Arcana Unearthed PDFs vs. Printed Book

[Nightfall]

Okay make that TWO people would think that up.

 

[Voadam]

or force sales of unneeded elements, quite the opposite.

Except that two of the books are really not complete in and of themselves.

If you get the magic class book with the feats, you cannot use the feats as is that apply the spell templates, the spell templates they apply are not in the book.

If you just get the magic and spell book you can't apply the templates, as written they require the feats and you don't know the balancing prereqs.

There is no magic only bundle. Either buy them individually or get the big bundle.

 

[tsadkiel]

The best part of the PDFs is that you can copy & paste the information from them. Thus, I can use the d20 SRD, d20 Modern SRD, AU PDFs and hand-type in OGL material from other sources. Then print out the Frankenstien's monster d20 rulebook I'll be using for my campaign.

You know, I've been considering something similar. I'd be interested in seeing your final product. (Well, not final, since that'd be the printed version. Penultimate, maybe.)

 

[RobNJ]

To those complaining about the pdfs not being complete . . . don't they come right out and say, "We're not complete" pretty much early on?

I'd always figured the purpose of the PDFs was to present little booklets of important bits for those who may not be running the game, but who might play in it. I know I bought them so I could pass the PDFs around the table at my game and have my players have access to most of the stuff they need.

This worked pretty well, by the way. And it got 2 of my players to buy hardcovers.

 

[Nightfall]

Voad,

I do agree there with your point. Overall I like the book better than the bundle.

Rob,

Glad that worked out for you...but understand that not everyone has players that can afford to go out and spend money on the HC. I do think though if the DM does buy it, he should loan it out to his players to let them get a better feel than just having them access the PDFs.

 

[RobNJ]

Rob,

Glad that worked out for you...but understand that not everyone has players that can afford to go out and spend money on the HC. I do think though if the DM does buy it, he should loan it out to his players to let them get a better feel than just having them access the PDFs.

Well, of course. I wouldn't just take the book and never let them look at it. The PDFs are useful at a table where there's only one book, however, because you can print them out and the players can have constant access to the parts of the book that, as players, they will be using most often (spell descriptions, feat descriptions, class abilities). The only thing missing here that is frequently accessed is skills, and most of those are srd (though I like the slight tweaks Monte applied to them).

The whole "it worked" section was merely meant to state that the "scheme" of releasing PDFs, and having them then used in a game, was successful from the publisher's perspective, in that it got 2 people to buy the hardcover book.

 

[Nightfall]

I understand Robb. And I appreciate that. I just felt my opinion needed to be expressed. Regardless of how it turns out, I do think AU has manage to rejuvenate some of my interest in roleplaying. And that speaks volumes to me.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

One useful thing that I did before Eric Noah came up with his nifty spell sorter was to customize a list for my mageblade player of just the simple spells. And you could still go in and do a copy/paste to make a custom list with parameters for player use.

 

[Voadam]

To those complaining about the pdfs not being complete . . . don't they come right out and say, "We're not complete" pretty much early on?

I'd always figured the purpose of the PDFs was to present little booklets of important bits for those who may not be running the game, but who might play in it. I know I bought them so I could pass the PDFs around the table at my game and have my players have access to most of the stuff they need.

Two separate complaints here.

1 they are not even complete as individual units. I knew there would not be all the information from UA (it says no armor and equipment), but I did not expect to have to reference two pdfs to know what one feat does. The two magic ones should be one file and mage blade should be in there.

2. A second complaint is the decision not to make the complete UA or even the complete rules bits of UA available. This is a change in Malhavok products. Every other one has the complete text in pdf or in print. I prefer pdfs and was interested in the rules bits so I got the discounted pdf bundle, but even so I only saved three or four dollars compared to getting the whole book on amazon. Why the armors and equipment was excluded from the warrior book is beyond me.