Just for fun - a poll on PDFs v. Books

[eris404]

Name names. What PDFs have you been so impressed by? And write some reviews on them, if you really like a book you need to stand on the street corners and yell about them especially PDFs.

I do write short reviews...though on RPGnow when I get the chance. I'm usually too busy reading posts here working. Some things I've bought recently that I liked have been mentioned on the forums a lot lately already, but just to name a few:

Six Living Planar Gates
Advanced Gamemaster's Guide
A DM's Directory of Demiplanes
A Magical Society: Beast Builder

I really, really liked E.N. Guilds - Banking Guild, because it gave me a great idea to start my campaign - the characters start as insurance agents looking for the body of a policy holder so that he can be raised.

But that's what I mean in a nutshell. No book I've bought recently has inspired me as much as a couple of paragraphs from that PDF. And I think that is cool.

 

[eris404]

Thank you! I had a lot of fun writing that one (I think it shows when you read it) and would love to write more material along the same lines.

Yeah, I'm a big fan girl. I really do love your stuff. I think the planes stuff has been some of the best, really. It made me change my mind on planar settings and I think it's going to influence the direction of my campaign.

 

[IronWolf]

I prefer books in most cases as I just like the way they feel in my hand! I do pick up the occasional PDF though and in most cases there creativity is refreshing. I am fairly selective in what PDF's I pick up and tend to only get them after seeing them mentioned here. So far I have been happy with the ones I have picked up.

 

[Turjan]

That poll doesn't have enough options . I prefer books, but I also buy pdf's from time to time, and some of them are really great. It might even be that my buying habits will change at some time; pdf's have definite advantages. If I only were a bit more organized .

 

[Psion]

I mean wacky in a good way. Inspired by the Planes thread, I finally got around to buying the Six Living Planar Gates pdf. There's some wackiness in that.

Indeed there is.

Are you just looking for "little gems", or are sizeable resources useful to you?

Here's some PDFs I enjoy and/or find useful:
"Little Gems" (say, under 2 mb)

• Six Living Planar Gates is a nice chart topper
• Visions 2 - Phantasmal Memories: Ghostly manifestations that aren't creatures
• ENArsenal - Spiked Chain: I like the idea of the Raveller
• Fantasy Player Companion - Summoner Options: Nice if you want to make summoning a more interesting player option.
• Creature Weekly 1 & 4 - Some cool creature concepts, like Deadgem and fiends based on Bosch paintings.
• Bad Axe Games Mass Combat
• Personal Artifacts and Synergy Artifacts: I haven't used any of these yet, but if you are feeling jaded by magic items, you might consider using some.

"Nice meaty resource books"

• Masters of Arms - standardizes the "weapon master" prestige class concept.
• Hyperconsious - Psionic Goodness
• Arms & Armor 3.5
• A DM's Directory of Demiplanes
• Minions Compiled
• Spells & Magic (it's 3.0, but the spells, Jewel Mage, and Dragon Mage are way cool)
• Advanced Gamemaster's Guide
• Advanced Bestiary
• Elements of Magic

If you dig modern, you should consider Blood & Fists (& B&F II) and most of the Blood series as well.

This is just a smattering. There are others.

 

[Crothian]

I do write short reviews...though on RPGnow when I get the chance.

You should find some time and write full reviews on EN World. Even one every other Month would be great!!

Six Living Planar Gates
Advanced Gamemaster's Guide

these two I haven't seen yet but with luck I'll be able to

A DM's Directory of Demiplanes
A Magical Society: Beast Builder

These two are really good. I really liked Demi Planes and was able to usea few in my campaign before it folded. Beast Builder I've only slowly started to read and review but it has really impressed me. It has a lot to live up to since the first two in the series are just awsome.

E.N. Guilds - Banking Guild

I have this one but haven't had a chance to open it and read it yet. Too many books these days. But I'm really looking forward to is since I am a banker and I love using guilds in my games.

 

[eyorsdoc]

I like the content in the pdfs a lot too. I tend to use books more when I play. However, I travel a lot with a slect group of players and it is nice to have pdf's of books that I do not use a lot stored on my laptop. What I hate is having to buy both. When a printed book is available, it would be nice to get a free pdf with it.

 

[DragonLancer]

I won't buy PDF products. I like having a physical book rather than a shedload of printed pages that have also cost me to print out.

 

[nopantsyet]

I love my PDFs, and there's a lot of high quality PDFs. Given the choice I would take books, but at the end of the day, I make my purchasing decisions on the material not the medium.

 

[GlassJaw]

I likes 'em both but for different reasons. I definitely use my books more but pdf's are great if the price is right and they are good for reading when having the book open is not an option (like wurk!).