The Amazon Kindle : As a RPG Resource

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

There are a lot of other features of a Kindle. The delivery mechanism is a big part of that. The e-ink feature lets you read the device in even bright sunlight. I can attest that on the two days that it is Sunny here in Seattle, that I could read in the Sunlight just fine. And if there is a bigger selection of books available from any other provider, I certainly haven't heard about it. That is probably the most important thing. What good is a reader if you can't get the content you want on it?

I read somewhere that you cant backtrack to pages you've already read. Is there any truth in this rumor, farcaster?

[Farcaster]

I don't like single taskers. While the Kindle is a cool toy, it is too locked up for my taste, and does too little. Any netbook does more...And I don't like the fact they don't tell you how much memory the thing has, just how many books it will hold. It would be nice if I'm carrying a Kindle, why do I have a USB drive too? Why not use the Kindle for mass storage as well?

A netbook may be multifunctional, but I would beg to differ with you that any of them do a better job than the Kindle at reading books. The Kindle has them beat in comfort of reading, turning pages, battery life, and availability of books. The advantage of being oriented towards a single goal is that Kindle excels at what it is that it does.

Oh, and it does allow you to expand the memory using SD Memory. And as far as storing other things on it -- I haven't tried, but I am reasonably sure that you can.

I read somewhere that you cant backtrack to pages you've already read. Is there any truth in this rumor, farcaster?

I'm not sure what you mean. you can bookmark pages and highlight things you are interested in to find them quickly later on. It also keeps track of your present location in every book you are currently reading. Is that what you mean?

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

A netbook may be multifunctional, but I would beg to differ with you that any of them do a better job than the Kindle at reading books. The Kindle has them beat in comfort of reading, turning pages, battery life, and availability of books. The advantage of being oriented towards a single goal is that Kindle excels at what it is that it does.

Oh, and it does allow you to expand the memory using SD Memory. And as far as storing other things on it -- I haven't tried, but I am reasonably sure that you can.


I'm not sure what you mean. you can bookmark pages and highlight things you are interested in to find them quickly later on. It also keeps track of your present location in every book you are currently reading. Is that what you mean?

Example: Lets say i was on page 200, but i wanted to go back 10-50 pages to look up a name or something, can i do this? When i am engrossed in my novels, it isn't an uncommon occurrence that i go back and forth often in a good book.

[Farcaster]

Ah, I see. Well, you can flip back through the pages one at a time or you can specify a line number that you want to go to. Line numbers, by the way, are displayed on the bottom of the page you are on. They are used in lieu of page numbers since you can adjust the font size and thus dramatically change the number and position of pages. You can use bookmarks to mark places in the book that you think you will want to go back to and those will display the text near the bookmark which can be helpful. You could also use the Kindle search feature to search the book. However, if it is a name that keeps coming up over and over, you'll end up getting a lot of results. Nonetheless, that is probably the most efficient way to quickly find something.

[Dytrrnikl]

While I appreciate that books are going digital, for me...give me a book anyday of the week over PDFs, RTFs, and other digital info. I spent a semester at Penn State main campus a couple of years ago to finish degree for Nanomanufacturing Technology. Here I am at 36, using the internet only to find the titles of books, then went to libraries to get the books in hand for the research papers and projects we were required to complete. The "kids" 22 and younger were all hitting wikipedia and other digital storehouses for there resources and couldn't understand why I wouldn't do the same. Digital format of books I equate with almost being akin to altered and false information, where physical print books I equate with being accurately recorded information. Obviously this is not how things are, as forgeries and inaccuracies are as likely to be found in print as they are in digital formats. It's mainly a comfort factor for me. It'll be a sad day when digital text is the only way to get a book.

With that in mind. I do like what I've seen about the Kindle. However, much like with VCRs, DVDs, and Microwaves, I'm waiting for two things before I step into the Kindle arena: 1. The technology becomes more robust and versatile; and 2. The price comes down to something resaonable. I stand by the fact that you should never buy the latest toy, first generation production. Wait until it's been around for awhile and all the bugs have been worked out. Like Hi-Def TVs, they were crap when they first arrived in the late 90s, now they're just starting to get to the point of being acceptable tech in my eyes.

[tesral]

The topic is "Kindle as an RPG resource". So, how many RPG books are available in the Kindle format?

[Farcaster]

None that I know of. But, with the release of the Kindle DX, the question becomes -- how many RPGs are available on PDF? Answer: lots! The ten inch screen is going to make a huge difference in the Kindle's viability as an RPG resource. The current six inch screen that I have is just not sufficient for reference material.

[PhishStyx]

The topic is "Kindle as an RPG resource". So, how many RPG books are available in the Kindle format?

Last I checked, there was one, and it was pretty poorly done.

I now have a Kindle 1, but for gaming I have a DR 1000s. It's 10.2" diagonally and does PDF's quite well.

[Slipstream]

I've personally been looking into an Acer Aspire One (one of many netbooks out on the market) as my brother and another friend both really like them for browsing on the go. This was also going to be good for PDF reading.

However, I'm holding off of my purchase of that as I want to see how the Palm Pre (due out in a few weeks) will do in reading PDF's. While I will have to zoom on stuff, I may just be able to get around and do what I need on it.

But yeah, I'd say the Kindle DX is your best bet for digital PDFs at nearly full size. It's too bad it's not in color though.

[tesral]

So as a gaming resource the Kindle comes up empty. You can't even get DRM laden RPG books with it. And only the more recent models will display PDF, of which the supply is spotty.

Being that the RPG market is fringe, I think it will say that way too. It would be up to the book publishers to approch Kindle, I don't think they will approch the RPG houses.

