PDFs: Should they include flavor material or just plain rules?

[Geoff Watson]

I don't think I've ever seen that idea proposed anywhere before now.

How about earlier in this thread?

Geoff.

 

[Cyberzombie]

How about earlier in this thread?

Geoff.

That's not quite the same thing -- he's talking about an entire non-flavoured PDF to go with the regular PDF. But I'll apologize for missing your post, anyway. Feel better yet?

 

[HellHound]

(Sigh... lets try writing this one again... tried posting this all day for four days now...)

I don't feel comfortable releasing a crunch-only PDF.

A lot of people have had their introduction to PDF products via a pirate copy of one. These would-be-customers in many cases are impressed enough by the quality of the product to go to RPGnow and purchase the book they pirated, or at least purchase other PDFs in the same line.

But what if all they saw was a small PDF of nothing but crunch?

The tendency among the pirates is to distribute the smallest version of a document from a package. In the case of Everyone Else, the printer-friendly edition was propagated by the pirates because it was smaller than the normal version. The printer-only version is of course lacking in graphical layout as well as the extensive bookmarking that makes the screen version so useful (IMO). This is why the Printer-Friendly version of Crimson Contracts is only 8 pages of the 129 page PDF. These are replacements for the 8 pages that are ink-hogs in the original screen-friendly document. No pirate in his right mind will propagate only this edition of the document.

On the other hand, I CAN see pirates distributing the crunch-only copy of the document, should one exist. I feel that this would lose many would-be-customers who pick up a pirate copy and get turned off by the dry rules-only text, as well as actually making piracy easier by having the smaller file to propagate.

So there we go.

 

[MEG Hal]

pdf books should be of the same quality as a print book, so IMHO it needs some fluff in with the crunch or it gets boring. If you make a print quality book (nice mix) it will sell well and be treated with more respect as a book that is a pdf not just a pdf. Some companies are doing just that Ambient, Nat20, Cooley Publications, jbrowning, Vigilance etc.... (I know I missed some sorry) as examples of good books that are pdfs. That is my opinion and my opinion only.

 

[Y.O.Morales]

quote:
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Originally posted by Hygric
Why not have the regular PDF and a crunch-only PDF that has been optimised for printing in the one product?
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I don't think I've ever seen that idea proposed anywhere before now. You might just have an Original Idea there. I don't know how well it would work in practice, since it's never been done, but it certainly something people could think about.

That would be a good idea. For monster books, it's better to include just the stats (and the desc for each ability) in a printer-friendly version, since GMs won't be needing stuff like Adventure Hooks or Treasure when they are using the critters in a game session.

I'll try this with our upcoming book.

But then you have what Hellhound says.