long before the books were laid out digitally. They look ok, but just not as crisp as the originals and the Rogue Trader book was overly dark which can be a side effect of the scanning and reprinting process.

[ThePenitentOne]

In 2019, I think all WD BSF articles made it into the BSF annual.

 

Ditto KT.

 

Some WD also made it into PA- the Ynari list, and I suspect the Assassins and SoS stuff that's coming will be similar to the 2019 WD articles, though hopefully they have some additional content.

 

I will never pay for another digital GW product until they make it available in a format that works on a computer. I've tried 5 different epub readers and nothing works well.

I don't consider the money wasted- now I know. I also consider the license to the content paid for when I bought the epub as legal grounds for downloading an illegal PDF which works better for my needs.

Edited May 15, 2020 by ThePenitentOne

[LameBeard]

The Slaves to Darkness and Rogue Trader show that there is a market for some of this intensive rescanning and pdf creation work, but I guess White Dwarfs (Dwarves?), with their adverts and all, might not be high on the priority list.  On DrivethruRPG you can buy (legally!) scans of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay first edition materials - e.g. The Enemy Within, Doomstones etc, so this isn't far-fetched.

 

I personally like my 'Best of White Dwarf' for Lord of the Rings from the early 2000s - very useful for someone who wasn't really playing the other games at that time (yeah, I relapsed into them since).