PDF now or Print later?

[The Sigil]

Pdf...

PDF all the way.

For those who have good vision, you can print out PDFs at 4 pages to a sheet (i.e., 1/2 size) and get a TON of gaming information in a small space (I have a notebook the size of the PHB that contains about 15 books - from the Books of Eldritch Might to Malladin's Gate products to EN Publishing stuff).

To be honest, I really am... nonplussed... by the stuff that's been coming out in print of late. I am awaiting Goodman Games' Blackmoor Hardcover... but that will probably be the about the first print product I purchase since late last year (possibly longer). Maybe it's a product of the fact that I can leaf through a printed product and be put off by it and I have to buy PDFs sight unseen... but I've found that printed products are stale, bland, and falling into the same formulaic patterns - causing me to leaf through them and put them back on the shelf with a mild, "blech" - while PDFs seem to be evolving and changing and improving.

It probably doesn't help that with a move into my own place and mortgage payments to worry about, my gaming dollar is tighter. I have an easier time blowing $5 on a PDF than $15 on the smallest of print products.

But I love the ability to cut & paste. I love the ability to carry a library of a hundred books on a single CD. I love PDFs... and I just haven't found anything in print worth spending my money on.

So it's PDFs for me. After all, as I see it, I'm buying information. The PDF format makes that information MORE accessible for me (easy copy paste, ability to print only slivers as needed, and with CD backups, no worries if some idiot spills his soda), and is far cheaper. That makes it a no-brainer for me.

--The Sigil

 

[tburdett]

I like to buy .pdfs because they can be updated and either patched or re-released at, usually, no cost to the consumer.

If I like a .pdf product, and it is edited well with few errors and also updated when necessary, I will usually buy the print product. If I buy a .pdf product and it is subsequently ignored (not revised to fix errors or reflect rule changes) by its' publisher I will NOT buy the print product.

 

[Psiblade]

I will sometimes buy pdf products just to a look. Most of the time, I prefer print for artwork and ease of use.


-Psiblade

 

[Davelozzi]

I voted "depends" although it's not so much the cost that's the issues as the need. The few .PDFs that I bought were only purchased because I knew that they had something in them that would have an immediate impact on my game so I didn't want to wait until the released the print book.

If there were always released at the same time, I'd say print only, hands down.