Forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I've got access to all the information in the new PHB through D&D Beyond because I pre-ordered the book. But I'd like to be able to look at it like a PDF and go through it like a book. When will that functionality be available (or is it already)?
DND Beyond removed that function for books after Curse Gaming/twitch sold DnDB to WotC. I miss that function, I'm glad we can still pdf our character sheets though.
what's sad DnD Insider (WotC official 4th edition site which DnDB was based on, which had a beta VTT on it) allowed for PDF versions of the books to be downloaded.
Forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I've got access to all the information in the new PHB through D&D Beyond because I pre-ordered the book. But I'd like to be able to look at it like a PDF and go through it like a book. When will that functionality be available (or is it already)?
Thanks!
Probably never. WotC is anti PDF for some unknown reason. It hasn't occurred to them that people can just scan the book, make a PDF and pirate it without needing an official PDF.
Forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I've got access to all the information in the new PHB through D&D Beyond because I pre-ordered the book. But I'd like to be able to look at it like a PDF and go through it like a book. When will that functionality be available (or is it already)?
Thanks!
Probably never. WotC is anti PDF for some unknown reason. It hasn't occurred to them that people can just scan the book, make a PDF and pirate it without needing an official PDF.
Or... it has occurred to them, and they came to the correct conclusion that official PDFs make the process you describe that much easier
Forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I've got access to all the information in the new PHB through D&D Beyond because I pre-ordered the book. But I'd like to be able to look at it like a PDF and go through it like a book. When will that functionality be available (or is it already)?
Thanks!
Probably never. WotC is anti PDF for some unknown reason. It hasn't occurred to them that people can just scan the book, make a PDF and pirate it without needing an official PDF.
Or... it has occurred to them, and they came to the correct conclusion that official PDFs make the process you describe that much easier
Someone literally screenshot a YouTube channel and made a PDF of the book. Honestly, if I found a good place to rebind the book in leather id easily take the book apart feed it into my scanner and have a PDF copy in less than an hour.
If I was okay destroying a book it would take probably 20 min.
Forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I've got access to all the information in the new PHB through D&D Beyond because I pre-ordered the book. But I'd like to be able to look at it like a PDF and go through it like a book. When will that functionality be available (or is it already)?
Thanks!
Probably never. WotC is anti PDF for some unknown reason. It hasn't occurred to them that people can just scan the book, make a PDF and pirate it without needing an official PDF.
Or... it has occurred to them, and they came to the correct conclusion that official PDFs make the process you describe that much easier
Someone literally screenshot a YouTube channel and made a PDF of the book. Honestly, if I found a good place to rebind the book in leather id easily take the book apart feed it into my scanner and have a PDF copy in less than an hour.
If I was okay destroying a book it would take probably 20 min.
And you know what you would get? A big PDF with low quality images created when the glare of the scanner’s lights hits the glossed pages. And that mediocre scan would be something you could not share with anyone else legally. Wizards fully understands people can make PDFs of their content and illegally share them, and they fully understand that awful players are going to do that, but that doesn’t mean they have to make it easy by offering high quality PDFs themselves.
Forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I've got access to all the information in the new PHB through D&D Beyond because I pre-ordered the book. But I'd like to be able to look at it like a PDF and go through it like a book. When will that functionality be available (or is it already)?
Thanks!
Probably never. WotC is anti PDF for some unknown reason. It hasn't occurred to them that people can just scan the book, make a PDF and pirate it without needing an official PDF.
Or... it has occurred to them, and they came to the correct conclusion that official PDFs make the process you describe that much easier
Someone literally screenshot a YouTube channel and made a PDF of the book. Honestly, if I found a good place to rebind the book in leather id easily take the book apart feed it into my scanner and have a PDF copy in less than an hour.
If I was okay destroying a book it would take probably 20 min.
And you know what you would get? A big PDF with low quality images created when the glare of the scanner’s lights hits the glossed pages. And that mediocre scan would be something you could not share with anyone else legally. Wizards fully understands people can make PDFs of their content and illegally share them, and they fully understand that awful players are going to do that, but that doesn’t mean they have to make it easy by offering high quality PDFs themselves.
