D&D 5E So why no PDFs? Is their fear of piracy -that- bad?

[DEFCON 1]

Except the actual core rules aren't on the site. I have gone there raring to buy all the core books. Nothing. They are losing sales left and right from me because I simply can't find them. I want them, I want them to take my money but I just can't find the RULES I need to run those hundreds of PDFs you mentioned. It seems like they want to LOOK like they are trying but not actually putting up the stuff people want. Every edition for everyone? Yeah I guess If you have the printed rules to run those editions.

Nope. They don't care. They really don't care about you. Sorry, but that's the truth and you have to accept it. All of you who refuse to buy the books or pay for Dungeonscape... they threw you a bone by putting the Basic Game online for free... but that's it. That's all you get. If you don't like that... tough. You can go back to playing Pathfinder if PDFs matter that much to you. Or else you can do the final thing as you mentioned and buy a book, rip it apart, and scan it in yourself.

There's really no point in complaining about it though, because they know some of you want that and *only* that. It's been made perfectly clear to them. All throughout 4th edition they heard it... and now into 5th. But they - don't - care. They don't want your money that badly. Maybe they don't want to eat in to possible Dungeonscape subscriptions. Maybe they don't want more PDFs easily downloadable. Maybe it's not that they fear individual people pirating the books so much as they don't want game tables to just buy one PDF and then email it to all of their friends in the group. Who knows.

But regardless of how many times people scream it or call them names saying they have horrible business sense... it doesn't matter. They aren't going to give it to you. Not any time soon. So if you want to play 5E that badly, "give them your money" by buying a book... scan the book yourself... and then put the book in a three-ring-binder so now you have a PDF and a book in your hands.

Cause that's really your only option and it ain't changing any time soon.

 

[Wrathamon]

Aren't the rules there to play for free? You really need every class and race to play? PHB is a splat book for the basic rules pdf imo.

 

[mips42]

WOTC have said, at least twice, that they are wanting to evaluate what is the best choice: A full-color line-by-line copy of the book in PDF format; a stripped down, text-only (E.G. Basic) version; or something in between those two. They have also said that they are evaluating PDF as a format in general vs. e-book or some other format.
I would guess that they are currently focused on getting the DMG and HotDQ part 2 to the printers. I would also guess that they are waiting to evaluate how well Dungeonscape handles the content and how well it does so that they are not undercutting their own tools.
I DO think that, at some point, there will be option outside of print or DS, I just don't know what it is at this time.
Personally, I prefer the dead-tree version, YMMV of course.

 

[Kaychsea]

They are losing sales left and right from me because I simply can't find them.

Wow! How many copies were you going to buy? Must have been more that one?

 

[Hannerdyn]

My guess is they'll give you access to the rules in electronic form online with DungeonScape, it will be web-based and not a pdf format. That way they can update the game in real time, you can set your own bookmarks. Text and tables only so you can access it from anywhere and on any device. You want all that fancy-pants artwork? Buy the book.

Their main concentration right now is the books. That's where they'll make their money.

 

[Evenglare]

Uh, all core core rules from 1e, 2e, 3e, 4e and 5e. That's at least 15 PDFs I'd buy. Not sure why you insinuate I would buy more than one copy?

 

[Fion]

Funny thing is there are PDF's out there available for basically.. everything. They just aren't legal. I've got several, but only what I own in book format. I find having PDF's is just too useful not to grab them.

 

[Jester David]

I think piracy has something to do with the decision.


It's one thing to sell PDFs of old products, where you've already made all your profits and any sales are a bonus. You know that piracy isn't cutting into those sales.
It's another to sell PDfs of books you have for sale at this very moment.


I don't think the D&D team believes piracy is an issue. But Mearl's has been vague on the issue. He's danced around PDFs coming out or not, and tried to spin it as a positive thing: they don't want to release PDFs and then realize the market has changed; they don't want people buying digital access twice; they don't want to steal Trapdoor Tech's thunder; they don't want to just release a straight version of the book when a modified version might be more effective.


This suggests Mearl's wants to say more but can't, or he'd be direct. Which suggests the decision rests above him, with one of the layers of upper management. One of the ex-Hasbro suits that likely knows very little about the business of publishing books, let alone RPG books.
And they're probably worried about piracy.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I think they're not so much worried about BitTorrent as email - since d&d is played by small closely-knit groups of nerds, it would be almost second nature for them to split the cost of PDFs and share them.

This isn't an issue for Pathfinder, where most of the rules are in the SRd and they make their money off adventure paths that only the DM has to buy and splatbooks that only one or two players in a given group will care about.

 

[Jester David]

If WotC was too terrified of piracy to release stuff in pdf format, they wouldn't be seinf hundreds of PDFs at dndclassics.com.

Ergo, piracy has nothing to do with it. When they said they didn't want to undermine DungeonScape maybe - just maybe - that was the truth.

Piracy was the issue a few years ago. Different people in charge now, and they clearly hold a different view.

But do they have many core rulebooks on DnDClassics? I remember the Rules Cyclopedia, but not many others. They seem to mostly focus on setting material and adventures.