D&D 5E Where are the PDFs?

[Bugleyman]

So...the PHB was officially released yesterday but, still no PDFs. Not even a straight answer on PDFs. In fact, WotC seem to be pretending PDFs don't exist.

This is 2014. A substantial chunk of the market is going partially or fully digital, making the lack of PDFs is a deal-killer for many. Failing to release PDFs is a misguided, fear-driven decision that does nothing to reduce piracy, while completely eliminating revenue stream. Frankly, this is tone-deaf enough to make me re-think the entire edition.

13th Age in PDF? Check
Pathfinder in PDF? Check
C&C? Savage Worlds? Fate? Check, check, and check.
But D&D...? Crickets.


Apologies if I sound entitled, but I want to support D&D. I just can't understand why WotC seems so hell-bent on making doing so so painful. Guys, please: Take my money.

 

[Bugleyman]

So...the PHB was officially released yesterday but, still no PDFs. Not even a straight answer on PDFs. In fact, WotC seem to be pretending PDFs don't exist.

This is 2014. A substantial chunk of the market is going partially or fully digital, making the lack of PDFs is a deal-killer for many. Failing to release PDFs is a misguided, fear-driven decision that does nothing to reduce piracy, while completely eliminating an entire revenue stream. Frankly, this is tone-deaf enough to make me re-think the entire edition.

13th Age in PDF? Check
Pathfinder in PDF? Check
C&C? Savage Worlds? Fate? Check, check, and check.
But D&D...? Crickets.

...And no, PDFs would not compete with the announced digital tools. I have tons of games in PDF, and yet I still happily buy Hero Lab data sets for those games. Different needs, different products.

Apologies if I sound entitled, but I want to support D&D. I just can't understand why WotC seems so hell-bent on making doing so so painful. Guys, please: Take my money. Don't make my only option your competitors!

 

[Paraxis]

I hope the no pdf policy isn't to stop piracy, you can already find scans of the PHB, Starter Set, and all the encounters adventures for the next month online.

So if pirates are going to pirate pdf or no pdf, it seems like a very bad idea to not sell pdf's to the many more people who will gladly purchase legal copies of the product.

 

[Shiroiken]

They are terrified of Piracy. What they don't understand, is that it's already being pirated. I'm 99.9% confident that you could find an illegal copy online already. You probably could even before GenCon. Hell, it might have been available the day after early release (or even sooner considering the Canadian company that sold them early). Piracy is going to happen no matter what they do, so WotC really should try to profit from PDFs while they can.

I loved having a PDF copy in addition to my dead tree version. Dead Tree is best for at the session, while PDF is great for work away from the session. I just really wish I could get it for 5E

 

[fjw70]

We know that electronic distribution of books will happen through the DungronDcape app so I doubt we will see PDFs.

The initial release of DungeonScape will be out soon.

 

[Dausuul]

My guess is they just haven't gotten to it yet.

I do hope we get one fairly soon, though. It would be so convenient to have access to a PDF Player's Handbook when I'm at w... uh... traveling. Light. Traveling light.

 

[ccooke]

So...the PHB was officially released yesterday but, still no PDFs. Not even a straight answer on PDFs. In fact, WotC seem to be pretending PDFs don't exist.

This is 2014. A substantial chunk of the market is going partially or fully digital, making the lack of PDFs is a deal-killer for many. Failing to release PDFs is a misguided, fear-driven decision that does nothing to reduce piracy, while completely eliminating an entire revenue stream. Frankly, this is tone-deaf enough to make me re-think the entire edition.

13th Age in PDF? Check
Pathfinder in PDF? Check
C&C? Savage Worlds? Fate? Check, check, and check.
But D&D...? Crickets.

...And no, PDFs would not compete with the announced digital tools. I have tons of games in PDF, and yet I still happily buy Hero Lab data sets for those games. Different needs, different products.

Apologies if I sound entitled, but I want to support D&D. I just can't understand why WotC seems so hell-bent on making doing so so painful. Guys, please: Take my money. Don't make my only option your competitors!

I have to say... the way you're expressing this comes across slightly hysterical. Sorry.

The thing is, the PHB was officially out yesterday. This is incredibly early days in the edition, and the WotC team are probably still recovering from Gencon. What's more, there already are PDFs released - the Basic rules and now the Basic DM rules. Give them a little time and space before declaring open season, huh?

Given the news about project Broadside (or whatever they rename it to next ;-) I'd expect electronic copies to coincide with that being released. Judging by the gencon news, that should at least be in Beta soon.

I mean, sure, if we get to the end of this year and they still haven't released (or announced credible plans for) electronic copies, I'll help distribute the pitchforks and light your torch for you, but I figure we should leave them a little time. To be sporting.

I hope the no pdf policy isn't to stop piracy, you can already find scans of the PHB, Starter Set, and all the encounters adventures for the next month online.

So if pirates are going to pirate pdf or no pdf, it seems like a very bad idea to not sell pdf's to the many more people who will gladly purchase legal copies of the product.

There is no "No pdf policy" that anyone knows about right now. And if/when they do release electronic copies, it is unlikely to make any difference to the piracy rates, anyway.

 

[Umbran]

Failing to release PDFs is a misguided, fear-driven decision that does nothing to reduce piracy, while completely eliminating revenue stream. Frankly, this is tone-deaf enough to make me re-think the entire edition.

With respect, you don't know the decision making process, since they haven't mentioned it. You're making a presumption that's rather at odds with some of their other behavior.

In specific - Basic. In PDF format. It has most of the required rules, already. For free. Released before the PHB. I don't see how you can get from that the idea that they are afraid of piracy.

They do however, have a digital initiative in the works. Perhaps they intend to work their digital releases (whatever they may be - they may not be pdfs of the books - that's old thinking, after all) with that offering. More specifically, I imagine that if they are going to have digital tools that interface with the rules, they probably don't want to cut into that business by having pdfs. They'd probably prefer you go straight to DungeonScape.

 

[drjones]

We know that electronic distribution of books will happen through the DungronDcape app so I doubt we will see PDFs.

The initial release of DungeonScape will be out soon.

Just to reiterate, this is what has been said in the Morningstar/DungeonScape thread and is most likely the way PDFs will be distributed.

 

[Paraxis]

There is no "No pdf policy" that anyone knows about right now. And if/when they do release electronic copies, it is unlikely to make any difference to the piracy rates, anyway.

Of course there is a "No pdf policy" you know how we know there is, there are no pdf's. Releasing a pdf is not a big deal, they have them, they work with them, they sent one to the publisher/printer to make the physical book, taking a couple hours to reduce the file size and put it up for sale on dndclassics.com is not a hard thing, the fact that they haven't done so yet is a stated policy.

There are two flimsy excuses for not putting out pdf copies of the books, either to try and prevent piracy which is dumb, or to force us to the proprietary electronic format of dungeonscape/morningstar thing which is kinda douchey.