Your opinion about very small PDFs

[jgbrowning]

To me the size of a PDF isn't important if it does what it's trying to do, and more importantly, it does what it said it was going to do in the sales text. My personal buying habits are towards mid 20+ and up sized PDFs.

joe b.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

PS - Also, small pdf's rarely provide a free sample of their content. This makes the buying decision even more difficult.

That's true. It's a lot harder to give a teaser. But fortunately there are usually some freebies available in the same vein, so it comes back to whether or not you've had a good experience with that company's or author's products before.

 

[Psion]

I generally prefer small to mid-size pdf's simply because printing a large pdf can be a pain and not terribly cost effective. If I really want a large pdf, I'll try to find it in print.

I generally prefer prints of larger PDFs I use as well.

But you know what -- I like buying the PDF first. Because I only find a subset of large products actually see frequent use in my game. Large PDFs can serve as a sample, and I feel I wasted less of my money if I get a large PDF that I only use one thing from than if I get a large hardbound I only use one thing from.

Sadly, some PDFs are being priced such that this strategy is not practical -- I could get the hardbound as cheap through a discount bookseller as I can get a PDF priced at more than half of the MSRP.

 

[Andre]

But you know what -- I like buying the PDF first. Because I only find a subset of large products actually see frequent use in my game. Large PDFs can serve as a sample, and I feel I wasted less of my money if I get a large PDF that I only use one thing from than if I get a large hardbound I only use one thing from.

Good point. I'm a big fan of the City Guide pdf's, and being able to print just the single location I'm using in a game session is a benefit over thumbing through an entire print book. It just depends on how I'll use the material.


//slight hijack//

Sadly, some PDFs are being priced such that this strategy is not practical -- I could get the hardbound as cheap through a discount bookseller as I can get a PDF priced at more than half of the MSRP.

That's the sole reason I haven't purchased several pdf's, such as the Advanced Bestiary. I just can't justify paying essentially the same price as print, then having to print it out myself. I can only guess that publishers are trying to avoid having the pdf sales cannibalize their print sales. If only they offered the pdf for free when purchasing the print version - I'd be a lot more willing to buy some of the more expensive products if I got both versions.

//hijack off//

 

[GMSkarka]

This thread is a good example of why Adamant doesn't actively solicit reviews. If we get them, we're happy about it, and grateful, but generally too many reviewers are going into it with pre-existing biases which make you wonder why they were reviewing product in the first place, beyond getting a freebie.

Given the fact that we haven't noticed any discernable impact on sales from reviews, we generally prefer that our reviews come from customers...at least that way, the review can tell us whether somebody who was interested in purchasing the product got what they wanted out of it.

Reviewing short PDFs when you personally don't like short PDFs seems....well, odd.

 

[philreed]

Reviewing short PDFs when you personally don't like short PDFs seems....well, odd.

Agreed, which is why I've elected to pull myself from Crothian's review project. While I had high hopes for the project it appears that reviewer bias is not being taken into account when products are distributed for review.

Complaining about the content of a product I can understand. Downchecking a product for pre-existing bias just felt . . . well, odd.

 

[Crothian]

I don't care how pig a PDF is. I've got ones as long as 500 pages and the shortest I think is 4 with a page ocver and a page for the ogl. Some smaller ones do leave me wanting more and I guess that can be a good thing. but I just want the book to be good and complete. If the topic deserves 2 pages give me 2 pages not 50. At the same time if the topic deserves 50 pages I really don't want two.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

As long as they're still legible...

This poll misses the "depends on the content" option. A handful of pages might be sufficient, or not nearly enough. And of course, price is important. But generally, I don't have too much of a problem with small and cheap PDF's. They tend to be good filler for RPGnow, when you're not over the limit yet.

 

[philreed]

As long as they're still legible...

This poll misses the "depends on the content" option.

Exactly. Many, many people seem to overlook that fact that 6 well-written pages are far more valuable than 128-pages of crap.

I think that a lot of the reason for that, though, is that most people buying game products honestly can't identify poorly created products. This all gets back to the poll I posted (Last week? Week before? Am I crazy?) asking people how many times they'll continue to buy bad products from one company before they'll quit. A surprising number of those who took part had no limit, almost as if they'd continue buying bad books until the end of time.

Thanks for mentioning the content issue.

 

[philreed]

I don't remember exactly, but I did purchase more than a dozen PDFs on RPGnow.

That's good to hear. I suddenly had the mental image of PDFs being shipped out for review by people that had never bought a PDF product.