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PDFs for Everyone? How about Online Access for Everyone?

As Stargazer mentions, the PDF vs printed book conversation comes up every now and then, and there is always a split between electronics junkies and tree killers.  I can agree with both sides of the argument.

PDFs are cheaper and more accessible.  Stick your PDF in DropBox and you can get to it from anywhere you have a screen.  Forgot your laptop?  Grab it on you smartphone, table, or media player.

Paper books, on the other hand, have a feel and access all their own.  Unlike a PDF, where one curses the heavy graphics because of the slow-down, paper books with heavy graphical content are a joy.  I have my big bookshelf of books, old and new.  And there is a special joy when digging through a 20 year old RPG book.

In both cases, however, I find myself fundamentally frustrated.  Let me explain.

In Pathfinder, I've been running gaming groups for a couple of years.  A lot of my players are young and don't have the resources to buy all the books.  I take the time to buy all the hardcover books from Paizo, so I have time browse them and a get a good overview of the content.  Some of us have PDFs.  More importantly, all of them can get access to the free online Pathfinder PRD, which is the rules content from all of the books.  This is such a magical thing.  When we're discussing things in an email, I can drop in a link to the rule in question.  When a new player comes along, they can get access to all the content immediately.  It's true that the content is quite a bit less digestable in this form, but this form is important.  I may read all the books in hardcover, but in play, I want the online system for pulling up content quickly across all of the books.

In contrast, I recently started a Shadowrun game.  Shadowrun is not an OGL style license.  I spent a good bunch of money getting the core hardcover books.  I bought some PDFs.  The problem is, that almost none of my players could afford to the same.  We ended up spending weeks reading the books trying to get some idea of how to play and how to build characters.  Now when new players join, I have to do the same thing again. And, more importantly, I can't really discuss rules and such with the group in emails, because there is no common reference, like the PRD, that I can refer them too.  I can't even use a search engine to search content across books effectively, even in PDF form.  The PDF breaks how I want access to the rules.

What this points to is a fundamentally flawed licensing model.  Let me pay you for books or PDFs if I want them, but give me some flexibility.  Don't kill my online discussions by tying me to discrete "thing" licenses.  Give me, instead, an option for a group license.  Make me a license administrator and let me add access to my gaming groups.  15 or 20 "user access" licenses that allow access to an online version of the material is plenty to get the use that my gamers and I need.  The users, this way, have a pleasant experience, because they get a free login for as long as they are in the game to view the game material online.  As a GM, I don't have to have book reading sessions.  And the publishers make every possible dollar they can by not letting their content out.  Yeah, its not quite as nice as OGL, but I suspect this is a workable compromise.  One could imagine it being even better, if I could give the group access to my custom content through the same online distribution channel.

The bottom line is, PDFs vs books aside, the real impact is online accessible vs non-accessible.  PDFs or hardcover will work, but I'm not running anymore systems where my players and I can't get to an online version of the material that is searchable and linkable.

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