And yet, the major competition for 5e all provide the option to buy .pdf's.
Forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I've got access to all the information in the new PHB through D&D Beyond because I pre-ordered the book. But I'd like to be able to look at it like a PDF and go through it like a book. When will that functionality be available (or is it already)?
Thanks!
Probably never. WotC is anti PDF for some unknown reason. It hasn't occurred to them that people can just scan the book, make a PDF and pirate it without needing an official PDF.
Or... it has occurred to them, and they came to the correct conclusion that official PDFs make the process you describe that much easier
Someone literally screenshot a YouTube channel and made a PDF of the book. Honestly, if I found a good place to rebind the book in leather id easily take the book apart feed it into my scanner and have a PDF copy in less than an hour.
If I was okay destroying a book it would take probably 20 min.
And you know what you would get? A big PDF with low quality images created when the glare of the scanner’s lights hits the glossed pages. And that mediocre scan would be something you could not share with anyone else legally. Wizards fully understands people can make PDFs of their content and illegally share them, and they fully understand that awful players are going to do that, but that doesn’t mean they have to make it easy by offering high quality PDFs themselves.
I promise you between my scanner and camera I can get a high quality PDF that would be perfectly usable by 90% of people with little effort on my part.
I just have no desire to actually distribute copies of the PHP. But I can probably take a photo of the book in about an hour. And I have the camera stuff to not get glare. Though at this point an iPhone would probably be sufficient.
They are just losing money. I bet you can find a dozen or so copies already online.
Forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I've got access to all the information in the new PHB through D&D Beyond because I pre-ordered the book. But I'd like to be able to look at it like a PDF and go through it like a book. When will that functionality be available (or is it already)?
Thanks!
Probably never. WotC is anti PDF for some unknown reason. It hasn't occurred to them that people can just scan the book, make a PDF and pirate it without needing an official PDF.
Or... it has occurred to them, and they came to the correct conclusion that official PDFs make the process you describe that much easier
Someone literally screenshot a YouTube channel and made a PDF of the book. Honestly, if I found a good place to rebind the book in leather id easily take the book apart feed it into my scanner and have a PDF copy in less than an hour.
If I was okay destroying a book it would take probably 20 min.
And you know what you would get? A big PDF with low quality images created when the glare of the scanner’s lights hits the glossed pages. And that mediocre scan would be something you could not share with anyone else legally. Wizards fully understands people can make PDFs of their content and illegally share them, and they fully understand that awful players are going to do that, but that doesn’t mean they have to make it easy by offering high quality PDFs themselves.
And yet, the major competition for 5e all provide the option to buy .pdf's.
Yeah it's interesting how only one company doesn't provide PDFs. I mean you can turn d&d beyond into a PDF of you have the time.
And yet, the major competition for 5e all provide the option to buy .pdf's.
Nobody's saying that WotC can't do PDFs. They just don't want to.
And really, they don't have any major competition. Even Pathfinder, who are by far the biggest non-D&D game out there, are tiny in comparison. Their ability to support an online toolset is extremely limited in comparison. For everyone except (I think) Pathfinder, it's PDFs, fan-implemented support on one of the generic sites, or nothing.
Nobody's saying that WotC can't do PDFs. They just don't want to.
And really, they don't have any major competition. Even Pathfinder, who are by far the biggest non-D&D game out there, are tiny in comparison. Their ability to support an online toolset is extremely limited in comparison. For everyone except (I think) Pathfinder, it's PDFs, fan-implemented support on one of the generic sites, or nothing.
