Who ELSE buys PDFs?

[Wombat]

I like pdfs for two reasons.

First up, they tend to be far cheaper for the same amount of information as printed books. Since I tend to do a lot of "pick n choose" with rules and creatures, buying a book in pdf format makes a lot of economic sense. PDFs that go at full cover cost are pointless for me, however, so I tend to stay away from most of the stuff over at DriveThruRPG.

Second, I am starting to run out of room in my place! With pdfs I simply print out the pages that I actually want and put them in a binder, as opposed to having a full-sized book taking up its full-sized volume.

So I like 'em, but I think they are a limited market. First up, you have to be internet-savvy, which is a sub-set of All Roleplayers, possibly a large one, but possibly not. Secondly, you have to be willing to read them on-screen or else be willing to pay out to print the whole book, which tends not to be cost-effective. Personally I read them on-screen and print out small portions as needed/desired.

PDFs will have a hard time catching up with fully printed volumes. Who knows? Maybe someday there won't be any printed volumes anymore. But that probably won't be happening soon.

 

[IronWolf]

EnWorld has exposed me to the world of PDF gaming material, but I actually own very few. I took advantage of the New Server sale and picked up three or four that I continually hear good things about. I am happy with the purchases, but probably would have been reluctant to pay full price (but that can be said about anything I buy, game related or not game related).

I will most likely never buy any of the new WotC PDF's at DriveThru as I would much rather have the real book. Take Complete Adventurer for example, $29.95 at Drive Thru or around $20 at Amazon. Since I prefer the hardback anyways, I certainly wouldn't want to pay a $10 premium to get the PDF. [Note - This has nothing to do with DriveThru, I have nothing against them. I take advantage of their free downloads on occassion.]

 

[DaveStebbins]

I buy PDFs often. I've been playing D&D for 25 years, so there's not much in the new books that seems 'new' to me. However, I really like the way PDFs can do a single niche product well. I end up buying a bunch of the short, one-subject PDFs because they fill a distinct need, without adding and making me pay for lots of (what would be to me) filler pages.

I used to think I was just a casual PDF buyer, until I downloaded all my Visa transactions from last year to help me budget and found out that I spent almost $200 at RPGNow in 2004. Oh, well, I don't regret a single purchase and I like supporting the PDF industry, even in my small way.

-Dave

 

[DMH]

I gave up trying to count all the pdfs I have bought- somewhere around 50 or 60.

Other than I have found material I couldn't find elsewhere, I like getting some print books long before they are out on paper (Ecology and Culture comes to mind). At 4.5 cents a page, it doesn't cost much to have them bound either.

 

[reddist]

Yeah, I guess you are right in that a "short" PDF filling some niche isn't too hard to print or otherwiise make use of. But for that small of a niche, I'd almost rather write up something myself and "fudge" some behind the screen than shell out $3 and mess with someone else's material. And as far as ecologies and other "fluff" oriented PDFs go, I find it more of a hassle to adapt someone else's material to MCW than to just make some notes in the margin of my notebook and wing it come game time.

It is argueable I have not yet given PDFs a fair shake. On the other hand, I do NOT think I am likely to buy and download and print (or read from my screen) PDFs of the 100+ page variety. Give me hardbacks everytime.

So... if you are both an ENWorld-er AND a PDF user, do you also know people who are NOT ENWorld-ers yet purchase and use PDFs? I've yet to meet anyone who even knows of PDF publications and wasn't a poster/lurker here.

 

[kenobi65]

So... if you are both an ENWorld-er AND a PDF user, do you also know people who are NOT ENWorld-ers yet purchase and use PDFs? I've yet to meet anyone who even knows of PDF publications and wasn't a poster/lurker here.

Not in my case, either. Of the 15 or so people with whom I regularly play D&D, I'm the only one who visits EN World more than occasionally...and I'm the only one who even buys *any* non-WotC books, much less any PDFs. (And, even then, I think I've only bought 3; I have several dozen more, which I received as gifts for donating to the server drive.)

 

[Mark]

...when you're at work not home.

Slip of the wrist, BG?

 

[The_lurkeR]

I don't know anyone in my group who has bought PDF's either.

I have bought a few myself though.

Like some have stated above, I would never buy any PDF where I can get the actual book cheaper at Amazon. I'm really don't understand where WotC is trying to sell books like Complete Warrior for so much? Who is making these decisions? Make it half price at least, and I'd consider it.

 

[Raloc]

Currently, PDFs aren't my thing, but that may very well change if they work well on my tablet (which just had the arrival date pushed up ).

 

[S'mon]

I don't buy pdfs at the kind of prices that are charged. A pdf is just some electronic text with zero marginal cost to the seller, I'm not paying more than about 10% what I'd pay for a proper printed & bound book. I think .pdf sellers expectation that they can get 50% or more of the price of a real book severely crimps the pdf market.