Well they've done it - the core AD&D rulebooks are now POD

[Falconer]

I’m guessing part of it is which PDFs meet certain requirements. For books with spines, they would need a scan of the spine, presumably.

[austinjimm]

I don’t know enough about the technical aspects of the POD process. Can they use any of the .pdfs they already have? Or do they have to do something to the .pdfs to make them available for POD?

It is quite possible the existing PDFs do not meet the POD requirements. I went through the process of making a POD book on RPGNow/DTRpg. Not a fun experience. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that RPGNow does not let publishers communicate directly with the printer. Publishers can only interact with the printer secondhand by means of an RPGNow "publishing representative," who (at least in my case) did not have the technical knowledge to be of any help with the process. Extremely frustrating.

It took me three months to get a book POD compliant on RPGNow. The same book took 15 minutes on Lulu.com.

[Vile]

I actually prefer modules as PDFs if I'm going to run rather than just read them. I can edit them, print out player handouts, etc. I don't think the PoD modules have detachable covers.

I am thinking of getting the core books though. Does anyone know what their quality is like?

[Jeff]

I actually prefer modules as PDFs if I'm going to run rather than just read them. I can edit them, print out player handouts, etc. I don't think the PoD modules have detachable covers.

I am thinking of getting the core books though. Does anyone know what their quality is like?

I am not impressed with the PDF, but I can't speak for the POD. There are still things which are just plain wrong. Image quality is sketchy.

[Geoffrey]

I went through the process of making a POD book on RPGNow/DTRpg. Not a fun experience. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that RPGNow does not let publishers communicate directly with the printer. Publishers can only interact with the printer secondhand by means of an RPGNow "publishing representative," who (at least in my case) did not have the technical knowledge to be of any help with the process. Extremely frustrating.

It took me three months to get a book POD compliant on RPGNow. The same book took 15 minutes on Lulu.com.

I looked at RPGNow's POD requirements, and they looked so involved that (for my own modules) I said, "Forget it." I can easily believe three months.

[rogatny]

I’ve never tried to publish anything from anyone. However, as a consumer I’ve purchased POD products from both DTRpg and Lulu. I’ve not detected any difference in quality between the two.

Drive Thru’s more robust search engine, marketing, and general rpg focus makes it a TON more easy to find what you’re looking for. Lulu doesn’t even have an “If you like this, you might like that” function. Lulu is pretty clearly marketed as a service to the author rather than a store for the consumer. So if you’re using Lulu, you should probably have your own website or blog with a products page and links. (Not that most old school rpg authors don’t.)

A Lulu old school rpg index site would probably be a worthy venture.

[francisca]

The PHB and DMG are back, as well as a bunch of modules.

MM pdf still has 7HD dwarves

[Vile]

The PHB and DMG are back, as well as a bunch of modules.

MM pdf still has 7HD dwarves

That's nothing, BLUEHOLME™ used to have dwarf captains of level 3d8+1! Yeah, that should have been 3+1 hit dice ...

[ThirstyStirge]

The PHB and DMG are back, as well as a bunch of modules.

MM pdf still has 7HD dwarves

Wisbro's dwarves obviously shop at GNC for their tubs of protein powder.

[rogatny]

Here's a bit of weirdness...

Wizbros is selling pdfs of some of TSR's old Star Frontiers products through DrivThruRPG. It's as nonsensical and scattershot as their collection of old school D&D stuff - the Knight Hawks boxed set (SF's equivalent to the Expert set), the SF1 and SF2 adventures (which were preceded by the SF0 adventure in the Alpha Dawn set that isn't available yet). Those three are $5 each and then they've got the official character sheets up there for free.

Cool, right?

Except that WotC granted permission for http://starfrontiers.com/ to host and distribute for free the entire run of TSR Star Frontier era products for free. They're up the site to this day. Check under the "official items" tab.

Further, WotC also gave Star Frontiersman magazine (which has put out 25 issues - check it out) to do a rules revision and host and distribute revised versions of all the same stuff. Which are also up on their site and available for free.

I suspect that no one currently at WotC knew that WotC granted permission to those sites however many years ago it was (8? 10?).

[ThirstyStirge]

Yeah, that does look like a bizarre oversight. I wonder if Wi$bros' lawyers will then pull permission from that website and close it down.