The future of Rulebooks, Dragon, Dungeon, Fanzines, etc?

[Aeolius]

Interesting news from Apple: iBooks Author

"Now anyone can create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. All you need is an idea and a Mac. Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad at any time. Then submit your finished work to the iBookstore with a few simple steps. And before you know it, you’re a published author.

The App allows you to start with a number of templates and then customize your book with images, videos, multi-touch widgets and even Keynote presentations. You can then preview your book on your iPad and then submit it to the iBookstore for sale or free download. "

 

[TerraDave]

Oh, lets see.

*I am sure all things digital have a central place in the strategy. Of course, this was true in 2000 (remember those CDs in the PHB?). There have been issues...but DDI is pretty good.

*Tablets not only make e-gamebooks a viable idea, but may allow for more functionality, at least as a reference, then paper.

*And there is plugging your tablet into your big TV for the gamemat, or just to show stuff

*On the other hand, there will be books...at least for the next 5 years.

 

[Daven]

I don't know if tablets will replace books in every situation, but I think that roleplaying can use a lot the tablet/ebook spread. Hyperlinking rules and softwares would improve game efficiency at table. Linking to bigger screens would be a nice thing for images, sheets, or (why not?) virtual tables for virtual tokens.
It can be done, now. But Wizards of the Coast would need some very good programmers, not like the ones behind today softwares and website.

 

[Alan Shutko]

The theory is that iBooks Author (new free app from Apple) will make it much easier to develop interactive books. I have not yet played with it, but it sounds pretty nice. Drop in movies easily, use Keynote for simple interactivity, and build HTML/Javascript widgets for more complex stuff.

Reports are that this is based on, or is at least very similar to ePub 3, which uses all the existing technologies we have on the web. So it should be a lot easier for non-programmers to put things together than if they had to develop mobile apps. And it bodes well for cross-platform uses, although I don't know the current state of epub3 readers.

 

[Mercurius]

*On the other hand, there will be books...at least for the next 5 years.

This inspires the question: Will 5E be the last paper version of D&D? At the least I would think later versions (anything 5+ years out) would be POD, but with the primary format being digital.

Being a book-lover and indifferent about digital media, this makes me kind of sad, actually. On the other hand, I love the idea that at-home POD capabilities will eventually allow us to go beyond simply printing a PDF to having it bound in a hardcover. So the main purchase might be a digital form of some kind which includes a POD file for old-fashioned types that like books. Then, if you want, you can use your at-home book-maker to make the Player's Handbook 6E.

If there are still brick-and-mortar book stores in 5+ years, they might only carry bestsellers and POD kiosks, for those without an at-home machine. And used stores, of course. A few of those will manage to carry on indefinitely, I would imagine. Or hope!

 

[Deset Gled]

Ad-free version:

"Now anyone can create stunning books, textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more. All you need is an idea and a computer. Start with any word processing software ever made. Add your own text and images. Preview your book on any device with non-proprietary software at any time. Then submit your finished work to any website. And before you know it, you’re a self-published author."

 

[TerraDave]

This inspires the question: Will 5E be the last paper version of D&D? At the least I would think later versions (anything 5+ years out) would be POD, but with the primary format being digital.

...

That seems right. Print for some specialized niches, but really planned and done as a table and online based medium.

And this may be why we won't see a 6E for a long time. It won't mean nearly as much.




Of course, that's assuming they don't screw up 5E. Which would be the other reason we won't see 6E for a long time.

 

[Glade Riven]

MS Word epub exporter
epub Open Office Extension (need to test it with LibreOffice, should work, though)
Calabri (to convert, create, and manage ebooks in quite a few formats; Mac, PC, and Linux)

And that's a quick search. Apps for both android, iOS, and Win8 are HTML5 and Javascript based, so learning how to write something decent isn't too hard for those who care to learn.

Of course, then there's Wordpress, Joomla, and other CMS options that make it easy to just update a website that has RSS feeds. I suppose if you have to do things the Apple way...but analysts have already predicted that by the end of 2012 Windows 8 will have a larger market share than iOS, and Win8 doesn't even have a release date yet. Android devices have the greatest market share, so limiting yourself to just iOS publishing is a bad plan.

 

[Agamon]

*double post*

 

[Agamon]

From what I understand, to publish with Apple, you can only publish with Apple.

There are better ways to do it, for sure.