Don' t get me wrong, I love this book and always will. Typos don't annoy me too much. But I remember a while back when FFG released the uber map of the expanse. Lovely, by the way. Someone comented on the region of the "Accursed Demense". And how it should probably be spelled "Accursed Demesne" which I thought hey, that sounds like a typo! But then I thought well, hey, this is sci fi they can call it what ever the hell they want.Then I got the book. The first thing I notice is they DID change the name, in the Koronus Expanse background section to "Demesne!" YAY!

However...they did NOT change the map. That's the only thing that bothers me. That they HAD the opportunity to correct it, but...did'nt. But I'm sure they have thier reasons for that, and I'm sure an updated map will be forthcoming. Again, this is the only thing I've seen so far that irks me and am truly in love with this book! (The backgound is 10 out of 10 for coolness) FFG, I am a very happy customer. Thank you.

I haven't even seen this book yet, and believe some of the cristiscism levelled at FFG is pretty unwarrented and (often) rudely put, this could annoy me. I'll see it when I see it.

The book is large filled with a lot text. I love reading it. Yes there are typos, awkwardly a bit more in the latter chapters. As Warp Rift dictator I know typos is a b***h, but alas. I only found one very annoying typo in the RT book.

Bilateralrope said:

I agree.

And to all you people who take offense at any criticism of FFG to what you see as a trivial matter, know that most errata is caused by misunderstandings due to typos. It's not the Holy Bible and criticizing the typos is not blasphemy.

To me, it's like a beautiful painting upon which boogers were flicked. Unfortunately, the boogers have long-since dried, but the fact that it is still a beautiful painting does not absolve the painters who should have been more careful with their nasal hygiene. A slick, well-done, beautiful and professionally produced painting such as this should have as close to zero boogers as possible. It's annoying to us and professionally embarassing to the painter. That being said, just check the next painting more carefully is all.

One example, not of typos, but of bad proofreading is:

Command Bridge

Armored Bridge

and then on the next page on the chart: "Armored Command Bridge".

My players were confused and at one point tried to argue that if they bought an "Armored Command Bridge" they should get the benefits of both types of bridge for the low, low bargain price...

FFG have an attrocious record in this regard and if they really did pay a proofreader they ought to sue for breach of contract. I've offered to proofread for them and for other companies in the past and I've written material for other companies as well. There is no excuse for basic spelling errors, well known grammatical errors and the bane of writers, the homonym error. If their proofreader didn't spot the errors I've seen in Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader then I have to be blunt and say that they're not a competent proofreader.

I wouldn't pay the money that was being asked for the Collector's Edition with the errors I've seen in it still present, no matter how 'unqiue' it might make them.

I'm not sure why people are getting so worked up about the little typos. Surely we should be focusing on the real issue here...

Is it a Gellar field or a Geller field?

Page 201 thinks both in rapid succession. The only difference is that one is plural. Is it one Geller field, two Gellar fields?

Also the Ryza plasma battery uses less power if you use table 8-4 than on table 8-5.

Gaidheal said:

It's spelled atrocious.

Haha! It took me a full five minutes to figure out what you were on about! This is precisely why you proofread and pay someone who can and does do it. ;¬)

Jimmy - Gellar. That one goes way back to the original book, though I gave mine away recently to a good friend who will in fact be the GM for RT when we kick off in a week or two, so I can't dig up any reference for you. I also noticed the occasional "Geller" in there and wondered if someone was channeling Uri...

I don't mind variant spellings, really, as it is I routinely convert armour, favour and honour, on the fly, for example but one absolutely must be consistent when writing, in the same document at least, especially with a rulebook for a roleplaying game.

Sorry, Gaidheal, wasn't having a go, just thought it was amusing!

Typos ARE annoying, but they're not the end of the world. I have enough typos in my work to have some sympathy for them cropping up in other people's work! I've actually had a go at creating lots of DH stuff (full basic careers etc) and the repetitive nature of what you're doing does tend to create an environment in which typos are hard to spot.

Proof reading - in a perfect world - would be conducted by someone who knows as much about the subject you're writing about as you do, and who has as much time as is necessary to plough through your work and correct it all. In any sane work environment, this hardly ever happens.

I think FFG do a much better job than most. Of course there are errors, but they're not THAT egregious. Forge World produce fine books, but they tend to have about 3-4 times the number of typos per page as FFG stuff.

Oh, it was amusing, at least to me, but listen, we're talking professional work here (I do professional work myself, so I hold myself to these same standards for that, also) and I'm dyslexic, yet miraculously I mostly manage to produce well-written, grammatically correct and consistently spelt work. At least when I am paying attention, I might not always hold my forum postings to the same rigour. ;¬)

Remember that we're talking about a book that would have cost me more than a ton, if I'd been determined to have one (Collector's Edition with personalized warrant); there's simply no excuse for this when that kind of sum is involved and I really would have returned it and demanded a refund or reprint. I think I would be well within my rights to do so, too and I'm betting that a small claims court would agree, given the high status styling and matching price.

I've proofread legal documents, it was boring beyond belief but I didn't make egregious errors, to quote you, in fact I didn't make any errors in those and it's just as well because I would have been financially penalized, had I. Whilst it's nice if you enjoy the material you're reading it can even work the other way; you get involved in the content and simply read it, potentially missing faults, though for me spelling errors jar from metres away (it's a quirk, I know).

GW have always been utterly amateurish in their writing, in terms of presentation, spelling and content, sorry. FFG should definitely not be using their material as the benchmark.

A thought occurs ... If I had the time I'd dig through the original RT rulebook (1987) and the FFG one (2009) to compare them and see which one's heavier on the typos.

To be honest, FFG games books appear to be of a very high quality, yet they have a lot more typos than other roleplaying game books in my collection (or those of friends) and there used to be the issue with bad bindings as well. There's still room for FFG to improve imo.

I'm pretty much certain that the older ones were worse; the original Rogue Trader is the source of so much of the bad and silly 'Latin' in the 40K setting, for example, partly because of simple typos or spelling errors on the part of the writer.

Oh, I don't know that all typos are bad. There's a priceless one in the 1st ed BL DH book where they're talking about "hive scum", only someone put the s on the end of "hive" and then a space. The mental images that one slip conjured are not easily forgotten.

Yes, there are a few typos in RT. No, they probably shouldn't be there (even though, as people have observed, I fully agree that proofreading something so long must be a nightmare, and as you make last minute changes, or even instigate the corrections the proofreader has given you, you may even introduce some new errors). Personally, it's no big thing for me. It just makes your eye catch on the odd, incorrect sentence.

If we get more gems like the DH ones, though, I would contend that maybe it's all worthwhile...

Deadline247 said:

I can't spot a period in the wrong font, but man, I'm sort of jealous of the woman who can. I'm a professional copywriter and editor, and some of the stupid typos in Rogue Trader made my internal red pen twitch.

Honestly, I'd work for cheap (my regular rates compared to what is probably industry standard) if it got me a byline in a 40k book.

No argument. Spelling is important.