D&D 5E So what's the scoop on D&D in PDF Format?

[SteveC]

Licensed games often end up hard to get in PDF. I am pretty sure you couldn't get PDFs of FFGs Star Wars games. But it isn't universal. Modiphius puts out all of their licensed games in PDF.

This is a very good point. Star Wars in general has had issues. After the licenses drop, I'm sure Lucas Arts doesn't want them available.

 

[Staffan]

Licensed games often end up hard to get in PDF. I am pretty sure you couldn't get PDFs of FFGs Star Wars games. But it isn't universal. Modiphius puts out all of their licensed games in PDF.

I believe the Star Wars situation has something to do with how the Star Wars license are split between different companies – something about the wording in the Star Wars RPG license dating back to the West End Games days and not allowing PDFs, because they count as electronic games, and EA has that license. There's probably some hair-splitting going on there as well because FFG (and Edge) does make PDF support material, up to and including companion apps for some games, freely available. It sounds like something Disney (a) could fix when renegotiating the licenses, but (b) doesn't believe is worth the effort because RPG PDFs is a niche within a niche.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

It's really tragic that there's no legitimate way to purchase Star Wars Saga or d20 stuff. People sitting on licenses or creative content and doing nothing with them infuriates me.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's really tragic that there's no legitimate way to purchase Star Wars Saga or d20 stuff. People sitting on licenses or creative content and doing nothing with them infuriates me.

Yeah. That situation encourages piracy like nothing else.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah. That situation encourages piracy like nothing else.

Dead games tell no tales.

 

[Wolfpack48]

So just a small update on this -- Edge has a nice Split Screen function now, so just duplicate the pdf tab, split the screen, and select the 2nd instance, and you have a nice left and right view of the same document. Gotta say the Read Aloud function is pretty great as well -- you can select a number of narrative voices that have good inflection, almost to the point of getting a decent audio book out of it.

 

[Wolfpack48]

So just did my first digital purchase for Quests from the Infinite Staircase. Count me unimpressed. HTML is so much more unwieldly than a pdf, though I guess I can use it to print out a map or two.

 

[Reynard]

So just did my first digital purchase for Quests from the Infinite Staircase. Count me unimpressed. HTML is so much more unwieldly than a pdf, though I guess I can use it to print out a map or two.

Hear that? that is the sound of a horde of people coming in to tell you how PDF is inferior and how you can just print it to file and it's just as good.

 

[Wolfpack48]

Hear that? that is the sound of a horde of people coming in to tell you how PDF is inferior and how you can just print it to file and it's just as good.

Silicon valley hasn’t looked at a browser printed page in 40 years.

 

[pukunui]

So just did my first digital purchase for Quests from the Infinite Staircase. Count me unimpressed. HTML is so much more unwieldly than a pdf, though I guess I can use it to print out a map or two.

Yes, you should be able to download decent-sized versions of all the art and maps (including player-friendly versions of the maps).

That’s one of the real bonuses of using DDB. That and the hyperlinking of rules.