THe RPG book you've waited for is going to be a PDF only release, do you buy?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Chances are so small as to be effectively zero.

I really strongly prefer nonvolitile formats for my consumer goods. I don't buy pdfs, I buy books. I don't buy mp3s, I buy CDs.

Do I accept them if given to me, or if I win them? Absolutely. But I don't pay for them.

To date, the only exceptions have been computer programs- some of what I own only exists only on my hard drive...but 99% of my programs are surrounding me right now in floppy or CD form.

Part of what shapes my opinion is something diaglo touched on- incompatibility.

I've lost a LOT of stuff I've produced on my computer due to programs that were not compatible with my current software or hardware. I lost some HERO PC generation spreadsheets in Microsoft Works that don't run on my current machines and Microsoft has no way to port data from Works into Excel; and hundreds of pages of adventures were lost when my data compression software stopped working after a hardware upgrade, the software company had folded, and no other program could read the files.

 

[Odhanan]

If the book was only able to be relased as a PDF would you still buy it?

Yes, I would.

 

[Mycanid]

Well, with all respects to the truth that computers do in fact stink as a means of storing data, I still use it. So I would buy a pdf personally.

I don't mind printing the thing out and putting it in a binder either, although of course there is a much more desirable "aesthetic" of owning a handsome clothbound book and what not.

 

[Cith]

No, I would not buy it. PDFs are great to have as a reference, but when it comes right down to it, I am not going to bother to go through a PDF page by page as I would a book, and that being the case, it's not worth it to me.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I would, and I have. When Otherworld Creations came out with an expansion to the D20 pulp rules system Forbidden Kingdoms called Paris: The Spectral City Babbage Edition I bought it even though I had been waiting with great anticipation. Otherworld Creations concluded they would only release it as a .pdf, or not at all.

The Paris expansion was originally $10.00, and I just checked it's now marked down to $2.49! I bought it at $10.00. I still hold great affection for this pulp rule system because it was the first comprehensive D20 pulp released, as well as the first RPG to implement some of Ken Hood's early D20 skill-based psionics subsystem.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Yes, unless there was too much DRM that would limit what platform and program I would use to view it. If I can't view it in Foxit on Linux then I'm going to pass. I don't know how much longer I'll be using the Windows platform and that could be an issue. For the same reason I don't buy .mp3 files with DRM, I don't know if I will be using the software they want me to use. It would have to be in an open format.

 

[Particle_Man]

I've done it, so I voted yes. I prefer paper, though.

 

[BryonD]

Absolutely.

No luddites here.

 

[francisca]

Yes, with one qualification: NO DRM.

I prefer PDF format actually. Of course, I also have a laser printer with a duplexer in my office, for which I don't have to pay for toner and paper. Though I don't think losing access to it would influence me that much in this regard.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

My PDF purchases tend to the smaller niche products .Anything I was 'waiting for' would almost by definition have to be a big product -- core rulebook, setting, etc. Those I won't buy on PDF.