The size of their competition is a moot point. With very few exceptions other publishers in the hobby provide pdfs and often do so for free with the purchase of any physical book. I own physical copies of any and every game product I own. And I own more than just D&D and more than one edition of it. I still think it goes against the spirit of the hobby to try to restrict people from sharing resources given that back in the day many of us played in groups in which only one person owned a copy of the rules and these were simply shared at our tables. Wizards want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to get "all in on" going digital. But balk at providing official pdfs of their books. Because they don't want people to share resources without having to pay more for the privilege. Like people have to do here. Their greed is on full display for anyone with even the slightest of insight into how other publishers in the hobby treat their customers. I for example once purchased pdfs of some game products while for technical reasons was unable to buy the physical books and the publisher then discounted the physical books as soon as I was able to buy the physical books. Subtracting from these purchases the costs of the pdfs. Compare this or the provision of gratis pdfs with the purchase of physical books with how people who buy the physical books for D&D don't gain access to any digital version of the content they have paid for. Not even here. It is pure greed. Other publishers see the hobby more as belonging to us. The players. Because without us there is no hobby. And smaller publishers tend to be run by players. Not by suits. The bigger and bigger D&D has become ever since Wizards of the Coast bought it and in turn Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast the less and less it has felt as if it is even a part of the gaming community.
And you know what you would get? A big PDF with low quality images created when the glare of the scanner’s lights hits the glossed pages. And that mediocre scan would be something you could not share with anyone else legally. Wizards fully understands people can make PDFs of their content and illegally share them, and they fully understand that awful players are going to do that, but that doesn’t mean they have to make it easy by offering high quality PDFs themselves.
If players who share game content are "awful" what would you call people who share music and other media with others through means that leaves their creators out of pocket?
To say "but I could just rip the book apart, scan it, with my high quality scanner and distribute it" is the same argument as "Why have a door and walls? I could just go and get tools and rip that door out and break in just as easy as if there was no door." It's all a thing about convenience.
Nobody's saying that WotC can't do PDFs. They just don't want to.
And really, they don't have any major competition. Even Pathfinder, who are by far the biggest non-D&D game out there, are tiny in comparison. Their ability to support an online toolset is extremely limited in comparison. For everyone except (I think) Pathfinder, it's PDFs, fan-implemented support on one of the generic sites, or nothing.
I still think it goes against the spirit of the hobby to try to restrict people from sharing resources given that back in the day many of us played in groups in which only one person owned a copy of the rules and these were simply shared at our tables.
And you can still do exactly that when you buy a physical copy. Besides that they made it extremely easy to have one person buy the digital version and have that person share it with loas of other people for a small subscription fee.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"grandpa" Salkur, deep gnome artificer/sorcerer: Spiderwrangler's Forged in Chaos | Pepin, Human Artificer/cleric: Goblin horde | Mixtli, Volcano Genasi Artificer: Champions of the Citadel | Erix Vadalitis, Human Druid: Rising from the last war |Smithy, Human Artificer: Night Ravens: Black orchids for Biscotti | Tamphalic Aliprax, Blue Dragonborn Wizard: Chronicles of the Accursed
To say "but I could just rip the book apart, scan it, with my high quality scanner and distribute it" is the same argument as "Why have a door and walls? I could just go and get tools and rip that door out and break in just as easy as if there was no door." It's all a thing about convenience.
I am not so sure homeowners being concerned about burglaries compares to a multibillion dollar company not wanting its customers to share gaming resources just so it can make more money. What Wizards are doing in this regard is analogous with their telling us we mustn't share books at our tables and telling us every player has to buy his or her own copies. This is a hobby with a history of people sharing resources. If you need to be reminded. Funny how other publishers happily provide pdfs and often for free with the purchase of any physical book but the big multibillion dollar company just simply cannot afford to lose money that way!
Answer me this: Are we expected to believe that people so gung-ho about the digitization of D&D have never watched a movie or a TV show or listened to an album that was shared with them by some means other than one that would pay their creators and fairly? Please.
And you know what you would get? A big PDF with low quality images created when the glare of the scanner’s lights hits the glossed pages. And that mediocre scan would be something you could not share with anyone else legally. Wizards fully understands people can make PDFs of their content and illegally share them, and they fully understand that awful players are going to do that, but that doesn’t mean they have to make it easy by offering high quality PDFs themselves.
If players who share game content are "awful" what would you call people who share music and other media with others through means that leaves their creators out of pocket?
