How quality are the classic module PDFs?

[blackshirt5]

OK, I'm looking on rpgnow.com and I need to fill out my order, and they've got Tomb of Horrors as a PDF. I was wondering, how good is the quality of the classic ESDs? I've gotten a few from another site and the scan quality wasn't that great.

 

[johnsemlak]

I'll just go over and look at my Tomb of Horrors ESD...

 

[johnsemlak]

It's a pretty good scan. There are no smudges or torn pages, and all text is clearly legible. It's not OCR, but as I said it's scanned very well.

The file is 18 MB.


Overall, the scans are a bit hit and miss, with varying levels of quality. I would say that I have been satisfied with nearly all of my ESDs, and I have a large number of them. Nearly all of them are at least fully legible, though some a small number do have missing pages.

Products that had big fold-out maps tend to be a pain.

 

[diaglo]

you can get the one of the green cover ones at auction for pretty cheap.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

The ones I got sucked horribly. They had maps in them that were larger than one page and they were merely scanned in one page sections without regard to the shape of the map. Made it impossible tp use.

It was worse that some of the maps had lines in yellow and those scanned in horribly difficult to even see.

Waste of money.

 

[Bloodsparrow]

I got the one of A4 and it was just fine. It printed well, was easy to read on my screen, it was a good experience for me. I might do it again some time.

 

[Voadam]

I'd say 1/3 of the esds I got from svgames had serious problems (many pages not showing etc.)

I haven't picked up any for a while, but I'd get them from rpgnow.com if I were you. They respond better to customer service e-mails.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

I'd say 1/3 of the esds I got from svgames had serious problems (many pages not showing etc.)

I haven't picked up any for a while, but I'd get them from rpgnow.com if I were you. They respond better to customer service e-mails.

Generally the modules scanned before SVGames took over are better than the later ones. I have no experience with RPGNow esd's, but I've been very happy with their pdf products.

Two esd's to avoid:

I3-5 Desert of Desolation (Some kind of corruption error in the file, causing problems printing some pages. I downloaded it to two different machines and tried printing on several different printers and even to digital copiers - same problem in all cases. I emailed SVGames but never heard back.)

The Worlds of TSR (An art compilation - I was hoping to be able to print some of the images for use in my game. The scans were so bad, they looked terrible even on the screen. The printed pages were worse.)

Some I had no problems with:

S1 Tomb of Horrors
S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil (the original)
GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders

 

[jmucchiello]

Generally the modules scanned before SVGames took over are better than the later ones. I have no experience with RPGNow esd's, but I've been very happy with their pdf products.

Neither SVGames nor RPGNow actually did the scans. They were done by WotC and a third party (I think I remember who but don't want to say in case I'm wrong). For the amount of money WotC put into the scanning, they come out as well as they could. It is unlikely that WotC will put up the money to rescan the bad ones any time soon unfortunately.

 

[johnsemlak]

Neither SVGames nor RPGNow actually did the scans. They were done by WotC and a third party (I think I remember who but don't want to say in case I'm wrong). For the amount of money WotC put into the scanning, they come out as well as they could. It is unlikely that WotC will put up the money to rescan the bad ones any time soon unfortunately.

That third party was Bastion Press.

I had problems with the I 12 ESD, though supposedly those got fixed.

It is a shame the scanning program got axed. There are some products that still haven't been done.