Joined: Jun 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 88 Location: Torotno Karma: 16
Re: WoTC releasing ALL back-list on PDF in 2013??? « Reply #15 on Aug 17, 2012, 8:50am »
If they release nice PDFs, that would be amazing. They didn't actually say they were releasing PDFs though, but that they were going to publish their books in an electronic format. That could mean all sorts of stupidness. Hopefully they are aware of what the RPG fan base wants, and put out nicer versions of the PDFs they had previously published.
It's stupid sitting on IP like this. They have this giant back catalog they could be selling, for what I imagine is mostly pure profit at this point.
Joined: Aug 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 599 Karma: 17
Re: WoTC releasing ALL back-list on PDF in 2013??? « Reply #16 on Aug 17, 2012, 10:32am »
I'm not sure I'll buy any of it. Maaaaybeee some of the gazeteers for B/X, but honestly I'm planning on running LL for my kids when they want to/are old enough. I get to control content as a parent. I grew up with D&D as it grew up, my kids live in a different world than I did.
While I'm halfway tempted to say: No POD, no sale. If the pdfs are truly high quality, one can simply 'up' then to Lulu as a private project and have them printed (though it's a major pain in the patookus I've yet to noodle out...). Also, I'm tempted to say: too late. The clones have me because they give a crap and you (WotC) clearly did/do not.
I have done this with PDF rule sets and had good results - in some cases better than the printed version of the same rules. It is not that hard. But if the PDFs are not of high quality it is pointless. I would not go to the effort, or even buy them, if they are crappy OCR.
When the time comes I am sure several people on these boards will be working on covers. Some may even have started last night!
Joined: Nov 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 504 Karma: 67
Re: WoTC releasing ALL back-list on PDF in 2013??? « Reply #18 on Aug 17, 2012, 5:22pm »
Most of the back catalogue has been floating around the Net for years (as admittedly bad quality scans). There are some items however that just aren't out there, even when WotC was selling pdfs. It would be nice if they truly did release the entire back catalogue, including all those rares that collectors hoard and we mere mortals can only dream about ever seeing. To fill the gaps in even a pdf collection would be very satisfying and I'd happily give WotC my money to do so.
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Joined: Sept 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 1,341 Location: Chicago, IL Karma: 51
Re: WoTC releasing ALL back-list on PDF in 2013??? « Reply #19 on Aug 17, 2012, 7:03pm »
Imagine if they took the AD&D premium reprints they just did, and put them up for sale as PDF and as POD. Now imagine if they gave the entire back catalog the same treatment. (Of course, at least the 3e+ books presumably already exist in their original electronic format.)
A man may do both. For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day! —J.R.R. Tolkien
Joined: Mar 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 273 Location: Fayetteville, GA Karma: 5
Re: WoTC releasing ALL back-list on PDF in 2013??? « Reply #20 on Aug 18, 2012, 4:44am »
To play devil's advocate after a fashion, I seem to recall back when the pdfs were pulled, that WotC made some mention of 'future plans' or some other such equal parts vague and ambiguous. Most folks seemed to grab onto the notion it was a result of a silly fear of piracy, but I don't remember that anyone associated with WotC ever said as much.
What I mean, is, perhaps they've been working on this all along. The work done was taken to the next level with the AD&D 1E core books since they are what they are...but...maybe similar digital treatment has been ongoing for Original and B/X and the RC, etc.
To play devil's advocate after a fashion, I seem to recall back when the pdfs were pulled, that WotC made some mention of 'future plans' or some other such equal parts vague and ambiguous. Most folks seemed to grab onto the notion it was a result of a silly fear of piracy, but I don't remember that anyone associated with WotC ever said as much.
What I mean, is, perhaps they've been working on this all along. The work done was taken to the next level with the AD&D 1E core books since they are what they are...but...maybe similar digital treatment has been ongoing for Original and B/X and the RC, etc.
I mean.... maybe. Time will tell.
Yeah, I have a hard time seeing them re-scanning things they could just throw up for download again as-is. But maybe they do want to create a digital library of their IP, which would be great, and even better if it can be accessed by others.
I won't subscribe to that kind of service, as things are now, but as cloud computing expands maybe it will be more useful to me. I mostly have pdfs of what I want now; I'd be happy to see the Moldvay/Cook B/X finally available legally.
Joined: Jun 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 88 Location: Torotno Karma: 16
Re: WoTC releasing ALL back-list on PDF in 2013??? « Reply #22 on Aug 18, 2012, 9:21am »
The second edition PDFs were pretty great. I think it's the stuff that pre-dates that which needs some love and care. I don't know if they have the energy to go through their back catalog and really clean things up, but that would be pretty great. I imagine they might release things backwards: start with 3rd and 4th edition, then move on to 2nd and and then eventually 1st and original D&D. That might give them time to fix things up. We will see, I guess.
I am at Gen Con and cornered PR people at the WotC booth.
They'll be rolling out waves of stuff starting in Jan 2013. Each wave will contain material from many different iterations of D&D, and different product lines. I could not get details about what would be in the first wave.
When I asked point blank if we'd be looking at subscriptions or PDFs, explaining thatI'd prefer to have access to the e-versions without an Internet connection (citing my beloved AD&D Core Rules CD-ROM), I was told that they are not yet able to discuss how the e-versions will be distributed. I was told that they'd be releasing news about that "soon," that they're working hard to give the players what they want, and that they thought I would be pleased.
Re: WoTC releasing ALL back-list on PDF in 2013??? « Reply #25 on Aug 18, 2012, 3:25pm »
I have recently been playing with running games off of my tablet, and it's worked pretty well. This is fantastic news as far as I'm concerned. I just hope they put out an android app on release if it's not PDF.
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