What PDFs have you bought that revolutionized you D20 Modern Game

[Bobitron]

I can understand your reluctance to buy a pdf when there is comparable info available in book form at a similar cost. In general, I would rather have the book. But as mentioned above, there are some huge benefits to be had with pdf's, especially with larger books. Between cut and paste and Acrobat's search feature, I save time everytime I use my pdf books.

I'm with Shaman in regards to Sidewinder: Recoiled. The book is awesome, and it costs far less in electronic form.

I expect I will only buy short pdf's if it is a focused product I need. Most of my electronic purchases will be large books though, which would skew your cost/page firmly towards the pdf's. The next purchase I make from DTRPG.com will probably be some of DP9's Jovian Chronicles, which costs about half the price of the print version.

 

[broghammerj]

And that's why we offer collections. You say $20 for a 100-page file when some of our collections run about 70-pages for $10. As an example:

Thanks Phil. I may have to check that out. This is sort of something I would be happy to try out.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I'm a pretty big fan of the RoninArts and RPGObjects work, m'self. I've also chatted with the RPGO folks online a few times, and I like to buy product from folks I know. I'm from the south and we're folksy like that, I guess.

But, base-line, RPGO puts out some goooooood stuff. One of my favorite, if short-lived, games was a Modern game using Blood And Vigilance. (It also used the Call of Cthulhu d20 book ... which was one of the best parts. By playing with a base d20 game I could bring OTHER material in.)

I've got Blood and Circuits, and have used it for quite a few Modern games. I'm currently not running any Modern games ( ) but have used it to design computers for a Dark*Matter d20 game. I also used it not too long ago to help design a MAGIC system based entirely on crafting magical items.

I've bought half a dozen RA pdfs on Occult and odd stuff ... 101 Occult Tomes, Occult Rumors, stuff like that. They're odd little products but quite fun, really. I recently bought 12 Trade Goods for a fantasy game where the players are the crew of a flying trade ship, so they'd have tradegoods for downtime. (Unfortunately it was a little too D&D-centric and 80% of the goods have something to do with Elves, Gnomes, Halfings, Dwarves and Druids, and mine is a Grim Tales humanocentric game). Even so, I'm not disappointed by the purchase, as with a touch of rewriting (I.E. removing the word "elf") they work well for me in my game.

As far as "Essential" goes. The Modern Player Companions from The Game Mechanics work well and are very well designed. Anything from RPGObjects, I'd say. I own Blood and Relics, Blood and Circuits, Blood and Vigilance, Blood and Space 2, and can suggest Blood and Guts sight-unseen because of some of the carry-over to Blood and Space 2 I'm aware of. I'm CONTEMPLATING getting Blood and Fists products to run a "buddy cop drama" game. And everybody knows, in cop movies you have to totally kick the crap out of everybody before and after you shoot them, so I'll need more martial arts rules to capture the flavor.

--fje

 

[Von Ether]

Ever read the reviews for d20 Future? Most of the reviews are "this tool kit book had some great ideas and some really lame ones." Some of the simply dinged the book because it covered a subject that the reviewer simply didn't care for.

With these "selected subjects" PDFs, I get what I want. Yeah the "cost per page" ratio may be different, but really, at $2 A PDF, I don't care.

In a perfect world, a 4-page PDF would cost 64 cents. Somehow I doubt that you could get writers and artists to lower their commissions to get the product that cheap. Wether the artist is making 4 pics for a big book or a small book, he still wants the same price for his four pics.

As a quick aside, some of these $2 PDFs look sharp. If you sold them for less than a dollar, I doubt they'd look that good.

 

[Emiricol]

Price per page is meaningless. Comparing Mutants & Masterminds to most hardcovers would make MnM look really bad, and yet I get more use out of that book than almost any other book I know. PDF price per page is even more meaningless - I buy what's interesting to me, and at $5 or whatever, who cares?

RPGObjects puts out some of the best stuff I've seen, particularly the "Blood and X" lines. Game Mechanics' Modern Player's Companion I & II are quite useful as well.

 

[philreed]

In a perfect world, a 4-page PDF would cost 64 cents. Somehow I doubt that you could get writers and artists to lower their commissions to get the product that cheap. Wether the artist is making 4 pics for a big book or a small book, he still wants the same price for his four pics.

Exactly. At $0.64 I'd end up making about $0.16 after expenses. Ouch!

 

[Pol-Detson]

Not to flog a dead horse, but RPG Objects puts out some really good stuff, namely their Darwin's World of post-apoc. sourcebooks. It's sold in 3 sections, at about $10. per section....quite a bit for a PDF, but still cheap at the price. I'd buy the hardcover, but economy of scale means that I'd have to shell out +/- $40 for something I've already got on my hard drive.

 

[Roudi]

Pol, check out the RPGObjects website. They offer discounts on print products if you already own the PDF. I bought Modern Backdrops in print for the regular price minus what I already paid for the PDF.

That said: Modern Player's Companion I & II appear quintessential for any Modern afficionado. I found Blood & Fists to be, bar none, the best adaptation of real martial arts into a roleplaying system (and I'm a Karate Black Belt). Blood & Fists 2 give more of that goodness. I'm also a fan of both Blood & Relics, and Blood & Vigilance, but only because I like occult-themed suspense games and superhero games respectively.

You cannot purchase either in PDF form yet, but I would highly recommend Green Ronin's Ultramodern Firearms or WotC's d20 Weapons Locker, particularly if you plan on using many different types of guns. I'm preferential to Ultramodern Firearms but I've heard both equally serve their purpose. With any luck, we'll see these as PDFs eventually.

There are two more I'd recommend, but I cannot, for two reasons. 1) I'm writing them, so that'd be unfair, and 2) they're not out yet.

Oh, and one last thing... check out MODERNIZED for plenty of free new material for your Modern game.

 

[RodneyThompson]

Let me tell you, you do yourself a disservice if you do not pick up the Modern Player's Companion, either in print or PDF (both volumes). Some great stuff in there, a little bit for everyone. It's like d20 Modenr, but...more!

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I have seen lots of cool stuff and lots of interesting stuff. Most of the stuff I buy from RPGnow is stuff I have a pretty good idea of what I am getting. But probably one of the most inventive and clever things I have ever gotten from RPGnow is Steve Miller's Mind Over Matter which is an alternate set of rules for Psionics. It is easy and crisp and whereas it is not really intended for games with lots of magic (ie D&D) it is perfect for use for something like d20 Modern, something with a Horror setting or some Sci-Fi setting.