argoyle
Apprentice Douchebag
Posts: 53
|
Post by argoyle on Aug 12, 2014 19:29:41 GMT -8
dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrulesThe DM Basic pdf is a separate file, just below the players basic pdf. Players- -Noble background -A couple appendices One features a list of the Forgotten Realms dieties Another one talks about different factions, within the Forgotten Realms DM- -48 pages of stat blocks for monsters and npcs (not bad for free) -Some expanded dm rules -A tiny section on creating legendary creatures -Encounter building guidelines -2 pages of magic items I don't think they've said anything yet, but I do sort of expect something in the way of an update to basic, either during or just after Gen Con. Then of course the expected updates around the MM and DM's guide.
|
|
|
Post by malifer on Aug 17, 2014 4:28:27 GMT -8
Is D&D Basic still the only official pdf of the 5e product line?
Are the books going to stay Print Only?
|
|
|
Post by HourEleven on Aug 17, 2014 5:28:57 GMT -8
They haven't made an official statement either way. I don't buy print books any more, so I hope they put out a PDF.
I also hope they realize that just because they don't put out a PDF, doesn't mean someone else won't put out a PDF.
Hell, it's not even hard anymore. I had access to the machine at the last place I worked, chops the binding off, runs it through sheet feed style. 1 second per page and it uploads the PDF to my web space.
This is the era we live in and WotC better be ready for it.
( I make no judgements about piracy, just a blanket statement that it happens).
|
|
|
Post by malifer on Aug 17, 2014 7:14:48 GMT -8
They haven't made an official statement either way. I don't buy print books any more, so I hope they put out a PDF. I also hope they realize that just because they don't put out a PDF, doesn't mean someone else won't put out a PDF. Hell, it's not even hard anymore. I had access to the machine at the last place I worked, chops the binding off, runs it through sheet feed style. 1 second per page and it uploads the PDF to my web space. This is the era we live in and WotC better be ready for it. ( I make no judgements about piracy, just a blanket statement that it happens). Thanks. If I googled PHB pdf i either ended up with older editions or people talking about the Basic Rules Pdf. I am trying to be a bit more frugal in which books I buy. As much as I love them I could use the space. Also HourEleven as boring as the answer may be what is the purpose of that machine that eats books and egests them onto the world wide web? Some kind of Corporate TPS Report scanner? I just wonder what you do with such a machine once everything has been uploaded. Of course this device could be quite small but in my mind it is some Stephen King-esque large evil contraption like an archaic farming thresher and a 1980s Xerox machine had a baby.
|
|
|
Post by HourEleven on Aug 17, 2014 8:06:46 GMT -8
It's at a university, it can destructively scan (makes a cleaner and straighter scan without a binding) or a not destructive scan (with shadows and thumbs on the crooked page).
Same machine that makes the scans for google books and junk.
If we have a book that we have licensed (public domain or whatever) and want in out digital collection that has a million copies at every library ever, chew it up and get a quality digital file in one minute. If we have a book we want in our digital collection and have the only copy, an intern turns the pages and lays it over the angled glass to protect the spine and spends the afternoon making a mediocre scan while preserving the integrity.
(Before I left that job, I brought in all my old gaming books from when I was a kid and just piled them in the machine because I got sick of moving all those pounds of books).
Oh, and it's also the office network printer, photocopier, and fax machine.
|
|
|
Post by greatwyrm on Aug 17, 2014 11:59:58 GMT -8
I've been almost all pdf for a while now. If I get serious about running a D&D-style game again, WotC better have something announced before I convince myself Pathfinder is okay. Paizo doesn't seem to have any trouble at all with selling me reasonably priced pdfs.
|
|
argoyle
Apprentice Douchebag
Posts: 53
|
Post by argoyle on Aug 17, 2014 12:34:12 GMT -8
Good review of PHB imgur.com/a/XqEos <-- Hi res version of original. Original is a bit small and hard on the eye holes. I believe we will see digital versions, and quite soon. However I think they will be made available through the fancy new Dungeonscape (Morningstar) tool. I forsee them trying to use Dungeonscape as a form of drm, making you either log in to read your digital titles, or stamping your account info all over the file. Ultimately it will be unsuccessful at curtailing piracy, and may cause some fits amongst customers, but they have to try something.
