I am very Pro-PDF. Not because I am a left wing, save the snails, recycle toilet paper kinda guy, but because I am running out of space to store my dead tree / paper printed gaming materials. It's pretty much a given that most folks that play RPGs don't get rid of too much of their "old stuff". I might never read another Rifts Sourebook in my life, but if I see the cover of the Core book I get flashbacks of playing in an awesome campaign back in the day. Roleplaying makes memories, and the products we played with can invoke those memories.
Suffice to say I have lots of memories.
To combat the lack of storage for future memory enhancers, I've turned to buying most of my RPG goodness in PDF format. Its not a perfect solution, but it doesn't need any storage besides a hard drive or two, and by transferring the PDFs that I want to read to my Kindle DX I get an extremely portable way to carry around part of my RPG library. The thing is, its kinda awkward to read certain gaming PDFs on the Kindle.
We'll start with my latest dead tree (previously purchased in PDF), Stonehell Dungeon. It looks fine on the Kindle DX, but at 130 or so pages, with maps that one likes to flip back and forth to reference, it just isnt the perfect solution. It's fine if I want to read thru while away on vacation, but not so great when one is trying to prep for a game. Besides, you can't notate on the Kindle DX - I can mark up my dead tree Stonehell as much as I need (in pencil - no desecration here;)
It's pretty much a similar reason I bought LL and S&W in print on demand from LuLu. They look fine on the DX, and if you are looking to do a straight read thru its a sweet way to read, but as a reference at a gaming table I need it in paper please. With LuLu, it's tree killing on demand. I should probably feel more guilt than I do when considering that fact.
Now all I need to do is find some storage for those old memories. Maybe those clothes I swore I'd fit in again... can always donate to Goodwill and reclaim that space. I'll just buy new if I can get back into shape. Damn things are probably outa style anyway.
Picturing Solo History
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There are many gamers who will tell you that it was *Vampire the Masquerade*
that got them into roleplaying. That was in the 1990s. There are many
gamers ...
44 minutes ago
pretty much all my game purchases are dead tree. no apologies for this, and certainly no guilt. re: the kindle & maps though, why not just print the maps and use them in conjunction with the kindle? i put LL on my iPod Touch a while back mostly as a novelty for myself, but on a kindle or iPad i can see it (or any other rpg) being handy. esp. on a backlit display when you're playing underground. but more on that later.. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't see any reason to feel guilt for buying something on paper.
ReplyDelete