D&D 5E Does 5E have to be available as a PDF for you to consider buying it?

[Lord Vangarel]

For me, gone are the days of lugging huge quantities of books to the game session. Nowadays I use a tablet and will print out one or two sheets I need for the adventure. I also use a website to track campaign notes, again from my tablet.

I've become very used to using pdf's to access my library of books, and whilst I like the dead tree version at home, for me at the table it has to be electronic.

So for me, if Next doesn't support pdf, and the pdf's aren't significantly less expensive than the hardbacks, then I probably won't buy into it.

What about the rest of you?

 

[delericho]

No. In fact, I'm the opposite - it needs to be available in print or I won't buy it.

That said, I'll readily agree that anything that can be made available in suitable electronic forms (including, but not limited to, PDFs) should be made available in those forms.

 

[Cadence]

So for me, if Next doesn't support pdf, and the pdf's aren't significantly less expensive than the hardbacks, then I probably won't buy into it.

What about the rest of you?

I might buy a $9.95 of the PhB even if we weren't playing it (could even go $14.95 PDF like the 13th Age sale was). If someone in our group wanted to run and it was more expensive, I'd just borrow their book until it proved itself and looked like it would be used for more than just that one game. I've got too many other priorities in life now that could use the cash.

 

[Plaguescarred]

No, but i'd greatly appreciate if there was PDF release as they are useful to read on portable devices.

 

[Blackbrrd]

I would appreciate having the rules in PDF format, but I would prefer something better suited to use on a tablet.

 

[MasterTrancer]

R: Does 5E have to be available as a PDF for you to consider buying it?

For me, gone are the days of lugging huge quantities of books to the game session. Nowadays I use a tablet and will print out one or two sheets I need for the adventure. I also use a website to track campaign notes, again from my tablet.

I've become very used to using pdf's to access my library of books, and whilst I like the dead tree version at home, for me at the table it has to be electronic.

So for me, if Next doesn't support pdf, and the pdf's aren't significantly less expensive than the hardbacks, then I probably won't buy into it.

What about the rest of you?

A PDF option is absolutely a must for me currently, both for ease of consultation and storing.

 

[seregil]

Yes and no.

I will probably buy a paper copy of the PHB to take a look at 5E, mainly to encourage my FLGS. Considering my 4e experience, that is about as far as I am willing to go with "automatic" purchases. If 5E doesn't blow me away, it will get tossed on the pile of 4E books and I will continue with Pathfinder.

However, I personally think I should get a PDF version with the purchase of the paper book, similar to what Pathfinder does. Put a scratch-and-snif key code in the book or something.

Make the PDF available for separate purchase too, but if I buy the paper copy, I should get the PDF automaticaly.

Do I expect this to happen? I don't know. Paizo does it but Paizo has shown to be MUCH smarter than WOTC in recent years. The sheer inertia of WOTC/Hasbro (the later being the bigger issue) will probably mean they will resist electronic version as much as they can. My one reason to hope is the dnd classics being released in PDF format. Maybe someone at Hasbro will suddenly understand that PDF are (almost) pure profit once the R&D for the initial book has been paid for and act accordingly, but don't hold your breath.

My 0,02$ CDN.

 

[Lokiare]

It has to do quite a few things before I even consider the issue of PDF or no PDF for me to buy it.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I haven't used actual physical books to run a game in years. Maybe around 2009? That includes character creation, prep, and actually running a game. I can't imagine going back to physical books. It just wouldn't be convenient, as I do much of my game prep away from home, and thus my book collection. I have physical copies, but I just use those for casual reading, not actual game prep/play.

I hadn't even thought of this, really. I kind of take for granted that the RPGs I've bought and played in the last few years have had PDFs (or the DDI) that I can throw on my Google Drive and access whenever I need to look something up. I really hope they have PDFs.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Nope. I'll be buying the books regardless.

On top of that... rather than PDFs, I'd much rather have the rules in website format a la the DDI Compendium. Searching for rules and design choices through the Compendium is much easier for me than flipping through the bookmarks of a PDF, plus I have access to the website from any computer, rather than needing to save the PDFs on my Dropbox account and access them that way.