Rulebooks Vs PDF's

[MattDakka]

If the rulebook/army book/whatever is reasonably priced, I'm happy to buy it (I take in account the paper's and the rules' quality).
A PDF is fine if I want to read rules for a brand new game before investing on it, assuming that the number of pages is not high, otherwise it's less expensive to buy the paper version (while I like to read the rules on PDF, I can't really learn them without printing them and I have no tablets).
I think that it's up to the kind of game, an RPG book has hundreds of pages (so the book is better and more practical), while a tabletop game (as BB or Elfball) has a slim rulebook (a PDF is cheaper, therefore better).

[bouncergriim]

I prefer both . I like to have the printed and pdf access. I like the pdf for reading anywhere I have my tablet or a computer. But I hate having to resort to my tablet for rules midgame, I prefer paper for that.

[the solitaire]

For me, I play boardgames because I want to spend less time staring at a display and more time in the analog world.

The same applies to rulebooks. I wouldn´t mind if a rulebook was only available in PDF because I would have it printed and bound to my preference.

Since the price for binding a book from a high res PDF is about €30/$40 I wouldn´t mind paying as much for a printed book if it offers the same quality and durability as the books I would have had done from a PDF.

Since this is rarely the case I think that for the quality offered in most rulebooks €20/$25 is about fair.

[Olaf the Stout]

Both. Hardcopy at the table to look the rules up. Softcopy so I can look things up at work if needed and also for ease of searching.

Olaf the Stout

[wkdsoul]

If I could find a place that would sell a hardcopy of the CRP rules for a decent price, i'd pay, but alas i have to make do with a pdf.

[frogboy]

If batteries lasted longer and PDF's were quicker to load and easier to search for stuff I'd have voted for the other option. I like books and voted for them.

[Darkson]

Nice Necro chaps.

[Regash]

Definitely the printed version, all PDFs will become hardcopys.

Although I have to admit, if we're talking 60,- € for some rules...
I rather not play the game and that is what pushed me out of WH/40K

[chopa]

I'd want both. Access to a pdf and a nice book to purchase is ideal IMHO.

[harvestmouse]

Icepelt is the CRP version produced by the BBRC before it was then edited as requested by GW. E.g. removal of BBRC created fluff, removal of the 3 extra teams etc etc.

One thing you've forgot to mention about PDFs (and the main reason given as to why we moved to PDFs I believe) is that it was a 'Living Rulebook'. I'd rather download a continuously updated rulebook rather than buying one every......say.....year.

If it were a rulebook that is produced knowing it's going to be updated then PDF is the way to go. If it's a rulebook that as Spubbbba pointed out is full of fluff and a resource, then a hard copy.

Which is how it is and should be, particularly in this day and age; where it's actually easier to find a rules query on a ipad than searching through a paper copy.

[GJK]

I converted the CRP to an ebook (compiled HTML aka .chm). I much prefer these over pdf's as they have the ability to do 'weighted' searches with the pages that the term is found on listed to the side so that you can quickly get to them (and return to them). These load a lot faster than pdf's do as well and I've added several "extras" for easy referencing.

[Regash]

I converted the CRP to an ebook

Really?
How did you handle all the tables and diagrams?

At least my Kindle kind of not handles them well but the ebook format sure is an idea.

[GJK]

The tables were easy enough to recreate. I don't know about the Kindle but IOS has a great chm reader called "ichm" that works really well. Goodreader for Android works nicely as well.