Musings of the White Haired Man

When we put the The Hideout ePubs on RPGNow, I didn’t expect much. Since they were free, I figured we’d get a few more downloads than normal and that a few more people might learn about White Haired Man. But in the two weeks since uploading the Savage Worlds version, we have seen about 830 downloads. In the week since uploading the OGL version, we have seen about 180 downloads. That has been exciting and unexpected, and I’m very pleased.

We have also received some feedback I did not expect, such as the person who complained than the ePub was not a PDF. A much more interesting comment came from Batei, who asked “why the scenario is an epub instead of PDF?” I offered the following response.

The Hideout is also combined with two other Simple Scenarios and available as a bundle for both OGL and Savage Worlds rules, in PDF or Fantasy Grounds II format. So it is actually offered in three formats: ePub, PDF, and Fantasy Grounds module. There is a link for these on The Hideout product page.

Still, Batei’s question prompted me to ask myself a followup question: why an ePub at all? PDFs seem to be the standard for digital roleplaying products, and they are quite versatile. One can read a PDF on a desktop, laptop, or tablet. A PDF can also be printed to provide a physical copy in addition to the digital. A well-made PDF will have a good table of contents and be navigable.

What does an ePub add? I can only say what an ePub adds for me.

I personally do not enjoy reading PDFs. I often find it difficult to size a PDF for my display, regardless of size. I usually end up increasing the zoom on the PDF, which may then make the PDF page size larger than my display. In this case, if the PDF has more than one column I must scroll down and up to read a page. Most of my PDF problem is that they are not display independent.

What I want is the analog of a web page, something that automatically resizes to be readable on my display. This is what the ePub brings to the table. I look forward to holding a tablet in my hand as I walk around the gaming table running one of our Kith’takharos adventures. Whatever is on the display will be easy to read one one column. It will never run off the sides, so that I’ll never need to scroll sideways. When I need to show the players an image, I’ll let them see the display. Otherwise, I’ll use the table of contents and internal links to access whatever I need for the game session.

The ePub will enhance my experience as a GM.

I think ePubs are still considered somewhat exotic, and many people aren’t sure what to think about them. Even well-constructed ePubs will likely take some time to be accepted. And ePubs do have a big drawback: unlike the PDF, they are not designed for printing. I suspect we will have to find a way to bundle our ePubs with PDFs to provide a complete gaming solution.

A week after posting the Savage Worlds version of The Hideout ePub on RPGNow, we added the OGL version. As the title of this post implies, both ePubs are free. Since that time, downloads of the OGL version have outstripped Savage Worlds downloads, but not by much. There seems to be a sustained popularity of the Savage Worlds version. Based on the last few days, I doubt OGL downloads will ever approach the number of Savage Worlds downloads.

Why would this be so? I hope that a lot of Savage Worlds GMs have a hunger for ePubs. I am a Savage Worlds GM and I plan to create more ePubs. Even if no one else ever uses them, I know that I will.

Perhaps OGL is fading. Even though Pathfinder is based on the OGL and technically compatible with the OGL, those who use Pathfinder may view it as sufficiently different that OGL products are no longer considered.

I think about these sorts of things a lot, especially as White Haired Man goes through another period of soul-searching. We are examining what has worked and what has not worked so that we can adjust our goals. But we must always remember the love of roleplaying that prompted us to form White Haired Man in the first place.

The day after Christmas we put the Savage Worlds ePub of The Hideout Simple Scenario on RPGNow for free. The Hideout ePub has been available for free on our web site for months, but has seen very few downloads. Obviously we were failing our goal of improving the visibility of White Haired Man. So we bowed to the inevitable, and acknowledged the supremacy of RPGNow as the destination for those seeking roleplaying products.

The Hideout ePub was downloaded from RPGNow about 650 times in the past week. For a small company like White Haired Man, this is a massive number. I have no illusions that the downloads would have been significant if the The Hideout were not free, but cannot help being happy that so many people might actually read it. I’m sure that many people download everything offered for free just because they can. Still, there are now a lot of tablet owners, and an ePub is an excellent format for a GM to access an adventure at the gaming table.  Perhaps some of those who downloaded The Hideout will use it this way.

Yet not everyone was happy. We received one review on RPGNow.

This isn’t a PDF. I have no way of reading this. I do not have a e-reader and do not plan on getting one.

Now, we never advertised this as a PDF. On the product page, it is clearly indicated that The Hideout is an ePub. I don’t know what to think about this, except to be amused.