Do you convert new rules to digital format?

[victorysaber]

Hello.

I have the SRD on my PC. In fact, I do all my D&D prep on my PC.

Stuff that is in the MM, PHB, etc... that is not in the SRD, I normally just type it in and add it to the Word documents. It's okay when it's just a beholder, some slaad, etc.

Miscellaneous crunchy bits, such as a choice spell (Chasing Perfection) or feat (Extra Rage) or even a prestige class (Frenzied Berserker) are okay to type in.

The problem lies with new spell systems, like Incarnum, ToM stuff, Bo9S stuff. I don't want to spend half a day typing in an entire new system.

Yet I want to use these systems, but I won't use it unless I can get it in digital format.

Does anyone else have this problem?

 

[Crothian]

Nope, I game out of the books.

 

[Andre]

Does anyone else have this problem?

Similar. When prepping an adventure, I like to have everything handy, in a format that I like to use. I hate paging through several different books for one bit of info, or one stat block. The SRD helps enormously here, with cut and paste, but the other stuff can be very time-consuming to enter (I use various programs, as needed: word processor, spreadsheet, database).

It helps when I can re-use old material, such as a trap or creature the party missed on an earlier adventure. Programs such as HeroForge help a lot with NPC's. Even finding monsters with class levels already figured in (such as in MM4) can save me time. But it's still a pain to have to enter so much info, just so I can have it in my own format.

Talk of 4E started as soon as 3E came out, and no one really knows what it will be like. Near the top of my wish list is a way for me to easily customize the information presented, to fit my game, not the designers'.

 

[Asmor]

I know a guy who illegally downloads PDFs of every D&D book he can find. Sometimes he downloads a book before he buys it, sometimes he buys a book before he downloads it, but in the end he tries to both buy a hard copy of the book and download a PDF.

Why? Because he does all his prep-work on his computer, and it's a hell of a lot easier to juggle around 7 PDFs than it is to juggle around 7 books. Books are great at the game table, but that's it. PDFs are superior to them in every way otherwise.

Of course, despite the fact that he's paying for the dead-tree books, it's still illegal to download these PDFs and you shouldn't do it and he's a bad, bad man.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Yep. But I only type out what is needed. That way, little by little I add to growing MSWord document shared by the players in my group.

 

[amethal]

Yep. But I only type out what is needed. That way, little by little I add to growing MSWord document shared by the players in my group.

Link?

I reckon between us all at EnWorld we probably have a vast store of information in electronic format, but we can't share it.

For example, I've added a dozen or so critters from MM2 and MM3 to my download of the SRD monsters, as and when I've needed to. If the rest of the community have done the same then even allowing for overlap we've probably got most of them.

Maybe once 4th edition comes out it will be morally acceptable to post 3rd edition stuff on the internet.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Link?

For liability purposes, the file is not hosted.

 

[Thomas Percy]

I have so called D&D Binder - the file containing circa 200 pages extracted from all 3-3,5 rulebooks. There are all my favorite rules, monsters, NPCs and touchstones plus The Forge Studios' Manor and Barony, which I find as useful as PHB.
But one strange thing - I've printed all these PDFs and bind them in binder, because I still madly believe I will need to run game session without my laptop. Pure idiocy, but as Russian proverb tells: "Privichca svyshe nam dana, samiena sthastiu ana".

 

[EricNoah]

Basically anything that isn't in some kind of electronic tool (my copy of eTools, or a spell spreadsheet or SpellGen or in a PDF) doesn't get used. If it's new, and worth the effort, I'll wrangle it into eTools in some form. Monsters, races, items, spells, and feats are all very easy for me to add digitally. New rulesets would be very difficult for me to add.

 

[amethal]

For liability purposes, the file is not hosted.

I did put a smiley in my post!