Digital rules that cannot be printed

[AndrewBeasley]

Mods - this is not aimed as a stab at anyone (esp Craig who has some great rule sets) but a rough market poll.  If you feel it's wrong please lock it.

Following on from the discussion leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=98510.0 where we discovered that a PDF rule set could not be printed, I'm interested in your thoughts on this?

For me, I'm firmly in the camp of wanting to print rule sets and have them in PDF (yup cake and eat for me).

Please feel free to vote and comment but let's be civil - this is about PDF vs paper and not rules piracy.

Please vote twice - one for media and one for printing

[Duncan McDane]

I want my books and rulesets on paper, just as I want my music on CD's ( or vinyl ) and my movies on DVD.
Don't like to look for long periods of time at a screen, I like to touch it, smell it, quickly browse to them and I feel digiscreens not very healthy too of you use them too many times ( blue light, can cause sleeping disorders ).
But, most inportant, I want to look where I want when I want those rules, not having to wait until the battery is charged again and not being scared if by accident I drop the book...

[gnomehome]

I buy electronic rulesets only when shipping cost would be too steep, but prefer hardcopy.

I always print pdf-rules for reading (unless they are very printer unfriendly, like the pdf-rules for Hollywood Havoc with all yellow background, these I didn't even read on screen).

[AndrewBeasley]

Interesting point about shipping costs.

I never factored that into this question at all.  Looking quickly through my rules - a large majority of the PDF ones are not produced in the UK...

[Gibby]

Being able to print doesn't seem to have done Too Fat Lardies any harm athough obviously I cannot know for sure. What I do know is that any sort of "DRM" can be hacked, so you will never (sadly) stop piracy. A paywall or "lockdown" type approach (such as magazine digital editions etc use) may put more people off than sales you would lose through piracy. I've tried digital versions of magazines and they're just not as nice to read. Same for rules - I've bought PDFs just to test the waters but will always want a physical copy (printed or published) at the gaming table, not a tablet.

[Elbows]

I vastly prefer a printed rulebook.  If I have a digital rulebook, I prefer to print it - even if only portions (i.e. tables, charts, quick-reference sheets, key rule sections, etc.).

I offer SNS as a PDF simply because I cannot afford to print it and sell it at a price I think is reasonable.  However it is not print-blocked (hell the rules are free, why would they be?).  As someone told me once when I went with a PDF option for a game component "anyone who steals this wasn't going to buy it in the first place".

Since I don't own a quality tablet (i.e. one which would keep power for 2-4 hours whilst gaming) and dislike going through a tablet for rules, I'd avoid a non-printable rule-set most likely.

[jambo1]

I prefer paper rules sets, never really look at digital rule sets tbh.

[grant]

There's such a thing as PDF rules? I only own real paper books, which are mostly going to end up recycled as they are so expensive to ship during my exit from the hobby.

[Storm Wolf]

I will never buy a set of electronic unprintable rules, mainly its because I am old fashioned and I find it easier to take info in from a printed page rather than a screen.

Its stopped me buying stuff from Two Hour Wargames, mainly because of page count, but definately shipping costs from US to UK, which is as much as the printed rulebook (madness!).

Cheers

Glen

[dadlamassu]

Paper always for rules.  I'd not consider electronic only rules as I do not particularly like reading from a screen all the time.  I am probably old fashioned but books/rules are on paper, music on discs, films on DVDs/tapes etc. 

Would printing a pdf not be nearly as expensive as buying a paper copy? 

I do see the value of a pdf as backup.

[Elbows]

Printing a PDF in nice colour paper in high quality would be very expensive.  SNS for example is maybe 78-80 pages right now.  At around $0.60-$0.70 per colour page for a print (maybe less if you go double sided) it'd be a good $30-40 to print it.  Now, if you access to something nice at home or at work that's all moot.

I'm getting back into Mordheim which has over 800+ official pages of content (rulebook and some 25-30 Town Cryer books).  All are old materials scanned, but I simply go through and print out the small sections of rules and shop pages I need on my laserjet.  I bind the sections I need and if anything arises during the game we can look it up if we desperately need to.

[horridperson]

I like books.  I like the feel of paper running under my fingers, flipping back to something I remember instantly and making my own notations in the margins.  I like the smell of books and one of my favorite diversions remains an afternoon in a book store with a cup of coffee.

I don't feel the same way about electronic products.  I don't enjoy reading them as much and don't have much in the way of mobile devices.  Reading from them just isn't as enjoyable for me and I find my access limited by interfaces.

I voted that it depends on the publisher.  I like to paint all sorts of things and enjoy a fairly broad range of genres.  I want to support smaller publishers who have ideas that interest me but that conflicts with larger companies having printed copies readily on hand.  I'm am somewhat flexible and give some latitude to smaller publishers because getting print copies of their products is often more difficult.  Some small games I purchased didn't have print copies of their stuff and other PDF games I purchased in the past were an alternative to taking a hard hit from shipping costs.  It's case by case but I'm always going to prefer a book over an app.

I understand publishers being hesitant about "opening the gates" but I think the concerns have been circumvented by technology for some time.  The vigilant farmer is a sentry in the doorway of an empty barn.  At this point the only service people are doing themselves is bad publicity because if someone wants it and is dishonest they have already shared it with their friends.  The best defence is being approachable, accessible and being engaged with your community.  Players can be ambassadors for a product.  I like to play "library" when I find a cool new game and loan a friend the rule set in question for a week.  If they like it and we then play a game that person will probably invest in the system as well and I'll get someone to play with.  Win-win  .

[Connectamabob]

Digital is fantastic for storage and portability. Not having to cart around extra books, merely the phone you already carry anyway, is a grand thing.

But digital sucks when you're using the books for reference in the middle of a game. Reading a book cover-to-cover in page order works great in digital (IMO better than physical, if it's in epub rather than PDF format), but when you're just trying to flip to a specific page or passage a physical book is much quicker and simpler. Spend a game flipping back and forth though a digital book to the rules or charts or whatever you need to check in the moment, and that inefficiency stacks up into a huge aggravation. And that's without getting into the whole battery management issue.

So for books intended to be read in linear fashion, as well as academic reference books, I really like digital. But with gaming rulebooks, and benchtop reference books in general, physical books still win. It's got nothing to do with the feel or smell or legacy atmosphere for me: on a strictly practical level, digital flat out isn't "there" yet for this sort of use case.

[Furt]

Digital always.

Living on the other side of the planet from the majority of rules publishers does terrible things to one's wallet when postage is considered.

[werekake]

I'll grab a pdf of the rules first and have a gander. If our playing group agrees to 'play' the game, and we all start painting up miniatures for it, then I will grab a printed copy of it.

I don't really like using pdf copies of games on my ipad or smartphone while I'm actually playing the game - I just find a printed copy much better for quickly thumbing thru the pages. Digital devices are better for taking photos and letting my wife know when I'll be home.