I'd call them awful. Not sure what argument you were trying to make there but I don't think it was the gotcha you thought it was
And you can still do exactly that when you buy a physical copy. Besides that they made it extremely easy to have one person buy the digital version and have that person share it with loas of other people for a small subscription fee.
Yes. To be able to share content on Beyond you must pay for the privilege. The digital equivalent of having someone come to collect a tax from you because you have let your players look through your copy of the Player's Handbook. Of course we can still share physical books at out tables. My point is that their approach to digitization is analogous with their telling us we can no longer do that. That we must all own our own copies. Or pay a fee to be allowed to share resources. Notice how other publishers are more than happy to provide pdfs? How many even actively encourage the sharing of resources?
Let me ask you what I have asked others: There is a rather obvious overlap between those who defend Wizards in this regard and those who are so gung-ho about the digitization of D&D. Have these people never watched a movie or a TV show or listened to an album that was shared with them by some means other than one that would pay their creators and fairly? But it's just a bridge too far to expect a multibillion dollar company like Wizards to make it easier for people to share resources?
I'd call them awful. Not sure what argument you were trying to make there but I don't think it was the gotcha you thought it was
You have never once done that? You have never watched anything or listened to anything someone just shared with you? Never streamed music on YouTube without having paid for it? None of that?
Forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I've got access to all the information in the new PHB through D&D Beyond because I pre-ordered the book. But I'd like to be able to look at it like a PDF and go through it like a book. When will that functionality be available (or is it already)?
Thanks!
DND Beyond removed that function for books after Curse Gaming/twitch sold DnDB to WotC. I miss that function, I'm glad we can still pdf our character sheets though.
what's sad DnD Insider (WotC official 4th edition site which DnDB was based on, which had a beta VTT on it) allowed for PDF versions of the books to be downloaded.
Probably never. WotC is anti PDF for some unknown reason. It hasn't occurred to them that people can just scan the book, make a PDF and pirate it without needing an official PDF.
If you get the app, you can read it like a book there, even offline.
Or... it has occurred to them, and they came to the correct conclusion that official PDFs make the process you describe that much easier
Someone literally screenshot a YouTube channel and made a PDF of the book. Honestly, if I found a good place to rebind the book in leather id easily take the book apart feed it into my scanner and have a PDF copy in less than an hour.
If I was okay destroying a book it would take probably 20 min.
There is a way to download the digital content on D&DBeyond into PDF.
Free Content: [Basic Rules],
[LMoP],[Acquisitions Inc.],[The Vecna Dossier],[The Radiant Citadel], [Spelljammer Academy],[Dragonlance], [Prisoner 13],[Minecraft],[Giants of the Star Forge], [Baldur’s Gate Gazetteer], [Lightning Keep], [Stormwreck Isle], [Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth], [Hunt for the Lost Horn].Free Dice: [Frostmaiden],
[Flourishing], [Sanguine],[Themberchaud], [Baldur's Gate 3], [Lego].And you know what you would get? A big PDF with low quality images created when the glare of the scanner’s lights hits the glossed pages. And that mediocre scan would be something you could not share with anyone else legally. Wizards fully understands people can make PDFs of their content and illegally share them, and they fully understand that awful players are going to do that, but that doesn’t mean they have to make it easy by offering high quality PDFs themselves.
And yet, the major competition for 5e all provide the option to buy .pdf's.
I promise you between my scanner and camera I can get a high quality PDF that would be perfectly usable by 90% of people with little effort on my part.
I just have no desire to actually distribute copies of the PHP. But I can probably take a photo of the book in about an hour. And I have the camera stuff to not get glare. Though at this point an iPhone would probably be sufficient.
They are just losing money. I bet you can find a dozen or so copies already online.
Yeah it's interesting how only one company doesn't provide PDFs. I mean you can turn d&d beyond into a PDF of you have the time.
Nobody's saying that WotC can't do PDFs. They just don't want to.
And really, they don't have any major competition. Even Pathfinder, who are by far the biggest non-D&D game out there, are tiny in comparison. Their ability to support an online toolset is extremely limited in comparison. For everyone except (I think) Pathfinder, it's PDFs, fan-implemented support on one of the generic sites, or nothing.
