Now that you've seen the free content, what role will PDFs and play in your GM prep
 

We now have three examples of what material from the Content Market might look like. The download and import process is simple. The material was professionally prepared. It is VERY nice to have a fully prepped adventure, city, or AP ready to go in minutes. Just game changing for me--literally.

So, now I'm starting to think about the continue role of PDFs and print material in my gaming. Ignoring things you buy just for the purposes of collecting, but purely looking at this in terms of game prep, will you still buy printed material? PDFs?

My thoughts in stream-of-consciousness order:

1. I love to run my games in RW, but I still like to read over adventure modules and APs in print or PDF form.

2. I'm not a huge fan of PDF as a format, but for slimmer material (individual adventures), I think I would just save the money and storage space and want the PDF in additional to RW.

3. I'm feeling more favorable towards the PF module of PDF+RW as part of the purchase. Might be tough on those the paid for all the print stuff, but if I'm just buying new content, I think this is how i would do it for most content. I don't play PF, but I wouldn't mind if Kobold Press, Frog God Games, etc. used a similar model.

4. It would be great if the PDF could be included as an attachment to the imported material. If you are going to have to buy or prove you've already bought the PDF to buy the RW content, might as well include the PDF with the RW content, even if you also get a download link from the publisher's shopping cart.

5. I still like to have books for the big APs and Campaign Settings, especially from publishers that print high quality material. I love paging through Curse of Straud or Storm King's Thunder. I like how they look on my bookshelf. I'm not a collector, I just like the aesthetics of a book and find it easier to relax at the end of a long day to a book than a tablet, especially when there is a lot of content with pictures and tables, etc. I do most of my reading in the Kindle app on my iPhone, but that's for text-only. This will mean, however, doubling the cost of getting that content in RW. It wouldn't take much of discount for the publishers to trigger my impulse buying though. Just show a little love and give a bit of a discount if you by print and digital together. I've found smaller publishers to be cool about this, but I don't expect WoTC to be and PF is better, but not flexible. I will likely be buying evening more of my material online and even less of my money will go to my FLGS.

What about you? I read a number of you saying that you would be ditching your books entirely once you can get the content from the Content Market. Is that still true? Will you read over larger adventures completely in RW?

I love printed material. I don't like having books scattered everywhere (which inevitably happens with me as much as I promise myself to reshelve things), and I don't like having to lug a crate of books back and forth to game sessions.

PDFs are a trade-off for me. They're not ideal for reading or browsing through (yes, I know everyone has their own preferences), but they save me physical space, and they save me back aches.

At the very least, I will still buy PDFs, and if something is of particular interest to me, and if I have the funds, I will buy the printed book as well.

I think including the PDF as an attachment in the realm is not the best idea. It needlessly adds to the size of the realm. This might not be a significant factor for one person with one realm, but the accumulation could become a factor for an individual. But even if that's still not true, the accumulation across many individuals with many realms might become an issue for LWD.

So, no. It doesn't need to be there, an the convenience comes with a potential consequence.

I'm super excited about the future of Realm Works!

I'll still use PDF's for the odd read. But if I can download the stuff i need to run my game in RW then chances are I'll just use RW.

I love physical books but
[Scotty voice]me back cannot take the strain[/Scotty voice]
So I buy PDF's and load them on to a flash drive and then load that on whichever device I take gaming or access the PDF's on my desktop when I GM.

Note I don't run adventures from PDF or from printed sources. I write my own, always have and doubt anything is going to change in the future. I buy books for rules material and the like. The exception are a few classic pieces like TSR's Against the Giants/Descent into the Depths and Paizo's Rise of the Runelord's which every good GM should probably own and run at least once just to see what the true masters of the craft have done before them.

After giving Isle of Kandril and We Be Goblins a look-through, I think I'll still need the PDFs to get a thorough understanding of the material. Just the way my old brain works.

So I'll be buying PDFs (and likely print material for some things) in addition to Realm Works materials.

I love what I see in the free stuff, though - it's very exciting to see how well done it is and to imagine the ease it will bring to my running of games.

When I run an adventure, I do it in RW and HL labs. No need to lug around any books.

But for reading through an adventure to get the big picture having a book is helpful.

Realmworks content is optimized for play, but I find it difficult, or at least not very pleasant or relaxing, to browse and read through.

I could probably do away with physical books if I get kindle. I don't like reading PDFs on my lap top for a long period of time and my iPhone screen is too small to digest RPG adventures.

Still love flipping through a high-quality book though.

I doubt I'll move away from books and PDFs anytime soon. That may change as I get more time to explore the free RW materials, but what I skimmed so far makes me think they're decent references but not pleasant reads. More importantly, many things will never be available on the Content Market, so other forms are your only legal option.

I enjoy reading PDFs on my desktop computer and Windows tablet. While I prefer printed materials for reading, the convenience of having PDFs everywhere is a huge plus. (I'm also glad I went with a Windows convertible tablet over other options since it runs all my existing software.)

I would not want PDFs included in the RW files. They do nothing but take up extra space on your storage media and in your realms. (You'll have that PDF at least three times: once in the import file, once in master.realm, and once saved out as a PDF so you can actually use it as a PDF. Plus it'll take up cloud storage space if you're paying for that.)

I only read the PDFs to get the content into Realmworks then they go into storage.

Me as well, which is a great way to become familiar with the content. If, however, someone else has done all the work and you have the content already entered into RW because you got it from the CM or from someone else sharing their homebrew material, would you want a PDF/book to read through or are you comfortable preparing entirely from RW?

After playing with RW and inputting an AP for our group for a while I have discovered that RW covers most of the bases for me.

I have all the spells in RW (that was an absolute godsend!)
Each magic item I encounter gets its own entry
I have all the Herolab files for the encounters right there.

I cant wait for the bestiary's to become available, that will save a heap of time looking up things. - especially if they have pictures!

That said, I don't carry around the core rule book anymore, I have the PDF's on the laptop as well as all the other books (so if an entry says it is in Ultimate Equipment), I can easily look that up.

I do like having the physical copies of the AP with me. Sometimes I may have missed something in the transfer, usually because I didn't think it was important, and need to look it up. It's just a little bit easier to look up the physical rather than scroll through the PDF.

Although the old Ctrl-F to find things does help.

All in all, I think there will still be a mixture of PDF and physical and RW files.

I have at least reduced the overall weight of my gaming bag by some considerable margin, so I am excited with the direction of RW right now, I cant wait for some of the AP's to come online (Hint hint: RotRL or Crimson Throne *wink *wink)