Now, having my books in a compact indexed format for easy reference would be a great thing. However short of my doing that myself I don't see it happening soon. Right now your options are overpriced and seldom available legal PDFs or not so legal PDFs. (Which I have no problem with if you have the hardcopy.)

If I have to do it myself I'm going to use HTML, for which the web brower is the tool of choice. The Hypertext d20 SRD is my friend. I can even add to the thing and modify it as erquired. The perfect gaming tool. It is not a static resource.

But that means a computer not the Kindle. I suppose my basic objection to the Kindle is that is not a computer. And being frank it is not a fair comparison. I don't tend to think of something with a screen as an appliance, but as a tool, and the Kindle is a one trick pony tool. Great for reading content massaged for reading by other people. Not great for managing and adapting your own content.

The thing is I'm not going to carry both. The larger Kindle costs nearly as much as my laptop and has a smaller B&W screen. Admittedly it kicks Lenny's bootsector in the battery life department, but can't do a fraction of what Lenny can do. If I'm going to carry one, the Lenovo Thinkpad T-61 wins hands down. Better Lenny can display my RPG books now. It can manage my character sheets too. And so far I have not had a problem gaming too far from an outlet.

[PhishStyx]

So as a gaming resource the Kindle comes up empty. You can't even get DRM laden RPG books with it. And only the more recent models will display PDF, of which the supply is spotty.

Spotty?!? It isn't OUT yet.

Being that the RPG market is fringe, I think it will say that way too. It would be up to the book publishers to approch Kindle, I don't think they will approch the RPG houses.

Now, having my books in a compact indexed format for easy reference would be a great thing. However short of my doing that myself I don't see it happening soon. Right now your options are overpriced and seldom available legal PDFs or not so legal PDFs. (Which I have no problem with if you have the hardcopy.)

The Kindle DX won't support a computer-like file structure anyway.

If I have to do it myself I'm going to use HTML, for which the web brower is the tool of choice. The Hypertext d20 SRD is my friend. I can even add to the thing and modify it as erquired. The perfect gaming tool. It is not a static resource.

. . .

The thing is I'm not going to carry both.

You don't have to carry both a computer and a e-reader. I posted a device above that is out on the market now and has better functionality than what is advertised for the Kindle DX.

[ronpyatt]

It's 10.2" diagonally and does PDF's quite well.

Very cool device. A bit heavy on the price tag but nice. Their iLiad 2nd Edition looks pretty snappy.

[Farcaster]

I posted a device above that is out on the market now and has better functionality than what is advertised for the Kindle DX.

I took a look at it, and even on ebay, that device is going to set you back $1k. It's definitely in another class. It also comes up a bit short in the regular e-Book department since it will only read MobiPocket (I believe it was.) There are not nearly as many books in that format as there are in the Kindle.

[tesral]

For a grand I can get a full function laptop. What are the overwhelming advantages to an e-reader?

Let's see:

Weight: E-reader wins
Battery Life: E-reader wins.
Storage: Laptop, hands down. Storage is upgradeable as well
Versatility: Laptop again. With the right program or library it can even read the e-books. No format is closed to the laptop.
Display: E-readers are formated portrait, an advantage when reading. The Kindle at least is designed to be read in full sunlight. Laptops have full color screens. However they suffer in full sunlight with the backlit screen. For reading, I'll call it a draw.

For my grand, I'm not getting an e-reader.

Specificity for Farcaster: You have one of these little widgets. What is the storage capacity? They give very little information on the website other than "book capacity". That does not say much. I assume solid state with the battery life. Hard drives are energy vampires.

[PhishStyx]

I took a look at it, and even on ebay, that device is going to set you back $1k. It's definitely in another class. It also comes up a bit short in the regular e-Book department since it will only read MobiPocket (I believe it was.) There are not nearly as many books in that format as there are in the Kindle.

The DR will display PDF, HTML, and txt formats. The only DRM format it reads is Mobipocket (aka PRC), which is actually the same format as the Kindle. AZW, MOBI, PRC are all the exact same format with different name extensions.

What happened is Amazon owns Mobipocket, a subsidiary ebook producing company, that oddly enough produces non-DRM books, but won't work with your Kindle account. Anyway, it renamed those Mobipocket files and slapped a different Kindle-only DRM on them. Having just typed in "rpg" to the Amazon Kindle search engine, I pulled up 21 results. I think my favorite was the "Kobold Quarterly."

The DR1000s is currently the ONLY 10" PDF ereader out on the market now. It does definitely read PDF's very well; the SD card in mine is about half full with games.
--- Merged from Double Post ---

For a grand I can get a full function laptop. What are the overwhelming advantages to an e-reader?

Let's see:

Weight: E-reader wins
Battery Life: E-reader wins.
Storage: Laptop, hands down. Storage is upgradeable as well
Versatility: Laptop again. With the right program or library it can even read the e-books. No format is closed to the laptop.
Display: E-readers are formated portrait, an advantage when reading. The Kindle at least is designed to be read in full sunlight. Laptops have full color screens. However they suffer in full sunlight with the backlit screen. For reading, I'll call it a draw.

For my grand, I'm not getting an e-reader.

I'm not saying these devices are for everyone. But on the topic of display, I'm not sure how important color is to you, but the e-reader wins if eyestrain is a problem for you as it often is for me. And regarding storage, storing books really isn't the same as storing videos or music in terms of capacity. 2 - 4gb equates to about 2,000 - 5,000 books and should last the life of the device pretty well.

Specificity for Farcaster: You have one of these little widgets. What is the storage capacity? They give very little information on the website other than "book capacity". That does not say much. I assume solid state with the battery life. Hard drives are energy vampires.

I'm not him, but I can tell you that the currently available Kindle has 2GB internal memory, which equals roughly 2,500 books.