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

[Weiley31]

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

Nice to see how 6th Edition is gonna become that.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

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

RENTON, Wash., January 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro, Inc (NASDAQ: HAS), is proud to announce that DUNGEONS & DRAGONS®, the award-winning and best-selling role-playing game, will now be moving to blockchain.

"Whenever I'm at the table playing Dungeons & Dragons with my fellow young people, I think to myself, 'Self, how can I exploit the synergies between this game and emergent new technologies in order to better monetize them?' And that's when I knew that we had to pivot to a blockchain-based video solution for Dungeons & Dragons," said Rich Stoddart, cool gamer that is hip to the lingo of today and CEO of Hasbro, Inc.

 

[Count_Zero]

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

If space was not an issue (and I wasn't on a level 2 evacuation notice in 2020 due to wildfires), I'd prefer my books in physical form. However, I tend to buy books as .pdfs first, unless it's not available in PDF, or if it's a really good deal (like my copy of OG Delta Green I got at a Value Village for $10).

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 haven't listened to as much Huey Lewis and the News as I'd like, and I also haven't watched American Psycho - I've only encountered the memes. What's with the nailgun?

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)?

I've used tablets to reference rulebook material, and occasionally use digital character sheets to streamline some of the math - though you can have my physical dice when I run out of CON points and blow away as dust.

 

[Fenris-77]

Shipping to where I live is ridiculous, so I'm very happy to mostly collect PDFs.

 

[Delazar]

I like books the first time I read them. Then they sit on my shelves, never to be touched again. Which kinda makes me hate them in the end.

I only use an actual book at the table when it’s the only book we use to play. Like, we played a BECM(I) campaign, and all I needed was my Rules Cyclopedia. But I could never do this with 5e.

On the topic of 5e, if they ever released pdf, I wouldn’t use them. Aside from portability, trying to find the right snippet of a rule among so many books is just an hassle. I prefer a database model, like DnD Beyond, where I can just call up a class, for example, and get a list of all info related to that class (all subclasses, spells, etc.)

 

[payn]

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.

I'll take a sledgehammer to that take.

 

[LordEntrails]

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

Depends on your use case.

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?

Ever notice that a Kindle or your local library's online books don't use PDFs? (You do know your local library has digital versions of most books don't you? For free...) Their are formats like ePub and Mobi that are designed for reading on variable sized screens. Ever notice how much it sucks to try to read a two column layout of most PDFs on a small screen or even any landscape oriented screen? ePub and Mobi don't have two columns, they have the text (and inline images) just inline images and let the reader format them for column width, text size, text color, background color, etc.

(edit: and the reason they come as PDFs is because with a couple of mouse clicks you can convert a print ready book to PDF and because (wrongly so) most people think PDFs are 'secure' and can't be altered or text scraped once created. PDFs (for reasons) are ubiquitous, therefore people think its what they should expect or want.)

That's just for reading. If you actually want to use the content during game play, then the VTT of your choice might have a better format that can do all the things I mentioned before.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I'll take a sledgehammer to that take.

Ah yes, the most incredibly horny song ever ... but you know, for kids!

I love the 80s.

 

[S'mon]

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

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.

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)?

#1 I like hardcopy, but realistically I like hardcopy + PDF + on Roll20, so it can get kinda expensive! I like the hardcopy for browsing and for at-table reference, but PDF and Roll20 for online play.

#3 I don't use electronic devices at the table (except the calculator app on my phone to work out XP at the end), but I've given up trying to stop players using eg D&D Beyond at table.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

#3 I don't use electronic devices at the table (except the calculator app on my phone to work out XP at the end), but I've given up trying to stop players using eg D&D Beyond at table.

IME, if it's treated as a fun thing, instead of as a punishment, it works pretty well.

Everyone is so saturated with screens anymore that having a required "no screen" downtime while you are playing can be viewed as more of a bonus than anything else. Most people don't realize how distracted they are until they do it for a while.