A number of indie publishers have realized that the PDF can actually be used as a advertising tool for their game, since I am not alone in this habit. I'm thinking of John Wick's _Houses of the Blooded_ here, which offers a _cheap_ PDF (US$5) to get people hooked. Those that are then pick up then purchase the physical book. And even if they don't, it still spreads word of the game around (and word of mouth is very very important in this market, especially in this time of recession). Whilst everyone here is probably a convert, what about the people off-list, or those that bought _Hero Wars_ or _Heroquest_ and were put off respectively by the very poor editing/typesetting or the Gloranthacentric nature of the game. A cheap PDF may get them to look again at the work.
You also have a situation where it is much more likely that a player will pick up a set of rules for themselves, rather than share the gamemaster's books. I find that rather endemic with small press games (and make no mistake, _Heroquest 2_ *is* a small press game). Similiarly I might pick up something which is tangential to my interests in PDF form where I wouldn't do so in physical form). [Although it depends on the price too - pricing electronic product at the same level as physical product actually reduces sales, at least for me, even if freight costs are ignored.]
I also find them extremely convenient in and of themselves outside of the actual gaming table. They're easy to look up (especially if properly indexed), which I, as someone who rarely runs anything as published, find convenient when writing rule mods.
As for the different types of physical printing models available, I recommend unto you the blogs of Fred Hicks (owner of Evil Hat and One Bad Egg and incidentally one of the actual members of IPR [Indie Press Revolution - one of the Indie game storefronts), who actually discusses the pros and cons of the various methods of publishing from the point of someone who has been there and done that with _Spirit of the Century_ (and other games). In particular:
http://drivingblind.livejournal.com/tag/publishing http://drivingblind.livejournal.com/tag/print+on+demand http://drivingblind.livejournal.com/tag/rpg+publishing
And most indie publishers are offering a "free" PDF with game preorders of their product these days. After all, it usually doesn't cost you any more to do so (although the good publishers will often clean-up the PDF to make it more computer-friendly than the print-ready copy).
In other words, whilst I might prefer physical books, I find the utility of PDFs to be a great advantage, especially in the increasing absence of bricks and mortar LGSs.
Ian
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Ian Borchardt (iborchar_at_a0XwW3bViLOtMw9HDGeU6VNITFQVOzDXXIfpP2O5Mmb9jOS94SwrP3PYepG0nS-RncqxHLSB_Kmz.yahoo.invalid)
Philosoph, Fool, and Magician
"That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange Ians, even death may die."
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