D&D General I hate pdfs, and I'm happy that WOTC primarily publishes Books

[Snarf Zagyg]

I just started by telling folks I needed the blu-blocking. Now, I need them all the time

I feel like when my latest incarnation was about to be loosed upon this world, I was asked, "So, you will either lose your hair or your eyesight. What will it be?"

And I, being the eternal smart...donkey... replied, "Why not both?"

Eh, better than to lose your wits, I guess.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

1. Do you correctly prefer your RPG materials to be in real, book form, or are you one of those .pdf lovers?

If I can't buy it in real book form, I won't run it. I have on occasion used a module that I only had in PDF....but would print it out first. But I do love PDFs....for their utility. Just not their aesthetics. I will note that I adopted ebooks early on and built up an impressive collection of tablet devices; I tend to read at least one book a month on tablet, but fell back to mostly buying in print. That was for regular books. For games the top advantage of PDFs is looking things up and providing players with info they need.

2. Relatedly, if you're a .pdf lover, how do you like Huey Lewis and the News? I mean, their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. Huey Lewis has been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.

I only listened to Isao Tomita, Wendy Carlos, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson and other pioneers around the time Huey Lewis (if that's his real name) allegedly was popular.

3. Do you use electronic devices at your table when you are gaming in person (assuming this will ever happen again as it used to in the BEFORE TIMES)?

Almost never. I keep my tablet, mostly during modern day games for Call of Cthulhu to reference for city maps or something and that is it. I recently one one occasion had forgotten a print module and then used the PDF on the tablet to run the game, which was okay. Actually it was kind of nice and handy, come to think of it. Hmmmm.

 

[Davies]

1. Do you correctly prefer your RPG materials to be in real, book form, or are you one of those .pdf lovers?

.pdf lover and utterly unapologetic about it. Trees should not die for the majority of role-playing games published.

2. Relatedly, if you're a .pdf lover, how do you like Huey Lewis and the News?

Not particularly.

3. Do you use electronic devices at your table when you are gaming in person (assuming this will ever happen again as it used to in the BEFORE TIMES)?

Who knows what I'll do then?

 

[payn]

I feel like when my latest incarnation was about to be loosed upon this world, I was asked, "So, you will either lose your hair or your eyesight. What will it be?"

And I, being the eternal smart...donkey... replied, "Why not both?"

Eh, better than to lose your wits, I guess.

Man, you are doing me no favors this Monday morning. I've taken to wearing hats recently too.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Folks be thinking books going the way of 8-tracks.

Books are like 33' LPs, here to stay (somehow, against all logic).

 

[payn]

Books are like 33' LPs, here to stay (somehow, against all logic).

It's awecessary.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Books are like 33' LPs, here to stay (somehow, against all logic).

We can get rid of physical media once all the hackers, virus developers, subscription models and other digital age evils are purged from this Earth.

 

[Weiley31]

There is an idea of a Snarf Zagyg; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold rhetoric, and you can read my lengthy comments and maybe you can even sense our gaming preferences are probably comparable... I simply am not there.

Dont you see it yet?

At least Keanu Reeves turned out better and aged like fine wine, unlike Segal.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

We can get rid of physical media once all the hackers, virus developers, subscription models and other digital age evils are purged from this Earth.

Cut electronic subscriptions — Cut loot boxes and NFTs — Smash the control images — Smash the control machine — Burn the pdfs and the pdf makers— Kill the digital age evils— Kill! Kill! Kill!

 

[TheSword]

to be honest I like both but for different reasons.

1./ If I’m referring to a text regularly in game - a complicated campaign book with various appendixes and tables - or a core book for a new game, then I do like a book. I can flip through and stick book marks etc and generally have it to hand.

2./ For EVERYTHING else I prefer pdf. I owned at one point hundreds of D&D books. Weighed down by a half dozen of them every time I travelled the three hours by train to go to my monthly game weekend. Now I never carry more than one book.

PDFs are easier to use for Roll20 to screen capture maps and art.

PDFs don’t get tea spilled on them

PDFs don’t get lost or lent out and not returned

PDFs don’t weigh anything

PDF’s are cheaper

PDFs are accessible in a way that books aren’t through DriveThruRPG etc.

I can have two hundred PDFs on my laptop and pull them up in an instant if I need to check something or find some inspiration.

When I’m writing or adapting an adventure, I use PDFs in a way, I never would with books.

£95 for a print copy of Volo’s Guide to the Dalelands or $9.99 on DriveThru for the pdf. No contest.

The good news was that I sold my 200 hard copy D&D books on eBay for more than I paid for them to.

 

[Weiley31]

I love the physical books as much as the next guy, but...there is always a butt.
.pdfs are just more practical. If you need to juggle with 10 books for your session, it's faster to have 10 tabs open in your pdf reader than going through 10 books. Also one laptop is lighter than 10 books.

This is pretty much I can agree with. My bud is playing a Revised Ranger(Beast Conclave) and hit level 4. Meaning not only does his character get improvements via his Ability Modifiers, Feats, and PB score, so too does his Black Panther.

