D&D 5E Where are the PDFs?

[Lwaxy]

Well, I want my material in PDF most of the time including the rule books for online play. So, adventures and supplements need to come in a usable electronic form. I neither want to bother with some great new app nor pay some subscription for wanting just a few things. So if 5e is going that way it not only becomes a lot less interesting to me, simply because there will be stuff I can't use, it also means they'll make less money. Because our family's buy-the-PDF-adventures guy (my cousin) is of the same opinion, and so he just wouldn't buy anything unavailable as PDF, which in turn means I don't have them either, which in turn means my play-all-official-adventures group will not be very interested in 5e either which in turn means none of them will buy any rule books.

Big loss in income.

 

[Hussar]

DungeonScape is not a virtual tabletop. It's for use *at* a tabletop. Entirely different type of product altogether.

Yeah, I know. I can keep dreaming though.

 

[Torg Smith]

Well, in a real book I can put my fingers between the pages to go quickly back to the previous section. But today I learned something about those readers.

My main point remains, though: When I replace the traditional book with some modern tech, I'd like to have more usability, not less or the same level. Going to PDF still seems like a half-hearted effort to me.

Both Adobe Reader and Foxit Reader allow you to go back with the (ALT) + (Left Arrow). These readers also have a splitter so you can see two pages on the screen. Just drag the splitter at the end of the scrollbar to get the second window.

PDFs support much more functionality than is being used now. FFG has put more effort into hyper links. They have the Table of Contents fully linked and the "see page XX" linked on their newest Black Crusade book Tome of Decay. They have always bookmarked from what I have seen. It looks like they have been improving on the hyperlinking as time has gone on. Don't forget, you have full text search over the entire book.

You can put sticky notes on your PDFs with errata. The ability to change the size of the text without having to move a book is quite nice. Text search totally rocks. Being able to click in the page number window and type a page number to go to is nice. The thumbnail images of the pages makes finding maps quite easy. Form fillable PDFs totally rock.

 

[aramis erak]

Both Adobe Reader and Foxit Reader allow you to go back with the (ALT) + (Left Arrow). These readers also have a splitter so you can see two pages on the screen. Just drag the splitter at the end of the scrollbar to get the second window.

The Mac version, it's command and the left and right arrows, not alt. There is no splitter on Reader 10.1.10 on OSX 10.9.

 

[TrippyHippy]

There does seem to be an awful assumption from Wizards about what sort of electronic support the fans want for D&D. If the demand is for pdfs then shouldn’t the public (and market) decide? Leave the decision to the fans as to what form of electronic support they want.

 

[Maggan]

There does seem to be an awful assumption from Wizards about what sort of electronic support the fans want for D&D.

Well, they do have data from their current and prior PDF sales to base their assumptions on, which is more than what we have. Vocal demand can be quite different from actual paying customer demand, os it's difficult to know if the demand is really there. The numbers I have heard for how much PDF:s sell are hardly impressive on a major scale, although of course I am not privy to how Pathfinder and D&D sells.

But other PDF suppliers sell in the hundreds. I don't think D&D is magnistudes of difference, maybe in the thousands. But I'm guessing, of course.

On the other hand, they risk little by putting out the PDFs for sale. Well, maybe game shop relations, but apart from that, not much monetary risk.

Cheers

/Maggan

 

[delericho]

On the other hand, they risk little by putting out the PDFs for sale. Well, maybe game shop relations, but apart from that, not much monetary risk.

Maybe not directly, but there's likely an opportunity cost - if they make PDFs available for sale, that makes the DungeonScape offering that much less appealing (assuming it includes electronic books in some form).

It's also possible, though I think unlikely, that the contract with Trapdoor to produce DS may include an exclusivity clause, which would mean WotC cannot put out the PDFs for sale separately.

 

[aramis erak]

Well, they do have data from their current and prior PDF sales to base their assumptions on, which is more than what we have. Vocal demand can be quite different from actual paying customer demand, os it's difficult to know if the demand is really there. The numbers I have heard for how much PDF:s sell are hardly impressive on a major scale, although of course I am not privy to how Pathfinder and D&D sells.

But other PDF suppliers sell in the hundreds. I don't think D&D is magnistudes of difference, maybe in the thousands. But I'm guessing, of course.

On the other hand, they risk little by putting out the PDFs for sale. Well, maybe game shop relations, but apart from that, not much monetary risk.

Cheers

/Maggan

Well, I've seen that the PHB has been scanned and OCR'd, already, so they're already losing money because those who want PDF are unable to get legal PDF.

I want a legal PDF with all the same content, and preferably art, but no page background. For both The One Ring and Burning Empires, I was able to modify the official PDF by using a PDF editor (pulling the background images out) to make use of them on my Sony Reader. I did the same with the MWP Firefly Preview. Paid for PDF of all of these.

But that's not doable with a scan, only with an original publisher PDF, and then only if they don't muck it up (which said, Dragon Warriors was mucked up. Several pages were put in as images only, while others were proper PDF text.)

So, even tho' there's a pirate scan out there, it's not going to meet my needs as well as a Wizards PDF would.