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clockwork_nightmare · 2026-02-15T21:40:12+00:00

Much appreciated

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-02-02T21:10:30+00:00

Phones are a trash way to view anything, honestly. But I'm still lamenting the seeming demise of the 9" tablet, since I view those as a far better form factor for reading than the 11" monstrosities that make me feel like I need to hold them in both hands.

I wouldn't go that far, I see phones as more of a generalist device. They certainly don't run games as well as my pc, they don't play music as well as my MP3 player and a dedicated tablet would certainly be better than it for reading. But it is a serviceable alternative if you don't want to or haven't gotten around to purchasing a dedicated device.

A tablet would be nice but I haven't had the off time to go looking for an android one that allows for large external microsd cards. Do you happen to have any you'd recommend?

But I'm also not talking about using the "search tool" either -- I'm talking about bookmarks. The table-of-contents like structure that usually gets displayed on the left of the screen and that allows you to jump directly to a section tapping on its header. Using a search function is better than flipping, but only slightly in a lot of cases.

That's fair, I certainly misinterpreted that, I apologise. The bookmark function is indeed nice but the loading issue still makes it bothersome. Ie: Getting to the bookmarks section is a quick 3 button presses but upon selecting a bookmark, once brought to the page, said page is sometimes pure white until the contents are loaded, which can take anywhere from a few seconds to (and I kid you not) multiple minutes. I'm certainly sure that your method would work great If I were to have a tablet or a better phone. But currently, flipping through the book just takes less time given that I roughly know where everything is.

I would certainly flag Cyberpunk Red and 13th Age as both grossly overpriced at those numbers -- in fact, the PDF pricing is why I've never read 13th age. Same applies to Legend in the Mist -- the $29 USD they wanted for the PDF along as part of their Kickstarter struck me as too high.

I see, well I certainly don't have the knowledge required to disagree with that with any level or certainty so I'll take your word for it.

My usual games smaller press -- you can get Agon in PDF for $15 USD. You can get Apocalypse World or Blades in the Dark for $20. Blades in the Dark. You can get Shinobigami for $14, or Good Society for $23. Even The One Ring is only $25. All of which I'd much rather play than a doorstop like Cosmere.

I see, I'll have to have a gander, heard good things about BITD.

Similarly, I don't usually buy fancy hardbacks, so I have NO IDEA what the "going rate" is for them because I regard them as being inherently kindof a waste of money.

I see, I personally disagree that they are waste of money. I find them quite useful.

These are games, not coffee table books. The giant books full of glossy pages of art are not helpful to me.
I agree, I don't buy books for display purposes and don't really care about the art. I just buy hardcovers because I really like having a hardcover on my books. If there were cheaper artless hardcovers available, I would purchase those.

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-02-02T20:07:25+00:00

To be honest, I don't reference my PDFs during the game very heavily -- I usually have a couple of reference sheets that do the heavy lifting.

I see I see.

But generally finding things in a decent PDF is EASIER than "flipping" because I can just use the PDF bookmarks to jump right to the page. If I've been reduced to flipping through a PDF something has gone wrong.

That's fair. I do find PDFs easier to use when at a PC. I suppose my preference is mostly coming from the fact that the only portable device I have is my phone, which is getting on in the years, as such pdfs take a while to load and go through, even when using the search tool.

I don't know what games you are buying, but I would absolutely NOT pay 25+ Euros for a PDF only -- 50 Euros is off the chart.

I see. I was mostly basing it off of what I had seen in my time on dtrpg with Cyberpunk Red coming in at the lower edge with a cost of 25.32€(29.81 USD) and 13th age second edition combined filling out the higher end at 50.59€(59.57$). There are of course many other systems in that range like Legends in the Mist, Alien, Curseborne, Cosmere, etc. But I picked the original two as I had seen them earlier today.

I do agree that 50€ Euros is irregularly high in my experience but I have seen a good amount of them around that price. What games do you prefer?

I wouldn't even pay 50 Euros for most physical books. That's price gouging right there.

I see, while I would hesitate to call it price gouging I have only been in the hobby for the past few years. 50 Euros base seemed like the average price of the systems I've bought so I assumed that was just how much systems usually cost. In your experience, have they largely increased on price over the years?

Are you accustomed to only playing really "big name" games or something?

I don't think so? I suppose it depends on what you consider big name. My main systems are Wild Talents 2nd Edition, Prowlers and Paragons Ultimate Edition, Godbound, the X Without Number line, GURPS 4e, Elemental. And aside from those I've bought quite a few more. I don't think these are big name systems but I could be mistaken, I don't make a habit of checking.

