Ben W Bell
SOC-14 1K
Only just noticed this on the front page, but Woohoo.
Ebooks
- Thread starter Ben W Bell
- Start date
siefertma2
SOC-13
"Marc is working with a well-known industry company and will be releasing eBooks..."
Hmmmm... I wonder what company this is? RPGNow, perhaps?
I think it's great, however I'm going to kick myself for spending $15-$30 per item for all the used Traveller and 2300 AD stuff I bought on eBay.
Hmmmm... I wonder what company this is? RPGNow, perhaps?
I think it's great, however I'm going to kick myself for spending $15-$30 per item for all the used Traveller and 2300 AD stuff I bought on eBay.
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
I second your woohoo!
cmaddox,
You can find the article here:
http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/news/pnews.pl?action=view&itemid=75&h=&s=
Enjoy,
Flynn
You can find the article here:
http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/news/pnews.pl?action=view&itemid=75&h=&s=
Enjoy,
Flynn
Well that line could be read two ways. One of which includes selling the ebooks himself. Bastion Press still has TW2K listed as "ALL CALL" on their ESD Master Schedule List pp. 18-19 dated 2003. Bastion did the scanning* for TSR's ESDs (Electronic Software Downloads aka PDFs) and is fairly well known for their own products.
However RPGnow and to a lesser extent SVGames and for that matter QLI are all viable choices for distribution.
As for buying originals at the low end FFE risks running into the same problem with many of the TSR and similar pdf "reprints". For $5-9 a pdf then the cost of printing out the pdf it's often cheaper or not much more to get the product on ebay and get a better looking original.
Assuming they'll be sold individually. Sets ala the reprint collections might be a good option as well but would likely net less profit although with only individual ebooks some titles are bound to sell far less.
By all means though kick yourself.
Casey
* And to avoid some of the flak over some of the TSR ESDs somebody please watch over the scanning process to ensure pages are readable and correct; consumers should not be expected to adjust a pdf just to make it legible
It's interesting on the editions released for reprints.
CT is 2nd edition material only where there was one for a product, TW2K is 1st edition only so far, and from this article only 2300AD. IIRC some of the 1st edition TW2K material wasn't reprinted in later editions but I don't know about Traveller 2300 AD.
/me shrugs
Likely has also to do with how the various GDW properties were divvied up among other factors. I don't have TW2K 1st or either 2300 to check but TW2K 2nd doesn't mention Marc Miller FWIW.
Casey
CT is 2nd edition material only where there was one for a product, TW2K is 1st edition only so far, and from this article only 2300AD. IIRC some of the 1st edition TW2K material wasn't reprinted in later editions but I don't know about Traveller 2300 AD.
/me shrugs
Likely has also to do with how the various GDW properties were divvied up among other factors. I don't have TW2K 1st or either 2300 to check but TW2K 2nd doesn't mention Marc Miller FWIW.
Casey
FlightCommanderSolitude
SOC-13
Woohoo! Uhh ... what's an ebook?
I assume it'll mean a Adobe Acrobat PDF file just using a "e-" name but there are some other possibilities.
Casey
Casey
hirch duckfinder
SOC-13
i hate e- books . they are impossible to read , expensive and awkward to print . BUT THEY ARE MUCH MUCH BETTER THAN NO REPRINTS SO.......
WAAAAAHOOOOOOO!!!!!
WAAAAAHOOOOOOO!!!!!
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
So what happens to the MT cd rom edition???
FlightCommanderSolitude
SOC-13
I reckon the CD-ROM edition is being ditched in favor of the ebook versions. I looked up ebook details on the Adobe website, it's essentially PDF with digital rights management attached. I also suspect there won't be a text version (ie they'll just be scans), but what do I know. Hopefully we'll get some clarification on the new FFE website. [Holds breath. Turns blue.]
TJP
SOC-12
The big news for me is that CT reprint JTAS 3 will finally be released. Woohoo for that!
