This ^

Im not advocating for PDFs but last session it has become apparent my table is chaos with books. I'd pay for some gear/ships/rules/charts consolidation tome(s)..

I agree.... last time we all went 'shopping' there was 6-7 books on the table... EoTE Core rules and several supplements.. we GOT SO TIRED OF THE GM SAYING 'DON'T GET CHOCOLATE/SPILL COFFEE,TEA,JUICE ON THEM'

TBH I can't blame him... If i get flash with cash I'll buy ANOTHER core rule book.. swap it for his while his back is turned and drop a cup of coffee on it,,, just to see a grown man cry

Im not advocating for PDFs but last session it has become apparent my table is chaos with books. I'd pay for some gear/ships/rules/charts consolidation tome(s)..

I'm hoping that sometime after the majority of the career books are out that we get a couple of compilation books, reprints in the form of "The Ship Book", "The Weapons Book" and so on. Like what WEG did on occasion.

That's how I'd prefer RPG books to be organized to begin with -- ships together, weapons together, etc -- not spread out with a ship or two here, another ship in this book, etc.

I actually prefer the way it's done now, there is not a single book I want to skip because it may have something interesting to read as a GM. Plus it allows players to get a feel for their career if they buy their career book they can see associated gear and ships that would fit that career.

May be less convenient, but the unofficial index is doing a great job of picking up the slack.

As for PDFs, no can do. I do have PDFs of my books since carrying all of my books to my sessions would be a struggle since I own every book.....every book. 28 books...carrying that lot would break my **** back! So I have them loaded onto my iPad and I use a PDF reader. When at home I use the physical books.

I do hope Lucasfilm and Disney look at and review the agreement, not being able to release PDFs is very silly and restricts you as a GM.

I agree.... last time we all went 'shopping' there was 6-7 books on the table... EoTE Core rules and several supplements.. we GOT SO TIRED OF THE GM SAYING 'DON'T GET CHOCOLATE/SPILL COFFEE,TEA,JUICE ON THEM'

Oh please. It's not a proper gaming book unless it has been baptized in Mountain Dew!

My group has had a tremendously rough time getting books. Seems like none of the local shops can get them and it's spotty even on online retailers - for instance AoR is out of stock on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble last I checked. PDFs would really make our lives easier, but it is what it is.

Try other sources:

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/role-playing-games/star-wars.html

We've had to branch out a bit with out orders, but since one of the guys playing with us is also the owner of the FLGS, we prefer to order through him. But his distributor keeps removing things from our orders because they're out of stock or shipping the wrong quantity. Gets old so resorting to other means is simply unavoidable.

My group has had a tremendously rough time getting books. Seems like none of the local shops can get them and it's spotty even on online retailers - for instance AoR is out of stock on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble last I checked. PDFs would really make our lives easier, but it is what it is.

Try other sources:

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/role-playing-games/star-wars.html

We've had to branch out a bit with out orders, but since one of the guys playing with us is also the owner of the FLGS, we prefer to order through him. But his distributor keeps removing things from our orders because they're out of stock or shipping the wrong quantity. Gets old so resorting to other means is simply unavoidable.

Do gaming stores have to sign some sort of exclusive contract with a distributor?

(When I did parts ordering for a computer business, I used half a dozen distributors, and special orders, so that I'd never be out of stock of anything unless the manf was borking things up.)

My group has had a tremendously rough time getting books. Seems like none of the local shops can get them and it's spotty even on online retailers - for instance AoR is out of stock on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble last I checked. PDFs would really make our lives easier, but it is what it is.

I just checked www.coolstuffinc.com , and they have every book currently available in stock. And at very reasonable prices to boot.

I'll just chime in my support for pdf's.

Fyi, there are companies that will take a hardcopy and use special equipment to make pdf copies with various options to make the electronic copy more useful for you. I happen to have access to a book scanner, too. I am hoping the professionals have better equipment than I have acess to. We had very limited success due to pages being reflective, columns weaving around art, etc.

If you're ok with an image snapshot of each page, it works better than if you're looking for any of the usual digital book enhancements or if you're reliant upon text to speech for any reason.

My group has had a tremendously rough time getting books. Seems like none of the local shops can get them and it's spotty even on online retailers - for instance AoR is out of stock on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble last I checked. PDFs would really make our lives easier, but it is what it is.

Try other sources:

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/role-playing-games/star-wars.html

We've had to branch out a bit with out orders, but since one of the guys playing with us is also the owner of the FLGS, we prefer to order through him. But his distributor keeps removing things from our orders because they're out of stock or shipping the wrong quantity. Gets old so resorting to other means is simply unavoidable.