The size of their competition is a moot point. With very few exceptions other publishers in the hobby provide pdfs and often do so for free with the purchase of any physical book. I own physical copies of any and every game product I own. And I own more than just D&D and more than one edition of it. I still think it goes against the spirit of the hobby to try to restrict people from sharing resources given that back in the day many of us played in groups in which only one person owned a copy of the rules and these were simply shared at our tables. Wizards want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to get "all in on" going digital. But balk at providing official pdfs of their books. Because they don't want people to share resources without having to pay more for the privilege. Like people have to do here. Their greed is on full display for anyone with even the slightest of insight into how other publishers in the hobby treat their customers. I for example once purchased pdfs of some game products while for technical reasons was unable to buy the physical books and the publisher then discounted the physical books as soon as I was able to buy the physical books. Subtracting from these purchases the costs of the pdfs. Compare this or the provision of gratis pdfs with the purchase of physical books with how people who buy the physical books for D&D don't gain access to any digital version of the content they have paid for. Not even here. It is pure greed. Other publishers see the hobby more as belonging to us. The players. Because without us there is no hobby. And smaller publishers tend to be run by players. Not by suits. The bigger and bigger D&D has become ever since Wizards of the Coast bought it and in turn Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast the less and less it has felt as if it is even a part of the gaming community.
If players who share game content are "awful" what would you call people who share music and other media with others through means that leaves their creators out of pocket?
To say "but I could just rip the book apart, scan it, with my high quality scanner and distribute it" is the same argument as "Why have a door and walls? I could just go and get tools and rip that door out and break in just as easy as if there was no door." It's all a thing about convenience.
And you can still do exactly that when you buy a physical copy. Besides that they made it extremely easy to have one person buy the digital version and have that person share it with loas of other people for a small subscription fee.
"grandpa" Salkur, deep gnome artificer/sorcerer: Spiderwrangler's Forged in Chaos | Pepin, Human Artificer/cleric: Goblin horde | Mixtli, Volcano Genasi Artificer: Champions of the Citadel | Erix Vadalitis, Human Druid: Rising from the last war | Smithy, Human Artificer: Night Ravens: Black orchids for Biscotti | Tamphalic Aliprax, Blue Dragonborn Wizard: Chronicles of the Accursed
I am not so sure homeowners being concerned about burglaries compares to a multibillion dollar company not wanting its customers to share gaming resources just so it can make more money. What Wizards are doing in this regard is analogous with their telling us we mustn't share books at our tables and telling us every player has to buy his or her own copies. This is a hobby with a history of people sharing resources. If you need to be reminded. Funny how other publishers happily provide pdfs and often for free with the purchase of any physical book but the big multibillion dollar company just simply cannot afford to lose money that way!
Answer me this: Are we expected to believe that people so gung-ho about the digitization of D&D have never watched a movie or a TV show or listened to an album that was shared with them by some means other than one that would pay their creators and fairly? Please.
I'd call them awful. Not sure what argument you were trying to make there but I don't think it was the gotcha you thought it was
Yes. To be able to share content on Beyond you must pay for the privilege. The digital equivalent of having someone come to collect a tax from you because you have let your players look through your copy of the Player's Handbook. Of course we can still share physical books at out tables. My point is that their approach to digitization is analogous with their telling us we can no longer do that. That we must all own our own copies. Or pay a fee to be allowed to share resources. Notice how other publishers are more than happy to provide pdfs? How many even actively encourage the sharing of resources?
Let me ask you what I have asked others: There is a rather obvious overlap between those who defend Wizards in this regard and those who are so gung-ho about the digitization of D&D. Have these people never watched a movie or a TV show or listened to an album that was shared with them by some means other than one that would pay their creators and fairly? But it's just a bridge too far to expect a multibillion dollar company like Wizards to make it easier for people to share resources?
You have never once done that? You have never watched anything or listened to anything someone just shared with you? Never streamed music on YouTube without having paid for it? None of that?