The moment folks opened up their D&D Starter Sets social media was abuzz with "where's the pregens PDF?"
Well, it's finally here.
Probably the first misstep with the release of 5e, which isn't all that bad come to think of it...
As an aside, someone has uploaded the D&D 5e Basic Rules at Lulu for Print on Demand - $4.70 plus shipping - get it while you can...
Nice. Saves me some scanning!
ReplyDeleteMy box came with the pregens already printed out. Why is it a misstep for someone to release something in print, and not have a small portion of that product not available as a pdf? Not getting why that was expected.
ReplyDeleteIt's partly become the norm to have these sorts of things to be available for download. Yes, you can photocopy them, but today most people have supplanted photocopying (even on their own printer) with downloads of PDFs that they can just print out.
DeleteFrom a consumer POV a reason for providing the PDFs to allow printouts is that it does allow you to keep the original versions as artifacts and print out multiple copies as need so you can run the thing multiple times using fresh sheets for the pregens. The PDF also acts as a source if you should happen to lose the original sheets (because that can happen).
I guess printers are ubiquitous but making copies or scans requires sneaking it by the boss. Unless you are the boss, like I am, in which case it's a non issue. Or something....I really don't get how this is a mis-step when personally I'd be happy to just buy a PDF of the whole Starter Set if they stuck it up on dndclassics.com.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been nice to have the pdf available to print out for the players earlier, because when you put the originals into their grubby little hands, they write on them and smear orange dorito dust all over, even when you tell them to be careful and give them extra blank sheets of paper. :)
ReplyDelete- Ark
Precisely. It's about convenience. Everyone has a printer for PDFs... only a fraction have a scanner/copier.
ReplyDeleteOr... a Staples within 10 minutes to make a copy.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I still don't see it as a "first misstep".
it's a misstep to forget a PDF copy of pregens for a product like this - not a huge one - a very small one - but folks have been looking for this for 2 weeks
DeleteI'm with Joseph.. They were in the box printed out..
Deleteand who actually writes on the originals these days? or makes notes and marks off HP in a actual module (not the PDF printed at home but the actual print adventure)
Deleteno one that I know
so, if you hand out the pregen originals from the box, can you ever use the box with another group?
nope - thus the use and desire of a PDF
I make all my notations in the actual adventures. Most of them are not collectors items like old, mint TSRs.
DeleteNot being able to make a copy of char sheets from printed sheets is a fucking lazy GM, especially since damn near every printer that you can buy today has a copier/scanner built into it. In fact, aside from small travel printers, you would really have to look to buy on without them.
Bull$#!t. Not every printer has a scanner/copier built in. The majority don't. The DM has enough preparation to do without having to get into the car to drive to OfficeMax or Kinko's. I have 3 infant children. It's not too much to ask that I be able to print the character sheet in my home.
DeleteThe PDFs take 5 seconds to export from InDesign and post on the web by WotC. This is not so much to ask from them.
Every printer I have bought in the last decade has had a scanner copier in it.
DeleteI was at Staple today buying grease pencils, which are a bitch to find now, and every single printer but three had scanner copiers.
Maybe its time to upgrade from your dot matrix.
I also don't see it as a misstep. You have to hand-copy the pre-gen sheets. That's not difficult or expensive. I did it a few days before running Lost Mine of Phandelver.
ReplyDeleteIf you release it as a PDF, then potentially everyone can have it. I paid for the Starter Set. Why should someone who didn't get the box have access to the pre-gens before the Starter Sets shipped from amazon?
+Venger Satanis - They already shared the pre-gens publicly on the internet (as image files, not PDFs) so you don't lose anything by having these provided for free.
DeleteIf they were available as image files, then what is everyone complaining about? Print those out.
DeleteA Misstep would have been WotC saying nothing about the pregens. They did in fact say up front they would be available at a later date which it turned out to be just 3 days after the official release.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's a mis-step because they forgot that the people buying this are not kids anymore (I'd have marked the hell out of the originals between age 10 and 17), and having access to everything as a PDF is the norm now.
ReplyDeleteThere are people who remember what it was like to actually take time to photocopy, transcribe or even just stick them in laminated sheets to mark on with temporary markers, but we are the minority now.