Café de Nuit

Hello all,

Apologies if this has been asked - if so, could a mod please point me to the relevant thread and delete this one.

Do they have a pdf version of VTG:R? I can't seem to find it on Dmsguild or Drivethrurpg, and the one listed on Amazon is hardback......I'd prefer a pdf if I can get one.......

Perhaps living in Taipei is limiting my options?

Pointers are much appreciated.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/marketplace/s ... -ravenloft

I believe this should give you the book not just access to content on D&D Beyond. Can't say I own anything on it though.

I was looking for a PDF too, and ended up in the book-version of D&D beyond... which I can access only online. I cannot download it.

It seems that starting with Candlekeep, WotC has moved away from downloadable-PDF content. Which makes sense given the extreme ease involved in sharing PDFs.

— onmyoji

alhoon wrote:I was looking for a PDF too, and ended up in the book-version of D&D beyond... which I can access only online. I cannot download it.

You can have it downloaded onto your phone via app, however it's only accessible through the app. Not sure if most are trying to find a work around to get an actual PDF or just have mobile access to it. I've given some of my friends access to a jointed game where I have sharing activated and it allows them to see all the books I have unlocked as if they owned the content via content sharing.

Not sure if that helps anyone but figured I'd mention.

onmyoji wrote:It seems that starting with Candlekeep, WotC has moved away from downloadable-PDF content. Which makes sense given the extreme ease involved in sharing PDFs.

— onmyoji

Didn't WOTC try this once before and it blew up in their faces? Sure, let's try again.

I mean, I suppose the online content is okay, but I'm old school and prefer not to have everything locked into a website that I'd have to deal with logging in and stuff every time......yes, I realize the irony of saying that when I'm looking for a PDF........

alhoon wrote:I was looking for a PDF too, and ended up in the book-version of D&D beyond... which I can access only online. I cannot download it.

If you have the app, you can download an offline version.

Or you can print as a PDF, keeping the content but with less ideal formatting.

onmyoji wrote:It seems that starting with Candlekeep, WotC has moved away from downloadable-PDF content. Which makes sense given the extreme ease involved in sharing PDFs.

— onmyoji

Wizards of the Coast moved away from PDFs back in 2009 after the rapid piracy of the PHB2, which they attributed to low sales of their books. (Rather than people not liking 4th Edition.)

They started adding older books to the DMsGuild, but nothing from 5e yet.

I'm kind of curious how Pathfinder is doing since their whole thing had pretty much the whole ruleset up for free on a wiki. I've probably used the wiki much more than the books I physically own since i could search it all at once without pouring through book after book, since it eventually got tot he 3.5 issue of shit tons of books. (Though i pretty much enjoyed most of their line). Haven't gotten into Pathfinder 2e though. Seems intiially a bit weird of a ruleset and curious to how it plays.

Jester of the FoS wrote:Wizards of the Coast moved away from PDFs back in 2009 after the rapid piracy of the PHB2, which they attributed to low sales of their books. (Rather than people not liking 4th Edition.)

Weird. I could've sworn that one could purchase official PDFs of 5E materials for awhile. Perhaps I was mistaken.

— onmyoji

Zilfer wrote:I'm kind of curious how Pathfinder is doing since their whole thing had pretty much the whole ruleset up for free on a wiki. I've probably used the wiki much more than the books I physically own since i could search it all at once without pouring through book after book, since it eventually got tot he 3.5 issue of shit tons of books. (Though i pretty much enjoyed most of their line). Haven't gotten into Pathfinder 2e though. Seems intiially a bit weird of a ruleset and curious to how it plays.

So far, PF2 is going strong. It's only been out for like 2-3 years, and they're already releasing craptons of materials. Even just looking at "core" materials, the PHB equivalent is some 600 pages, the DMG equivalent does what 5E's barely scratches the surface of, and there are already three full Bestiaries published. Hell, there's already 16 basic classes available with another four in two books coming to print later this year. I know they definitely allow purchase of official PDFs of their books too, if that's at all interesting.

Regarding play, I've been doing it for almost a year now and couldn't be happier with it. My primary basis of comparison is 5E (rather than PF1), and it seems to outshine 5E in pretty much every way that matters to me. Character classes are way more customizable. In 5E, any four characters of the same class will largely have the same talents, but in PF2, that's far less likely. The action economy in combat is simplified so that more things can be done in battle with better results, and there are rules for doing almost everything. It seems to work out really really well. Granted, 5E is specifically "rules light," and PF2 is at the very least "rules medium," so that explains quite a bit of it.

The only big issue I have with PF2 is I can't get into the lore. That's one thing D&D will always have my heart on.

— onmyoji

The lore is very important. But, you can use the lore with any kind of system. I would argue for example that D&D is not the best system to run Ravenloft with...

Zilfer wrote:I'm kind of curious how Pathfinder is doing since their whole thing had pretty much the whole ruleset up for free on a wiki. I've probably used the wiki much more than the books I physically own since i could search it all at once without pouring through book after book, since it eventually got tot he 3.5 issue of shit tons of books. (Though i pretty much enjoyed most of their line). Haven't gotten into Pathfinder 2e though. Seems intiially a bit weird of a ruleset and curious to how it plays.

Pathfinder's sales are probably a couple orders of magnitude less than D&D's. They really rely on collectors that buy everything and their organized play program, which requires owning a copy to use.

onmyoji wrote:

Jester of the FoS wrote:Wizards of the Coast moved away from PDFs back in 2009 after the rapid piracy of the PHB2, which they attributed to low sales of their books. (Rather than people not liking 4th Edition.)

Weird. I could've sworn that one could purchase official PDFs of 5E materials for awhile. Perhaps I was mistaken.

They have a few digital-only products. And scanned books are easily found online.
But they were pretty anti-PDF for a while, and even the change of CEO hasn't really altered that. But they seem to be doing quite well without.