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.
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i’ve put up a review to combat the idjut
We did reply to the review in a civil manner. In these situations, I take the same approach as at my workplace: no matter how irritating the comment or request, I restrain myself from snapping back and try to address whatever the complaint might be.
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The time it took to for someone to complain about it not being a PDF could have been used to find out that there is free software for reading/manipulating ePubs.
Calibre can convert between ePub, PDF and several other formats (albeit with sometimes variable degress of success.)
Thanks for making this available for free.
I am curious, however, why the scenario is an epub instead of PDF? Is there something superior to the epub format that is lost in the PDF format? It just seems PDF is much more universally used in the RPG market. Thanks in advance… well, only if it is a polite and useful answer. If it is not, then no thanks!
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.
Why ePub? I believe ePubs are better than PDFs for tablet viewing. But, in the future we will continue to create both PDFs and ePubs.
Thanks! With tablets becoming more accessible I see your point. I still prefer PDFs on my iPad, so I had to ask.
I think the thing that drives me nuts with PDFs on an iPad is constantly having to scissor in and out. With an ePub this is nearly eliminated with a clean one column approach. Linkages, backlinks, table of contents, and bookmarks allow for amazing access to each individuals taste.
Now for print and screen reading, I’ll go for PDF format any day. We’ve been talking about a way to offer more to our customers. For example a print product should grant all three products. But, maybe we can find a way to simplify the ebook side and just say if you buy the PDF, you get the ePub, and vice versa. What do you think?