The Crime: Destruction of a book of forbidden lore needed in an ongoing Inquisitorial Investigation.

The Heretic: Mr. Graves, arch-Apostate of the Jessemine Marches. Pictograph image follows.

A week ago I left my copy of Disciples of The Dark Gods on my bedside table after a pleasant evening's reading and went to sleep. I was awakened several hours later when my cat, the aformentioned Mr. Graves, pushed the book off the bedside table, sending it to the floor with a resounding *thud* All well and good, except that when the book struck the floor it came free of it's bindings.

After a moment of crimson rage a thought occoured to me. I actually know how to bind books, and I've long wanted to rebind an RPG sourcebook into a new cover more fitting to it's contents. This was my opportunity. So I have dedicated myself to making a new cover for Disciples of The Dark Gods and rebinding the pages into said cover. I will share some of the process and all of the results here. But first, a dramatic recreation of the initial unbinding of the book.

Step 1)

The first thing that needed to be done was to cut the pages free of the remaining bindings, in this case the map on the inside back cover. This was accomplished with a razor and a steady hand. After a few delicate swipes the pages were free of the cover and ready to be rebound.

Step 2)

Now comes my favorite part. Time to make the new cover. The primary material for the new cover is 1/4 inch foam core board, and versatile material that I first used to make wargame terrain. The cut sections shown below will eventually become the front and back covers and the new spine of the book. They have been scaled so that when the whole thing is put together it will have the same dimensions as the original cover.

Step 3)

I always make the spine at this point for two reasons. First, it's just good to get the tedious work out of the way. Second, if you don't get the spine right then the pages will not fit and you'll have to go at it again. A good strong spine is important, and hot glue and foam core will not be separated when combined properly.

I'd like to talk a moment about the cover. I wanted to do something that looked good and also communicated something sinister in the 40K vein. My initial inclination was to make the cover look like an inquisitors journal, but I realized that a book of Chaos lore would be more fitting considering much of the contents of Disciples. I would need a fierce chaos icon emblazoned on the cover, one rendered with mathematical precision. I took my favorite rendition of the wheel of chaos and transfered it to foam core board by using a needle to punch holes through all the key points in the design. Then, using these pinholes as a guide, the icon was cut free of the board.

More on this project as it develops. In the next installment we'll see the cover bound together and decorated.

Cool. This is an awesome tutorial for those of us wanting our hardback copy of Vehicles Apocrypha, all 20 pages of it.

I might have to make that a future project. Binding the vehicle rules into a Cult Mechanicus prayer book. If so, I'll include templates others can use as a guide.

I've foolishly passed over this thread for a few days, unaware of what was contained within. This is most interesting and awesome, and I'm looking forward to seeing the project progress.

Eeeeeevilish cat

Well this does make my trip to Kinko's to cut and spiral bind my BL copies of IH and PtU seem rather mundane.

I am eager to see your finished project.

-Cynr

Very useful! I am now tempted to make a book out of my many many pages of notes, hints and death traps for my PC's! Thanks for posting it, I think it will get dropped into the eternal depths of my bookmarks, for when I can get round to it!

What an excellent thread!

The question that I have at the moment is whether the new cover is going to be Arch-Heretic Mr. Graves-proof or not?

Kage

Mr. Graves proof? Possibly. The pages are going to be more tightly bound into the new spine, and a fare amount glue is going to be used to secure the whole thing. He could still damage the cover itself, but that would be more superficial and only likely to make the book appear more aged and disturbing.

I'm please with the feedback I've been getting this early in the project. I expect to have some new photos and the next step of the process posted by Wednesday.

Attila-IV said:

LOL. Now wouldn't it be cool if this type of distressing of the book was done in such a way that it appeared that something was trying to get out ?

And don't forget that it needs a lock! All tomes of frightening horror need a lock. It's almost akin to every "mad scientists laboratory" requiring dry ice/liquid nitrogen, and glass-ware full of bubbling liquids of varying colours...

Kage

That is destructively awesome.

Cynr, mind postin some pics of that spiral bound? I'm very curious.

Kage2020 said:

And indeed, what better way to achieve this effect that to actually bind something wanting to get out in there. I say glue Mr. Graves in there as punishment.

I also second the "sinister book needs a lock" and "awesome thread" proposals.

My original design for an Inquisitor's journal did contain a lock, but I don't think I'll include one. The contents of a book like this want to be read. Though I might do something with a purity seal. I'll consider the lock for the Cult Mechanicus Apocrypha Vehiculum.

