What is your opinion of PDFS?

[Greenfield]

One of the players in my game group is nearly blind, and depends on the Magnifier app on his laptop to let him read rule books via PDF.

Obviously his is an exceptional case, but lately I've noticed that a lot of the rule books are available fro free download as scanned PDFs. Technically they're illegal, of course, under copyright law, but I can see them being very very convenient for someone with a tablet or laptop. (I think the tablet is a better fit at a game table, if only because they don't create a wall between the player and the game table.)

So far I've only obtained PDFs of books I legitimately own in hardcopy, but I know others who use them more extensively.

How do you feel on the subject?

 

[billd91]

On the subject of using legally obtained PDFs for my gaming? I prefer to sit and read physical books. However, PDFs do OK when I need the convenience, I don't want to carry the book around, I want to copy from it to paste into another document. I like PDFs for a variety of reasons and my iPad has made them easier to use and read to the point that I do it a lot more often than when I just had my desktop computer.

 

[Sunseeker]

I have no issue with legally obtained PDFs, nor do I have an issue with illegally obtained PDFs for books you already own but no PDF exists. They're great resources, highly portable, and if the market isn't capitalizing on them, it's their loss.

I do not approve of illegally obtained PDFs, but I'm not going to accuse my players of illegal activity. Their business is their business. A lot of gaming books get shared between players over the years, destroyed, or lost. How am I to know if my player illegally downloaded the PDF, scanned a friend's book, a book they used to own or scanned their own book? Do I demand a receipt? Some kind of UPC code? It's not my job to attempt to enforce the law upon others. I can set rules at my table for good behavior but I'm not going to go all policia on their butt if I suspect something.

It's a digital age where people want lots of things available in the palm of their hands at any given moment. If the market isn't catering to that desire, well, then that's the market's loss.

 

[Stormonu]

I run my games pretty much by PDF these days, so I love them (wish my iPad was a tad bigger sometimes). PDFs save wear and tear on my physical books and they give me a back-up in case something were to happen to my physical books. In a few cases, I've bought a PDF or downloaded a sample that's helped me decide whether I want the hard copy (haven't quite been able to go PDF only yet, but part of that is because I started with the actual books years ago).

I have PDFs from all kinds of sources, including some scanned myself from books I own and a hefty amount bought through drivethrurpg/rpgnow. Others are for game systems that the publishers couldn't get a license to do PDF (West End Star Wars, FASA Battlestar Galactica, etc.). Some companies even give their PDFs out for free - or for a limited time.

As I mentioned above, I have the equipment at home to scan my own PDFs. I could self-scan all the books I have, but in some cases that would require near-destroying the book to get a good copy. Buying PDFs saves me that time and possible damage to the books (which I'm trying to avoid in the first place) or, in the cases of PDFs from Pathfinder, the hyperlinks and other features help me save time searching for info. If PDFs aren't available for the books I have, what am I expected to do? How about someone that doesn't have their own scanner?

In the end, I see no reason to question how a person got their copy of a PDF at the table. You don't ask people at the table how they got their hard cover books, do you?

 

[Sonny]

Same here, love PDFs. I prefer my iPad for reading rather than using physical books. I have no issue with buying them, and in fact I'm starting to buy pdf's almost exclusively. There are exceptions of course, and books like the Hacklopedia of Beasts are too beautiful to not have a physical copy of.

That being said, I want to see the industry move on to other formats and abilities. Both Wizards and Paizo have the money to do some dynamite stuff with electronic publishing. Look at the Warhammer Codex books that have made it to iBooks to see what I'm getting at. There's plenty of room to innovate and improve.

Imagine a special electronic version of the Temple of Elemental Evil that allows you to select and dynamically change what edition D&D rules you want to use in it. Or a pop up glossary while reading rulebooks.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I find PDFs awkward. Usually they are just books designed for print delivered in a page description format without regard for contents and structure. Reading a multi-column, letter-sized PDF on a computer screen is a pain.

I'd very much prefer a good e-book format, thank you. PDF is good for storing "printed" stuff, e-book is good for using text.

 

[Leatherhead]

PDFs are great for when you want to copy/paste info into a reference sheet for printing out.

However, there are far better formats for looking up information while in game, better formats for just sitting down and reading the book, and a character creator tool is far better for actually making a character.

 

[Li Shenron]

I could never read D&D rules from a PDF... not for me. I want a solid book in front of me, that I can touch and feel and browse. A PDF would just give me headaches as I go back and forth trying to connect things.

OTOH I have run the game with a laptop and using the 3.0 and 3.5 SRD, HTML-based. Now those are indeed usable, but they serve a totally different purpose, that of finding a rule quickly, basically from behind a DM's screen, without taking out bulky books.

In short, books are the only thing I want to deal with when reading new material and preparing the game, but during the game (DM's only!) I would like an HTML or web-based reference. The best for me would be if the PHB came with such application, and every book thereafter came with its own addition to your own copy of the application so that now it would contain also that book's material.

 

[Mallus]

I'm currently running my campaigns off of my iPad. Use a full-sized tablet, a good PDF reader like, umm, Goodreader, bookmark the important pages, and you're golden. It's much easier than lugging around/flipping through several hard-bound books.

About the only RPG book I regret getting in PDF format is Zak Smith's Vorheim -- there's a particular kind of physicality about it that would benefit from, err, being physical.

 

[Gilladian]

I don't care if it is PDF per se, but I am all for (legal) ebook formats. I've got a rule that I only keep pdfs of books that I own, but I've downloaded and window-shopped many an online book and either bought the hardcover or discarded the electronic version. I do all my game prep on the computer, and not having to type everything in saves me SO much prep time.

I also love my e-format dragon and dungeon magazines. Not having to go up into the attic and dig through storage boxes to find an old issue when I remember "that one old random generator for x" that I want to see again is wonderful!