Loving PDFs…The New ‘Shadows in Focus’ Series
There are a lot of reason I love the introduction of PDFs and their use as a publishing medium. Here’s just a few:
1. From a development/author research perceptive, it’s priceless to be be able to search hundreds of PDFs simultaneously for a given word or phrase. For the continuity that is such an important part of long-lived universes like Shadowrun, this one is useful beyond measure.
2. Good game stores that stock a lot of gaming books (especially RPGs) are few and far between; if you have one of them you frequent, love ‘em, support 'em! So having a large site like DriveThruRPG.com that acts as a virtual shop to get tens of thousands of pairs of eyes on all the hobby has to offer is great for everyone.
3. We have over half-a-decade of hard data that shows us emphatically that PDF sales actually increase print sales, creating a synergy of excitement from the electronic into gaming stores and player homes.
4. The ease of use via a variety of electronic devices at a gaming table (though admittedly I still love having a print book as well).
5. It allows for “keeping in print” virtually everything. Considering that some games have been around decades (Shadowrun is now 26!), that means “bringing something back” can be a cool, big deal. For example, go check out that DriveThruRPG.com I mentioned above and you’ll see Planescape in the top 10. A D&D setting that was arguably one of its most brilliant settings, IMO, but it’s been out of print for ages and ages…now it’s back if you want to dive in!
6. It allows for experiments (this is one of my favorite bits). Because you’ve removed the cost of printing (which can be one of the greatest costs), you can experiment with covering subjects in a manner and fashion that simply would not be profitable in a larger print book. This allows for delving into new and interesting aspects of the universe, or covering something in much greater depth.
On the last point, we’ve been doing this on a large scale for BattleTech for years, but now we’re starting to ramp up Shadowrun in the same fashion. We just released the first in a series of coming PDFs, Shadows in Focus. Below is the cover, along with two interior pages…39 pages of sourcebook fiction and rules that allow unparalleled running the shadows within the Sioux Nation…a depth of coverage that simply would never fit within a standard print book.
Check it out, and look for more PDFs along these lines in the future!
Randall
