In my previous post on this series, I wrote about Index Cards, a screenwriting app suitable for organizing details of your campaign. Now, I’m going to show you Goodreader, the app I use for reading, organizing, marking, and making printouts of pdf’s in my gaming library. At $4.99, it’s cheap and very useful, and I recommend any DM out there working off pdf’s to check it out. I’ve been running games from it and don’t miss the paper books at all. Here’s why:
Organization
One of the greatest things about Goodreader is its ability to serve as an archival solution for your gaming pdf’s. It has the capacity to create folders, rename them, and move things around from folder to folder with just a few swipes of your fingers.
Goodreader's directory view
So as you can see, I have a few folders there, one related for work and one for rpg’s. A touch of the rpg folder will then take me inside it, to reveal the rest of my stuff:
Inside the folder... more folders
So as you can see, storing your stuff within the app is easy and you can keep things nice and organized. Everything can be renamed to whatever you want too, and it even handles zip files.
Reader
When you open a pdf in the Safari web browser on the ipad, it gives you the option to open it in Goodreader, which then adds it to the apps directory structure. Once opened in GR, you need to rename the file, as it assigns it a name made up of random letters and numbers. I haven’t figured that out yet. Why does it do that?
As strictly a reader, Goodreader does everything you would expect it to do, and perhaps a bit more. Flipping the page is easy, a simple tap on the right side of the screen does that. Tapping the screen with three fingers brings up the menu, which allows you to access the bookmarks, search, or create markups. Markups are perhaps the coolest thing about Goodreader, and a feature that I’ve used quite a bit as a DM. When you markup a PDF, the program creates a duplicate copy, an “Annotated Copy” it calls it, so you are never really writing on your original file.
Markup your pdf however you want
On a pdf you can add bookmarks, highlite text, write on it yourself directly (with a stylus or finger), or type on it. You can also create basic shapes on the pdf (for example if you want to circle text or something). The great thing is that you are never really defacing your original file, only a copy.
What if you annotate your pdf so much that you forgot all the notes that you’ve made? That’s fine, because Goodreader can tell you where and what they are:
A listing of all the annotations I've made on this pdf
I’ve used the annotations feature to mark where I’ve left off in an adventure, for highliting important text, or to make a note that I need to add an enemy to an encounter or something similar. It’s a great feature, and I’ve used it quite a bit. You can always delete anything you’ve added, re-write it, change the sizes, all with the tap of a finger. And remember, you are writing on a duplicate, not the original.
DM Prep Tool
I found a cool use for the app as I was prepping for my Dragon Age game here at home. I like having monster stats printed out, and found that Goodreader aided me tremendously. By pinching and zooming in on a statblock, then taking a snapshot of the screen (home button and the top power button pressed together) I created printable stat blocks. I simply emailed the pictures to myself and printed them out with Windows’ picture printer as 2 5×7 images. Easy and effective for what I needed. I like having paper statblocks for my encounters so I can track HP easier for example. I’m not 100% fully digital just yet. 🙂
The statblocks, printed out
So as you can see, Goodreader can be a powerful tool in your DMing arsenal as you transition from an analog DM to a digital one. If you know of any other tools similar to this one please share with us in the comments below.
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Thank You!
www. Newbie DM .com 
Sentack
September 1, 2011
Nifty, I’ll admit. I know a guy at my table who uses his tablet to play his character. I think he uses the exact same PDF reader on his iPad as well. Honestly I don’t care for it, partly because while I’m a big techy, I hate tech at the gaming table. Perhaps partly because I see far too many people get distracted by their tech. Still, I see the benefits. I can’t count the number of times someone would quickly pull up the D&D Compendium for me for a double check on a keyword, power, ritual or class feature.
@cfallsgamer
September 1, 2011
Wow this is really cool. I love technology for organization. I just finished turning my Nook Color into a semi tablet with an Android operating system. It doesn’t have quite the functionality of an Ipad but it was also a fraction of the cost. I wonder if I could find a similar solution in the Android Market. I will have to look around.
I also see Sentack’s point about tech distractions at the table. I have been guilty of that myself in the past but I keep my phone checks (including email and twitter) to a maximum of once per hour now. I was really surprised that I did so well in our gaming session last night since it was the first one I have made since having my pseudo tablet. I used it for my dice rolling last night because it kept it into a confined area and I didn’t have cocked dice or ended up chasing them all over the table and floor.
All in all I definitely think tech has a place in gaming for a lot of us. Like anything else we have to now how and when to use it though.
Great article and tip here Newbie. I will keep something like this in mind as I prepare yet to GM my first game.
-Chad
Jonathan
September 1, 2011
Nice. I’ve been doing something similar with iBooks, minus the annotations. It’s started to feel a little disorganized, though; I’m thinking about switching.
James H. Bumgarner
September 1, 2011
I use iAnnotate. It’s slightly more expensive ($9.99 I think). It let’s you create annotations also. What I really like about iAnnotate is that it uses tabs so you can open multiple PDF files, which is great for a GM/DM.
newbiedm
September 1, 2011
I forgot to mention that in the article, thanks for reminding me. Goodreader has tabs as well, for multitasking.
Jonathan
September 1, 2011
It does tabs, too? Okay, I’m sold.
And it syncs with specific Dropbox folders! There’s a feature I’ve been dying for.
IronWolf
September 1, 2011
Great article. I love Goodreader as a PDF app on the iPad. It is incredibly useful as you have pointed out with the annotations, highlighting, tabs, pre-caching of the PDF and the ability to access Dropbox. Probably the best app I have purchased for the iPad yet.
newbiedm
September 1, 2011
It also can connect to google docs and ftp’s.
shiftykobold
September 21, 2011
I’ve got good reader on my iPad as well but I don’t use it nearly as much as index card. Maybe I should take a longer look at it and figure out those features. Cool article.
breitling navitimer
January 1, 2013
Spot on with this write-up, I truly assume this website needs much more consideration. I’ll in all probability be again to read much more, thanks for that info.
pt-palembang.go.id
November 19, 2013
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back later on.
Cheers
prefer playing
July 19, 2014
Hello there! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers?
I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything
I’ve worked hard on. Any recommendations?