The Big TABOO!

[EmrickBlackthorn]

Everyone~

I don't mean to stir up anything or cause any problems. But I was just wondering about something. How do you all feel about PDF's?

I once had the hoard of hoards when it came to D&D/AD&D items. For reasons beyond my control I lost it all. I was lucky enough to have saved my mostly prized treasure out of it, my character that I had played since I was 10.

Now with the help of PDF's I have a great deal of my "collection" back. I'm not into or every was into collecting the items for monetary value, I'm here for the game.

Now to pay for a PDF is just wrong, making money off of someone else's work. WotC(ost) is even doing it now for current books they have in print at full regular retail price. That's fine I guess if they wish to do that, but at full price. I'm sure I could go some where and get a used (maybe even new) hardbound copy cheaper.

So, I must say I love PDF's. I'm always looking for a good trade and I'm here to help others find what they cannot.

~Emrick

[Jerry Mapes]

PDFs hmmmm...

I decided a long time ago (back before pdf's were popular and scanners were common place) that i wanted ALL my gaming material in PDF format. I had a laptop computer a used for gaming and i was going to a lot of cons... so it seemed pretty logical. I still have that old laptop too and if anyone knows how to unfreeze a harddrive on an old tandy 1100HD let me know... it had 90% of all my originial dungeons and games on it from the mid to late 80's.

I also have not changed my opinion in all these years. Unfortuantely scanning thousands of pages is not my favorite thing to do. So I buy PDFs if they arent security mucked or i buy them anyway, delete them as soon as I find a BETTER quality no security BS version on usenet or some file share.

Some people think they msut yell and scream about the legalities of it all, and frankly they can stuff it. If something is OOP and not available for sale on PDF and it is something i already own one or more copies of... hell yeah im gonna get a copy just so i wont have to scan it. If its old OOP and for sale on pdf i'll buy it and get a better copy if i can find one. If something is in print and i have a copy, yup im gonna get a pdf either buying it or locating one, usually both. If its in print and there are no PDFs for sale, I'm gonna get a pdf. If they ever make a pdf i will pay for it.

Am I a crook? Maybe, im no lawyer. All i know is that im not gonna risk damaging my books by dragging them from con to con or even game to game when when all i need is my notebook or palmpilot. My computer can be replaced a hell of a lot easier than most all of my books.

Im not too keen in grabbing files just to grab files. If you want the OD&D boxset with the suppliments... fine... buy a copy. Then we can talk about getting a pdf of the books. Thats my take on it.

[CJL]

Quality PDF's are a great way to fill the collection out again or handy reference. I want a hard copy for reading but printing out large PDF's suck. They take an eternity.