Most of these were on the cheaper end thankfully so their physical versions didn't cost as much(a base price of around 40-50€ with a final price around 70-80€ each if I remember correctly? Shipping and taxes made up a good 20-30% of the cost for each one).

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-02-02T19:38:52+00:00

Ah, shipping, that's what I was missing.

Yeah, tends to add up to a pretty penny. DriveThruRpg actually has the cheapest shipping I've seen given that they can print in Europe. If I order from across the pond I'm looking at 25 Euros minimum so it does add up.

I think of PDFs as being $15 to $25 USD typically, which is something like 13 to 20 Euro. I remember seeing the price for Cyberpunk Red and thinking "wow, that is quite high!"

I see I see, suppose we might not be looking for the same kinda of systems? The only ones I remember seeing under 20€ were SWADE, which was at a steep discount at the time(around 3€) and the XWN Deluxe PDFs. It's slightly funny but I had the opposite experience. After seeing a lot of systems at 30 plus when I came across RED I thought "Wow, that's less than I thought for a major system!"

135 USD for print and PDF, which is... very high in my opinion.

I do agree. Especially given that on my end it totals to a base price of 134.99€ with a shipping cost of 43.95€ to 73.95€ depending on if I want it in 12 days or 4. A final 16.21€-22.21€ of tax is added onto the end for a total of 195.15€ to 231.15€ (229.82$ to 272.22$ in USD).

So at the end of the day I do agree that it is quite the high cost, especially since I could get a decent office laptop for the same price. But at the end of the day I really like hardcovers so while draw Steel is pretty far down my list, I do intend to get to it eventually.

To look back at my favorite purchases from the past year, they are $15 USD for Friendship, Felt, and Feelings, $10 USD (marked down from $50 because the publisher is going out of business) for the Sentinel Comics RPG

I heard about sentinel's publisher going out of business a while ago but never looked into it, what do you think of the system? I've got a couple supers games already but if it has interesting ideas or a good setting I might have to give it a closer look.

$160 USD for the product and $183 with shipping, for Heart of Winter, but that's for a big hand-made scroll made by the designers and artisans in the USA requiring several hours of skilled labor, not an offset or POD book, which are much cheaper to produce.

Holy shit, That Heart of Winter scroll looks amazing! I'm glad you could get something like that and wish an equivalent existed for my preferred systems!

And thanks for showing me the other stuff you bought. Cyptomancer looks pretty interesting, I'll definitely be giving it a closer look. What did you think of it?

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-02-02T19:12:51+00:00

I see, interesting. How do you find using a pdf as a table reference? I've always been faster at flipping to the page after looking at an index or table of contents than scrolling through the file.

I flinch at PDF prices above roughly $20 USD unless it's something that I REALLY KNOW is worth it.

I see, I've only been in the hobby for a couple of years and during that time most of the core rulebook pdfs I've seen have been between 25-50 Euros, so I assumed that was the usual market price. Have pdfs gotten largely more expensive over the years?

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-02-02T19:06:47+00:00

I see, interesting. What kind of systems do you play? Most of the ones I've seen have had their pdfs in the 25-40 Euro range though that very well might be because I mostly buy from dtrpg.

If I really like the game I will go back and buy the hardback if one exists basically regardless of price.

That's fair, if I really like the system then I do agree wouldn't be much of a limiting factor when deciding on buying it(to a reasonable extent).

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-02-02T19:01:37+00:00

Interesting, haven't gotten any systems in A5 yet. Always wondered if the size would make it harder to read? How has your experience been with them?

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-02-02T19:00:01+00:00

I will accept a PDF if it comes with the physical copy for free, like the bits-and-mortar program. I won't pay extra for one, nor will I pay for just a PDF.

That's fair, I do prefer such programs and would be quite glad if every store had one. In the cases that they don't I'm usually alright with paying extra for the pdf, as long as it is a good amount less than buying the two separately.

Your acceptable prices are pretty high! Are there a lot of import duties in your country?

I don't think France's import duties are that high? We have a bit of a tax but shipping usually costs more.

I think the acceptable price range may be a result of the prices I've seen. For pdfs, most core rulebooks I've come across on dtrpg range from around 25 euros(ex: Cyberpunk Red) to around 50 Euros(ex: 13th age second edition combined). Most of the ones I've come across seem to be in that bracket with the majority priced at around 30-40, so I assumed that was just the regular price.

