D&D 5E (2014) Official WotC 5e pdfs

[Tigris]

We've all been saying that for 20+ years, even before 5E. Don't hold your breath.

D&D 4e was available as pdf to buy in the beginning. It was removed in 2009 because some pirated copies were coming up on the interenet.


Funny thing is that those pdf copies were from printing (as posted above by KnightsVisionCreative) not even from the sold pdfs.

In 2015 the 4e (and older versions as well) core books pdf returned for sale (and helped boost D&D sales to not fall below the previous year).

Now all 4e material is available as pdf: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/44/Wizards-of-the-Coast/category/9739/Dungeons--Dragons-4e


I really would love to see the actual numbers for all the D&D years because we know in 2019 21%+ of D&D revenue came from PDFs. (+ because only sales from a single site, but the pdfs were also on at least one othet site available). And this is all material from older versions available since at least 2015.

And we also know that in 2009 when WotC removed PDF sales, that D&D revenue had a big drop.


Even the drivethru RPG stats are not as helpfull because the 4e rereleases of the core pdfs are new products and not the ones originally available. So it only shows sales from 2015+ not from 2008 when it released.

 

[Tigris]

Someone explaining how wrong we are in desiring an awful format like PDF in 3, 2, 1...

PDF might not be the best format, but it can do a lot if people put actually some efforts into making PDFs and not just used the book printing version...

Here many things which sre possible in PDFs:

So the horrible format is the books as default, which makes the digital formats so bad.

 

[SlyFlourish]

The irony here is that WOTC is just plain leaving money on the table by not releasing 5e material in PDFs. If they did so, they'd immediately start making money. The cost to produce and deliver PDFs is likely very low for them, considering the library they currently have on the DM's Guild for their D&D Classic material. I expect the D&D classic PDFs make some pretty great passive money. The products themselves are already in PDF in order to send to layout and print so the layout is already done. They could almost certainly negotiate with DriveThruRPG for a really good percentage cut -- very close to just credit card fees which they'd have to cover no matter what platform they'd put it on.

And PDFs of D&D products don't compete with D&D Beyond. Both applications serve very different purposes. People would still buy products on D&D Beyond to use it with tools like Maps, the character builder, and everything else.

The only argument against releasing PDFs is piracy and, guess what, their material is already pirated instantly, constantly, and continually. Those sales are already lost and some number of those pirated copies could have been legitimate customers if they sold what people want -- a digital format for their material that people can own, use offline, and use on different devices.

My wife and I are a small business RPG publisher. Our stuff is pirated too. Does it bother us? Sure. But we're not going to get in the way between a customer and a product they want. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to get our stuff -- that's far more important than trying to block pirates by getting in the way of a customer and their product. Pretty much every other RPG publisher does the same thing.

If WOTC released PDfs they'd:

• make a whole bunch of money for a very low cost.
• improve their relationship with their customers.
• be a better steward of D&D by supporting its future legacy.

 

[mamba]

There's nothing wrong with wanting it, just don't expect them to put it in a form for people to post online for free.

because that clearly has stopped the spread of their books...

 

[Rabulias]

We've all been saying that for 20+ years, even before 5E. Don't hold your breath.

Yet official PDFs of the core books (and more) from all pre-5e versions of D&D are available for sale on DM's Guild. If D&D 6e is made, I think 5e PDFs will show up for sale then.

Edited to clarify: If your point is we won't see them during the active edition, I think you are correct.

 

[Remathilis]

Was this one of the downloads they made available during the pandemic?

Yes

 

[Distracted DM]

The irony here is that WOTC is just plain leaving money on the table by not releasing 5e material in PDFs. If they did so, they'd immediately start making money. The cost to produce and deliver PDFs is likely very low for them, considering the library they currently have on the DM's Guild for their D&D Classic material. I expect the D&D classic PDFs make some pretty great passive money. The products themselves are already in PDF in order to send to layout and print so the layout is already done. They could almost certainly negotiate with DriveThruRPG for a really good percentage cut -- very close to just credit card fees which they'd have to cover no matter what platform they'd put it on.

And PDFs of D&D products don't compete with D&D Beyond. Both applications serve very different purposes. People would still buy products on D&D Beyond to use it with tools like Maps, the character builder, and everything else.

The only argument against releasing PDFs is piracy and, guess what, their material is already pirated instantly, constantly, and continually. Those sales are already lost and some number of those pirated copies could have been legitimate customers if they sold what people want -- a digital format for their material that people can own, use offline, and use on different devices.

My wife and I are a small business RPG publisher. Our stuff is pirated too. Does it bother us? Sure. But we're not going to get in the way between a customer and a product they want. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to get our stuff -- that's far more important than trying to block pirates by getting in the way of a customer and their product. Pretty much every other RPG publisher does the same thing.

If WOTC released PDfs they'd:

• make a whole bunch of money for a very low cost.
• improve their relationship with their customers.
• be a better steward of D&D by supporting its future legacy.

No no, I get it now.
Not selling pdfs of their current edition is just another sacred cow of DnD. Respect it

 

[djotaku]

And PDFs of D&D products don't compete with D&D Beyond. Both applications serve very different purposes. People would still buy products on D&D Beyond to use it with tools like Maps, the character builder, and everything else.

The only argument against releasing PDFs is piracy and, guess what, their material is already pirated instantly, constantly, and continually. Those sales are already lost and some number of those pirated copies could have been legitimate customers if they sold what people want -- a digital format for their material that people can own, use offline, and use on different devices.

To your first paragraph - 100% and I would add ANOTHER reason why people might still buy on DND beyond: formatting for phones and tablets. I have PDFs from Kobold Press (both D&D and Tales of the Valiant) and Paizo (Pathfinder 2e and Starfinder 1e). There is a lot I love about the PDFs. 1) control-F to find a spell, feat, etc 2) being able to have all my books while on vacation if I want to play with family member 3) less wear/tear on my physical books.

But what I HATE about PDFs is trying to read them on my phone. What's pretty awesome to read on my phone? DndBeyond. (I imagine that Demiplane Nexus is the same). I wish for a super cheap price that I could add my Paizo and KP books to something like Demiplane for reading on my phone.

To your second paragraph - 100% true. ALSO, Paizo and KP release PDFs. Unregulated use is not killing their business. SHOOT - Paizo has all their rules for free on Archives of Nethys, anyway!

But looping back around to your first paragraph, I would definitely via dndbeyond as the same as buying a book/module for Foundry, Roll20, etc. Although my wallet hates it, I've come around to the understanding that making all that stuff work correctly (linking, formatting, etc) requires buying my books again if I want them in the VTT. And I do do that for KP Tales of the Valiant stuff oin Foundry. So if WotC had PDFs of their books I would still buy them on dndbeyond or Foundry (or roll20, etc).

 

[mamba]

No no, I get it now.
Not selling pdfs of their current edition is just another sacred cow of DnD. Respect it

I am ok with that, open up the 2014 books on DMsGuild, don’t care about the 2024 ones all that much anyway