Figured this thread for being another one complaining about the binding of FFG, clicked on a whim, was blown away by awesome.

Yes, we are all eagerly awaiting more pics.

Snidesworth said:

Likewise. Only I though this thread was about rules for actually Binding (as in confining, restricting or otherwise compelling) Dark Gods (as in Nurgle, Khorne ect.) thus I simply ignored it for a good while. Don't I feel foolish.

Part 4)

Binding the pages to the spine is easy, but takes a steady hand. All you need is some thick, wide masking tape. This is something of a cheat that works really well with foam core books you intend to hand texture. All you need are 4 pieces of tape about a half inch or more longer than the book is tall. Affix the tape firmly to the inside and outside of the spine, and again to the front and back cover. Make sure the covers are not in direct contact with the spine. About a quarter of an inch should do it. Work the cover open and close and the strips of tape with stick to each other through the gap making an effective hinge.

Part 5)

It's at this point that I began texturing the cover. There are a lot of ways to add a good feel to a cover. Leather and cloth are one way, but I decided to go with hand textured modeling paste. I first used this material when making wargame terrain. It's great for creating natural and artificial stone texture. I used to use it to give bunkers the look and feel of concrete. The last time I used it for a book cover I was with a prop Necronomicon a few years ago. When painted properly the cover looked like iron that had "grown" into the shape of a book. But for Disciples I wanted to go for something different. Taking a healthy amount of modeling gel on my fingertips, I dabbed the cover repeatedly, always going diagonally. When this is all painted it should make the cover look like it was made from the hide of a xenos beast from an obscure world.

Note: Before dabbing the modeling gel on the cover I traced the contours of the chaos icon. Leaving this area untextured is going to make it much easier to affix the icon later.

Part 6)

Then I had a change of plans. The front cover of the book was looking good, but I didn't want to leave the back cover looking blank and bland. It came to me that just as my copy of Disciples was perverted by a dark thing, so too did I want this tome to look like it had a similar history. Like a book of daemonic lore kept by the Inquisition that was eventually acquired and turned to the purposes of the servants of the ruinous powers. While the front cover would scream "Book of Chaos Sorcery" the back cover would hint at a corrupted inquisitorial journal. And nothing says inquisitorial like The Seal.

But no warp-fearing servant of Chaos could have an Imperial icon without desecrating it. So the icon on the back of this book will be defiled, broken, shattered, just as the sorcerer hopes to one day shatter the entire organization of the Inquisition.

Part 7)

With the cover bound and both sides textured in anticipation of their respective icons, the inevitable happened. The one drawback to foam-core bored is that it is susceptible to warping. This makes it an unsuitable base for most kinds of wargame terrain. It also means special care must be taken when using it to make a book cover. Modeling gel only serves to increase the amount of warpage.

Don't try to bend the cover back into shape unless you want the book to look like it has suffered under the hands of some very rough readers. I've found the best thing you can do is subject the warped parts of the cover to steady, long term pressure. All you need is a flat surface and several pounds. Of books. No money is needed.

It's going to take a day or two of this treatment to bend the cover back into shape. Plenty of time to get those icons painted.

Call and Response:

In regards to the title of this thread, it's a habit of mine. I like titles that tell you exactly what the text contains without telling you anything about what the post is about. Hopefully it didn't keep too many people away.

On the subject of the quality of bindings in RPGs, I never complain about the binding on my RPG books. But I will praise exceptional binding. While I wend to refill my soda one of my players in the weekly game stole my laser pointer and started toying with Mr. Graves. As I returned to the table Graves pounced on the glowing green dot where it wobbled on the Dark Heresy core book. There was a repeat of the actions that led to my rebinding of Disciples , but in this case the core book was completely unscathed. Now that's some good binding. Also, the binding on my copy of Anima: exquisite!

I am enjoying this thread. I also enjoy seeing Mutant Chronicles aid you in binding this book.

It's not just Mutant Chronicles. ShadowRun is helping out as well. I tapped all the techno-fantasy greats for this project. And speaking of help . . .

Mr. Graves is doing his part to consecrate the book he once defiled.

I hope it isn't just the picture, and that his eyes are actully glowing

Looking good so far! Can't wait to see the final product.

The Chaos icon is painted. The shattered Inquisition icon is drying as I type.

Excellent thread mate but I am afraid I haven't quite followed Step 4.

How exactly do you do this?

Looking down the spine, the process should look something like this:

This is becoming my favourite thread on this board to date.