Friday, April 18, 2008

PDF's, What's Not To Like?


So I just added to my meager PDF collection by purchasing a few long out of print titles from RPGNow.com. I’ve yet to devour these, but I will do so once I’ve had the time.

With my recent posts regarding the OD&D combat system, I felt it was high time I invested in CHAINMAIL. So, I just now finished folding and stapling the laser printed pages into a nice faux original booklet format. I can’t wait to read the Fantasy Supplement section. The scan seems OK, not as good as the LBB OCE PDF, but it will work.

I also picked up for a song two titles I’ve been interested in ever since returning to D&D this year, the D&D Monster and Treasure Assortment, 1-3, and the Judge’s Guild Ready Ref Sheets. Both of which I have laser printed and placed into a new binder.

The M&TA looks interesting, but sadly it’s not confined to OD&D, and I noticed a lot of supplemental monster entries…I’m sure the treasure section also includes supplemental magic items. I’m not sure how I’ll use these tables, but after I become more familiar with them I’ll decide. The scan is decent, probably about as good as one could expect.

The Ready Ref Sheets look to be absolutely crammed with information. I’m sure there’s SOMETHING I’ll use from that collection, and at a measly two bucks who can argue? I’m guessing the RRS will become my casual reading for the next few weeks. The scan leaves a lot to be desired, but I’m assuming that the original was printed on those terrible Judge’s Guild pages like many of their modules I own, so I’m not surprised.

For a pittance of under a dozen clams I got all of this old school gaming goodness. Who says the internet isn’t good for anything besides porn?

Eventually I’d love to have the LBB and CHAINMAIL in original form, but for now I’m looking for a suitable box to put my facsimile OD&D booklets into, along with a handful of dice and some 3x5 index cards.

~Sham, Delinquent DM

5 comments:

James Maliszewski said...

I really need to snag a copy of the Ready Ref sheets one of these days. I never owned them back in the day and I hear they're absolutely wonderful.

Sham aka Dave said...

Hopefully I'll review all three before too terribly long. For the price, even if I only use a few of the Ref Sheets, it's worth it.

Anonymous said...

I like the Ref Sheets, and use them quite a bit. I use the M&T assortments frequently, too, but not really as statblocks. I tend to use them as idea-generators and guidelines for level-appropriate encounters and treasure.

Many wooden cigar boxes are well-made and would be perfect for storing your OD&D books. If you're not into cigars, you can ask at a cigar store. They'll probably have a bunch of empty wooden cigar boxes they'll either give you or sell to you for cheap.

(Right now I'm keeping my LBBs in my OD&D binder; I have some pocket inserts in the binder, and I just put them in the pockets.)

Sham aka Dave said...

That's a great idea philotomy, I actually have some old Macanudo boxes somewhere abouts.

PS - Thanks for sharing your inspirational Musings (as you can see I've got the site linked here). Thumbs Up!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you find the musings inspirational. (And thanks for the link!)

I'm excited by all the activity around OD&D and old-school gaming, in general. There are a lot of cool sites and blogs (including yours, of course). I need to expand the "Useful Links" section on my page!