|
|
khaymus
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 5
|
Post by khaymus on Aug 18, 2014 3:35:40 GMT -8
This is great! I have the PHB pre-ordered, but this should hold me over until then
|
|
|
Post by rickno7 on Aug 18, 2014 4:42:03 GMT -8
Good review of PHB imgur.com/a/XqEos <-- Hi res version of original. Original is a bit small and hard on the eye holes. I believe we will see digital versions, and quite soon. However I think they will be made available through the fancy new Dungeonscape (Morningstar) tool. I forsee them trying to use Dungeonscape as a form of drm, making you either log in to read your digital titles, or stamping your account info all over the file. Ultimately it will be unsuccessful at curtailing piracy, and may cause some fits amongst customers, but they have to try something. Yea, I'll never subscribe to some "service" WOTC has. I do not see the value, as with almost anything they have offered in the past is something I can do on my own or someone else can do better for me and for free. I still get physical books where its easy to obtain them, but I have been limiting that to core books lately. Any kind of "scheme" where things are made a pain in the ass only in the name of squeezing out a subscription fee will be met with defiance and fox like cunning to circumvent. Not one more dime from me aside from buying the 3 physical main books. BUTThey release a no hassle, no bullshit PDF, AND have a no hassle no bullshit digital system for their extra books(like say a book of 100+ backgrounds, a book of clerical domains, a book of animal totems for Barbs, book of bloodlines for sorcerers etc etc), then they'll get my money and lots of it. Simple as that. Make it a hassle, they get no money. Make it a "click and you buy the PDF, no need to download our proprietary crap on your too full phone, no need to pay a monthly fee to read something you bought already" system, and I'll be buying stuff for years.
|
|
|
Post by HourEleven on Aug 18, 2014 4:52:26 GMT -8
Yeah, I'm never paying for a service that can be shut down and I will lose access to things I paid for.
|
|
daniel
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 217
|
Post by daniel on Aug 20, 2014 7:10:21 GMT -8
I feel like the PDF side of there business is controlled by some Hasbro Suit who is having a major panic attack
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2014 14:35:27 GMT -8
The fact that they have essentially given the entire rule set away fro free with the basic PDFs still amazes me. I wonder how they sold that to Hasbro. I mean the PHB will add options, but you can could play for a long time jsut on whats in the free PDF.
|
|
|
Post by rickno7 on Aug 20, 2014 17:42:11 GMT -8
I feel like the PDF side of there business is controlled by some Hasbro Suit who is having a major panic attack I wrote a response to an earlier part of this post a few days ago that essentially said the same thing(ended up not posting it). I equated "PDF's can be pirated!" to yelling "fire!" in a crowded theater. Some crusty old bag that doesn't even know how to internet was probably responsible for the 5 year set back of D&D and technology. It was such a knee jerk reaction they had, there's no way anyone actually involved with WOTC as an entity would've hit the nuke button on that so fast. The fact that they have essentially given the entire rule set away fro free with the basic PDFs still amazes me. I wonder how they sold that to Hasbro. I mean the PHB will add options, but you can could play for a long time jsut on whats in the free PDF. I'm waiting for it to somehow bite WOTC in the ass in much the same way the OGL and D20 license spawned Pathfinder lol. Making D&D Basic free just seems like such a cool "we're looking out for the customer" kind of thing, just like the OGL was. Its something you don't expect from the "corporate" #1 in the hobby. Unfortunately it seems to be detrimental to their business to be "cool" like that. For what its worth, it scored major brownie points with me, as someone that wishes D&D was in the care of Paizo exclusively... this did work as a gesture of good will from WOTC to maybe show they aren't the uptight corporate people that the past half decade policies painted of them.
|
|