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Post by Sean Michael Kelly on Aug 16, 2012 18:34:32 GMT -6
#GenCon wizards will be releasing all their backlist of old DnD material out on PDF. Coming 2013. (via Twitter) #DnDNext
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Post by trebormills on Aug 16, 2012 18:44:26 GMT -6
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Post by Sean Michael Kelly on Aug 16, 2012 19:25:21 GMT -6
Whhhaaaaaaaattttttttttttttttt??? Amazing news, please not be drm ridden awfulness and available from rpgnow etc. Also avoid missing/corrupt page issues and be good clean scans. Id re buy Odnd, holmes, b/x and adnd 1st ed for sensible prices ps even better reinstate my pdfs i bought at rpgnow/drivethru Yes, while I have most, if not all already in PDF, many of those originally released were horribly produced. I'd gladly pay for better ones, especially POD. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2012 19:44:34 GMT -6
For what it's worth, the letters PDF weren't spoken. My fear is they'll do a subscription service, where you can view the books on certain devices, until they decide to pull them again. We'll be lucky if we get PDFs.
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Post by Sean Michael Kelly on Aug 16, 2012 19:54:06 GMT -6
For what it's worth, the letters PDF weren't spoken. My fear is they'll do a subscription service, where you can view the books on certain devices, until they decide to pull them again. We'll be lucky if we get PDFs. Good point.. #ugh |
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Post by blackbarn on Aug 16, 2012 21:29:36 GMT -6
Also, Mearls said they would begin releasing them in 2013, not that they would ALL be out at once. He clarified that point. Still, it's good news, no? Not mentioning PDF means it's possible WotC will wise-up and do print on demand.  |
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Post by Morandir on Aug 16, 2012 22:08:53 GMT -6
If they do POD, they'll have me as a customer again. I got sick of dealing with collectors on eBay a long time ago.
Now if we could just get the same thing for old JG material...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2012 22:08:56 GMT -6
While I'd love POD, POD isn't electronic.
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Post by jmccann on Aug 16, 2012 23:56:52 GMT -6
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Post by waysoftheearth on Aug 17, 2012 0:10:09 GMT -6
They'll get some of my gp, for sure. |
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Post by jmccann on Aug 17, 2012 1:11:49 GMT -6
They'll get some of my gp, for sure. From me too. It seems like such a no-brainer. I don't think they will really cannibalize sales of their latest offerings with 35 year old PDF sales. If anything, having the old materials available legally may drive some interest among players of older editions to try their newest editions if they truly do embrace more traditional play styles. I also hope the quality is much higher than the crappy legal PDF copies from years back. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2012 3:45:59 GMT -6
I can scarcely believe they're doing this. I couldn't understand why they pulled the copies in the first place, but I'm happy they will be made available again. I'll definitely kick in some money if the PDFs are a big improvement over the last batch they offered. Where is WotC's exalt button? |
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Post by machfront on Aug 17, 2012 3:52:56 GMT -6
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.
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Post by Finarvyn on Aug 17, 2012 5:41:25 GMT -6
The funny thing here is that we're all grateful for them just giving back what they took away. Kind of like thanking someone who stopped kicking you.  |
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Post by verhaden on Aug 17, 2012 7:48:47 GMT -6
The funny thing here is that we're all grateful for them just giving back what they took away. Kind of like thanking someone who stopped kicking you. QFT |
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Post by funkaoshi on Aug 17, 2012 7:50:08 GMT -6
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.
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Post by thorswulf on Aug 17, 2012 9:32:09 GMT -6
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.
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Post by jmccann on Aug 17, 2012 10:16:40 GMT -6
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! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2012 16:22:50 GMT -6
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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Post by Falconer on Aug 17, 2012 18:03:00 GMT -6
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.)
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Post by machfront on Aug 18, 2012 3:44:29 GMT -6
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.
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Post by barrataria on Aug 18, 2012 7:49:08 GMT -6
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. |
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Post by funkaoshi on Aug 18, 2012 8:21:35 GMT -6
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.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2012 8:49:05 GMT -6
On Twitter, someone asked Mearls: Mearls responded: |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2012 9:25:55 GMT -6
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Post by bluskreem on Aug 18, 2012 14:25:38 GMT -6
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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