Do gaming stores have to sign some sort of exclusive contract with a distributor?

(When I did parts ordering for a computer business, I used half a dozen distributors, and special orders, so that I'd never be out of stock of anything unless the manf was borking things up.)

No, but it isn't unusual for a vendor (FFG in this case) to only use one distributor.

My group has had a tremendously rough time getting books. Seems like none of the local shops can get them and it's spotty even on online retailers - for instance AoR is out of stock on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble last I checked. PDFs would really make our lives easier, but it is what it is.

Try other sources:

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/role-playing-games/star-wars.html

We've had to branch out a bit with out orders, but since one of the guys playing with us is also the owner of the FLGS, we prefer to order through him. But his distributor keeps removing things from our orders because they're out of stock or shipping the wrong quantity. Gets old so resorting to other means is simply unavoidable.

Do gaming stores have to sign some sort of exclusive contract with a distributor?

(When I did parts ordering for a computer business, I used half a dozen distributors, and special orders, so that I'd never be out of stock of anything unless the manf was borking things up.)

I'm not privy to all the details, but he isn't bound by any contracts, so far as I know. Typically he has to go through the same vendor for products from a particular company or some distributors require a minimum order size before they'll work with him. For a small business, it can be hard to justify placing an order for several hundred dollars worth of product that you're not really sure you'll be able to sell just so you can get "in" with a different distributor than normal.

So the exclusive deal is on the "manufacturer" side in this case.

Well, I have to admit, now that I play virtually I don't have to worry about lugging all my books around anymore. That said, I would absolutely buy a pdf copy of every book if the licensing changed to allow FFG to do so. I do actually want to leave my house to game now and then.

Reminds me of playing 3.5 D&D a decade ago and having to get a suitcase with wheels just to haul books to the session.

I'm lucky enough that my group games at my house, as we're doing a EoE/AoR/F&D mixed campaign and there's going to be a lot of books in play once we can actually get them. I tend to collect systems so I'll likely eventually pick up all of them. Just wish they'd hurry up and make splatbooks for bounty hunters and sentinels. *grumble grumble*

I agree.... last time we all went 'shopping' there was 6-7 books on the table... EoTE Core rules and several supplements.. we GOT SO TIRED OF THE GM SAYING 'DON'T GET CHOCOLATE/SPILL COFFEE,TEA,JUICE ON THEM'

Oh please. It's not a proper gaming book unless it has been baptized in Mountain Dew!

LMAO...try telling ouR GM that.. I think he'd go into cardaic arrest if we spilt something

I do hope Lucasfilm and Disney look at and review the agreement, not being able to release PDFs is very silly and restricts you as a GM.

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. The only reason Disney would relook at the matter is if they somehow thought they could profit from it. But currently they don't need pdfs to sell electronic books since they can use the file format for ereaders such as a Kindle or Nook. The only company that seems to need pdfs is FFG. But if Disney got the rights back (it would cost them to renegotiate) they would surely use it as a means to get more money out of FFG. It's just logical business. Sadly though that would mean we'd end up paying more.

Though while I do agree it restricts a GM I don't find it silly. Remember EA gained those pdf rights at a time when no one thought that pdf would be a thing. It took the iPhone, the iPad, and the Kindle for pdf reading to become an actual thing. No one could have foreseen at the time that we'd be reading books on portable devices. So there was no reason to consider them as something separate or something that should be held onto for different purposes. The past decade in technology has actually been pretty amazing all things considered.

So the exclusive deal is on the "manufacturer" side in this case.

Usually, yeah. Plus the concerns pointed out in the other post with a small business and minimum ordering requirements for a given distributor.

In any case, eventually the books will go into reprint and will be widely available again. Just need to be patient.

So the exclusive deal is on the "manufacturer" side in this case.

Actually it isn't. FFG puts them out to various distributors. Each of those have various rules pertaining to how they run their business. Like minimum order sizes or even quarterly order values. Why? because they want to keep the costs to their businesses down. One of those costs is what it costs to have someone put each box of stuff together to deliver to a given client. On a per shipment basis, it is cheaper to send stuff to the distributors than it is for them to send it on to other people. Why? because FFG or other manufacturers put together whole pallets worth of goods, which then have to be broken down to send off to stores. That's why stores like Amazon or Barnes & Noble can offer such nice discounts that smaller stores can't afford.