Federation Commander

The ship card files for those products come to us as a finished complete package, so you'd have to ask Daniel Kast to provide such a "facing one way" document, but if he does, we'll upload it. (The ones in Captain's Log come to us as individual ships that we arrange.)

I was planning to buy the Reference Rules book but didn't do it when I saw that it was more expensive than paper version.

I buy a lot of PDF for other games (Earthdawn, Shadowrun, Battletech...) but that is because they are usually cheaper than the more material things.

I will never buy an electronic product that is as costly or even more expensive than the paper version, if I want some of it on my computer I can scan it myself for free.

Klingon Pack #1 purchased and rated.

It's the same price, not more. It's the price it is because of the nature of the beast. Most "cheaper than paper PDFs" are limited usage dungeon advetures that you use once, not a master resource that is updated continually and used every time you play.

It should be cheaper because you dont have the printing and producing cost.

Selling it the same price mean you are already over-evaluating production price of your printed product or you are trying to charge a very large margin on .pdf sales.

You complain that your printed products are expensive because you are a small company and have huge printing price because of low number of printing. It make no sense that thoses same huge price are reported to the digital version, something no other game company that I am aware of do.

Seeing a .pdf to sale at 50$ make me think it is crazy.

I dont want to rant, I just wanted to report you the reason why I have no incentive to spend money on the digital version. I'd rather buy the printed version wich are seriously cheaper to me du to the 15% I got at my FLGs.

IKerensky - a few things to say.

1. Welcome to the forums!
2. I'm not part of ADB, Inc. so I don't know all the details. I do know there's more involved in determining the price than printing costs. There's been discussion of the pricing of .pdfs here on the forums in other threads, so I won't bother repeating it all here. If your FLGS gives you a discount, then if I were you I'd support them. FLGSs are important to ADB because they help sell ADB's products by stocking them and providing places to play.
3. If you have a complaint or criticism of a company officer or volunteer staffer (i.e. Steve Cole, Jean Sexton, Mike West or others) then it's best to send an email. Posting things like that on the BBS is against the rules.

IKerensky,

You are allowed to complain that PDFs cost too much. You are not allowed to project insulting reasons for that perceived high cost. I have modified your message (by a single word) to clean it up.

As Terry said, printing costs are only part of the cost of creating a document, whether print or PDF. In the case of rulebooks, printing costs are NOT the barrier. ADB has print-on-demand, and so they don't have need for large inventories and such. (Where printing costs become a factor are for FC ship cards and for counters. That printing is outsourced and done in volume.)

Anyway, ADB is free to set whatever prices they think is reasonable. You are free to buy or not buy. You are also free to publicly disagree and state your case. But do not be insulting about it.

Thank you. I am sorry for the "rough landing" at the forum. I hope it goes well after this.

Given that this supposedly overpriced product is always one of the two or three best sellers, I think we priced it correctly.

Hi IKerensky,

Since you are new, let me introduce myself. I'm Jean, ADB's "WebMom/moderator," proofreader, line editor for the RPG line, and marketing director. Welcome to the Forum.

I am sorry that you feel the e-versions are too expensive. Here are some reasons that they are "full-price."

For major rulebooks, we don't want to undercut the brick-and-mortar stores that support us. We want them to stay in business. Think how much your local store would be hurt if you told them that you were buying the FC Reference Rulebook for $7.50. There is no way they could match that price. Would they be willing to carry paper copies "just in case" someone wanted one? How long before the SFU became marginalized in that store?

Where we can discount, we do -- online items with no paper equivalent. For example, our 8-ship boosters are $10. Our "six-packs" are $5. Creating and checking 12 ships takes an addition 50% of time from SVC, Mike West, and me, yet the price isn't increased.

We have to stay in business to give you all more things to "play with." That means we must turn a profit. Just because we sold something online doesn't mean that the rent doesn't need paying, the electricity and water don't need to be kept on, the employees don't need to be paid, and all of the expenses a company has can be ignored. While SVC might be inclined to give things away, his CFO (and wife) isn't going to let him lose money. Remember that the most expensive parts of the book are the writer's time and the editor's time. After that comes marketing. We still had to invest that time.

Why you still might consider buying an electronic version:

The product is high resolution and many times has color the print version does not.

The PDF is searchable using Adobe's native search engine.

The PDF is easily bookmarked by using the same program.

Your book never, ever wears out and has to be repurchased. I know I have worn out some of my favorite books a couple of times.

Your book is never, ever ruined. If you print a copy for yourself and knock a drink over on it or drop chocolate on it leaving an ugly smear, simply return to the PDF and print a new one. If your dog eats the book, print a new one. If you dog eats your computer, then you have to get a new computer, but the re-download is free.

If there is a major update to the rules, we'll probably update the rulebook. You will be notified and can download a brand new copy, free of charge. This also means no need to store backups of your scans as if your computer crashes, re-downloads are free.

Please do feel free to email us with any concerns. SVC has the reputation of being exceptionally open to fans of the games and most folks will tell you that I am warm and fluffy.

Again, welcome, and thanks for supporting your local game store and ADB.

I mentioned this over lunch, and Leanna said to tell you this...

People bought the paper RRB-5 for $15 and as of Monday will have to pay another $15 for the paper RRB-6.

People bought the electronic RRB-5 for $15 and as of Monday will download the updated RRB-6 for $0.

Bottom line, the electronic price is already HALF of the paper price.

GURPS Prime Directive purchased and rated 5.

Woohooo! Now there are 26 products that have at least five votes. Keep up the good work!

Just bought the rule book. The title when I bought it stated that it didn't include War and Peace but I bought it any way ($15 is a good price I though after you factor in shipping as I have to order it online). I was pleasantly surprised that it did include War and Peace. I also rated it as a 5. I just discovered e23 today as I have been away from the forums for awhile and will be buying more!
Always been a fan of ADB and will continue to support it.

Help me out, please. I need to know exactly where it says that that the FC RRB does not include War & Peace. Obviously that is wrong and it needs to be fixed.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jean
(Doing her marketing thing)

Sorry jean I looked again and it is in the discription correctly I must have just misread it when I looked at it. Sorry to cause you any distress.