Real Things

 

DrivethruRPG is a dangerous place. I know more than one collector of roleplaying paraphernalia and whilst it could be considered a life's work collating gaming concepts it could also construed as all just shopping. A little harsh perhaps as some systems are long extinct and some may never make it out of alpha; 'Core' and 'Basic' also seeming to be synonyms for the prototyping of products and if you have any of the primordial paperwork from the early 80s its likely to be a wonky photocopy of a few typed up sheets. There are those of you out there who know exactly what I mean.

More to the point I am on the verge of  buying the StarFleet Adventures Core rulebook from Modiphius as I have been so impressed with the system and of course it will aid in the game I am currently playing in. So off I go clickety click and hit a slight pause when I saw it was £44. To be fair at my age inflation does make its presence felt across the decades and my measuring stick has always been the D&D PHB as I have watched it slowly rise towards £30. But its not so much the price as the price difference as the PDF Trek version is only £15 direct from Modiphous themselves. Its a classic dilemma really as a book full of postit notes is far more manageable than scrolling through a screen but as yet I don't know if this is my age speaking or whether phys rep will always be a more manageable resource. There is a synergy between using a data pad and a playing a scifi game though but add to the pot that games are often on Zoom or Discord together with something like Roll20 exactly how many screens and pads will I be needing ?

Its not the money of course as £44 is not going to break the bank and as an art form one cant really place a value on creativity but at the end of the day its all got to be wrapped up as a product. Its a general pdf vs reality question really but perhaps the answer is that pdf is good for the GM to peruse outside of the game wherever they find themselves and paperback whilst playing. Seems like the the logical outcome would be to purchase both; I wonder what Spock would say..