Pocket Players Handbook

[Chris_Nightwing]

I think that the SRD would be great pocket-sized. A5 sort of thing I would have thought. WotC could always make more money by doing complete releases of the PHB, DMG and MM too, but I reckon that only the PHB would be popular... and pretty =)!

 

[Buttercup]

This is an excellent idea! I think WotC probably won't want to do it, but any 3rd party publisher easily could. I'd argue for several smaller books, such as a character creation book that has all of those chapters, a magic book that has all the spells and magic items, and a combat rules/tactics book.

 

[Mark]

Brilliant, Psi. Brilliant!

 

[robaustin]

SRD in a Palm PDA. Searchable, compact, lightweight, and you can read in bed.

--*Rob

 

[Sixchan]

SRD in a Palm PDA. Searchable, compact, lightweight, and you can read in bed.

--*Rob

Batteries not included.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Always enjoyed the trade paperback size.

 

[Psionicist]

Glad you like the idea! Can anyone e-mail this thread to WotC? I have learnt by experience that their normal customer support is quite horrible.

 

[seasong]

What size is the Pocket Grimoire Arcane by Green Ronin? That's 240 pages, and a very handy size.

Personally, I'd think that you wouldn't need the entire SRD in one book. I'd keep spells in the Pocket Grimoires, and then add one book for equipment (including magic items), one book for combat (better organized, perhaps), and one book for character basics (races, classes, skills, feats, and spell lists rather than spells). A broad "pocket reference" for oddball stuff, like environment conditions, gem prices, etc., might not go amiss, either.

I would not be interested in a pocket monster manual - the only time I crack that tome open is when I'm running a combat, and I want it to lay flat anyway.

That's about $90 worth of books (at the $15 each Green Ronin price), but they would be more useful to me than the current PHB + DMG.

 

[Umbran]

Hm, I'll note a couple things that I see as difficulties for such an edition, and perhaps folks can find solutions.

1) The bigger the print run, the cheaper the book - you're going to have to convince WotC that it's worth the effort to do all the reformatting and pre-printing work on a new edition of a book for which they've already got a serviceable edition. Why should they split their sales between two small printings rather than one big one?

2) I think you'll find the art serves a purpose other than looking pretty. Similar for large page sizes. They afford more in terms of visual cues of where you are in the book. Smaller books may be easier to handle and carry around, but in terms of use as a working reference, small pages of densely packed text stink.

3) The book is now smaller than your 8.5" x 11" character sheet. No more tucking your character into the PHB. No more using the book as a handy hard surface to write on. Your players will either start or continue carrying around clipboard-sized things anyway, so that the small PHB saves them little.

 

[Estlor]

Here's the easy solution:

Someone with the full Acrobat program takes the SRD when it becomes available online, puts it together in Word and formats it so that it looks good on 8.5X11 pages. This Word file is then turned into a PDF.

People who want a "Pocket SRD" take that PDF and, when printing it, select to print it either 2 PDF pages to a physical page (for about a 5X7) or 4 PDF pages to a physical page (for someone with REALLY good eyesight).

Take the printout and use a paper cutter to cut the pages apart (Acrobat and Acrobat Reader print solid black lines around pages when printing with the more than one page to a page option).

Arrange your newly cut up pages as wanted and go to Kinkos to get them bound.

Viola!

It's so easy I'm certain I'll do it myself when the SRD hits, since I'm sure I'll be the only one with 3.5E books in my group.