What will happen to the dead tree version of 2300? Now it looks (to me) as it's being abandoned in favor of the eBook. I'm not that big a fan of eBooks and would really want a similar treatment for 2300 line than done to CT, i.e. reprints.
What will happen to the dead tree version of 2300? Now it looks (to me) as it's being abandoned in favor of the eBook. I'm not that big a fan of eBooks and would really want a similar treatment for 2300 line than done to CT, i.e. reprints.
Keklas Rekobah
SOC-14 1K
No ebooks for Classic Traveller. Now I know how an orphan feels when the last bus leaves town.
Responding to multiple people here:
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Casey
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The TSR ESDs which are regular PDFs were scanned in then OCR'd which likely isn't the case with Adobe ebooks. I seriously hope ebook doesn't mean Adobe ebook as it increases the chance of something going wrong (limits on downloads, people not being able to access their downloaded file, etc.) and sounds like a pain in the hindparts compared to regular PDF.
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A lot of current game companies are switching to pdf only for books that go out of print not being able to justify the cost of reprints. Or it could be the case that this is merely a way of getting the materials out there now later printing them when enough people purchase ebooks *or* to add a print on demand option. However this is sheer speculation.
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Well these aren't additional books and CT is almost completely in print at this time. Though it likely wouldn't take much to create pdfs of CT from whatever files were created for the reprints I'm not sure if there's enough demand for CT in both print and pdf esp. since before the reprints came out there was a "distribution" of CT pdfs from what I understand from reading the TML archives.
Casey
I do understand and sympathize with the whole cost issue and to reissue Traveller this late in the game's history in a paper format would probably cause confusion for those not aquainted to the Imperial Campaign.
As for hardcore Traveller fans, like myself, have to think of the newbie who is only getting aquainted with the Imperial Campaign...PDF seems a quick & dirty catch up device. So, I applaud Marc for doing this sooner rather than sitting on the heap of stuff.
However, it is my sincere belief though, if companies are going to survive in the long run, there must be a paper presence...and I guess Marc is saving his pennies for a T5 release. Print On Demand will never get publicity in a gaming store and the gaming store seems to also to be dying out from the lack of product to stock their shelves. So a word of caution must be sounded regarding PDF, let them be the means of achieving the goal but not an end onto itself.
I just wonder why it is taking so long for the Twilight reprints to come down the pipe but I think that I read somewhere that they were only rated 5.4 out a 10 point scale...if sales continue to drop like that I can understand that FFE wants to get out of the RPG market all together and focus on printing & family.
As for hardcore Traveller fans, like myself, have to think of the newbie who is only getting aquainted with the Imperial Campaign...PDF seems a quick & dirty catch up device. So, I applaud Marc for doing this sooner rather than sitting on the heap of stuff.
However, it is my sincere belief though, if companies are going to survive in the long run, there must be a paper presence...and I guess Marc is saving his pennies for a T5 release. Print On Demand will never get publicity in a gaming store and the gaming store seems to also to be dying out from the lack of product to stock their shelves. So a word of caution must be sounded regarding PDF, let them be the means of achieving the goal but not an end onto itself.
I just wonder why it is taking so long for the Twilight reprints to come down the pipe but I think that I read somewhere that they were only rated 5.4 out a 10 point scale...if sales continue to drop like that I can understand that FFE wants to get out of the RPG market all together and focus on printing & family.
FlightCommanderSolitude
SOC-13
The reprints were almost certainly made using some analogue facsimile process, there's nothing digital them - some of the pages have "GDW ARCHIVE" rubber stamped on them. Just a note. On with the discussion ...
Whatever happens, I expect to purchase the MT stuff and maybe cherrypick a few items from the other lines ... I hear Pocket Empires is grand.
Interesting but it doesn't automatically rule out scanning. However I'm inclined at this point to agree the reprints weren't scanned in. For one thing the errata sheets are as graphic files not pdfs.
The article on the front page here has changed and there's an article on FFE's website now about e-books.
Casey
The article on the front page here has changed and there's an article on FFE's website now about e-books.
Casey
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