What Makes Gaming Books as PDFs Desirable?

[Umbran]

And I'd add that as long as you back them up properly, they'll last forever (no wear and tear, no spilled soda stains and dorrito's fingerprints,...).

Yes and no. For one thing, bitrot does happen, it is just slow. Burned CDs do have a finite lifetime, don't tolerate rough handling.

More importantly, file formats change. The pdf you buy today may not be read by the common document readers in use ten years from now.

 

[IronWolf]

I like PDFs for their portability. Currently I am away from home and books, but I loaded up the laptop with PDFs of things to run a play-by-post while I am gone and enough PDFs to kick off a Kingmaker Campaign with my pen and paper group. This is a great thing.

I can copy and paste stat blocks into MapTool and use the statblock2token took to generate tokens with stats in record time with reasonable accuracy. I can create battlemaps in MapTool or Paint.Net if I have the PDF as well very quickly.

I still do like hardback books, as I do find them easier to read and flip through the pages, but with Paizo, if I subscribe I get the hardback book delivered as it comes out and a PDF copy for free. So all my needs are met. Works really well for me.

Things like the iPad (and hopefully some similarly designed, less expensive devices) will only make reading a PDF on the screen that much easier.

 

[Stoat]

Upsides.

1. Pdf's are easy to store because they don't take up physical space, and they don't use significant amounts of computer memory.

2. Pdf's don't wear out the same way physical books do. Every time I open my copy of I6, it gets a little closer to oblivion. A pdf of I6 will last as long as the format is supported.

3. Pdf's are are harder to lose, and they're always at hand. I tend to misplace hard copies, particularly smaller books like short modules.

Downsides

1. Sooner or later, .pdf won't be a supported format anymore. If I keep my books dry, and handle them carefully, they'll last practically forever.

2. Pdfs because tend to be jumpy and laggy when I scroll through them. I can't put a thumb or a piece of scrap paper in a pdf and then flip back to that page. These make pdf's something of a pain in the ass to read.

3. Scans of older products are not always searchable, and are usually not bookmarked.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

For older editions, they make it possible for people to get older products that they couldn't afford as kids but can now as an employed adult - without requring a new and probably too expensive print run for the publisher.

Cut and paste. I can crib out the stats for a creature in the Pathfinder Bestiary and modify it for my game. Most of the stat block work is done.

Putting the PDFs on the iPad makes it a lot easier to tote plenty of sources around without breaking a back lugging the milk crate full of heavy paper.

A well-done PDF, like the Pathfinder Core book, has links so when an spell-like ability is referenced, I can use the link to go right to the spell description. It rocks.

With a PDF adventures, I can run adventures off a screen without breaking the binding of my print editions if the adventure takes a fairly long time to complete.

These days if an RPG book isnt available in PDF it's a no sale for me.

I do most of my prep on my computer. PDF's make it easier to break adventures I run down into sections to copy/paste and modify statblocks, to give myself reminders of special abilities / defenses of said monsters and NPC's.

I can extract images from them and print them out. This is especially great for introducing NPC's and giving my players a visual of a city, NPC's, monsters, crests, seals and maps. Thanks to a PDF I was able to print out a large form map (printed in several pieces and taped together) of Korvosa (from Curse of the Crimson Throne) and bring it to my session while leaving the map that came with the actual book at home. Something happes to the real map I'm SOL, something happens to the PDF map? Print and tape up another one.

If I had to run a game without PDF's I probably wouldn't run games anymore. I mean I could but they make my life so much easier.

 

[coyote6]

With a tiny thumb drive and a laptop/netbook/tablet, I can carry an entire game line with me without breaking my back. If there's a computer wherever I'm going, I can even skip the laptop/etc., and just bring a couple of ounces of flash memory.

Way easier than trying to bring 4 or 5 hardback books, or more.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I actually prefer hardcopies of core rules, etc, for referencing and browsing, but PDFs are really nice when organizing or creating gaming material. PDFs are usually cheaper, take up less space, and are extremely portable-- which means I can have more of them. I also appreciate cut'n'paste and search functionality, which greatly speeds up prep.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Yes and no. For one thing, bitrot does happen, it is just slow. Burned CDs do have a finite lifetime, don't tolerate rough handling.

More importantly, file formats change. The pdf you buy today may not be read by the common document readers in use ten years from now.

I had PDF's in Adobe 5, I just imported them and resaved them into current releases. All is well. Long as you keep up your maintance it is not hard to keep your files forever.

With a tiny thumb drive and a laptop/netbook/tablet, I can carry an entire game line with me without breaking my back. If there's a computer wherever I'm going, I can even skip the laptop/etc., and just bring a couple of ounces of flash memory.

Way easier than trying to bring 4 or 5 hardback books, or more.

Yup that is a huge advantage of PDFs. While I prefer the dead trees for around the house, most of my planning comes on my commute bus rides (about 3 1/2 hours per workday) where space is a premium and a laptop with PDF's are the ideal way to do so.
Cut and paste the desired pages into Word(or any other doc you want) and make your own notes.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

A dynamically reflowing format for game books would be awesome. This would make it possible to have a comfortable read or reference on any device -- even one as small as a smart-phone.

PDF -- a format specifically designed to maintain pagination (and thus unform printing) across platforms-- is an utterly ridiculous standard for e-books, and it's amazing that gamers have been so willing to embrace and defend it.

That said, it's cheap for publishers to provide and an easy format from scanning, which goes some distance to explaining it. I personally appreciate the fact that Paizo gives me free PDFs ... but I'd appreciate a more more portable, more useable format even more. (Even to the point of paying something for it.)

 

[Shades of Green]

Good PDFs are searchable and better ones are hypertext. This makes looking up rules much easier.

Also, it saves shipping, which, for me, is quite expensive, and overcomes the limits of physical-store inventories. Essentially, I can get any book available as PDF for the cover price without adding a significant amount of shipping costs and without being limited to whatever selection a particular game-store carries.

 

[Scribble]

Not only the ability to search in my opinion, but also Cut and Paste.

Who wants to re-type a bunch of stats when you can just paste them there?

I build most of my adventures when I DM on the computer. The ability to cut and paste elements I need from the book right onto the adventure notes is a godsend.