D&D General I hate pdfs, and I'm happy that WOTC primarily publishes Books

[Scott Christian]

1. Do you correctly prefer your RPG materials to be in real, book form, or are you one of those .pdf lovers?

I like books: the smell, the touch, the torn pages. Seeing notes scribbled in a book is the best.

2. Relatedly, if you're a .pdf lover, how do you like Huey Lewis and the News? I mean, their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. Huey Lewis has been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.

Huey is one of the few bands from that era that gets turned off every time he comes on the radio. No bizarre association or girlfriend breakups related. It is just awful, contrived, garbage that belongs in the category of - this should have never existed. Right up there with racism, bigotry, and bullying.
PS - Elvis Costello fits in the same category. True Story: He is the only person I really couldn't stand, but I wanted to give him a try, because, you know, of all the adulations. I went and saw him at the Chicago theater. Alright Mr. Rockstar, let's see what you are bringing to the table. Maybe I'm wrong. Lynn Bramer, the nicest and best radio show host of all time comes out and introduced him. (It's Lynn's birthday and he is a huge fan.) Elvis comes out and bashed the crap out of him. Like a full minute of what a D%@*, A$@H*&^%, and yes, Mother$#@!%^& that guy is. Ok, Mr. Rockstar, I will try and give you a pass. Then he plays a song, and starts to tell the audience that if they are there to hear Veronica (his big hit song) that they can go F*&^ themselves. Ok, Mr. Rockstar, I already didn't like you, but now I'm starting to really dislike you. The next ten songs was him just standing there, singing like a lifeless puppet, and yawning at one point. Mr. Rockstar, you are a tool. I left.
So the point of the story is Elvis Costello is worse than Huey, but not by much.

3. Do you use electronic devices at your table when you are gaming in person (assuming this will ever happen again as it used to in the BEFORE TIMES)?

Some tables I play at do, others don't. I prefer ones that do not. In my experience, the sense of engagement improves when electronics are removed.

PS - As always, I enjoy your writing. Thanks for the fun questions, even if they did dredge up the memory of seeing Elvis Costello.

 

[Horwath]

1. I love the physical books as much as the next guy, but...there is always a butt.
.pdfs are just more practical. If you need to juggle with 10 books for your session, it's faster to have 10 tabs open in your pdf reader than going through 10 books. Also one laptop is lighter than 10 books.
This come in play if you change locations of your sessions.

In online play, I hate when I need to open a book and do not have all on pdfs or in some custom files on my PC.
When I play, I have very little light in the room, mostly from my display. So, every time I need to reference a book, I need to hit the light switch, wait a second for eye adaptation, then get to reading.

Now, I love lore part of the books, settings info, etc. to be a real book, as it's quite nice to lay back and read those. also MM.

But, if any game mechanics pages never see light of day in physical form, I will not shed a single tear.

So,
Lore: physical book + option of digital
Game mechanics: digital

3. You do not play in RL?

 

[Umbran]

1. Do you correctly prefer your RPG materials to be in real, book form, or are you one of those .pdf lovers?

I incorrectly prefer my RPG materials to be in real, book form. Which is to say that I prefer hardcopy, but I realize that is despite how so much of my actual use of materials is probably better supported by pdf or other electronic format.

2. Relatedly, if you're a .pdf lover, how do you like Huey Lewis and the News?

Huey Lewis and the News are awesome, and Lewis' hearing loss is a loss to the music world. New Wave or not, Lewis understands what Rock'n'Roll is (as opposed to Rock, Metal, Pop, and so on). His work holds on to more of the roots of the genre than many realize.

3. Do you use electronic devices at your table when you are gaming in person (assuming this will ever happen again as it used to in the BEFORE TIMES)?

When playing D&D, usually yes these days. When playing other games, generally no. When running D&D or other games, mostly no.

However, most of my game preparation is done with a computer close to hand, which is where the conflict between what I want, and what I need, often arises.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, book only. D&D time is analog time for me.

 

[payn]

Huey is one of the few bands from that era that gets turned off every time he comes on the radio. No bizarre association or girlfriend breakups related. It is just awful, contrived, garbage that belongs in the category of - this should have never existed. Right up there with racism, bigotry, and bullying.
PS - Elvis Costello fits in the same category. True Story: He is the only person I really couldn't stand, but I wanted to give him a try, because, you know, of all the adulations. I went and saw him at the Chicago theater. Alright Mr. Rockstar, let's see what you are bringing to the table. Maybe I'm wrong. Lynn Bramer, the nicest and best radio show host of all time comes out and introduced him. (It's Lynn's birthday and he is a huge fan.) Elvis comes out and bashed the crap out of him. Like a full minute of what a D%@*, A$@H*&^%, and yes, Mother$#@!%^& that guy is. Ok, Mr. Rockstar, I will try and give you a pass. Then he plays a song, and starts to tell the audience that if they are there to hear Veronica (his big hit song) that they can go F*&^ themselves. Ok, Mr. Rockstar, I already didn't like you, but now I'm starting to really dislike you. The next ten songs was him just standing there, singing like a lifeless puppet, and yawning at one point. Mr. Rockstar, you are a tool. I left.
So the point of the story is Elvis Costello is worse than Huey, but not by much.

Oh, you'd just love Father John Misty.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

it makes me worry about you.

There is an idea of a Snarf Zagyg; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold rhetoric, and you can read my lengthy comments and maybe you can even sense our gaming preferences are probably comparable... I simply am not there.

#1 I am incorrect in many ways. I prefer PDFs for gaming material, love Bards, and think John Wick is just the millennial generation's Steven Segal.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

My remote group (and when my local group needs to play remotely) still uses actual dice. I have total trust in all my players and them in me - or else I probably wouldn't be playing with them. I don't need to see the roll.

A very good point, though having some sort of online roller that everyone can see still provides that fun little moment of craps table drama, where everyone sees the result at once.

After years of using Roll20 and becoming less and less interested in the VTT dice-rolling experience (I'd rather just seen the numbers come up than deal with that platform's super janky 3D dice) I recently tested out Foundry and became obsessed with how dice look and sound on it, how much customization it offers--including stuff like perfectly recreating the look of the special Twilight 2000 dice--and even the silly animations you can set to trigger with certain results, like having a fire effect or sparkles shoot out. I think as the VTT competition heats up that could be a killer feature.

 

[payn]

There is an idea of a Snarf Zagyg; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold rhetoric, and you can read my lengthy comments and maybe you can even sense our gaming preferences are probably comparable... I simply am not there.

 

[Scott Christian]

Oh, you'd just love Father John Misty.

Great, now I have to look him up.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]