Forked Thread: PDF or Dead tree?

[mach1.9pants]

Forked from: Paizo sets price of Pathfinder RPG PDF at $9.99!!!!!

You should start a poll on that! Personally, I would be surprised if the numbers that actually chose PDF over print would be high at all (although very possibly well over the percentage at rpg.net or WotC).

Your wish is my command master!

At ENW are we really PDF fanatics? Relatively so anyway?

So for your RPG products do you prefer PDF or print? Both? Neither ?

The option 'depends on type of product' means if you would buy one version of media for the game you actually play and another for games you want to look at; or you buy one type of media for rulebooks and another for modules, etc.

EDIT: The option of PDF and print means if you can (thanks WotC for not giving me that option )
Also PDF means anything of an electronic format, PDFs just the most common.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I have a few pdfs but almost everything is in actual book form. I don't like staring at computer screens, don't have a laptop for sessions, and if I'm going to print the thing out I might as well have a book printer do it for me and save me the trouble.

Although as far as the PF pdf I have to say $9.99 is rather enticing.

 

[Shroomy]

I generally buy books but I will purchase PDFs on occassion. However, DDI PDFs have changed the way I look at them and now I want landscape PDFs only.

 

[Leatherhead]

I like having physical books, because I hate playing with computers at the table; they are distracting, loud, tend to take up too much space, and they put off lots of heat. But pdf's are much easier to reference when not in game, what with all those fancy search options and such, making them much more useful than dead-tree for character and campaign generation.

Ideally, I would like to buy both for the price of one, but I doubt that is going to happen any time soon.

I also wish there were more softcovers, they are noticeably easier to carry around.

 

[resistor]

I buy PDFs of books that are just for reading (setting material, and the like). Anything that sees use at the table I get a dead tree copy of, in addition to the PDF.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

These days hardcopy books are almost useless to me except if I'm reading in bed.

If I cant get a PDF version of adventures then I wont buy them.
Sourcebooks are close to the same. Monster books the same if I can't copy then past stat blocks for quick reference for an encounter or modification then it's useless to me.

Case in point: If I have an encounter where a creature or NPC inflicts status effects on the PC's It's easier for me to cut and paste what those status effects are on the creature sheet. The same with spell effects and so on. For me it helps make running these encounters MUCH EASIER and smoother.

If there's no PDF available then the product is less useful to me.

Now don't get it twisted, I like a well produced book. Which is another reason I really like Paizo's stuff. I look forward to having a hardcopy of the RPG, but I'll be subscribing in order to get the free PDF's...

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I put other, I have really fallen for the DDI format (especially Compendium). So while not strictly PDF I like electronic. I use my laptop for gaming, from Word Documents, different programs, Compendium, etc. So yeah if it had the level of development of the Compendium with a simple rulebook that is strictly a easy to follow, easy to read rulebook I be good.

Though counter-wise I don't like buying pdfs, and would rather pay for a actual book over a pdf. So yeah it is definitely the way DDI is formatted and such that makes it worth me paying.

 

[mach1.9pants]

For my actual gaming needs I buy both where ever possible as I use a laptop at the table. However for just reading (rules I am not using and mags and stuff) I (now) buy a lot of PDFs. They are cheap and I have an eReader, which is awesome to read with .. but conversely not fast enough for in game use. Makes the DDi so much better now I can easily read it wherever, bed, bog, couch, etc. I calculated that the cost of printing and binding just the DDi mags for 1 3/4 years is the same as the cost of my 1280x1024 10' iRex eReader... that doesn't count any other saving I make by buying PDF. This is especially so as I have no FLGS and postage is so expensive for heavy books.

 

[ggroy]

For all my tabletop pen and paper RPG games, I only use dead tree books.

I don't subscribe to DDI, nor do I buy any PDFs.

 

[Hereticus]

As a player, I like to cut-n-paste information to my character sheet (a Word document).

As a DM, I like to modify modules, and the easiest way to do that is in Word.

If I get a PDF, I want to be able to take text from it.