So instead of lugging the PHB around/or giving him one of the WoTC Beast stat blocks you can buy in one of those mini sets, I just go on D&D 5e Statblock Generator and just update his Black Panther according, even inlcuding Proficiency Bonus, Saving Throws, Skills it has(and whether expertised or not), Armor Class via Companion's Bond, and which ever Ability Score he increased on the Black Panther. (And just for the hells of it, I even include Favored Enemy: Beasts/+2 Damage since it benefits from the Ranger's Favored Enemy choice.)

Then I make sure to print the stat block out and hand it to my bud with all the updates on it. That way he doesn't have to go through the hassle of remembering what changed on there, it makes upkeeping on me easier, and we're not constantly looking at his character sheet, and back, to see what changes on the Panther statblock.

 

[LordEntrails]

1) I prefer digital. But not PDF. PDF is the absolutely worst digital format imaginable. Or more accurately, a PDF scan of a physical book is the worst format & layout possible. Once you decide to go digital, even for a reading book, their are much better formats and layouts than a scan of a two-column print version.

You've fallen into the trap, physical or PDF. That may be the oldest choice when it comes to digital, but other options have been options have existed for years (and in some cases more than a decade)

2) When I was younger...

3) Yes. A proper digital resource (not a pdf) is much more useful than a physical book. Bookmarks are easier and faster to access. Search is actually more capable. And then whatever you looked up might actually be usable in the format it is presented in (i.e. ability to read the spell then click on the save to have the save applied to a target and then roll damage and have half damage applied to those targets that made their save and full damage to those who did not, and resistances and immunities applied as appropriate, etc).

 

[Weiley31]

But not PDF. PDF is the absolutely worst digital format imaginable.

I actually didn't know there was a difference. What would be the best digital format?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

1. I love the physical books as much as the next guy, but...there is always a butt.
.pdfs are just more practical. If you need to juggle with 10 books for your session, it's faster to have 10 tabs open in your pdf reader than going through 10 books. Also one laptop is lighter than 10 books.

This isn't a disadvantage... it's actually yet another advantage of books!

Do you even lift books, brah? Do ... you ... even.... lift?

 

[delericho]

1. Do you correctly prefer your RPG materials to be in real, book form, or are you one of those .pdf lovers?

Depends. For reading I prefer physical. But all my gaming these days is online, so electronic is vastly better for that. (And since one of my games is with work colleagues, that does mean PDF specifically - the corporate network rightly blocks gams sites, and I couldn't justify installing a dedicated reader.)

2. Relatedly, if you're a .pdf lover, how do you like Huey Lewis and the News?

I have no opinion of them or their work.

3. Do you use electronic devices at your table when you are gaming in person (assuming this will ever happen again as it used to in the BEFORE TIMES)?

No.

 

[TheSword]

1) I prefer digital. But not PDF. PDF is the absolutely worst digital format imaginable. Or more accurately, a PDF scan of a physical book is the worst format & layout possible. Once you decide to go digital, even for a reading book, their are much better formats and layouts than a scan of a two-column print version.

You've fallen into the trap, physical or PDF. That may be the oldest choice when it comes to digital, but other options have been options have existed for years (and in some cases more than a decade)

2) When I was younger...

3) Yes. A proper digital resource (not a pdf) is much more useful than a physical book. Bookmarks are easier and faster to access. Search is actually more capable. And then whatever you looked up might actually be usable in the format it is presented in (i.e. ability to read the spell then click on the save to have the save applied to a target and then roll damage and have half damage applied to those targets that made their save and full damage to those who did not, and resistances and immunities applied as appropriate, etc).

Interesting. What should we be using instead of pdf? They seem to be ubiquitous and every electronic copy of a printed product I’ve ever bought came as a pdf?

 

[CleverNickName]

My preference is to have both a hardcopy and a searchable PDF. Because both are useful in different ways, and for different reasons.

But that's not the question that was asked. The first question asked if I was "one of those .pdf lovers," and so I guess the answer is YEP.

The question about Huey Lewis & the News was lost on me. I can't name more than 2 songs from them, so I guess that means NOPE. But I know lots of Dan Quayle jokes, does that count?

And the third question, YEP. Right now we are all playing virtually, so the whole game is on an electronic device. When we were playing in person, though, my DM would use their tablet PC to control background music, look up stats, and probably lots of other stuff.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The question about Huey Lewis & the News was lost on me. I can't name more than 2 songs from them, so I guess that means NOPE. But I know lots of Dan Quayle jokes, does that count?

Do you like Phil Collins, CleverNickName?

I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. It was too artsy, too intellectual, too ... Gabriel. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums.

Just listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument they are playing. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. You can hear it in any song, but ... just take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Those lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock.

Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist.

Only a true artist could take the pain of killing a man and turn it into the sweet, sweet soundtrack of the visual masterpiece that is Miami Vice.

 

[The Hierophant]

I love books but I also love the convenience of pdfs and reading them on my iPad.

 

[J.Quondam]

Who needs either paper or PDFs?
The only way forward is NFTs, baby!