WotC_GregB talks about using a laptop at the game table.

[SSquirrel]

Laptop fun

So Greg has a lot of fun using his laptop and I agree it sounds very useful, but the current pricing of WotC pdfs at full price of the core books will NOT make me buy them. Any word on including pdfs w/physical book purchases? I know there has been talk of DDI allowing you access to your books online, but will it allow what is being described here as far as finding all the relevant text to piece together?

 

[baberg]

Last I heard each physical book will have an unlock code which entitled you to download the PDF for free from the Wizards site. If that's not true and they are charging money on top of my book purchase for PDFs, I'll likely pursue... other avenues which would allow me to quickly search for rules while I'm typing up my latest adventure.

 

[Vempyre]

last I heard the unlock codes idea has been scrapped in favor of making everything available on DDI, even teh books you don't own, in exchange for a subscription.

 

[Henry]

last I heard the unlock codes idea has been scrapped in favor of making everything available on DDI, even teh books you don't own, in exchange for a subscription.

This is the latest iteration of this that has been released. I'm sad to see the PDF idea go away, personally, because I cannot see paying the same price again (actually, MORE than the same price, factoring in sites like Amazon) for the convenience of searching, copying & pasting.

The DDI Database might be worth it, but I'm waiting to see their final implementation, because the lack of demos on the character generator front, virtual game table front, and Dungeon/Dragon front aren't very inspiring yet.

 

[Wolfspider]

I imagine that pdfs will still be available through vendors like DTRPG, although purchasing them will probably not be linked with the physical books.

I love electronic books, but the pricing of the D&D books was horrible--which is why I save up and purchase them when they're 30% on sale once a year.

 

[Dausuul]

This is the latest iteration of this that has been released. I'm sad to see the PDF idea go away, personally, because I cannot see paying the same price again (actually, MORE than the same price, factoring in sites like Amazon) for the convenience of searching, copying & pasting.

The DDI Database might be worth it, but I'm waiting to see their final implementation, because the lack of demos on the character generator front, virtual game table front, and Dungeon/Dragon front aren't very inspiring yet.

If the rules database and the character generator live up to billing, I will subscribe. If the character generator is lacking but the rules database works, I'll consider it. If the rules database doesn't make the cut, neither does DDI as far as I'm concerned. Virtual tabletop and magazine subscriptions are nice bonuses but not particularly important in my decision.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

He pasted images . . . into . . . a . . . Word . . . document? Whiskey tango foxtrot! And then showed that to his players by flipping his screen around?

That's like using a screwdriver to comb your hair.

*head explode*

 

[SSquirrel]

Of course the bad point of the DDI database is you have to be online for that. Not a problem a large chunk of the time, but not everyone is on the internet yet or has good signal. Pdfs of your purchase downloadable w/a code sound great to me. The database makes a nice bonus for a subscription, but still do both

 

[Keefe the Thief]

He mentioned that he had used Powerpoint to create a kind of "adventure workflow" document, so i guess the word thing is the same: put each picture in an appropriate part of the document. It´s an especially good idea to do this with Open Office, because you can give each Picture a descritption that shows up in the document navigator, which means easy navigation of the different pictures by mouseclick, and you can convert the whole thing to .pdf on the fly. If he uses word 2007, he can do both things too.

 

[Glyfair]

I'm sad to see the PDF idea go away, personally, because I cannot see paying the same price again (actually, MORE than the same price, factoring in sites like Amazon) for the convenience of searching, copying & pasting.

Well, they did say that they would sell PDFs. However, that's pretty much all they said. No hint on pricing.