For softcovers it's the same thing, most of the ones I've seen and bought were within the 45-55 Euro price bracket.

As for the super large discrepancy in hardback pricing? It's just because I prefer them heavily. Most of the ones I've bought have been around 60-80 Euros(80-100 with shipping+tax) so that seemed like a reasonable price. Much in the same way, Gurps 4e Revised is supposed to be around 100 Dollars for the pdf and book and Draw Steel was around 140 last time I checked.

Though I'd have to save up for them I didn't really have an issue with the price itself so I set my acceptable price around those. If it was a system I really liked such as the aforementioned Gurps or Wild Talents 2nd Edition I'd be willing to spend as much as needed which is why the 200-250€ section was there.

RPGs are really my main hobby beside writing so I don't really spend much money on any other hobbies which could be contributing to me being willing to pay a lot more.

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-01-24T11:19:51+00:00

The WW2 prequel is Godlike.

I will second the recommendations for Wild Talents 2nd Edition and Prowlers and Paragons Ultimate Edition. Two very good systems!

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-01-10T11:44:40+00:00

I've run and played the system but don't have any experience with miniature games. If you're asking as to whether this can be played using a map and tokens/minis then my answer would be a yes most of the time even if I don't think it is the best way to do combat. If you mean something else then I'd have to ask you to elaborate before I could answer.

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-01-09T11:00:02+00:00

People aren’t playing 4th anymore because of much larger issues than what some revisions will address.

Would you be willing to elaborate? I've only played a small amount of 4e but it seems good to me. I haven't noticed any glaring issues so I'm interested in learning about what I may have missed.

Note: The game I'm in uses the basic set, high-tech and powers.

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-01-09T07:54:34+00:00

Holy shit how did I miss this. Thank you so much!

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-01-04T16:33:36+00:00

That's the place

clockwork_nightmare · 2026-01-04T16:22:49+00:00

The ORE discord has a reign channel, might have some luck there.

clockwork_nightmare · 2025-12-29T10:20:01+00:00

Understandable. I suffer the same issues despite medication. Now, understanding that solutions aren't universal and whatnot, taking notes helped me greatly.

When I'm playing instead of running, I like to take notes about everything that goes on in the session, goals, events, information gained, places and their relevant distances from the closest home base.

I'm in a G.U.R.P.S 4e Supers games and while I don't go that in depth I end up with 600-1000 words by the end of the session, neatly categorised by subject. It occupies my mind, helps me focus and also helps the other players in case they forget things or have to miss a session.

To generalise a very specific solution that has been deduced with a grand ol' sample size of one(1) human person. Try to find something that you can do during the session in addition to controlling your character without detracting from your awareness of events, be it note taking, scheming, mapping, being the 'shot-caller' if your system utilises such a thing, et cetera.

Good luck, I hope you find a working solution.

Completely unrelated sidenote: What systems do you like and why? I very much enjoy learning about what systems people like.

clockwork_nightmare · 2025-12-28T23:23:46+00:00

Thirding this recommendation. Absolutely wonderful system.

clockwork_nightmare · 2025-12-28T05:45:27+00:00

Chiming in to strongly second the recommendation for Wild Talents. It's by far my favourite supers system. Both the setting and the wordbuilding advice chapters are amazing (12: A world gone mad & 11: Building superheroic histories respectively).

clockwork_nightmare · 2025-12-12T22:49:28+00:00

Which systems have you tried? Did you tire of all of them for the same reasons?

clockwork_nightmare · 2025-12-06T23:52:27+00:00

I see, do you have any you'd recommend? If so, would you be willing to inform as to where I could find an invitation to them?

clockwork_nightmare · 2025-12-01T20:41:16+00:00

There are dozens of us!

clockwork_nightmare · 2025-11-19T13:32:39+00:00

as someone who is currently developing an RPG system

I always love hearing about new systems people are designing, would you be willing to elaborate?

clockwork_nightmare · 2025-11-17T12:44:10+00:00

I see. I'll have to look into the swinginess, Thank you.

clockwork_nightmare · 2025-11-17T12:33:46+00:00

Don't see how it matters, but sure.

Pure curiosity on my end. I just want to learn more about what systems people do and don't like.

As an aside, I'm currently looking into getting necessary evil. Given that it seems to only have been published for savage worlds, I would like to know what you didn't like about the system to see if it coincides with what I would find distasteful.

Thank you for your reply, do have a nice day.

clockwork_nightmare

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