Goodman Games

Missed the preorder; but picked up a copy on eBay, enjoying the read through. Planning to run it soon. Is the PDF going to be available soon, would love to be able to prep and read on my iPad as well.

Thanks!

Can you share your thoughts on the book? Im a big fan of The Keep.

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then the Pact is to Avenge.

Yeah, I'm a little confused.

I picked up my hardcopy at my local retailer weeks ago. How can it be difficult to put out a pdf at the same time?

I want to start playing this soon, and while the big book is a very nice collectible it's kind of unwieldy to use at the table. I'd like to just print out the pages I need for the day's session.

That's exactly how I prep; I collect the book and do most of my reading of the PDF on my iPad, and print out then mark up the pages I need. I don't even mind paying extra for the PDF.

It sounded like it was supposed to come at the same time which makes me think there might have been a rights issue with the PDF containing the scans of the originals, since the PDFs are sold on RPGNOW?

Blood Axe, I wish I could give you my thoughts, but I've yet to begin to prep the book because I hate doing that on a hardcover...

Except the whole project was done in tandem with WotC, so that can't be it, all rights remain with WotC. Goodman was a licensee on this, doing the work for a share of the profit, essentially. It's not like they "pirated" the originals.

I'm sure it will turn up. For whatever reason, the PDFs from Goodman don't seem to come along simultaneously with the print versions. Almost like they want to sell print versions if they're going to bother printing them...

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In this case they say they’ve already sold out the first printing, so that seems unlikely to be the reason. At least, it’s not a GOOD reason...

Speaking in an unofficial capacity, releasing printed products and PDFs are sometimes two different things when it comes to licenses. Wizards isn't exactly offering PDF copies of its 5E adventures for sale anywhere outside of Fantasy Grounds last time I checked. They may be have restrictions in the license with Goodman as well.

If Goodman is allowed to sell PDFs of the book, I'm certain it will happen. If it doesn't, it's not because of any decision on the part of GG.

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Found an update on the product page. Looks like no PDF for us.

"(NOTE! Since this article was originally posted we have learned that Goodman Games does NOT have the rights to produce a PDF version of Into the Borderlands. We do apologize for any confusion this might have caused.)"

So WotC will put it out then? I hope soon because I am setting up to run "Into The Borderlands" at the real tabletop and you can't scan the artwork because the inside curls into the spine!

Would be nice of them to make a VTT pack to go with it with realistic looking maps both numbered and unnumbered with secret doors not showing on player map as well.

Plus graphics for the character tokens, etc.

Sadly this puts a nail into the coffin of buying any more of these series.
Frankly the 5e expanded content in Into the Borderlands isn't very good, the book is pretty unusable at the table, and the framing materiel of B1/B2 isn't worth the price of admission.

On top of this I can't have a PDF format for easy annotation to do the hurculean job of getting this into shape to run at the table?

I'm pretty done with any Wizards-related products. They're too busy trying to control the customers to allow them to enjoy the products.

It's decent enough that I will be combining what's new in "Into the Borderlands", with the new stuff in "Return to the KotB" and an 1E version of B2, plus some other 3rd party module enhancements.

This will all give the players more encounters in the wilderness, Quesqueton and the Caves of Chaos. My only gripe is them turning the Quesqueton tower into a shorter cute looking tower that seems built by gnomes. Please avoid the cute artwork unless the encounter is specifically cute for a reason.

You can use some of what's here for sure, but the baseline content is full of problems.

SPOILERS!!

NPCs size up the party in a cutesy way and then attack without any hope of success. Single kobold guards attack the party without attempting to group up with their tribemates. No attempt is made to create a coherent framework for caves of chaos (you can do this of course, but you could do it with the original too). No one has noticed the xvart tribe despite them lairing feet away. A trap that presents as a puzzle but is entirely random just to dick with the party. Glaring inconsistencies in tone and detail abound. Some things are explained ad nauseum, while elsewhere a gelatinous cube just wanders into a room without anywhere for it to have come from.

I agree tower picture doesn't fit with the theme of Quasqueton to me, but that's easily fixed by not showing it. The bramblemaze is more of a tell to me in that it's both overly gamey and doesn't serve much of a useful purpose, (on top of it being kind of ludicrous to die to ordinary brambles). Swapping it out with a cooler tower overall seems a good move.

Sure, you can take what's here and make it work for you, but you could also take random short adventures from your library and shove them in too. You'd probably end up with something more original & interesting.

It's not all bad, but mostly what you're getting is the 5e rules conversion. If that's worth the 50$ to you, then by all means enjoy it. I do love me vaguely sandboxy structure, and that's there for sure.

Yea, I will be using the back cover artwork of the tower on the original B1 module to show to the players for sure!

Also, I will have a lift inside, that was for hoisting up ammo for 2 ballistas and 2 catapults on top of the 65ft tall tower.

I had the tower entrance placed in the solid space by the barracks room. Though where Goodman placed it is cool too, if the magic was working it would slow enemy advancement getting into the tower.