D&D 4e PDFs at RPGNow

[TheWyrd]

I
This totally reminds me of the T days. Whatever happened to DnD Insider costing 'a cup of cofee'. I don't remember Starbucks charging $15 for a latte.

Yay! Nothing like a good ol' T$R reference.

I'll pay $20 tops for a PDF file.. and it better be fricken amazing if I do.

 

[jdrakeh]

I wish these had been available before I purchased my PHB. I've actually come to like PDFs more (I hated them at one time), because I can get them printed and spiral bound, which lets my books lay flat (something that hardcovers don't do unless you screw up the binding by breaking the spine). Also, for smaller PDFs (like adventures) being able to print maps and such as needed is really handy.

 

[mechascorpio]

I'm really happy that WoTC seems to be fully embracing the digital thing though.

See, I guess this doesn't fall under my definition of "fully embracing". We know what can be done with PDFs and, for me, fully embracing would be extending what can be done with the books because of the format. Here's what I posted earlier over on the WOTC site (edited a bit):

I'm not thrilled about the price, but I would pay a premium for a PDF that was truly enhanced. That means (at least) fully bookmarked and a table of contents and index that are linked to the content. Save me time from doing it all on my own, and I'll pay for it. ADD VALUE.

Other things that would be great are further enhancements such as an interactive, autocalc Character Sheet; sortable tables; semi-regular updates with the errata; a bonus module (such as Talon Pass); printable Power, Monster and Magic item cards; links to appropriate areas of DnDi and this site, and so on.

It's a loser's game to think of PDFs as "like the book, but digital". It would be so easy to enhance these in such a way that they are easily worth as much as the dead tree versions. Despite RPGNow saying they are adding bookmarks and links, that's still pretty vanilla. If they (or someone) were to enhance these releases in ways like I outlined above, then they'd be worth the price, IMHO.

Exploit the format. Add value. I'll give you money. Everyone's happy. That's truly embracing the digital thing!

Right now, it's just a limp handshake. Don't expect me to buy a digital version of the book I already own at the same price just because it's a PDF.

 

[lurkinglidda]

Since we had a WotC Rep respond in this thread, I'm curious if there has been any discussion at WotC regarding errata and updating the PDF copies?

We're discussing and will let everyone know what direction we'll go in when the errata is done.

 

[Harr]

This hasn't been answered yet that i can see: Are the Print and Copy functions enabled on the PDFs or not?

I've bought plenty of pdfs that turned out to be encrypted with owner-passwords with critical functions disabled for users. If the official 4e PDFs are open to copying and printing, such that I can produce character sheets with power text already on them, and printed reference tables easily for the use of my group, I'll scoop 'em up. If either of these are taken out, I'll pass

 

[Crothian]

Copy and paste works on my copies

 

[am181d]

The intention is to have simultaneous release dates for PDFs and physical product.

That's fantastic news. My limited closet space thanks you.

And it's good to hear that there are efforts being made to take advantage of the electronic format. The biggest perk would be if the PDF could someone include the errata, either in (a) revised text (not likely), (b) appended notes or (c) hyperlinked errata pages.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

We're discussing and will let everyone know what direction we'll go in when the errata is done.

At least enable commenting/editing (strike throughs and inserts) in the PDFs so that we could add our own errata and notes. I don't understand why PDF publishers disallow that.

This hasn't been answered yet that i can see: Are the Print and Copy functions enabled on the PDFs or not?

I've bought plenty of pdfs that turned out to be encrypted with owner-passwords with critical functions disabled for users. If the official 4e PDFs are open to copying and printing, such that I can produce character sheets with power text already on them, and printed reference tables easily for the use of my group, I'll scoop 'em up. If either of these are taken out, I'll pass

Yes, they are.

 

[Pinotage]

OCR, no. OEF, yes. OCR is optical character recognition used on scanned copies. These files are original electronic copies made from digital source files.

Ah, OK. Thanks. Sounds good to me then. If it's searchable that's great. Now I hope that proper bookmarks can be added.

Pinotage

 

[Scribble]

See, I guess this doesn't fall under my definition of "fully embracing". We know what can be done with PDFs and, for me, fully embracing would be extending what can be done with the books because of the format. Here's what I posted earlier over on the WOTC site (edited a bit):


Exploit the format. Add value. I'll give you money. Everyone's happy. That's truly embracing the digital thing!

Right now, it's just a limp handshake. Don't expect me to buy a digital version of the book I already own at the same price just because it's a PDF.

Sure, they could be doing a lot more with it. But their PDFs are pretty much the norm for pdf products out there.

What I meant really, was that unlike witht he 3e books, they're actually putting out the books in pdf, and seemingly in a relatively current fashion. (even more so if they DO manage to release them same time as the print books.)

As for the added value... For someone like me, they do add a whole lot of value.

1. I do most of my adventure game prep on my computer. (read all of it aside from drawing maps) Being able to search cut and paste saves me a ton of time.

2. In a related note, I have bad handwriting... so notes I can see easily are a boon...

3. I do a lot of game prep durring free time at work. Being able to carry all of my books in my pocket is nice.

4. Storage space... I'm running out of room, with a non-gammer fiance... I know I can use up only so much valuble realestate.


So yeah you're opinion might be different but for me... PDFs adda lot of value. I agree though that value has a ton of room to increase.