Frostburn at DriveThruRPG

[EricNoah]

I generally avoid PDFs except when there's no print version or the print version will be out later. I generally avoid DRM pdfs due to the few extra steps involved and the copy-paste limitations. I certainly wouldn't pay full print price for a PDF. So clearly this isn't for me. But it is interesting -- I wouldn't have thought WotC would even experiment in this way, so good for them.

 

[Cergorach]

I just came home and bought Frostburn at $35, here are my reasons why:

1.) $35 is 29 euro, that's about two hours of paid work for me. Say i wanted x amount of text from Frostburn to use for personal projects (as a dm or as a player), how much text would i be able to OCR or type over in two hours? I'm certain that it wouldn't be even enough time to do 20% of the book. So for me it's cheaper to buy the book at $35 then spend time to OCR or type over the text myself.

2.) Although i find DRM distastefull in the extreme, i'm confident that in the near future there will be a way to de-drm these files. So DRM becomes a non issue for me.

3.) WotC announced that this is a trial, i would assume that if the trial is successful, there would be more pdfed products available in their original electronic format. I'm not that interested in Frostburn, but if these 29 euros would mean that in the future i would be able to buy MM3, Complete Arcana, it's 29 euro well spend.

4.) I got Frostburn before anyone else

 

[Crothian]

I just came home and bought Frostburn at $35, here are my reasons why

Are there any book marks or hyperlinks or extras that are PDF specific?

 

[Cergorach]

Are there any book marks or hyperlinks or extras that are PDF specific?

bookmarks: yes
hyperlinks: only the contents page has hyperlinks (as far as i could see)
extras: no (as far as i could see)

 

[Crothian]

bookmarks: yes
hyperlinks: only the contents page has hyperlinks (as far as i could see)
extras: no (as far as i could see)

That's really good then. I was worried they just offered a regular scan of their book with out taking advantage of what PDFs can do.

 

[Cergorach]

That's really good then. I was worried they just offered a regular scan of their book with out taking advantage of what PDFs can do.

It's not a scan, but a pdf version of the original electronic format, that means selectable text. Unike some of the scanned books at DTRPG (which pretty much suck quality wise).

 

[Crothian]

It's not a scan, but a pdf version of the original electronic format, that means selectable text. Unike some of the scanned books at DTRPG (which pretty much suck quality wise).

I agree and it thrills me to see Wizards is doing it right in terms of a quality PDF. I still think its over priced, but not as much as I did before. Hopefully, since it is Wizards people will get it and be introduced to the PDF world. and since tWizards at least did a good job on theirs it could show people that PDFs have a lot to offer.

 

[Cergorach]

I agree and it thrills me to see Wizards is doing it right in terms of a quality PDF. I still think its over priced, but not as much as I did before. Hopefully, since it is Wizards people will get it and be introduced to the PDF world. and since tWizards at least did a good job on theirs it could show people that PDFs have a lot to offer.

Not to mention that image quality is more than decent at 150dpi.

 

[Vascant]

I'm not going to pay MSRP for the hardcover, either. I can get it waaaay cheaper online. I've not paid MSRP for a D&D book in 2 years. The last book I bought off the shelf at a bookstore (the Expanded Psionics Handbook) was marked 20% off MSRP. When I went to pay for it, it rang up at (with sales tax) for $2.16. Yes. Two dollars and sixteen cents. The checkout girl ran the barcode back through two more times, then shrugged and said, "Thanks for shopping Hastings."

Woot!

*laughs*
Samething happened to me, at Hastings no less, except it was the Epic Handbook, my wife hearly said something when the girl said two dollars and some change. There was about to be some abuse if she did.. lol

 

[Conaill]

Their standard contract is 30% of sale price. However, I am confident that not all companies have the same rate.

If I remember correctly, their percentage goes up to 40% or so if the product is also offered in pdf form elsewhere. I believe the 30% is pretty comparable to RPGnow (might be 25% there, don't remember for sure).