Post by Gilvan Blight on Sept 29, 2012 23:29:28 GMT -5
Why I stopped worrying and learned to love the PDF
I'm a convert.
I would have sworn I would be a dead tree gamer until the end of time, but then we bought ourselves an iPad for our anniversary this year. It was mainly bought so we would have access to the Net at all times (for comparison shopping and finding good places to eat) and for board gaming. The plan was to be able to bring 5-10 good board games with us where ever we went. I had no real plans on using it as an eReader.
Then I signed up for a Marvel Heroic Roleplaying launch event and they provided me with the Rules in PDF. So I came on here and asked what the best readers were, did some more research and grabbed goodreader.
After about a week of reading I was hooked. There's so much functionality with a digital book. I can bookmark, I can search, I can add hyperlinks, I can even annotate the book. On the second read through of Marvel I ended up building a digital index for the game as I went. Here's a section on Watcher Opportunities - okay bookmark that. Then I ran the game using just my iPad and it went awesome. No flipping pages, no trying to remember what section of the book it was in. I just had to hit my bookmarks and it brought me right to the right page.
After I ran the Marvel Launch event the store I ran it for gifted me with a copy of the Basic Set. Awesome I thought. So I brought it home and tried to read it. It just felt weird I had been reading the same rules for a month in digital format. I could no longer touch "page 23" and have it go to page 23. I ran a second event and brought the book with me. I didn't even open it.
Now since them I've just fallen further down the rabbit hole. One of the things I like to do on Sundays is take my two kids to an indoor play place. It's a great break for my wife and gives me a chance to get some game prep and reading in. In the past I always had to pick one maybe two books to bring, and maybe my heavy netbook to do some web surfing. Now when I go I bring my tablet. On it I now have books for 10 different games. So now when I get sick of reading Marvel Herioc Civil War, I can jump over and read the latest Mobile Frame Zero rules for a bit. Then jump on G+ and see if anything interesting is happening, then open up evernote and start brainstorming for my Pathfinder game. All in one little tablet.
I'm a convert.
I would have sworn I would be a dead tree gamer until the end of time, but then we bought ourselves an iPad for our anniversary this year. It was mainly bought so we would have access to the Net at all times (for comparison shopping and finding good places to eat) and for board gaming. The plan was to be able to bring 5-10 good board games with us where ever we went. I had no real plans on using it as an eReader.
Then I signed up for a Marvel Heroic Roleplaying launch event and they provided me with the Rules in PDF. So I came on here and asked what the best readers were, did some more research and grabbed goodreader.
After about a week of reading I was hooked. There's so much functionality with a digital book. I can bookmark, I can search, I can add hyperlinks, I can even annotate the book. On the second read through of Marvel I ended up building a digital index for the game as I went. Here's a section on Watcher Opportunities - okay bookmark that. Then I ran the game using just my iPad and it went awesome. No flipping pages, no trying to remember what section of the book it was in. I just had to hit my bookmarks and it brought me right to the right page.
After I ran the Marvel Launch event the store I ran it for gifted me with a copy of the Basic Set. Awesome I thought. So I brought it home and tried to read it. It just felt weird I had been reading the same rules for a month in digital format. I could no longer touch "page 23" and have it go to page 23. I ran a second event and brought the book with me. I didn't even open it.
Now since them I've just fallen further down the rabbit hole. One of the things I like to do on Sundays is take my two kids to an indoor play place. It's a great break for my wife and gives me a chance to get some game prep and reading in. In the past I always had to pick one maybe two books to bring, and maybe my heavy netbook to do some web surfing. Now when I go I bring my tablet. On it I now have books for 10 different games. So now when I get sick of reading Marvel Herioc Civil War, I can jump over and read the latest Mobile Frame Zero rules for a bit. Then jump on G+ and see if anything interesting is happening, then open up evernote and start brainstorming for my Pathfinder game. All in one little tablet.